How can i customise the touchbar with VoiceOver?

Submitted by Parham Doustdar on Wednesday, August 14, 2019.
Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hi,

I've been trying to make my touchabr more useful. The first step to doing that is to add the buttons I use and remove the ones I don't use.

However, when I go to the system preferences -> keyboard -> customize touchbar, I can only click on buttons like "Sleep" to add them, and there is no way of removing buttons.

Does anyone know how to do this? I checked on the Voiceover manual and didn't find anything.

Thaniks!

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Comments

Submitted by Igna Triay on Wednesday, August 14, 2019

to remove an item from the touch bar, you have to do it via said touch bar. move through the icons on the touch bar once you are in customise touch bar, and when you find an icon you want to remove on the touch bar, say, you want to remove sleep from the touch bar, on the touch bar, start flicking right or left until you hear sleep. Double tap on the touch bar. This will remove the sleep from the touch bar. Do the same with any other icons you want to remove, then add the ones you want

Submitted by Parham Doustdar on Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Thanks a lot for the reply! When I go to customize touch bar in system preferences, I only find 3 buttons on the touch bar, and they have no labels and are dimmed. When I go to customize touch bar from the "View" menu, however, I can see what you described. The problem there is that I can only modify the buttons in the app touch bar section which is to the left of the touch bar, not the right side.

Thanks!

Submitted by Danny Norris on Monday, August 19, 2019

Hi. I think I've got this figured out.
In the System/Keyboard preference pane, you will click on the Customize Touch Bar.
Once the window opens up, run your finger along the physical touch bar. You will hear all of that thumping sounds which means Voice Over don't see anything.
But, go all the way over to the right, double tap and hold until you hear the beeps and then you will hear a button.
For example, I have the notification button sitting there. I double tap and hold and it says Notification. If I want to get rid of it, I will drag it all the way over to the left and release and that will put it into the trash.
So starting back on the right, you will have to move down a few inches and do the double tap and hold and see what button you are on top of. With a little practice, you will find your buttons.
Then, go down to Section 2 and interact with that. Then find buttons that you want.
Another great thing I found out is that you can go into Mail, go into the Menu, click on View and then click on Customize Touch Bar.
I have been able to add the Reply and Forward buttons .
You can also customize some of the other apps too by going into View and Customize Touch Bar. Don't get confused and click on Tool Bar instead of Touch Bar like I keep doing.

Regards,
Danny

Submitted by Parham Doustdar on Monday, August 19, 2019

Wow, that would've never occurred to me. Thanks a lot – after randomly tapping and holding spots in the touchbar, I could finally remove all the buttons Mac OS puts there by default that I don't use.