VoiceOver Navigation Tips for JW Library

My first suggestion is to use a bluetooth keyboard with JW Library, because having one connected will often make JW Library on an iPhone return focus to the link you just used when you close the Study pane. It saves a lot of time to not have to hunt around finding your place again every time you read a scripture or other linked reference material.

Unfortunately, using a braille display doesn't seem to have the same advantage. Definitely an area in which Apple needs to make improvements.

Using a keyboard also has no beneficial effect on the behavior of JW Library when used on an iPad, because focus just goes to the Open Study Pain button.

When you have your keyboard connected to your phone, go in to the app switcher and close JW Library, then reopen it. Sorry I don't know the keyboard commands for doing this.

Go to the publication you are studying and activate a link far down in the article or lesson by pressing control+option+spacebar. Now close the Study pane by pressing control+option+escape.. Hopefully you will hear VoiceOver say the scripture link you just opened. If Voiceover says the name of the publication you are using, then it failed. Try opening another link and see if it behaves better the second time.

That procedure takes time, but usually makes everything work more reliably so that studying goes better in the long run.

Reading Scriptures

There is a way to read scriptures in JW Library with VoiceOver without the clutter, but it requires customizing VoiceOver settings and/or a hardware keyboard.

The correct command is Move to Next Item with Plain Text.

This command can be found by going to VoiceOver settings > Commands > All Commands > Text Navigation.

The default keyboard command is Control-Option-Command-P.

Add Shift to that combination to read the Previous Item with Plain Text. Yes, pressing that many keys at once isn't easy. VoiceOver iOS keyboard commands can also be touchy. If I don't release the P before the modifier keys it tends not to work. I can use it more easily because I have a custom 8-key MacroPad and I have assigned a key to Control-OptionCommand-P.

It is also possible to assign a custom VoiceOver gesture for this command, but there are not enough gestures for everything one might want to do. Unfortunately, it can not be put on the VoiceOver rotor. Don't confuse static text, which can be on the rotor, with plain text, which can't. Static text is any text that isn't a link or control. plain text is text that is not bold, italic, underlined, superscript or subscript.

It also works to read the text of scriptures on jw.org using the read plain text command for VoiceOver on either iOS or Mac, but the * (star) characters in the text will still be read. Too bad they aren't bold or something.

To assign a custom voiceOver gesture to Move to Next Item with Plain Text:

Open VoiceOver settings and find and double tap the Commands button.

Double tap "All commands."

Double tap "Text Navigation."

Double tap "Move to next item with plain text."

Double tap the "add Gesture" button.

Now look through the options to find a gesture that either isn't in use, or is a VoiceOver command you don't need. I used 4 finger swipe down, because 2 finger swipe down is for continuous reading, and 3 finger swipe down is already taken.

After you've double tapped the gesture you want, you will be put back in the dialog that has the add gesture button. Confirm that your new gesture is present.

If the assignment didn't work, just assign it again. This is a bug I have encountered. It has always worked the second time.

Of course, smooth reading of the NWT Study Bible also requires setting up custom punctuation rules for Voiceover in order to remove the ʹ and · which I describe on the following page of my website. Custom Punctuation Unfortunately, that doesn't fix reading them in Braille.

Move by verse number

It is also possible to quickly move through the scripture verses in a similar way. The command is "Move to next item with bold text."

The default assignment is Control-Option-Command-B. Add shift to move backwards.

It is also found in VoiceOver settings > Commands > All Commands > Text Navigation.

Just choose "move to next item with bold text" if you want to assign a gesture. All the same possibilities and caveats apply.

I used four finger swipe up, because swiping up with 3 fingers scrolls down, but maybe my logical is your inexplicable. :-)

Bold text is also used in many other places to mark important things. Sometimes they are also headings, but other times they are not, so I find this command very useful. For instance: the numbers of questions and paragraphs in the Watchtower study articles are bold text, and so are the read scriptures.

Find

Of course use of a bluetooth keyboard or braille display will allow you to search for verse numbers, as well as anything else you might want to find. It significantly speeds up looking up scriptures. The command is Control-Option-F on a bluetooth Mac style keyboard.

Substitute Control-Alt-F on a Windows style keyboard.

Space-F is likely on a braille display, but different displays can have different commands, so look it up in VoiceOver Settings > Commands. Under the heading "Braille displays" will be the name of your braille display. Activate that and you can review or change any command you want.

You can assign a gesture to find, but it doesn't do any good, because the on-screen keyboard never appears, so it is impossible to enter the text to search for. The VoiceOver Item Chooser, which is supposed to be kind of like search or find is really not of much use at all, so don't bother with it.

Jump to beginning

There are also ways of eliminating virtually all fumbling around to find the beginning of an article. The 2 options for doing this are moving by heading or by container. If you do not want to set up any custom VoiceOver commands then moving by container is the option you'll want to use. This is because Containers is one of the few options that does not frequently become unavailable.

Make sure Containers are on your VoiceOver rotor by going to Settings > Accessibility, VoiceOver > Rotor. Swipe through the items that can be placed on the rotor. If you don't hear Selected before Containers double tap to select it. I would recommend putting Containers right below characters somewhere near the top of the Rotor list.

When Voiceover is running and QuickNav is on control-RightArrow is the keyboard command for moving forward by container. Control-LeftArrow moves backward by container.

I long ago changed too many of my braille display commands, and braille displays very, so I can not tell you what the command would be on your braille display.

In JW Library just after you activate a Button for a publication or a section within a publication Voiceover focus is usually on the Back Button. From there you can turn the Voiceover Rotor to Containers and 1 flick down will usually bring VoiceOver focus right to the beginning of every article or the 1st item in a list of chapters in the Bible. It will also bring focus right to the 1st useful content in the Study Pain. If you hear "Tab Bar" when you flick down instead, tap near the top of the screen once with 4 fingers. Now focus will be back at the top, so you can flick down with 1 finger to get past all the buttons and to the beginning of the article. Of course you can also flick up with 1 finger to move back through the different containers.

On the Home tab of JW Library moving by container can also be very useful. From the top 1 flick down will put VO on the Daily Text. You can flick down again to try to move through the different sections like Favorites, Teaching Toolbox, and New. Warning, sometimes it harmlessly but annoyingly fails. If the button for the title of any publication, video, or other item is spoken your next flick up or down will no longer move by container. Instead VoiceOver will move through the options in that publication's Actions menu.

Benefits of Heading gesture

In JW Library almost all articles begin with a heading. This means that setting up a Voiceover gesture to move by headings can quickly get you to the beginning of an article. Yes, Headings are available on the VoiceOver rotor, but VoiceOver sometimes will only move by headings within the current container. That means that when focus is on the Back Button Voiceover won't always show Headings on the Rotor. This is true for links, buttons, and other items as well. A custom gesture for moving by any element VoiceOver knows does not usually have the same restriction. This means it is possible to use a gesture to move directly to the first heading of an article right from the top of the screen.

Benefit 2: moving by headings with the Voiceover Rotor is unreliable on the Home tab of JW Library, but the different sections are headings. With a custom Voiceover gesture it is possible to move through these sections. Even if a publication or video button is selected the headings gesture will work because that gesture isn't in use by the actions menu.

A headings gesture is especially useful in the extensive display of videos. They are in categories chosen from a list, but after choosing a category they are further broken up in to sub-categories. These sub-categories are headings. The videos under each sub-category heading are listed horizontally rather than vertically. This makes the whole list act quite oddly. Heading navigation helps a lot, though it doesn't completely eliminate the navigation oddness. I don't know how anyone ever finds the video they want without being able to move by headings.

Braille Custom Commands

If you have a bluetooth braille display many of these useful commands can be assigned.

To assign a custom braille display command go to Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Commands.

near the bottom of the list of types of commands will be a Braille devices.heading. Find the button with the name of your currently connected braille device and activate it.

Find Navigation in the list of categories and activate it.

Now find Next Heading, Next plain Text, Next Bold Text, or whatever command you would like and activate it.

Activate the Assign New Braille Keys button.

Now press the command you want to use on your braille display. I've resorted to using dot 7 with various dot combinations since most dot combinations with spacebar are already taken.

There will be a warning message if that command is already assigned. You can choose to use it anyway, but just make sure you really don't want the default anymore.

Tip: assigning a custom command is even a good idea when there is already a quick-nav letter. This is because Quick-Nav doesn't' always work, and even when it does, it is extremely sluggish. For example, pressing L on a webpage or in an app may take seconds to move VoiceOver focus to the next link. Pressing a custom command on your braille display that is assigned to move to next link will move focus very quickly.