You could also consider Nisus Writer Pro as a word processor, and iPal OCR from Humanware is coming to the Mac in September to work in conjunction with their iPal document camera. On 22 Jul 2010, at 04:06, Allison Manzino wrote:
> Hi Greg, > > I'm Allison and I'd like to welcome you to the Mac Visionaries list. I just > switched after being a Windows and Window-Eyes user in April. THe learning > curve is not too bad. THe Mac comes with the usual setup rocedure. You can > enact VoiceOver by pressing command F5 during setup. THis allows you to > program the date, time, enter in user name, password etc. In your message, > you mentioned a couple of things that caught my attention. The things you > need to be able to do such as: word processing, research on the internet, > reading PDFs and RFB and D books. Okay I'll take these one at a time and > outline which programs on the Mac need to be used to accomplish these tasks. > Please keep in mind, I'm certainly not the most accomplished user, far from > it. But I just love to help people. I was once in your position and debated > for about a year whether to switch. > > To do word processing creating microsoft word documents, you would use a > program called Iwork. This can be purchased from http://www.amazon.com > > To view PDF's the Mac comes with a program called Preview. This is better > than Adobe Acrobat in Windows. You can save docks in this Preview program I > believe as well. Browsing the internet is done with the onboard app Safari, > or you can download WebKit free of charge. I think there is a demo of Iwork > lurking around somewhere if I'm not mistaken. There is a woman named Anne who > does a lot of things with Iwork, or Pages which is the app to write word > docks. Numbers is the Excel spreadsheet app on the Mac. Pages is just > awesome, takes a bit of getting used to but I really like it now. Iwork is > akin to MS Suite. OCR they haven't worked out on the Mac as of yet, I still > use Kurzweil, but I'm pushing the state to purchase an Intel Reader from > Humanware or the Sophie from Handytech. There is a version of Skype for the > Mac, and as far as chat clients go there is Adium that you can download I > forget fro where. I do have a copy which I could send you offlist since it's > free. It's not pirated software. I hope I've helped, I love my Macbook I have > a Macbook White Case I believe it is. It has a 250 GB hard drive, with a > CD/DVD writable drive, Itunes, Preview, Safari, Apple Mail, Ical, and lots of > other included programs. I also like the fact that Apple includes a Snow > Leopard Disc. Well, VoiceOver does most things very well, in a different way > than Jaws or Window-Eyes. I have a few podcasts on it, and so does Mike > Arrigo and also there is an australian group called Vision Australia who have > some great tutorials up as well. The only thing I can think of is the RFBD > books. I'm unsure if there is a player for the Mac that will play these, but > I know the Victor Reader Stream can play RFBD books with a key from RFBD. > Well, I hope I have been of some help. Have a great day. > > Allison > My birds are winged blessings, they help me soar! > > > On Jul 21, 2010, at 10:18 PM, Greg Aikens wrote: > >> Hello everyone, >> I am brand new to the list. I am looking at getting a new computer and >> have been thinking for a while about getting a mac. I am starting an >> M.Ed. at Vanderbilt University in Education of the Visually Impaired >> this fall and my biggest concern is being able to do my schoolwork on >> the mac. I have heard and read all kinds of info about what does and >> doesn't work with voice over and much of the info conflicts. I was >> wondering if someone could point me to some resources which might help >> me decide if making the switch is right for me. Any information about >> how big the learning curve will be for a guy used to Jaws and windows >> vista would also be appreciated. >> >> Things I must be able to do include word processing, reading pdf's, >> accessing books from bookshare and RFB and D, research on the >> internet, accessing course notes and presentations, accessing >> educational sites such as Blackboard, working with braille files, and >> OCR. >> >> Things that are also pretty important to me are access to chat >> programs like google talk or whatever the mac equivalent is and Skype. >> That's all I can think of at the moment. >> >> I know this is a long list of things but I'm not really sure where to >> start. Any direction, specific info on one of these topics, or general >> info about making the transition would be great. >> >> Thanks for your help. >> >> Greg Aikens >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >> > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. 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