Michel Coornaert
Strasbourg, France, France

VoiceOver 10.6

Using VoiceOver gestures with Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard

To use VoiceOver gestures, VoiceOver must be turned on and a multi-touch trackpad is required. One turns VoiceOver on by pressing Cmd + F5. Recent MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro have a built-in multi-touch trackpad. If your computer does not have a multi-touch trackpad, you can install an external one such as Apple Magic Trackpad.
Remark: VoiceOver gestures must be done quickly in a relaxed and natural way.


Some VoiceOver gestures



  • To enable the trackpad:
    Hold down the Ctrl and Opt keys while rotating two fingers clockwise on the trackpad.

  • To disable the trackpad:
    Hold down the Ctrl and Opt keys while rotating two fingers counterclockwise on the trackpad.

  • To go to the Menu bar:
    Double-tap two fingers near the top of the trackpad.

  • To go to the Dock:
    Double-tap two fingers near the bottom of the trackpad.

  • To open the Application chooser:
    Double-tap two fingers near the left of the trackpad.

  • To open the Window chooser:
    Double-tap two fingers near the right of the trackpad.

  • To interact with an item:
    Flick right two fingers.

  • To stop interacting with an item:
    Flick left two fingers.

  • To select the next item:
    Flick right one finger.

  • To select the previous item:
    Flick left one finger.

  • To open a folder:
    Select the folder, then
    Double-tap one finger anywhere on the trackpad.

  • To open an application:
    Select the application, then
    Double-tap one finger anywhere on the trackpad.

  • To activate a button:
    Select the button, then
    Double-tap one finger anywhere on the trackpad.

  • To read the current page from top to bottom:
    Flick up two fingers.

  • To read the current page from the position of the VoiceOver cursor to the bottom of the page:
    Flick down two fingers.

  • To scroll one page up:
    Flick up three fingers.

  • To scroll one page down:
    Flick down three fingers.

  • To know the current page and the total number of pages:
    Tap three fingers.

  • To pause or resume speaking:
    Tap two fingers.

  • To move to the next option of the rotor:
    Rotate two fingers clockwise.

  • To move to the previous option of the rotor:
    Rotate two fingers counterclockwise.

  • To move to the next item based on the rotor option:
    Flick up one finger.

  • To move to the previous item based on the rotor option:
    Flick down one finger.

  • To turn the screen curtain on or off:
    Triple-tap three fingers.

  • To mute or unmute speech:
    Double-tap three fingers.



  • VoiceOver Commands

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  • Last update: October 22, 2014