Getting Started With the Mac

Intro

Since 2005, I have used a variety of Macs, and have regularly used every version of macOS from Tiger to Monterey since then. Over that time, I’ve witnessed the various changes to VoiceOver, both major and minor, as well as how VoiceOver on macOS helped usher in a whole new world of mobile accessibility on iOS and iPadOS.

Today, with the Mac’s transition to Apple Silicon and the performance potential that it’s helped to unleash, it can be argued that the Mac is experiencing something of a renaissance. Indeed, as an AppleVis member, I’ve noticed an uptick in posts related to macOS, including from those who are potentially interested in buying their first Mac, those enquiring about how to complete various tasks on macOS, those experiencing issues, and others. No, I don’t have a hard number to back that up, just my observation.

Earlier this year Apple came under some criticism after a report by the Guardian on how Apple hired contractors to listen to a small percentage of anonymized ‌Siri‌ recordings to evaluate the responses with the purpose of improving accuracy and reliability.

In response, Apple promised that it would introduce options in a forthcoming update that would allow users to opt out of sharing their audio recordings.

Those options arrived with the releases of iOS 13.2, iPadOS 13.2, and macOS 10.15.1.

In this podcast, Tyler walks us through how to access and change these new options.

In this episode, Jonathan Simeone shows us how to add and remove items from the Finder sidebar on macOS.

The Finder sidebar is a list of folders and devices that can be quickly accessed from any Finder window or open and save dialog in macOS. You can choose which categories of items appear in the sidebar by choosing Finder > Settings, (or pressing Command-Comma) clicking the Sidebar button in the toolbar, and selecting the categories you want to include.

To add a specific folder, focus on it in Finder and choose File > Add to sidebar (or press Command-Control-T. To remove a folder, focus on it in the Sidebar and choose "Remove from sidebar" from the context menu, accessed by pressing VO-Shift-M.

In this quick tip podcast, Tyler demonstrates how to create and use text replacements, short snippets of text which are substituted with frequently used words or phrases when typed, and which synchronise across all your Apple devices.

For more information, see:
Replace text and punctuation in documents on Mac
Save keystrokes with text replacements on iPhone

In this podcast, Tyler discusses and demonstrates the Grouping Behavior options available for VoiceOver on macOS. These allow you to choose whether VoiceOver requires an action to interact with items in a content area (such as a scroll area) or a group (such as a toolbar):

The four available options are:

In this podcast, Jonathan Simeone shows us how to access and use the diverse emoji icon set on the Mac.

In this quick tip podcast, Tyler Stephen shows us how to automatically delete messages on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.

In this podcast, Alex Hall shows us how to change the default program for opening various file types on the Mac.

By default, VoiceOver does not start automatically at the macOS login prompt. In this podcast, Tyler demonstrates how to change this. The steps to do so are as follows:

1. Choose Apple > System Settings, and select Lock Screen in the table.
2. Click accessibility options and toggle the “VoiceOver” switch on.
3. Click done.

If FileVault disk encryption is turned on, which is the default, VoiceOver should start when the Mac boots and prompt for the username, and then prompt for the password if the username is entered correctly. However, if you’d rather not have to manually enter your username or be able to navigate other elements in the window, you must turn FileVault off. To do this, open System Settings, select Privacy & Security in the table, and click “FileVault turn off.”

In this episode, Tyler demonstrates how to configure your Mac to announce the time automatically.

To do this in macOS Ventura and later, open System Settings > Control Center > Clock options, and enable the "Announce the time" toggle. This dialog will then allow you to choose how often the announcement will play, as well as the voice, rate, and volume macOS will use for the announcement.

In this podcast, Alex Hall shows us how to define a word using Spotlight on macOS.

Anyone who has used a Mac for any length of time will be familiar with VoiceOver's "one row added" announcements which are heard when a new row is added to a table. Many have found these announcements to be verbose in the extreme, and have asked Apple to make other options available. With the release of macOS Sierra, it is now possible to modify, or completely disable these announcements. In this quick tip, Jamie Pauls takes us through the various options now available, and shows us how to make the desired changes. He also tells us why he prefers one option in particular.

In this podcast, Tyler demonstrates how to enable audio descriptions for the TV app, as well as for videos on supported websites in Safari on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.

In this podcast, Crayton shows us how to move files and folders in the Mac Finder using the keyboard.

In this quick tip, Chris Wright shows us how to permanently delete files from the Mac.

In this podcast. Alex Hall shows us how it is possible to either rewind or fast forward speech when using the VoiceOver ‘Say All’ command on macOS.

The original forum post on AppleVis mentioned by Alex during this podcast is here.

In this podcast, Carlos Taylor gives a walk-through of how to restore a single file from a Time Machine backup using VoiceOver.

Note: In macOS Ventura, rather than locating a backup by interacting with a slider, each backup is represented by a button in the timeline controls window; clicking this button selects the backup. Aside from that minor change, the process is still largely the same as it was at the time this podcast was recorded.

Written steps for how to do this are as follows:

In this podcast, David Woodbridge demonstrates how to use the Caps Lock key as the VoiceOver modifier key on macOS … either on its own or in conjunction with the Control and Option keys.