The following is a small tutorial on how to navigate with VO and description of the Finder. you can press command+2, to get the view set tot default. I do not think I wrote that information here. Please critic. Constructive criticism is welcome. Alfredo
Being apple, the company created a new and ingenious way for a screen reader to read the information on the screen. Voice Over is a screen reader by all definitions but it is different in the form it access and navigates to information on the screen. To better understand how VO works, you have to understand the concept of elements. Elements, also refer to as items, are the different kinds of controls and objects VO and sighted users can access on any given screenor window. Elements are navigated to by pressing the VO keys in conjunction with any single key of the arrow keys, and include but are not limited to the following: • Text, usually a description, label or title for another element. • Buttons, activating these will perform an action as described by the button’s label. • Checkbox, similar to a light switch, can either be toggled on or off, but not both. • Radio button, think of this as a checkbox with multiple choices but only 1 can be selected. • Text Field, equivalent to the Text box found on Windows, used to type in text. • Pop Up Menu, equivalent to combo boxes found on Windows, used to select 1 or more options. • List, equivalent to list boxes found on Windows, used to select 1 option from several. • Menu bar, includes the persistent menu bar on top of your Mac screen and its submenus. • Vertical Slider, is a slider that you can move right to increase or left to decrease it. • Table, designates that the object is arrange in a column and row format. • Tab, equivalent to tabs on Windows PC’s, allows for vieweing of different tabs inside a window. • Toolbar, gives you access to elements inside a window’s toolbar. • HTML content, used by windows that need to display web page content, such as web browsers. • Scroll Area, designates an area that might have content that is not visible to the sighted user. • Ruler, used on word processing applications, such as text edit, to set document features • Group, designates a tree view structure-like area, where elements expand from other elements. Most elements can be “interacted” with and some require that you “interact” with them to gain access to them. “interacting” with an element, with VO+Shift+Down-Arrow, allows you to take a closer look at that element and will give you access to functions or features of that element which are not available when not interacting with it. To resume normal navigation and stop interacting with an element you will have to press, VO+Shift+Up-Arrow. All Text elements can be interacted with so that you can read the text word by word, character by character or phonetically. On the other hand, in order to adjust a Vertical Slider element you have to first interact with it, then use the VO+Left-Arrow, VO+Shift+Left-Arrow, VO+Right-Arrow or VO+Shift +Right-Arrow to adjust it. Furthermore, elements can contain elements inside them which can be interacted with, creating a layer structure for interacting with elements. For example, a Table can be interacted with, and inside it there can reside elements of the Group or Text type which themselves can be interacted with. HTML content elements are the areas of web browsers where the web page is display and this element can contain many elements inside it, such as Tables, Text, Links, Pop Up buttons, Radio buttons, etc, which can be further interacted with. Most applicaitons such as the Safari web browser or Finder application have you interacting with the area of the window which it assumes you will be accessing most. For example, when Safari opens you are automatically place inside the HTML content area of the window. On the Finder you are automatically placed inside the Table List view when using List view or Image Browser aList when using Icon view since this is the element of the window you will be accessing most often. This is a convenient feature since it prevents you from having to interact with these frequently accessed areas everytime you open an application. As you might imagine being able to choose whether to interact with an element or bypass it and go to the next element can be beneficial and a time saver. This is because as you read before, some elements, such as Tables, Toolbar, Ruler and HTML content elements can contain many elements inside them which they themselves can be interacted with. It would have quickly become a arduous and tedious chore if you had to navigate pass all the elements inside one of these elements before getting to your target element. For example, on the Keyboard preferences window you have several tables each which can be populated with many rows which you have the option to interact with or bypass and move on to the next element. When you open a preference window from System Preferences, such as Keyboard or Energy Saver preferences, you will always be placed on the Toolbar element. You can opt to interact with the Toolbar or bypass it and go straight to the next element of the window. On a Text Edit window you can opt to interact with the Ruler element and set document creation options on your document or you can just bypass this element and go on to the next element. Apple has decided that you, not the screen reader, is smart enough and should determine whether or not you want to view an element in depth. To completely understand VO you should keep in mind that VO navigates a window or screen the same way you would read a book. We will use the concept of lines to understand how a window is composed. You can think of a windows lines as the lines of a paper or the various lines that are created when you are writing a document on such applications as Microsoft Word or Text Edit. Each window is compose of many lines and each line can either have none, 1, or more elements . To understand how VO navigates, just remember “left to right, up to down”. By this I mean that it reads its starting from the upper left corner of the screen to the right, continuing to the line below, again starting on the left most section of that line and going right to the end of that line. This continues on until the VO cursor arrives at the last element, usually situated at the bottom of the window. You are not constricted to navigate in a strict left to right, top to bottom method, however understanding this method will help you best understand how VO navigates the screen. You are able to move to the next, previous, immediate top or immediate bottom elements using the VO keys in conjunction with the arrow keys. You should also know that the contents of some elements can be access and navigated using just the arrow keys without the need to interact or use the VO keys. When interacting with an element you should be aware that an element can be compose of one or more lines which VO reads using its left to right , top to bottom method, starting with the first line of that element. This is especially true for elements such as Tables and HTML contents. For example, the List View Table element of a Finder window might be consider to be on the third line of that window and therefor you are consider to be on the third line of the Finder window. If you interact with the List View Table you will be typically placed on the first line and be consider to be on the first line of that element. VO wil then be able to navigate in its left to right, top to bottom method starting from the first line of this element you are interacting with. Note, that if you had previously navigated or interacted with the List View Table the focus will be on the line which you were previously on. Understanding that there can be various lines inside elements will help you comprehend why a window appears to be composed of so few lines, even though it might be compose of many lines. For example, the Finder window appears to have only 4 lines, with a total of 10 main elements. There are however, several elements, particularly the Sidebar Table and List View Table that themselves can contain many lines. If you add all the lines of the Finder window with those of the List View Table or Sidebar Table you will find out that the Finder window is compose of many lines not just a few. We will describe and use the Finder as an example to better understand how VO navigates your Mac. You can think of the Finder as the mac’s version of the Windows explorer. It functions and looks similar to the windows explorer found on Windows machines. The Finder application is started automatically when your Mac starts, is always running in the background and is the tool which is use to access, manage and organize your folders and files. Files can be anything from mp3’s, documents, and applications. Folders are the containers which are used to hold and organize your files. You are able to have folders and files inside other folders to better organize and manage your files. You can think of the Finder as a file cabinet which you are able to customize at will by creating, moving and deleting your Mac’s folders and files. The Finder window is layed out similarly to the Windows XP, Vista, or 7 explorer window you are accustomed to. When opening a Finder window, it will appear below the Menu Bar as do most windows in the Mac OS. The menu bar changes to include the following menus, in order from left to right, starting after the apple menu: • Finder, which include about Finder, preferences, empty trash, services and hide Finder. • File, which include, new Folder, print, close window, move to trash, find, and label. • Edit, which includes undo, redo, cut, copy, paste, select all and show clipboard. • View, which includes as icons, as column, arranges by, show task bar and show view options. • Go, which includes back, forward, desktop, documents, utilities and go to folder. • Window, which includes minimize, zoom and a list of currently opened Finder windows. • Help, which includes search and Mac help. The Finder window appears below the menu bar, as do most Mac OS windows. On the top most area of the Finder window there is a bar that spans across the window. This top bar includes the following, starting with the Close button on the left side, from left to right: • Close button, activating this will close the window. • Minimize button, activating this will hide the window from view. • Zoom button, will command the window to take up all the screen real state when opened. • Title Text element, serves as the title for the Finder window. • Toolbar button, toggles the view of the Toolbar on or off. The Title Text element is situated on the middle section of this bar and serves as the name of the folder which has the focus of the Finder and is open. When you open a Finder window, the folder name displayed is usually the name of the folder which was last opened. If a Finder window has never been opened before the current user’s home folder, which has the name of the user account, will be the folder that is opened. For example, my computer’s user name is Alfredo, therefore the name that appears on the middle of the top most bars is Alfredo. If I had the “Documents” folder as the focus of the Finder and opened, then “Documents” would appear on the middle of the top most bar of the Finder window. On the right corner of the top bar the tool bar button is located. Below the top most bars is where the Finder’s tool bar is located. The tool bar is set to show by default and this setting can be changed by pressing the Toolbar button. The toolbar spans across the window below the top most bar of the Finder window. The Finder’s Toolbar is consider the second line of the window. If you interact with the tool bar you will get the following elements, starting from left to right: • Back Group, interacting with it will show the back and forward buttons, used to navigate folders. • View Radio Group, interacting with this will allow you to change between different folder views. • Quick look, will allow you to preview a file that you have selected in the sidebar or browser. • Action menu button, will allow you to perform a host of task on a file or folder. • Search Text field, used to perform file and folder searches. Below the tool bar we have the tree view to the left with the folder list view to the right, separated by a vertical line. Note if you are using Icon view, you will have the Image Browser List instead of the List View Table. Both the Sidebar and List View are table elements, and thus you will be able to navigate it and get feedback akin to when you navigate other table elements. For example, when you are interacting and navigateing either the Sidebar or List View, VO will announce on what row and column, you are focus on. In the Sidebar you will have the typical drives and folders you would find on the Tree View of a Windows computer, from top to bottom, such as: • Devices, which include your hard drive, your iDisk drive, and other storage devices. • Places, which include your Desktop, user account, Applications and Documents folders. • Search For, which is used to search for files and folders by type or date. The List view functions and looks similar to the Folder List View of Window computers. It reflects the folder which is open on the sidebar and You are able to view and browse your Mac’s files and folders here. The side bar and the List View are separated by a vertical line, which voice over describes as a, “vertical splitter”. At the bottom of the window we have a Text element which gives information similar to what a status bar from Windows PC’s would bive. , This last bar expands horizontally across the screen. It gives you such information as how many items are in the selected folder and the amount of hard disk space available in your Mac. When you open a Finder window for the first time or a new instance of it, the List View section of the window will have the focus and the current user account Home Directory should be opened. Again, if you are using Icon view the focus will be on the Image Browser List instead of the List View Table. The Home Directory is a folder that is created for each user account on your Mac. The label given to the Home Directory will be the name given to the user account. For example, my Mac’s user account is “Alfredo”, therefor the label given to my Home Directory folder is Alfredo. This folder has the following subfolders: • Desktop, where your desktop files and folders can be found. • Documents, where most of your document files can be found. • Downloads, holds all files and folders you download from the internet. • Library, where most of your Mac’s preferences files would be store. • Movies, where your movie files would be stored. • Music, where your music files would be store. • Pictures, where your pictures files would be stored. • Public, any folder inside this folder can be shared with other PC and Mac computers. • Sites, a folder used to store web pages and related content for web sharing. The Finder is also able to remember where the focus was on when resuming work after enabling sleep mode or if the window focus was drawn away from it. For example, if I left the focus on the Sidebar section of the Finder, then open Safari, when I would place the focus back on the Finder window, the focus would be back on the Sidebar. There are 4 different types of views that you can set the Finder to. A view is a particular way the Finder application will display your Mac’s files and folders. A Finder’s view also affect what options are available to VO and how it is able to navigate folders and files. The 4 types of views are: • As Icons, displays folders and files as graphical icons which the sighted can preview. • As List, displays Finder contents in a Tree View. • As Column, displays contets in a hierarchy where each folder is on its own column. • As Cover Flow, shows contents as Icons on the top, and a preview of it on the bottom. Because of its visual appeal, by default Mac come preconfigured with Icon view as their default view. Although a VO user can navigate folders and files using Icon view, it is not as intuitive as with either view List or Column view. Cover Flow view is basically Icon view with the added bonus that the List View Table section of the Finder window, is split in half to accommodate a regular Icon view section on top and a preview of the file on the bottom. Between List and Column view, List view is better because Column view does not tell you what level, or how far down the folder hierarchy you are at when navigating folders and files. Although some may not mind this little inconvenience, it becomes an issue when creating subfolders inside other folders. Because you are not told what level or how far down the folder hierarchy you are and cannot see it, you might mistakenly create a folder in your Home directory when you meant to create a folder inside your Documents folder. List view also gives you more information about the folder or file when you are navigating in the Finder. It gives you such information as, when the folder or file was created, its file size, and the type of file it is. A file Type usually lets you know to which application that file belongs to or what type of file it is. Examples of file Types include: • Text, basic text file used by most word processing programs such as Text Edit. • Word Document, a text file formatted by MS Word. • Portable Network Graphic, a picture file. • MP3, a music file that is usually unprotected and can be played by iTunes. • HTML, a file that is usually viewed with a web browser. It is my recommendation, because of the added information and announcements of levels as you are navigating through the folder hierarchy that List view be used. At first the extra information provided by List view might feel overwhelming and sometimes too much information, you will later be glad this is the type of view you learned first, since in the long run it will make you more efficient and productive while using your mac. Continuing with or understanding of how VO access and navigates on your Mac you should keep the following in mind. You can only navigate from one element to another using the VO keys in conjunction with the arrow keys. If you use the arrow keys by themselves, under normal circumstances, you will not move to the next element. Also note that some elements, especially Tables, do not have to be interacted with to be able to navigate there contents. To navigate the contents of these elements you have to do the following: • The VO cursor should be focus on the element. • Use the arrow keys without the VO keys to navigate inside them. Such tables include the List View Table and Sidebar Table. Although you are able to use any of the arrow keys, left, right, up, down in conjunction with the VO keys to navigate around your Mac, it is recommended that all those that are new to the Mac should initially only use the VO+Left-Arrow and VO+Right-Arrow for navigation. You use VO+Left-Arrow to navigate to the previous and VO+Right-Arrow to navigate to the next element. This will help you better understand how VO reads and navigates your Mac. Once you become experience you will be able to implement VO+Up-Arrow to navigate to the element above and VO+Down-Arrow to navigate to the element below with a full and clear understanding of how VO navigates around your Mac. Keeping in mind that the Menu bar is a persistent menu that is always on top of the screen and that an application window will always appear below it, you should note that in most windows the top most bar is consider the first line of the window. On the top most bar, as you have read, starting with the Close button on the left most side of the bar, you will find the following elements, from left to right, the Close button, Minimize button, Zoom button, title Text element of the window and Toolbar button. Below this top bar and on the second line of the window, you will find the window’s Toolbar element. Note that if you interact with the Toolbar element you will have access to more elements which themselves can be interacted with. Also be aware that all the elements except for the Action Menu Button inside the Toolbar are consider to be in a single line. This is important to note since this means that if you are on the Back group inside the Toolbar and want to go to the next element, View Radio Group, you will have to press VO+Right-Arrow. Pressing the combination VO+Down-Arrow will do nothing when you are on the Back group. Below the Toolbar and to the left side of the Window you will find the Sidebar Table element. Below the Toolbar and to the right, if your view is set to List view, you will find the List View Table. If you are using Icon view you will have the Image Browser List instead of the List View Table. Note, again, that these tables can be interacted with to gain access to elements inside them, which themselves can be interacted with. Between these 2 tables you will find a vertical splitter element you are able to interact with and adjust the size of the Table elements. The Sidebar Table, Vertical Splitter and the List View Table are consider to be on the same line of the window. Be aware, that if you interact with either the Sidebar or List View Table you will be on one of the lines of that element and be able to use VO to navigate that element in a left to right, top to bottom method. Below these 2 tables you will find the last bar of the window. This last bar is consider the last line of the window and is of the Text element type. As we progress through his lesson we will navigate using the VO keys in conjunction with the Up and Down arrow keys. You will notice that this method is more complicated as you have to learn where each element on the screen is at since it is not always clear which element is immediately to the top or bottom of the element you are moving from. For example, the top line of the window has 5 elements and the line below it, has one element. You would think it is logical that you will be able to move from any of the elements on the top line to the single element on the 2nd line, but this is not so. If you press VO+Down-Arrow when on the Close button on the first line of the window, you will end up on the Toolbar element on the 2nd line of the window. However, if you are on the Minimize, Zoom or Toolbar button you will only get a sound indicating that the combination keystroke you are pressing is not permitted and the VO cursor will not move. If you Press VO-Down-Arrow while on the title Text element of the first line of the window you will end up on the List View Table. However as you get more familiar with various windows on your mac you might find it useful that while you are on the List View Table you are able to press VO+Up-Arrow to move to the title Text element of the widnow. Or you can use VO+Down-Arrow to quickly move to the status bar and see how much disk space you have left on your hard drive. If you can remember that VO navigates a window in a left to right, top to bottom method, similar to how you read braille or printed material in real life you should get the hang of it. * 1. VO-D, to go to the dock. 2. “f” key, to use quick key navigation and quickly navigate to the Finder icon on the dock. 3. Spacebar, to open an instance of a Finder window. • You should be focus on the List View Table of your home directory. • You will hear, “List View Table, no selection”, since there is no currently selected item. • If you press the Arrow keys you will be able to navigate your folder hierarchy. • You are automatically interacting and inside this Table element when the Finder is opened. 4. Command-Shift-h, to make sure that the focus of the Finder is your Home directory. 5. Down-Arrow, to go to the first folder of your Home directory, Desktop. • You will hear, “Desktop”, then the date it was modified, and “folder, row 1 of 9, collapse”. • “Folder”, lets you know this file is a folder. • “Row 1 of 9”, lets you know that you are on the first row of a total of 9 rows. • “Collapse”, lets you know that this folder is closed. 6. Down-Arrow, slowly, about 8 times, to navigate to your Sites folder inside your Home Directory. • You cannot go beyond your Sites folder, a sound will not indicate this. 7. VO-Left-Arrow, to move to the Vertical Splitter element of the Finder Window. • Interacting with the Splitter will allow for the size adjustments of the Finder’s Tables. 8. VO-Right-Arrow, to go back tot he Sites folder in the List View Table. • Notice, your focus was placed back on the folder you were previously focus in. 9. VO-Left-Arrow, about 8 times, until you arrive at the window’s Close button. • Note, you are consider to be on the first line of the window. • Pressing VO-Right-Arrow should move you to the next element of this window. • Also note that he next element is also on the first line of the window. 10. VO-Right-Arrow, once, to navigate to the next element of this window. • Although not apparent, you are using a left to right, top to bottom method of navigation. 11. VO-Right-Arrow, to navigate to the next element of the window. • You are consider to be on the first line of the window. • VO-Right-Arrow, to land on the third element of the window, the Zoom button. • You are still on the first line of the window. • VO-Right-Arrow, to land on the 4th element, a Text element. • You will hear the title given to your Home Directory. • You are still on the first line of the window. 12. VO-Shift-n, to read the VO hint for the element under the VO cursor. • This will give you the VO hint for the Text element that you are focused on. • You will hear, “you are currently on a text element”. 13. VO-Right-Arrow, to go to the Toolbar button, which is element number 5 of the window. • You are now on the last element of the first line of the window. 14. VO-Right-Arrow, to go to the 6th element of the window, Toolbar. • This element is consider to be on the second line of the window. • Notice, you use the left to right, top to bottom method of navigation. • This is because you went from the last element of the 1st line, to the first of the 2nd line. 15. VO-Right-Arrow, to go to the 7th element of the window, Sidebar Table. • Note you used the left to right, top to bottom method of navigation again. • This is because you went from the only element of the 2nd line to the 1st of the 3rd line. • You are on the first element of the third line. • Interacting with this element will place you on the first line of this element. 16. VO-Right-Arrow, to go to the 8th element of the Finder window, the Vertical Splitter. • You are on the second element of the third line of the window. 17. Vo-Right-Arrow, to navigate to the 9th element of the window, Table List View. • You are on the last element of the third line of the window. • This element is located to the far right of the third line. • Interacting with this element will place you on the element you were previously on, Sites. 18. VO-Right-Arrow, to navigate to the 10th and last element of this window, a Text element. • This element is consider to be on the 4th and last line of this window. • You cannot go beyond this element, a sound will indicate this. • This Text element gives status information of the current folder and free disk space. • 19. VO-Up-Arrow, to quickly navigate to the List View Table. • Note, you could have performed VO-Right-Arrow, and get the same results. • You should still have the Sites folder as your selection. 20. VO-Up-Arrow, to quickly go to the title Text element of the Finder window. • You should hear the name given to your Home Directory. • Notice that you bypassed the Sidebar, Toolbar and Toolbar button elements. 21. VO-Left-Arrow, to move to the element to the left of the title Text element, the Zoom button. 22. VO-Down-Arrow, to attempt to navigate to the Toolbar element below. • A sound will alert you that you cannot perform this action and the VO cursor will not move. • This is why you should rarely use the VO keys in conjunction with the up and down arrows. 23. VO-Left-Arrow, 2 times, to get to the 1st element of the 1st line of this window, the Close button. 24. VO-Down-Arrow, to move to the only element below the 1st line , Toolbar. • Notice that you were able to navigate to this element from the Close but not the Minimize. 25. Vo-Down-Arrow, to move to the 1st element of the 3rd line of the window, Sidebar. • You can easily navigate from the Sidebar Table to the close button to quickly close the window. 26. VO-Down-Arrow, to attempt to move to the last and only line on the bottom of the window. • A sound will alert you that you cannot perform this action and the VO cursor will not move. 27. Table. 28. Command-W, to close the Finder window and return tot he window you were previously in. -- 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.
