New to mac

Hello! There are many guides available for beginners on the mac on the applevis site. You can also use rotor to navigate through various navigational elements on the webpage using trackpad. This works just like it works on iOs. Try also pressing VO k for keyboard exploration so every key is explained when you touch it.

Hello, I got a Macbook air a couple of months ago and I was posting forums asking for help on this site every minute, lol, so I know how difficult it is to learn at first. I am happy to help you out. To be honest I prefer using the trackpad as coming from a windows computer, I liked knowing a bit about the layout of the screens, and also, It makes me feel more like a sighted person, but that's just my preference. There is a feature called something like letter navigation or 1 letter navigation or something like that that allows you to press a leter like you could on windows for example H to move by headings, but I don't know about anyone else but I find it never works. I press a letter and nothing happens, but that's a different topic :). If I was you, I use the VO rotor. Judging by your display name I assume you know what this is from iOS. Go into the VO utility and navigate through the table to "Web", and click on "Web rotor". Select what you would want to navigate by and close the utility. To use the rotor with the keyboard, you first wanna make sure QN (quick nav) is turned on by pressing left arrow and right arrow together untill VO says "quick nav on". Then press either up arrow+right arrow or left arrow to navigate through the rotor elliments, then to navigate through them use down arrow to navigate forward by rotor setting or up arrow to navigate back by the rotor setting. Thats probably about all you need to know about using the VO web commands. Sorry for such a long comment. If you like I can give you my email address and help you out that way rather than going on and on like this on the website, but that's up to you. Hope this helps after all this typing :)

Welcome to the new mac users club, which I'm also a part of, having had my mac for only a month. The option to navigate webpages by just pressing a letter like h for headings is turned off by default. To turn it on, go to voiceover utility, commanders category, quicknav tab, and check "enable single-key navigation when using Quick nav." As the name suggests, they will only work when quick nav is on. You can also use alternative commands which are always available which are all done by pressing VO, command, and a letter, like h for heading, l for link or j for form field. You can also hold shift (both with those commands and quick nav single letter navigation), to move backwards.

In regards to web browsing, I prefer to use QuickNav which can be enabled by pressing the left and right arrow keys together. From there, use left/right arrow keys to navigate the page. When you wish to navigate by heading, link, etc, press up and right arrow keys together to cycle the roder in the clockwise direction or up/left to cycle counterclockwise. As a brand new Mac user with a Windows background, I liked using the quick jump keys at first (that is, H for headings, F for form controls, etc) but found this to be less necessary as I got used to using QuickNav. Also, the VO guide makes it sound as though you need to use the VO cursor (either QuickNav or control+option+arrow keys) to navigate the OS; however, after tweeking a few settings, you can tab around most controls in dialogs in Windows just like on Windows. Just keep in mind that you will need to use the VO cursor to access some controls.

As a new Voiceover user, Apple already has some very helpful built in help to get you started and really understand how VO works. Keep in mind, though, that you don't have to remember everything at once, so focus on the basic commands first, then go back and add to your expertise over time. Also, there are straight keyboard ways to enter commands using the CTRL and Option keys (which together are called the Voiceover or VO keys) along with letters and function keys on the keyboard, there are gestures you can use the trackpad to command the computer with, and there is a set of QuickNav commands that use just the arrow keys on your keyboard (QuickNav is turned on/off by pressing the left and right arrow keys simultaneously). These 3 methods each accomplish the same things, allowing you to control your computer in alternative fashions, depending on your preference. In other words, there is overlap, and the 3 methods provide alternate ways of accomplishing the same tasks. To get started, I'd suggest first activating the VO Help menu by pressing Ctrl-Option-h and arrowing down to the Quick Start Tutorial, pressing Enter to fire it up and follow the on-screen directions. After that, I'd suggest going to the Help menu again using Ctrol-Option-h and choose the Getting Started Guide, which will fire up a guide in your Safari browser that includes in-depth explanation of what Voiceover does and how to accomplish things on your computer with it. That guide even includes a chapter describing all the VO gestures you can use on your trackpad, and an appendix that lists all of the keyboard Voiceover commands, of which there are many. As I said, give yourself time and try not to memorize everything at once. Voiceover is very powerful, and provides a variety of alternative ways for you to control the Mac, but it takes time to remember it all. After a while, you'll find it quite natural to use, and won't have to think about it so much, but it takes practice and patience. Good luck!