Strasbourg, France
Using Preview with VoiceOver
Mac OS 10.7 Lion
Preview is an application included in MacOS 10.7 Lion which may be used to read
PDF documents.
The compatibility of Preview with VoiceOver is not very good.
In PDF scientific documents,
VoiceOver reads correctly isolated Greek letters
(one hears "Greek capital letter" or "Greek small letter" depending on whether it is an uppercase or lowercase letter)
as well as several mathematical symbols
under the condition that the option
"all" has been previously selected in the Punctation Menu of the Verbosity settings of VoiceOver
(to do it, open the Verbosity Rotor by pressing
Ctrl + Opt + v, then select "All" in the Punctation Menu by moving with the Right and Down arrows, then press the Escape key to quit the Verbosity Rotor).
To read PDF documents with VoiceOver, one can also use
TeXShop (see Using TeXShop)
or VisioVoice (see Using VisioVoice).
Remark: one encounters many problems when trying to read a PDF document with VoiceOver whatever the application used.
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.
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.
VoiceOver starts reading the first page of the document.
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 + Right Arrow (5 times), 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 (5 times) until hearing "File 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 go to the next page:
Go to the Menu Bar by pressing Ctrl + Opt + m, then
Go to the menu "Go" with the Right Arrow, then
Go to "Next" with the Down Arrow, then
Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar.
To go to the previous page:
Go to the Menu Bar by pressing Ctrl + Opt + m, then
Go to the menu "Go" with the Right Arrow, then
Go to "Previous" with the Down Arrow, then
Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar.
To go to another page:
Go to the Menu Bar by pressing Ctrl + Opt + m, then
Go to the menu "Go" with the Right Arrow, then
Go to "Go to Page..." with the Down Arrow, then
Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar, then
Type the page number, then
Press the Return key.
To read again a page:
Press Ctrl + Opt + Down Arrow.
To know 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 pause and resume reading:
Press Ctrl.
To read all the contents of a PDF document:
Press Ctrl + Opt + a (or Ctrl + Opt + b if you have interacted with the text).
To spell a word contained in a PDF document:
Interact with the text by pressing Ctrl + Opt + Shift + Down Arrow, then
Move to the word by using Ctrl + Opt + one of the Arrows, then
Press twice Ctrl + Opt + w.
Stop the interaction with the text by pressing Ctrl + Opt + Shift + Up
Arrow.
To search a word:
Press Ctrl + Opt + f, then
Type the word, then
Press the Return key.
VoiceOver reads the first occurence of
the word,
Press Ctrl + Opt + a to hear the sequel of the PDF document.
Press Ctrl + Opt + g to go to the next occurrence of the word.
Press Ctrl + Opt + Shift + g to go to the previous occurrence of the word.
Remark: instead of typing a word in the search field, one
can select a word use used in a previous search by moving with the Up and Down Arrows.
Press Cmd + Delete
to suppress a word from the list of previous searches.
Recommended setting for reading a PDF document page by page:
Go to the Menu Bar by pressing Ctrl + Opt + m, then
Go to the menu "View" with the Right Arrow, then
Go to thesubmenu "PDF Display" with the Down Arrow, then
Go to "Single Page" with the Right Arrow, then
Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar.
With this setting:
Press Page Down
(on a Macbook Fn + Down Arrow) to go to the next page.
Press Page Up (on a Macbook Fn + Up Arrow)
to go to the previous page.
Press Ctrl + Opt + a to read the page.
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 convert a PDF document into a Text document:
Go to the Menu bar by pressing Ctrl + Opt + m, then
Go to "Edit" with the Right Arrow, then
Go to "Select All" with the Down Arrow, then
Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar, then
Go to the Menu bar by pressing Ctrl + Opt + m, then
Go to "Edit" with the Right Arrow, then
Go to "Copy" with the Down Arrow, then
Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar, then
Open a new Text file in a text editor such as
TextEdit (see Using TeXtEdit)or
TexShop (see Using TeXShop), then
Go to the Menu bar by pressing Ctrl + Opt + m, then
Go to "Edit" with the Right Arrow, then
Go to "Paste" with the Down Arrow, then
Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar.
Remark: mathematical symbols are usually replaced by question marks after this operation.
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).
To open Preview Help:
Go to the Menu bar by pressing Ctrl + Opt + m, then
Go to "Help" with the Right Arrow, then
Go to "Preview Help" with the Down Arrow, then
Press Ctrl + Opt + Spacebar.
One navigates in Preview Help as in web pages
(see Using Safari).
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 quit Preview: Cmd + q
VoiceOver Commands
To know 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 + Spacebar.
Preview Version: 5.5.3 (719.31)
Scanners used: Epson Perfection V37
Please send me your comments about this page by e-mail
Last Update: December 4, 2014