Hello,
There will always be apps with one or more unlabeled elements or elements that have unclear labels. When we encounter an app of this nature, we may resign ourselves to deleting the app and maybe contacting the developer and hoping they'll fix it, but that's not the it's useful to know what they do, but sometimes you may want to take a step further and label the unlabeled elements. This has come in very useful for me and today I'd like to tell you all how to do it so that you all can experience it's benefits too.
First, you're going to want to know how to get into the "label element" area. I will be presenting three methods: with a braille display, with a bluetooth keyboard and with just VoiceOver.
For any of these methods, you must first place focus on the element you'd like to label or re-label.
If you are using a voiceOver touch gesture, double-tap the screen with two fingers as if you were to perform the magic tap, but instead, hold your fingers there. You will hear a series of chimes, but hold your fingers there for about two seconds until a dialog box saying "Label Element" comes up.
On a bluetooth keyboard, first press the VO key(s) (by default command and option together) and then press the slash key.
For a braille display, press space with the "and" contraction, or dots 1,2,3,4,6.
Once you get to the Label Element dialog:
Go to the text field. It will be opened by default. If there is already text in it and you're planning to change the label entirely, you may wish to delete it. This is the text of the existing label, and if you don't delete it it will remain there at the beginning of your new label. You can also quickly and easily clear the field using the "Clear Text" button next to the field.
If you would like to add words to it, be sure to check if there is a space at the end before you type anything, as in my experience, one isn't usually present. If no space is present, insert one, then you can type what you would like to add.
If the element is unlabeled, there won't be any text in the field, so you can just start typing your new label immediately.
TIP:
If you would like to change or delete voiceOver's container descriptions, for example speaking the word "Dock" when focus is placed on the home screen dock, perform one of the label element gestures detailed above, so that the label element screen comes up, then do it again. Another identical screen will pop up, except, in the text box for this one will be the container description, which you will be free to change as normal, when you are done, tap save. Then press either "cancel" or "save" to get out of the primary dialog.
That's how you label elements on IOS. I hope you found this guide informative. Thank you for reading!
By Lily Rose, 22 July, 2023
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Comments
very nice job
You did an excellent guide. Thank you.
They should
They do for me.
they stay
They stay and work very well.
I've had the same experience as previous poster
I've had the same experience as a previous poster. I'd label an element, like a button, and, the label will not stay. It gets kinda irritating. Or, I'll see it after swiping or navigating with braille display past it several times. If anyone has any tips on staking them sty, I'd like that. Because I think I've tried it on the latest version of Ipad-OS. I think.
Thank you.
I will keep this guide Because when ever I need to label, always forget how. Thanks for this info!
@Gailisaiah
Anytime!
some tips for those who couldn't get this to work
Hi all,
I couldn't get this to work for ages. I would relabel an app on my home screen, and after a few minutes VoiceOver would go back to reading the original label. I found this guide a few days ago and tried again. I wanted to relabel a few apps on my screen, I have both Microsoft and Google authenticators on my phone, but both apps are labelled by default as 'authenticator'. First I tried editing the labels, adding Google or Microsoft to the beginning of the label, and then I tried pressing 'Done' or 'Save, but my new labels went away after a few minutes. So I tried deleting everything in the edit box, then started again with the complete label I wanted, then hit 'save'. Hitting 'done' doesn't work, the labels revert back to their original state after a few minutes. It has to be the 'save' button. I've never tried this with buttons in apps, only icons on my home screen. So far, they're staying, and it's been two days now.
Old & Odd
I think iOS has had this, issue, forever now. Where you absolutely must tap on the save button to get it to, stick. Pressing done or save or whatever that replaces the Enter key on the virtual kb, for example, is dicey at the best of times. 😰
pressing the save button has always worked
It was just natural to always press the save button. I looked it as I'm saving what I did. Not only that it carried over even in iOS upgrades and to newer versions of apps.
This has never workt for me
I would do this, tap save and the label wouldn’t stay
Last I tried was when 17 first came out so gonna try again and edit this comment saying if it worked or not
It didn’t work at all, in true apple fashion
I tapt save and nothing happened, I then tapt cancel and nothing happened, I had to do the back gesture to get out of the dialog so nothing saved
At First Most of this Didn't Appear...
I think I've gotten it fixed though. Thank you for this wonderful guide. I can think of at least one app in particular where this might come in useful. The app is called True Coach, and I posted about it elsewhere on this site. For the most part the app is accessible with VO, but I will definitely try this out at some point. I wanted to send a message this past week to the head coach of the fitness studio in my building, and I just fumbled around and used trial-and-error. The button to send the message after it is typed, just says something like "Arrow up". But I received a reply from her right away in which she stated that she received my message.