VoiceOver Navigation Tips for JW Library

Sorry, this article is still kind of a rough draft. The information is correct, but might be badly formatted and sloppily worded.

Reading Scriptures

There is a way to read scriptures in JW Library with VoiceOver without the clutter, but it requires advanced VO setup 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 is to read Previous Item with Plain Text, which is way too hard to press. It is 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. I can use it because I have a custom 8-key MacroPad and I have assigned a key to Control-OptionCommand-P. VoiceOver iOS keyboard commands can also be touchy. If I don't release the P before the modifier keys it tends not to work.

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. It is also found in VoiceOver settings > Commands > All Commands > Text Navigation. All the same possibilities and caveats apply. Bold text is also used in many other places to mark important things. Sometimes they are also headings, but other times they are not.

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. http://curiousnetentity.com/iOS%20Tutorials/custom%20punctuation/ Unfortunately, that doesn't fix reading them in Braille.

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. On a braille device Space with dot 5 might be the command for moving to next container. Space with dot 2 would then be move to previous container.

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 will only move by headings within the current container. That means that when focus is on the Back Button Voiceover won't 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 right to the first heading of an article right from the top of the screen. Benefit 2: moving by headings with the Voiceover Rotor is not possible 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 H on a webpage or in an app may take seconds to move VoiceOver focus to the next heading. Pressing a custom command on your braille display that is assigned to move to next heading will move focus very quickly.