Use VoiceOver to read text on Mac
VoiceOver provides many ways to read text.
Note: 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.
To read | Do this |
|---|---|
From the top (“Read All”) | Press VO-A, or flick up with two fingers. You don’t need to interact with the document. |
From the VoiceOver cursor to the bottom | Press VO-A, or flick down with two fingers. You must first interact with the document. |
A paragraph | Press VO-P. To move to the next or previous paragraph, press VO-Shift-Page Down or VO-Shift-Page Up. |
A line | Press VO-L. To move to the next or previous line, press VO-Down Arrow or VO-Up Arrow. |
A sentence | Press VO-S. To move to the next or previous sentence, press VO-Command-Page Down or VO-Command-Page Up. |
A word | Press VO-W. To hear the word spelled, press VO-W again. To hear it spelled phonetically, press VO-W again. To move to the next or previous word, press VO-Right Arrow or VO-Left Arrow. |
A character | Press VO-C. To hear the character spoken phonetically (as in “a alpha”), press VO-C again. To move to the next or previous character, press Right Arrow or Left Arrow. Note: If you select the option to append phonetic pronunciation to single characters in VoiceOver Utility, you don’t need to press VO-C again to hear the phonetic pronunciation. |
When you use the Down Arrow key to move from one line of text to the next, VoiceOver speaks the line where the insertion point is located. If you press the Down Arrow key at the first line of a document, VoiceOver won’t read the line because the insertion point has moved to the next line. To hear the first line of text in a document, press VO-Down Arrow.
The orientation commands VO-Fn-F4-F4 and VO-Fn-F5-F5-F5 can be useful in determining the insertion point’s location in a document.
You can assign commands to fast forward and rewind text when you use Read All. See Customize key commands and trackpad gestures for VoiceOver.
If you turned on the option to control VoiceOver with trackpad gestures, you can use the VoiceOver gestures rotor to read a paragraph, line, sentence, or words.
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