Good evening everyone,
I just learned today of a new hotkey combo in 14.1 Sonoma. This is not a Keyboard Commander, but something hardcoded into macOS.
As we all know by now, pressing VO + 'q' toggles Single-Key Quick Nav. However, did you know that Shift + VO + 'q' toggles Arrow-Key Quick Nav?
So now my question...
Would anyone be interested in a simple script that will essentially make Quick Nav work like it did pre-Sonoma?
Comments
For me, left and right arrow…
For me, left and right arrow key press is still working, fortunately. I hope that this legacy shortcut will be kept alive as the VO-Shift-Q shortcut is simply terrible.
Apple does what it will
There is also a new hotkey shortcut, though unrelated to Quick Nav.
FN + 'e' will now open the Emoji panel, just as Control + Command + Spacebar does. 🤷🏻♂️
Since I have yet to see anyone praise Apple for separating the functionality of Arrow-Key and Single-Key Quick Nav, I will start working on an Apple script to make things like they used to be.
When it's done, maybe I will just make it into a simple app, for ease of use.
Yes to an option for locking together
Yes please. Previously using left plus right arrow together turned on/off single key and arrow key quick nav together. I've searched around for an option to lock them together again, the obvious place would be in VoiceOver Utility -> Commanders -> QuickNav with a checkbox to Enable/Disable single key and arrow key together. There is an option for Enabling arrow key quick nav with right/left together for anyone who likes/dislikes that feature already.
The problem I have with them not locked together like they were before is forgetting that single key is on, then when I start to type all manner of weird things happen to loose my place. Very frustrating and inefficient.
For anyone who doesn't know in the VoiceOver Utility Commander options for QuickNav you can also change it to use sound indications for on or off which is much more efficient than the verbose speaking of the setting everytime it is toggled.
Kind of forgot about this post
Since I am no longer on Sonoma, I can attempt work on this again, but have no way of really testing it. Since Ventura uses the old way of Quick Nav.
Also, someone mentioned finger gymnastivs above? The Sonoma Single-Key Quick Nav (Shift + VO + Q) I think was intended to be used with the Caps Lock key as VO modifier. Since holding your right shift key, and pressing Caps Lock + Q is easy peasy. 🤷
A Simple Design
For anyone interested. Below is a super simple script to make Quick Nav in macOS 14.x work like in earlier versions of macOS.
I hope this is useful to you all.
Note: The comments with the "#" symbol are part of the script, but are only for information purposes. Keep them, or don't.
# Old Skool Quick Nav.
# ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
# A simplistic script designed to make both Single-Key and Arrow-Key Quick Nav work together as seen in macOS prior to 14.0.
# Pro tip: Disable the Left + Right arrow hotkey for a better experience.
#
# To install: Simply copy the following code into Applescript and save it as a .script file.
# Best used with Keyboard Commander.
delay 1
tell application "System Events" to key code 12 using [control down, option down]
delay 1
tell application "System Events" to key code 12 using [shift down, control down, option down]