New to the Mac and have questions about selecting items and instant messaging

Hi all fellow mac users, my name is Guy, I’m from Toledo, OH and just got my first mac. I must say that I don’t ever see myself going back to Windows as my primary OS, even though I do have to use Internet Explorer in my job. I do have a couple questions though. I’ve gotten copy and paste down pretty well, but how do you select two items that aren’t next to each other, while using Voiceover? Also, is anyone here using something besides Adium for instant messaging? If so, what do you recommend? The problem I have is quickly getting Voiceover to read the last message that came in. While I’m in my conversation window, voiceover doesn’t seem to do this automatically. Thanks much in advance, and any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Guy