VoiceOver orientation commands on Mac
Use VoiceOVer orientation commands to perform actions such as hearing information about the current item and what’s open on the screen. VO represents the VoiceOver modifier that you press with additional keys to enter VoiceOver commands. By default, you can press Control and Option together or just press Caps Lock.
Note: By default, when you use a function key (F1 through F12) in a VoiceOver command, you must also press the Fn key. Depending on your Mac, you can change this behaviour so that you don’t have to press the Fn key. See Change function key behaviour for VoiceOver.
You can also enter VoiceOver commands that use a function key by using the Fn key and a number key instead of the Fn key and a function key. For example, to open VoiceOver Utility, you can press VO-Fn-8 (instead of VO-Fn-F8).
Action | Command |
|---|---|
Hear a summary of open apps | VO-Fn-F1 |
Open the Application Chooser | VO-Fn-F1-F1 |
Hear a summary of the current window | VO-Fn-F2 |
Open the Window Chooser to access open windows and system dialogues | VO-Fn-F2-F2 |
Hear the dimensions of the current window and the section of the screen where it’s located | VO-Fn-Command-F2 |
Hear the position of the current window and whether anything overlaps it | VO-Fn-Command-F2-F2 |
Hear a description of the item in the VoiceOver cursor, including the item’s current state, such as whether a tickbox is selected, or the per cent value of a slider | VO-Fn-F3 |
Hear the dimensions of the current item and the section of the screen where it’s located | VO-Fn-Command-F3 |
Hear the position of the current item and whether anything overlaps it | VO-Fn-Command-F3-F3 |
Hear a description of the item that has keyboard focus, including its current state, such as whether a tickbox is selected, or the per cent value of a slider | VO-Fn-F4 |
Hear details about the item that has keyboard focus In text, you hear the location of the insertion point relative to the top-left corner of the text item in which the insertion point is located. For example, you might hear “Insertion point is two inches right, five inches down from top-left corner of edit text”. | VO-Fn-F4-F4 |
Hear a description of the item under the pointer, including the item’s current state, such as whether a tickbox is selected, or the per cent value of a slider | VO-Fn-F5 |
Hear the location of the pointer as x and y coordinates on the screen, relative to the top-left corner of the screen | VO-Fn-F5-F5 |
Hear the location of the pointer as x and y coordinates relative to the current window | VO-Fn-F5-F5-F5 |
Read the selected item | VO-Fn-F6 |
Read the contents of the VoiceOver cursor | VO-A |
Read the visible contents of the window, the Dock or your desktop, depending on your location | VO-Shift-W |
Repeat the last spoken phrase | VO-Z |
Copy the last spoken phrase to the Clipboard (also called the Pasteboard) | VO-Shift-C |
Save the last spoken phrase and the crash log to a file on the desktop for troubleshooting | VO-Shift-Z |
Download this guide in Braille Ready Format: BRF (English)