Hi Lindsay, You've hit the system Exposé key assignments (keys F9, F10, and F11), and as a visually impaired user you want to disable these keys! This will also remove the conflict between the Mac's key assignments for these keys and the Windows keys assignments under VMWare Fusion. You can also disable the F12 shortcut for the Dashboard, and access it instead from the Dock (VO-d or Control-F3 to go to the Dock, then press "d", and open with space bar), or from Finder (Command-Shift-a to go to "Applications", press "d" for "Dashboard", Command-Down arrow to open).
To disable these key assignments, turn them off from the Keyboard menu in System Preferences: 1. VO-m or Control-F2 to the Apple menu, arrow down and press "s y" to go to "System Preferences", and press Return 2. Navigate (tab or VO-Right Arrow) to the "Keyboard" menu and press (VO-Space) 3. Navigate to the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab of the "Keyboard" menu and select it (VO-Space) 4. On the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab, navigate to the "Shortcuts Category" table, interact, and select the category you want to modify (e.g. "Dashboard & Dock" for the F12 key or "Exposé & Spaces" for the F9, F10, and F11 keys). 5. Stop interacting and navigate to the "Keyboard Shortcuts" table for that category and interact. To turn off the shortcut assignment, navigate to the shortcut (e.g. "Dashboard" or "Exposé") and uncheck the checkbox with VO-Space. Unchecking "Exposé" will uncheck all three Exposé key assignments, although you can also check or uncheck them individually.) 6. Quit System Preferences with Command-q Briefly, the Exposé keys are a visual implementation of the Window Chooser menu (VO-F2 twice), like using an icon view instead of a list view in Finder. Small thumbnail views of your active windows replace the icons, and the entire screen is used as the window for the icon display. VoiceOver users who press the Exposé keys (Fn+F9, Fn+F10, and Fn+F11) generally think their screen has frozen or that VoiceOver has stopped working, because the system is waiting for you to select one of the windows to receive focus by moving your mouse cursor there and clicking. You can get out of this mode by pressing the same keys again (e.g. Fn+F9, etc.), which will return you to whichever window had focus before you pressed the shortcut. It's even worse if you happen to press the Shift key together with Fn+F9, etc. keys, because then the windows move into icon view mode in slow motion, and everything takes longer to respond. The different F-key options are for switching between all active windows, all active windows of the current application, and for clearing aside the windows to view the Desktop. I've written before to [email protected] with the suggestion that they default to disabling the Exposé shortcuts for users who set up their accounts to use VoiceOver. The Dashboard (F12) may be useful to you. This is the location for small widget programs that can be run on your Mac, such as for the weather, calculator, etc. Some iOS programs have widget counterparts, although the widgets may not be as accessible as the iOS apps on your iDevices, as a general rule. Related posts to your query are my recent post from a few weeks ago (listed with links to the archive entries): • "Exposé and how to get out of it/avoid it [was Re: What does fn+f3 actually do?]" http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries%40googlegroups.com/msg39389.html and a much older post that gives instructions for disabling the shortcuts under Leopard: • "What is Exposé, and how to use its assigned keys in Fusion" http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries%40googlegroups.com/msg08197.html HTH. Cheers, Esther On Feb 7, 2011, at 08:34, Lindsay Yazzolino wrote: > I forgot to mention in my previous post that most of the F keys, > specifically those toward the left of the keyboard, seem to work fine. > > On 2/7/11, Lindsay Yazzolino <[email protected]> wrote: >> Hi Geoff, >> >> Thanks for the pointer--yes, I did try this, but still key >> combinations such as insert F12 seem to freeze JAWS rather than >> execute the correct command, in this case speaking the time. Thanks. >> >> Lindsay >> >> On 2/7/11, GEOFF WAALER wrote: >>> Hi Lindsay, >>> >>> Not sure if this would also be applicable for VMWare fusion, but if >>> you've >>> not already done so, you might want to go into system preferences -> >>> keyboard and check the box labeled: "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as >>> standard >>> function keys". >>> >>> HTH. >>> Geoff >>> >>> On Feb 7, 2011, at 4:50 AM, Lindsay Yazzolino wrote: >>> >>>> Hello, >>>> >>>> I'm sorry if this question has been asked time and time again on this >>>> list, but I'm trying to figure out the best way to map certain Windows >>>> keys on my Macbook using VMWare Fusion with SharpKeys. In particular, >>>> what mappings have people figured out for some of the higher F-keys, >>>> which appear to be overridden by the volume/mute commands for OSX? >>>> Also, is it necessary to hold down the function key whenever one needs >>>> to activate the F-keys, or has anyone here found solutions? Thanks in >>>> advance! >>>> >>>> Lindsay >>>> -- 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.
