Any alternative to VoiceOver or Caps Lock keys?

By Stoo, 3 December, 2021

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hi,

I'm wondering if there is a way of selecting, or mapping a different key for use as the VoiceOver modifier key?

The default VO keys are in the right place, as in, on the bottom row, so comfortable to use, but requires two key presses.

The Caps Lock key is more convenient as it's just a single key press, but it's off to the left, so tricky for some combination key presses.

What I would like to do is to have a custom key mapped for that function, maybe one of the keys to the right of the Space Bar which I never use for anything.

Any thoughts, hints or tips very much welcome.

Regards, Stu.

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Comments

By CuriousNetEntity on Sunday, November 28, 2021 - 22:38

I thought exactly the same thing when I got a Macbook. I use Karabiner-Elements to map the right command key to capslock so there is a VO key on both the left and the right of the keyboard. It works perfectly once you get past giving it the necessary permissions. I also use Voiceover's keyboard commander to assign custom commands to use with the right option key. Let me know if you want a script to rout the mouse pointer to VoiceOver cursor and then click. I've assigned that to Option-C. It is nice to have all the modifier keys to the left of the spacebar available for Mac OS and application hotkeys.

By PaulMartz on Sunday, November 28, 2021 - 22:38

JAWS allows both Caps Lock and NumPad Insert to act simultaneously as the JAWS key so you can use whichever is convenient. It would be nice if Apple also allowed this.

@CuriousNetEntity mentioned keyboard commander. Along with NumPad commander, I've mapped my most frequent commands, and my use of the VO key is now quite rare.

The downside of all this customization is that we're at a disadvantage when using someone else's computer.