Michel Coornaert
Strasbourg, France

VoiceOver 10.13

Using Preview with VoiceOver Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra


Preview is an application included in MacOS 10.13 High Sierra which may be used to read PDF documents. The compatibility of Preview with VoiceOver is not good, especially since the High Sierra update. In PDF scientific documents, VoiceOver reads correctly isolated Greek letters as well as several mathematical symbols. To read PDF documents with VoiceOver on a Mac, one can also use Quick Look (see Using Finder), or TeXShop (see Using TeXShop), or VisioVoice (see Using VisioVoice). Remark: one encounters many problems when trying to read a PDF document with VoiceOver on a Mac, whatever the application used. A better solution for reading PDFs with VoiceOver is to transferthe PDF file on an iPhone, iPad, or iPode Touch via iCloud Drive and then read it by using the excellent app called Voice Dream Reader which may be purchased on App Store.

If a scanner is connected to the computer and properly installed, Preview may also be used to scan paper documents. Before purchasing a scanner, make sure that it is compatible with the Mac OS version on your computer.
  • Some important keys:
    Starting from the lower-left corner of your keyboard, you successively find on the same row the following keys :
    Control (= Ctrl), then Option (= Opt), then Command (= Cmd), then Space bar, then Command (= Cmd), then Option (= Opt), then Control (= Ctrl).
    On a Macbook, there is an additional Fn key on the lower-left corner of the keyboard so that you will successively find
    Fn, then Ctrl, then Opt, then Cmd, then Space bar, then Cmd, then Opt.
    The Escape key is located at the upper-left corner of the keyboard. The Shift key is at the lower-left, just above the Ctrl key (on Macbook, above the Fn key). The Home key is located below the F15 key and the End key is just below the Home key. On a Macbook, Home is obtained by pressing Fn + Left arrow and End is obtained by pressing Fn + Right arrow. The Page Up key is located on the right of the Home key. The Page Down key is located below the Page Up key. On a Macbook, Page Up is obtained by pressing Fn + Up arrow, and Page Down by pressing Fn + Down arrow.

  • Important: for the instructions below, it is assumed that VoiceOver is on and that Quick Nav is off.
    To toggle VoiceOver on or off, press Cmd + F5.
    When VoiceOver is on, press simultaneously the Right and Left arrows to toggle Quick Nav on or off.

  • To open a recently used PDF file:
    Go to the Menu Bar by pressing Ctrl + Opt + m, then
    Go to the menu "File" with the Right arrow, then
    Go to the submenu "Open Recent" with the Down Arrow, then
    Press the Right Arrow, then
    Select the file with the Down Arrow, then
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar.

  • To open a file contained in the current folder:
    Go to the Menu bar by pressing Ctrl + Opt + m, then
    Go to "File" with the Right Arrow, then
    Go to "Open…" with the Down Arrow, then
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar, then
    Select the file by using the Up and Down Arrows, then
    Press the Return key.

  • To open a file that is not contained in the current folder:
    Go to the Menu bar by pressing Ctrl + Opt + m, then
    Go to "File" with the Right Arrow, then
    Go to "Open…" with the Down Arrow, then
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar, then
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Left Arrow a few times until reaching the radio button "column view", then
    If this has not already been done, press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar to check the column wiew radio button, then
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Right Arrow a few times until hearing the name of the current folder followed by "pop up button", then
    Select a parent folder of the wanted file by using the Up and Down Arrows, then
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar, then
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Right Arrow a few times until hearing "column view browser", then
    Use the Arrows to select the file, then
    Press the Return key.

  • To open a file from Finder:
    Select the file in Finder (see Using Finder), then
    Go to the Menu bar by pressing Ctrl + Opt + m, then
    Go to "File" with the Right Arrow, then
    Go to the submenu "Open with" with the Down Arrow, then
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar, then
    Go to "Preview" with the Down Arrow, then
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar.

  • To read a PDF document with VoiceOver:
    Open the PDF file with one of the above methods, then
    VoiceOver reads the name of the file and the number of pages in the document, then
    Interact with the group of elements by pressing Ctrl + Opt + Shift + Down arrow, then
    Choose the page by moving with Ctrl + Opt + Right Arrow or Ctrl + Opt + Left Arrow, then
    Interact again by pressing Ctrl + Opt + Shift + Down arrow, then
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Up or Down Arrow to read the text line by line.
    To read the text from word to word:
    Interact again by pressing Ctrl + Opt + Shift + Down arrow, then
    Move with Ctrl + Opt + Right Arrow and Ctrl + Opt + Left Arrow.
    Press Ctrl + Opt + w twice to spell out the word.

  • To pause or resume speech:
    Press Ctrl.

  • To find out the name of the PDF file, the page number of the current page and the total number of pages:
    Press Ctrl + Opt + F2 (on a MacBook fn + Ctrl + Opt + F2).
  • To print:
    Go to the Menu bar by pressing Ctrl + Opt + m, then
    Go to "File" with the Right Arrow, then
    Go to "Print…" with the Down Arrow, then
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar, then
    Press the Return key.

  • To scan a paper document:
    Make sure that a scanner is connected to the computer and properly installed, then
    Go to the Menu Bar by pressing Ctrl + Opt + m, then
    Go to the menu "File" with the Right arrow, then
    Go to the submenu "Import from Scanner" with the Down Arrow, then
    Press the Right Arrow, then
    Select the scanner with the Down Arrow, then
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar, then
    Press a few times Ctrl + Opt + Right Arrow until hearing "Scan button", then
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar, then
    Press a few times Ctrl + Opt + Right Arrow until hearing "Close button", then
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar.
    The scan will be saved as an image file with ".jpeg" extension in the Picture folder (one can select another folder in the first dialog box of the scanning process).
    Remark: one can convert the text contained in a image file obtained from scanning into a text file readable by VoiceOver by using an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software such as FineReader Express (see Using FineReader Express).

  • Some shortcuts

    To undo: Cmd + z
    To open …: Cmd + o
    New from clipboard: Cmd + n
    To select all: Cmd + a
    To copy: Cmd + c
    To print…: Cmd + p
    To close the current window: Cmd + w
    To close all windows: Cmd + Opt + w
    To read image description: Ctrl + Opt + Shift + l
    To quit Preview: Cmd + q

  • VoiceOver Commands

  • To find out the version of Preview on your computer:
    Go to the Menu bar by pressing Ctrl + Opt + m, then
    Go to "Preview" with the Right Arrow, then
    Go to "About Preview" with the Down Arrow, then
    Press Ctrl + Opt + Space bar, then
    Move with Ctrl + Opt + Left arrow and Ctrl + Opt + Right arrow until hearing the Preview version.

  • Preview Version: 10.0 (944.5)

    Scanners used: Epson Perfection V37

  • Please send me your questions or suggestions by e-mail


    • Last Update: July 13, 2018