dotjay (home) | dotjay’s lab / notes / voiceover-commands

VoiceOver Commands / Keyboard Shortcuts

Last updated: January 25, 2010

If you find any of the information useful, or if you find anything to be incomplete or inaccurate, please let me know.

Update on January 25, 2010: Apple now have their own HTML reference, VoiceOver Commands and Gestures on apple.com.

Contents

These commands are also available from Apple as a downloadable PDF: VoiceOver downloads

First-Level VoiceOver Commands

First-Level VoiceOver activation keys: Press Control-Option with the designated key

Settings and Visuals
CommandDescription
Control-Option + V Verbosity mode footnote 1
Control-Option + F8 VoiceOver Utility
Control-Option + F10 Tile visuals
Control-Option + F11 Hide/Show visuals
Orientation and Help
CommandDescription
Control-Option + F1 Application summary footnote 2
Control-Option + F2 Window summary footnote 2
Control-Option + F3 VoiceOver cursor
Control-Option + F4 Keyboard focus
Control-Option + F5 Mouse focus footnote 2
Control-Option + F6 Selection description
Control-Option + F7 VoiceOver menu
Control-Option + H Item help footnote 2
Control-Option + K Keyboard help
Control-Option + Z Repeat last output
Navigation
CommandDescription
Control-Option + 1 Go to Bookmark
Control-Option + 2 Jump to hot spot 2
Control-Option + 3 Jump to hot spot 3
Control-Option + 4 Jump to hot spot 4
Control-Option + 5 Jump to hot spot 5
Control-Option + 6 Jump to hot spot 6
Control-Option + 7 Jump to hot spot 7
Control-Option + 8 Jump to hot spot 8
Control-Option + 9 Jump to hot spot 9
Control-Option + 0 Jump to hot spot 0
Control-Option + U List links on page
Control-Option + I Item list
Control-Option + [ (left bracket) Back in VoiceOver history
Control-Option + ] (right bracket) Forward in VoiceOver history
Control-Option + D Dock
Control-Option + J Jump to linked item
Control-Option + M Menu bar footnote 2
Control-Option + Up Arrow Previous line footnote 3
Control-Option + Down Arrow Next line footnote 3
Control-Option + Left Arrow Previous word footnote 3
Control-Option + Right Arrow Next word footnote 3
Operation keys
CommandDescription
Control-Option + Esc Cancel mode
Control-Option + Tab Ignore next command
Control-Option + ; Control-Option lock
Control-Option + Return Select a menu item or list item
Control-Option + Space Perform the default action for the selected item
Interaction
CommandDescription
Control-Option + ` Move window
Control-Option + \ Open/close disclosure triangle
Text and Reading
CommandDescription
Control-Option + W Read word footnote 2
Control-Option + R Read row in table
Control-Option + T Text attributes
Control-Option + P Read paragraph
Control-Option + A Read contents of VoiceOver cursor
Control-Option + S Read sentence
Control-Option + F Find text
Control-Option + L Read line
Control-Option + C Read character footnote 2

Second-Level VoiceOver Commands

Second-Level VoiceOver activation keys: Press Control-Option-Shift with the designated key

Settings and Visuals
CommandDescription
Control-Option-Shift + F11 Screen curtain
Orientation and Help
CommandDescription
Control-Option-Shift + Z Save to file
Control-Option-Shift + ? VoiceOver Help
Navigation
CommandDescription
Control-Option-Shift + F3 Cursor tracking on/off
Control-Option-Shift + F4 Move VoiceOver to keyboard
Control-Option-Shift + F5 Move VoiceOver to mouse
Control-Option-Shift + 1 Set Bookmark
Control-Option-Shift + 2 Set hot spot 2
Control-Option-Shift + 3 Set hot spot 3
Control-Option-Shift + 4 Set hot spot 4
Control-Option-Shift + 5 Set hot spot 5
Control-Option-Shift + 6 Set hot spot 6
Control-Option-Shift + 7 Set hot spot 7
Control-Option-Shift + 8 Set hot spot 8
Control-Option-Shift + 9 Set hot spot 9
Control-Option-Shift + 0 Set hot spot 0
Control-Option-Shift + U Hear a link’s URL
Control-Option-Shift + D Desktop
Control-Option-Shift + G Find previous searched text footnote 4
Control-Option-Shift + J Jump in tables and text footnote 5
Control-Option-Shift + M Shortcut menu
Control-Option-Shift + Up Arrow Stop interacting footnote 6
Control-Option-Shift + Down Arrow Start interacting footnote 6
Control-Option-Shift + Left Arrow Previous character footnote 6
Control-Option-Shift + Right Arrow Next character footnote 6
Operation keys
CommandDescription
Control-Option-Shift + Space Mouse click (press twice for double-click)
Interaction
CommandDescription
Control-Option-Shift + F2 Move window to front
Control-Option-Shift + F9 Resize or move Braille panel footnote 4
Control-Option-Shift + F10 Resize or move caption panel footnote 4
Control-Option-Shift + ~ Resize window
Control-Option-Shift + { Shrink VoiceOver cursor
Control-Option-Shift + } Magnify VoiceOver cursor
Control-Option-Shift + | Sort column
Control-Option-Shift + S Scrolling
Text and Reading
CommandDescription
Control-Option-Shift + W Read visible window
Control-Option-Shift + H Read column header
Control-Option-Shift + C Copy last phrase to clipboard

Third-Level VoiceOver Commands

Third-Level VoiceOver activation keys: Press Control-Option-Command with the designated key

Settings and Visuals
CommandDescription
Control-Option-Command + F9 Hide/show Braille panel
Control-Option-Command + F10 Hide/show caption panel
Orientation and Help
CommandDescription
Control-Option-Command + F8 VoiceOver Quick Start
Navigation
CommandDescription
Control-Option-Command + F4 Move keyboard to VoiceOver cursor
Control-Option-Command + F5 Move mouse to VoiceOver cursor
Control-Option-Command + 2 Describe hot spot 2
Control-Option-Command + 3 Describe hot spot 3
Control-Option-Command + 4 Describe hot spot 4
Control-Option-Command + 5 Describe hot spot 5
Control-Option-Command + 6 Describe hot spot 6
Control-Option-Command + 7 Describe hot spot 7
Control-Option-Command + 8 Describe hot spot 8
Control-Option-Command + 9 Describe hot spot 9
Control-Option-Command + 0 Describe hot spot 0
Control-Option-Command + Q Find next blockquote
Control-Option-Command + T Find next table footnote 7
Control-Option-Command + U Find next underlined text footnote 7
Control-Option-Command + I Find next italic text footnote 7
Control-Option-Command + O Find next font change footnote 7
Control-Option-Command + P Find next plain text footnote 7
Control-Option-Command + \ Jump back to parent folder
Control-Option-Command + S Find next item of same type footnote 7
Control-Option-Command + F Find next frame in HTML footnote 7
Control-Option-Command + G Find next graphic footnote 7
Control-Option-Command + H Find next heading
Control-Option-Command + J Find next control footnote 7
Control-Option-Command + K Find next color footnote 7
Control-Option-Command + L Find next hyperlink footnote 7
Control-Option-Command + C Find next text style footnote 7
Control-Option-Command + V Find next visited link
Control-Option-Command + B Find next bold text footnote 7
Control-Option-Command + N Find next different element footnote 7
Control-Option-Command + M Find next heading of same level footnote 7
Operation keys
CommandDescription
Control-Option-Command + Space Multiple selection
Interaction
CommandDescription
Control-Option-Command + F2 Close window
Control-Option-Command + [ Decrease Braille/caption panel font size
Control-Option-Command + ] Increase Braille/caption panel font size
Text and Reading
CommandDescription
Control-Option-Command + Up Arrow Increase speech rate/pitch/volume/intonation footnote 8, footnote 9
Control-Option-Command + Down Arrow Decrease speech rate/pitch/volume/intonation footnote 8, footnote 9
Control-Option-Command + Left Arrow Previous (select: speech rate, pitch, volume, or intonation) footnote 8, footnote 9
Control-Option-Command + Right Arrow Next (select: speech rate, pitch, volume, or intonation) footnote 8, footnote 9

Footnotes

  1. Press Control-Option-V, then the Left Arrow or Right Arrow to choose a setting: typing echo, punctuation, text attributes, capitals, deleted characters, numbers, links, and table headers. Then press the Up Arrow or Down Arrow to change the setting. Press Escape to leave Verbosity mode.
  2. You can press some keys two or three times to hear more information. Press F1, F2, and H twice to hear the Application, Window, and Commands menus. Press F5 two or three times to hear the mouse location in different ways. Press C twice to hear the phonetic character. Press W twice to spell a word and three times to spell it phonetically. Press M twice to go to status menus in the menu bar and three times to go to the Spotlight menu.
  3. Home and End move the VoiceOver cursor to the top or bottom of what's visible in the VoiceOver cursor, or to the first or last visible word in text. Page Up and Page Down read the previous and next sentence. On portable computers, press Fn with the arrow keys for Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down.
  4. Use this command in tables, text, Mail, iChat, and iTunes. Press this command again to choose move or resize, then press arrow keys to change the location or size of the Braille panel. Press Shift with the arrow keys for smaller increments.
  5. In tables and text, iChat, Mail, and iTunes, press this command, then press arrow keys to move to the visible edge of the area. Press Shift with the arrow keys to move to the extreme edge of the area.
  6. Home and End move the VoiceOver cursor to the top or bottom of the item in the VoiceOver cursor, scrolling if necessary. Page Up and Page Down read the next and previous paragraph. On portable computers, press Fn with the arrow keys for Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down.
  7. Press Shift with this command to move to the previous occurrence.
  8. Press Control-Option-Command-Right Arrow or Control-Option-Command-Left Arrow to select speech rate, pitch, volume, or intonation. Then press the Up Arrow or Down Arrow to increase or decrease the setting.
  9. Home moves the VoiceOver cursor to the top-left corner of the window. End moves it to the bottom-right corner of the window. On portable computers, press Fn with the arrow keys for Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down.