I am currently editing documents using VoiceOver on the latest macOS. For those who handle document formatting with VoiceOver on Mac, which keyboard shortcuts do you rely on to obtain information about the cursor position, insertion point location, and similar details necessary for precise formatting?
I find VoiceOver’s announcements quite confusing and inconsistent. For instance, it sometimes reports the insertion point relative to the top right corner of the screen, even though the writing direction is left to right. In addition, important formatting information is often missing from braille output.
Has anyone found practical strategies or adjustments that make formatting documents with VoiceOver on macOS more accurate and less frustrating? I am especially interested in workflows, shortcuts, or settings that improve the consistency of information provided about the insertion point and formatting feedback.
By Maldalain, 2 September, 2025
Forum
macOS and Mac Apps
Comments
Google Docs and Pages
If you upload the document to Google Docs, Control+Command+A, Control+Command+F will provide highly detailed information about the format of selected text or the text containing the cursor.
In Apple Pages, the only way to get complete information about text format is to navigate through the controls in the formatter and examine their values. VO+T simply doesn't provide complete information.
For web pages, VO+T is non-functional and has been broken for some time.
As for cursor location, I can't provide any help, sorry. I don't use this feature.
My usual workflow is to develop content in Scrivener, then export/compile to MS Word. Then I upload to Docs and make any formatting changes there. Then download as MS Word .docx. This handles 95% of my needs, and is only a poor fit when working with people who insist on MS Word-only workflows and can't tolerate the possibility of their Word file being tainted by some other word processor.
Text formatting sucs on mac and is the main remaining issue
You haven't entered the wild world of exponents that can only be rendered in braille output, no speech, apparently, and literally never worked for me.