Hi Dónal,
In Keynote there is an Export option under the File Menu that will let
you save your presentations as PDF files, among the other formats. If
you use this mode, you can give your presentations the same way you do
for the PDF files generated from LaTeX, I think. This is especially
true if you use the presentation view mode options (Command-Option-P)
of Skim, instead of using Full Screen mode in Preview for displaying
slides. People who use PowerPoint on the Mac should also be able to
export their presentations into a PDF format that you can run as a
presentation the same way.
Incidentally, there's a Keynote Remote app for the iPhone/iPod Touch
that lets you control presentations. It's not quite ready for prime
time with VoiceOver use, though you can use it in a semi-clunky way by
configuring it in landscape mode, and then using the triple-click home
to turn VoiceOver on and off for each slide to navigate. (Pretty
painful, and not really practical). Also, it only announces the slide
number as a number in the sequence, and labels such as "Current Slide"
and "Next Slide". There hasn't been much work on this app since it
was released. I wonder whether there will be an update for the iPad
iWork releases. If you want to read up about the "not-so-state-of-the-
art" with the Keynote Remote app, it's described in my archived post
for Yuma about giving presentations from last Fall:
http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries%40googlegroups.com/msg11212.html
(Re: iphone trackpad pro)
Maybe someone should drop Apple accessibility a note about functions
they might like implemented.
Cheers,
Esther
On 22 Apr 2010, Dónal Fitzpatrick wrote:
Yep preparing presentations with Keynote is not bad at all. I
haven't quite figured out how to navigate each individual slide when
full-screen mode is enabled. Vo reads the entire contents of each
slide, (which is ok) but if, for example, I want to navigate to a
specific bullet point on a slide, I haven't as yet figured out a way
to do so when I'm in full-screen mode. I'm in the fortunate
position though that most of my presentations are given using PDF
files generated from LaTeX.
Cheers
Dónal
On 22 Apr 2010, at 21:11, Olivia Norman wrote:
Keynote works really well for me. I just finished creating my
portion of a powerpoint presentation for a group project using it.
If you'd like some pointers with numbers, email me and I can try to
help. :)
Olivia
"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower" Steve Jobs
On Apr 22, 2010, at 4:07 PM, Scott Howell wrote:
Olivia,
That is really incredible your using Numbers for a statistics
course. I am very impressed and I really need to find more time to
work with Numbers and Pages myself. I wish I had more hours in a
day, but I am going to try working with Keynote to modify an
existing powerpoint file someone gave me. That should be quite an
experience.
On Apr 22, 2010, at 1:44 PM, olivia norman wrote:
I am able to use numbers to enter data, do functions like sums,
and read spreadsheets. I don't really know much about excel and
jaws, but I'm not willing to pay the $1000 to get jaws, when
numbers works well. I use it for my personal budgett, as well as
a statistics class I'm taking this semester. If office becomes
accessible, I will certainly consider purchasing that, because I
feel that it would make it easier to use my mac for employment
purposes, but in the meantime I'm doing fine with iWork 09.
Olivia
"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower",
Steve Jobs
On Apr 22, 2010, at 6:56 AM, peter Apgar wrote:
I would have to agree. Mac's spread sheath software doesn't
hold a candle
to excel. I have problems similar to ones previously listed in
this thread
with searches. As for formulas I have had issues with complex
reference
formulas. I will also note that many of my problems with the
Mac are a
result of not being able to spend enough time with the different
programs.
My job requires complex tasks with excel and those are often
transferable to
my personal life with budgeting payment calculations ect. The
largest
hurdle to using the Mac is weather or not you can incorporate it
to your
employment. If this is the case there is not a better system
out there. If
your required to operate windows and many of the MS programs the
transition can be a killer. Bring on MS office in Coco. Sorry
for the
rant.
Pete
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dan Roy
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2010 11:21 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: the apple user?
Buddy:
yes, I did try tables, and, yes, it will read the contents of a
cell,
however, I had 1 heck of a time with it reading formulas, the
type of column
I was in etc. Also, I could find no easy way to have it read
the row and
column at the same time. yes, it's somewhat usable in a pinch.
However,
unfortunately, nothing like jaws and Excel. I wish it was
different, and,
it could be that I am not knowledgeable enough to get it going
as well as I
should. If you have suggestions, I am listening with vary open
ears, grins!
On Apr 21, 2010, at 7:22 AM, Buddy Brannan wrote:
Have you tried tables?
--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY
On Apr 21, 2010, at 8:15 AM, Dan Roy wrote:
I love my Mac and would never go back to using windows as my
main
machine. However,the point about spreadsheets is,
unfortunately, a good 1.
I am forced to use windows for spreadsheet work, for now anyway!
On Apr 21, 2010, at 3:38 AM, Dónal Fitzpatrick wrote:
good morning Denise,
I would agree with the others who have replied to this thread
stating
that the Mac can be used as a productivity tool. I am a
University
professor (in the American sense of that word rather than the Uk/
Irish
meaning) which means I must use my mac to write papers, grade
student exams
and to carry out other functions. However, I have not totally
abandoned my
Dell. While the word processor in iWork 09 is accessible, I
don't like
either the Numbers spreadsheet application or indeed the access
provided by
VO. It's just an opinion, and no doubt the zealots on this list
will
vehemently disagree, but I still believe that the browsing of
spreadsheets
using Jaws is unparallelled. Vo lacks the kinds of semantic
access to this
kind of data that Jaws/Excel provide.
I would particularly agree with the comment which said
"preview" is a
lovely PDF reader, however it has given me problems when used in
full-screen
mode.
Cheers
Dónal
On 21 Apr 2010, at 01:23, denise avant wrote:
Hi,
Yes. Particularly since I am a lawyer with the public
defenders
office. And my primary role as an appellate and post-
conviction
attorney is to write briefs, with case citations.
I knew about the fusion program, as I have spent time
talking to
others about the program. I didn't know about the snap shot.
So thanks.
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John J
Herzog
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2010 7:14 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: the apple user?
Hello,
As a macbook user, who has to write substantial papers for law
school, and who has used his computer at a summer internship
with
Pepsico, I feel I can helpfully answer your questions.
Forgive the length of this email.
First, the idea that macs are only play toys is complete and
utter
nonsense.
On my mac, I do use the apps like Itunes and Ichat, but I use
serious apps as well. Iwork is quite accessible, as is text
edit,
allowing you to do extensive formatting of documents. Also,
the
preview application on the mac is one of the best PDF
readers I
have ever seen. The text is readable with voiceover, and
there are
few, if any crashes. What other screen readers can you say
that about?
Next, I will address your concern about microsoft office
applications not being accessible. It is true that they do
not work
with voiceover. However, for about seventy dollars, you can
pick up a
program called VMware fusion.
Fusion allows you to install windows and run it at the same
time as
your mac. This means that you can use whatever screen reader
you
like for windows and run office without a hitch.
There is one more upside to running fusion on mac. After you
have
configured windows just the way you want it, you can create
what is
known as a snapshot. The snapshot will restore your system
to its
exact configuration at the time you took it, meaning you will
always have a fresh install of windows, office, and your
screen
reader a click away. It's awesome, because it does a
complete and
utter system restore when windows decides to go south on
you. For a
blind person, I actually think a mac with fusion is better
than a
standard windows PC for this reason. Note that a fusion
snapshot
literally restores all files and settings to the way they
were when
you took it. It is much more extensive than using the built in
windows system restore utility. It has saved my skin a
number of times,
and I will give you a perfect example.
At the beginning of law school, I found it necessary to
purchase a
scanner with a document feeder. Previously, I had a different
scanner that I was using with kurzweil 1000. Now, when I
installed
the twain drivers for the new scanner, after trying to
unsuccessfully remove the old drivers, I found myself in a
situation where neither set worked. If I had a standard
windows
machine, I was facing the real possibility of having to
reinstall
windows to get either unit to work reliably. Either that, or
it was
having to spend hours and hours messing with system dll
files, and we
all know what happens after that.
So, instead, I just restored a snapshot I made of my XP
machine
prior to having installed either Kurzweil or the scanner
software.
I then installed both on what was essentially a fresh copy of
windows, and all was smooth sailing from there. It saved me
from
endless headaches, plus the burden of having to get a sighted
person to help install the screen reader again, and the time
that would
have been wasted in such a pursuit.
I hope this helps answer your questions.
John
P.S. If you go to www.blindcooltech.com, you can find some
excellent demos of the macintosh by Mike Arigo. He even
shows how
fusion and voiceover work, and he runs window eyes on the XP
side of
things.
Hope this helps.
On Apr 20, 2010, at 7:52 PM, denise avant wrote:
Hello all,
Please forgive the length of this message.
In researching the issue of whether to purchase an apple mac
or
not, I've come across a few people who have expressed
criticism if
not concern about the mac computers themselves. I own the
iphone,
and have enjoyed it tremendously. I've been able to do
things with
the phone I was never able to do with other phones. The only
problem I still have is putting in extensions and account
numbers once
the number is connected.
But having said this, I seriously doubt whether I will ever
buy
another phone, where I don't have accessibility built in.
There is an applestoe here in Chicago, and when I've had any
problem of any kind, the sales staff has been very easy to
deal with.
Even when I call on the telephone, I find a very friendly
staff.
I have my own personal sales representative since I have mac
book
pro on the drawing board.
What I enjoy most of all, is that I can go to an appelstore,
and
with the exception of a couple of products, there is
accessibility
right out of the box, with no extra costs or smas to worry
about.
I'm seeking opinions from those of you who use these
computers with
voice over. The biggest criticism I've heard that if you're
conducting a business or doing a serious project, the mac is
not
for the blind user. This apparently has to do with the fact
that
the office aps are not accessible with vo, and iwork9 acts
strangely
sometimes.
Basically, one person, who doesn't use the mac, but is
familiar
with the product line, told me that the operating system was
those
who wanted to "play."
Can those you have used the macbooks or other appel operating
systems address these issues. Thanks.
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