Learning to use the Mac.

By Melissa Wagner, 9 December, 2013

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps
Hello. I have had my Macbook air for a couple of months and have gone through the VoiceOver tutorial, listened to many of the MacBasic podcasts, and scoured this website for the useful guides and articles. However, I am wondering if there is a comprehensive website where I can find more information about using the Mac with VoiceOver. I am sure I am just missing something, but when I have a random question about how to do something I can't find the info I need. I am also finding that there are things that are assumed that I have to try and figure out like where files go when I download them ETc. I have been using pc's with different screenreaders now for over 16 years and have always been able to find the information I need quickly and easily. My biggest problem is interacting with websites. For example I was using Safari and wanted to type in a URL and go to a specific site. I could not find the place to do so, nor did I know the command to get to the place to type a web address. I would have looked it up if I had known how. It just so happened that while I was listening to a podcast on a different topic the person mentioned using command L to accomplish this task and I found it worked wonderfully. I am sure there is a help file or something I am missing that has keyboard shortcuts. Give me your tips and links to sites that you have found helpful. Thanks in advance.

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Comments

By mehgcap on Thursday, December 26, 2013 - 07:42

Many times, commands and options you want are in the drop down menus (vo-m). After an option, Voiceover may say a keyboard command, such as "Open Location… command plus L". That tells you what command is used to accomplish that task. For instance, files all get downloaded to the downloads folder, and you can hit cmd-option-l to go right there, and that command is in the "go" menu. Pressing vo-h, then h again, opens a help menu you also may find very useful. Please post on this site if you have questions, and share your ideas for what Mac podcasts you would find helpful. Thanks.

By Cliff on Thursday, December 26, 2013 - 07:42

Hi Melissa! There's many good resources on learning to use VoiceOver on Mac. Perhaps the best place to start is Apples own Getting started user guide on VoiceOver on Mac: http://help.apple.com/voiceover/info/guide/10.9/English.lproj/index.html I also had great benefit from John Panareses podcasts on his web-site macfortheblind.com. The direct link to the demonstrations he has is: http://macfortheblind.com/?page_id=25 Even though some of the demonstrations refers to Lion, there are still much basic similarities that can be directly transferred to using MountainLion and Mavericks. And most of his demonstrations, are done on MountainLion. Also, I remember that David Woodbridge, also member of the AppleVis' editorial team, had put together a lot of great Mac basics podcasts, which helped me a lot when I first started out on the Mac, but I can't seem to find them now... Maybe someone else here can jump in and give you a link. But I'm pretty sure that I found them at vision australias web-site, although I can't seem to find them now... David have also a vast number of podcasts and guides on using the Mac here on AppleVis, but I guess you've probably already checked those out. Well, that's what I got now after some brief head scratching. Hope some of it can help, and of course, feel free to ask more specific questions here on the forum when you're struggling with something, and hopefully someone will jump in and help you! I've gotten some of my hardest VoiceOver questions answered right here! :) Good luck and take care!

By billy lei on Thursday, December 26, 2013 - 07:42

Here's the link for you https://secure.samobile.net/content/cat26650.html

By Melissa Wagner on Thursday, December 26, 2013 - 07:42

All these suggestions are most helpful. Just knowing where to find all the commands in the menus is going to help me tons. The reason I talked about downloaded files is that one of the first dmg files I downloaded did not end up in the downloads folder for some reason and it took my husband who has been using mac computers for years awhile to find it. I think some of the programs that are not found in the mac app store go random places when you download them. I enjoyed many of the mac basic podcasts that David Woodbridge has done as well as many of his helpful articles. Thanks again for the menu tip. I will check those out more thoroughly.

If your preferences in safari are set to download files in the downloads directory I can't imagine why files would go other places. That's interesting. IF you ever loose a file you can do a search with spotlight.