Editing text on a Mac with voiceOver in editable text fields

By Juan Avila, 4 October, 2020

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hi all, can someone give me some advise on editing text on a mac when on editable text fields like in emails or on the web?What key strokes are used for moving back and forth with characters, words, lines, etc? And how can you read what you have written so far?

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By Tyler on Thursday, October 15, 2020 - 15:42

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

When in a text field, if Quick Nav is turned off, use the left and right arrow keys to navigate by character, hold down the Option key with an arrow key to navigate by word, and use the up and down arrow keys to navigate by line. In addition, holding down the Shift key with an arrow key will select text the cursor passes.

Also, if you're coming from Windows, keep in mind that VoiceOver speaks text the cursor passes, rather than text immediately to the right of the cursor. If you'd rather VoiceOver spoke text to the right of the cursor, open VoiceOver Utility > Verbosity, select the, "Text," tab, and choose the, "speak text to the right of the cursor," option from the, "when moving the cursor," popup menu.

Also if you're new to the Mac, you can check out the getting started with your first Mac section of the AppleVis website, which contains a number of guides and podcasts for beginners.

HTH