In this episode, Mike Malarsie shows us how to access and use the VoiceOver Keyboard Commander, a nifty feature for Mac users which allows you to create and use custom keyboard shortcuts to speed up a number of tasks - such as open apps, files and folders; navigate and control what’s on screen; run AppleScript scripts and Automator workflows; issue VoiceOver commands; and much more.
If you have any commands that you find particularly useful, do please share them in the comments.
Comments
Very Useful Info
I use Keyboard Commander all the time now, and find it to be a big time saver. I have suggested to a sister of mine that she use it, but I don't think she has thus far. This sister is also a VoiceOver user. Besides Mail, Safari, and checking date and time, I have a command for TextEdit and more recently iTunes. I'm going to set up one for MarsEdit, since I just purchased the full version. In the coming months I will add others. Thanks for this.
Very cool
This is very cool! I never knew about this. Will be definitely be using this. Thanks.
battery level script
I set up keyboard commander to run an apple script that announces the battery level on my MacBook Air. I find it much faster to press a command, option b in my case, to hear the battery level rather than going through the menus to find the battery status. I found the scripts on Bryan Smart's web site. Here is the URl.
https://blog.bryansmart.com/2014/07/24/some-scripts-for-voiceover/
I also set up a keyboard commander key to launch text edit for those times when I need to access a word processor to take down a quick note such as a phone number or email address.
Creating scripts with VO
Hi. I am trying to create a custom command to announce the battery status. I am not sure how to edit this using AppleScript.
Note about Catalina, Mac OS 10.15
Currently there is a problem with the VoiceOver keyboard commander running scripts. Apple accessibility are aware of the issue and are working on it.
If scripts are not working as expected the work around I use is to save a copy of the script as an app, choosing it from the file type dropdown when saving, and running that instead.
Battery script
The one I use goes a little something like this:
on trim(someText)
repeat until someText does not start with " "
set someText to text 2 thru -1 of someText
end repeat
repeat until someText does not end with " "
set someText to text 1 thru -2 of someText
end repeat
return someText
end trim
set message to ""
-- Retrieve power info from OS
set powerInfo to do shell script "pmset -g ps" as string
set powerInfo1 to paragraph 1 of powerInfo
-- Determine power source
set powerSource to text ((offset of "'" in powerInfo1) + 1) thru ((length of powerInfo1) - 1) of powerInfo1
-- Determine power metrics
set powerInfo2 to paragraph 2 of powerInfo
set powerInfo2 to trim(text ((offset of tab in powerInfo2) + 1) thru (length of powerInfo2) of powerInfo2)
set oldDelims to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {";"}
set PowerInfo2Items to every text item of powerInfo2
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oldDelims
set powerLevel to trim(item 1 of PowerInfo2Items)
set powerState to trim(item 2 of PowerInfo2Items)
set powerTime to trim(item 3 of PowerInfo2Items)
if powerTime contains "estimate" then
-- estimate not available
set powerTime to "calculating the time"
else
-- extract the estimate
set powerTimeHours to text 1 thru ((offset of ":" in powerTime) - 1) of powerTime as integer
set powerTimeMinutes to text ((offset of ":" in powerTime) + 1) thru ((offset of " " in powerTime) - 1) of powerTime as integer
set powerTime to ""
if powerTimeHours is 1 then
set powerTime to "1 hour"
end if
if powerTimeHours is greater than 1 then
set powerTime to powerTimeHours & " hours"
end if -- time includes hours
if powerTimeHours is greater than 0 and powerTimeMinutes is greater than 0 then
set powerTime to powerTime & " and "
end if
if powerTimeMinutes is 1 then
set powerTime to powerTime & "1 minute"
end if
if powerTimeMinutes is greater than 1 then
set powerTime to powerTime & powerTimeMinutes & " minutes"
end if
end if -- time estimate available
-- Build the announcement
if powerState is "charged" then
set message to "The battery is fully charged."
end if
if powerState is "charging" then
set message to powerLevel & " recharged. " & powerTime & " until fully charged."
end if
if powerState is "discharging" then
set message to powerLevel & " battery power. " & powerTime & " remaining until empty."
end if
tell application "VoiceOver" to output message
Copy all of that into script editor and test it by pressing command R. Once that is working, save it in a memorable place, hop back over to VoiceOver, make sure that 'control VoiceOver with apple script' is set to on in the general tab, then head down the tabs to commanders, select keyboard, go to add, choose a key and in the commander menu, select custom, apple script and then point it to your battery script.
Hope this helps.
Thank you! That helped and I
Thank you! That helped and I was able to create it!
Good. Scripting is really
Good. Scripting is really satisfying when you get it working. I've got some to roll different dice accompanied by a sound for when I'm playing table top RPGs.
Keyboard Commander for read ext/previous paragraph not working
Thanks a lot Mike for the help.
I'm facing the following issue and I need your help if you know what's wrong.
The read next/previous paragraphs commands don't work on my macbookpro catalina.
Here are the other resources I've found to try solving the issue:
https://www.apple.com/voiceover/info/guide/_1124.html
"Locking the VO keys
VoiceOver commands are entered by pressing the Control and Option keys (the VO keys) with function keys, arrow keys, and other keys. For example, to open the VoiceOver Help menu press VO-H.
For convenience, you can lock the VO keys so you don’t have to press them while entering commands; all you need to press are the remaining keys for the command. For example, to open the VoiceOver Help menu, press H.
To lock or unlock the VO keys:
Press VO-;."
https://www.apple.com/voiceover/info/guide/_1128.html
"To read a paragraph, press VO-P. To move to the next or previous paragraph, press VO-Shift-Page Down or VO-Shift-Page Up."
By default, the VO-Shift-Page Up/Down are the needed shortcuts. But on a macbookpro that involves using the additional Fn key by default (Control+Option+Fn+Shift+Up/Down Arrow), because there's no default PageUp/Down keys on macbookpro laptops.
I've tried doing it this way (pressing the 5 keys) and for some reason it doesn't work.
I've tested your keyboard commander workaround, but for some reason it doesn't work on epubs in Ibooks or even on a webpage or a pdf in Preview.
Odd things is I've tested the default Mail and Safari and script keyboard commander commands and they work.
But my new keyboard commander commands don't work. I get a tone sound and no command execution.
Do you have any idea of how to make it work?
Could you please test the "read the next paragraph" and "read the previous paragraph" text commands with an epub in Ibooks to see if you manage to make it work on your side?
Maybe it's something I did wrong, but so far I've tested it extensively and cannot make it work somehow.
What I need is to have Voiceover's reading be controable to enable moving from paragraph to paragraph. Because currently it always starts back at the beginning of the page when I stop to highlight a passage/or make a note in Ibooks.
That's not convenient.
The end goal is to be able to quickly get to the last paragraph where I was at before highlighting or making a note in Ibooks.
Thanks again a lot. Take care and be well!
Frank
nise info
nise info my frend
I usually use for checking the time's