VoiceoverEasy.net courses are tutorials geared toward blind and visually impaired users of iPhones and iPads with Siri capability, and who use Apple Corporation's accessibility technology called Voiceover to read the screen of their device.

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Unit 1: Lesson 2, Working with Applications and Lists.

For iOS7,8, 9, and 10.

SECTION 1: Introduction.

In order to display customized text to meet your needs VoiceoverEasy.net needs to know if you want to learn about iPhones or iPads.


DeviceNumber = -1
DeviceType = iOS Device

This part of the course expands on the VoiceOver navigational gestures begun in Part 1, and introduces new gestures to launch applications. We’ll also do some basic text entry. At the end of this lesson you should know:

SECTION 2: Terms You Should Know.

2.1: Apps.

Apps, short for applications, are computer programs which run on your iOS Device. Apps do everything from helping you make or receive a phone call, to checking on the weather, writing notes and documents, playing and organizing music and movies, managing your contacts and calendars, providing GPS instructions, playing games, tuning your guitar, reading books, and about a million other things. You download and purchase Apps from the Apps or iTunes Store. When you download an App, an icon for that app is placed in your Home Page grid.

All apps are really computer programs that your iOS Device can run. Running a program, launching an app, and starting an app are all different ways of saying the same thing. You launch an app by "activating" it’s icon. Once an app is launched, it remains active until you close it. More about this later.

SECTION 3: Activating an Item.

There are two types of items in the Home Screen grid and the Dock that you can activate. They are icons, which launch applications, and folders, which can contain application icons and other folders. Activating a folder item does not actually launch an application. Instead it "Opens" the folder and displays its contents. The icons in the Status Bar simply report on the conditions of your device. They can be Explored, but not activated.

3.1: More on the Single Finger Double Tap.

This is the most common way to activate an item. Tapping twice with one finger anywhere on the screen will activate the Current Item. Remember, the Current Item is the last item spoken by VoiceOver. You cannot pause too long between the taps, or VoiceOver will interpret them as two separate Explore or Touch gestures.

NOTE: To find out how quickly you need to double tap, use the VoiceOver Help gesture, a four finger double tap, that you learned in Lesson 1, Section 8.3: Voiceover Help Mode. When help begins, start tapping the screen twice slowly with one finger. Wait for VoiceOver to announce the gesture you made. Gradually make each pair of taps faster until VoiceOver says, “double tap," and then press the Home Screen button to exit VoiceOver help and return to the Home Screen grid.

3.2: The Split Tap Gesture.

This gesture has the same function as the Single Finger Double Tap. It is a much less common way to activate an item, but you should be aware of it. This is because people who are unaware of this gesture often make it by mistake and wonder what happened when their device unexpectedly launches an application or opens a folder. There are two steps to perform the Split Tap.

  1. Use the Explore gesture to find the icon or folder you wish to activate. This will make it the current item.
  2. While holding your finger down on the item, tap anywhere on the display with a second finger.

Sometimes when users are exploring the display with one finger they inadvertently touch it with a second finger and execute the Split Tap gesture. So be careful of this.

3.3: The Activate Gesture

From now on the term "Activate" will be used to tell you to either execute the Single Finger Double Tap gesture, or the Split Tap gesture. You can use whichever one you like best, but mix them up a little to get experience with both.

Let’s give it a try. Use the Explore gesture, or the Next and Previous item gesture until you find the Reminders icon. Then use one of the Activate gestures to launch the Reminders application. When you do, your iOS Device will chirp to indicate the app has been launched. Take a minute to Explore the Reminders screen.

3.4: Getting back to the Home Screen.

As you explore the Reminders screen you may notice that there’s no button for closing the application. So how do you get back to the Home Screen? Actually, you’ve done it before when you exited the app for VoiceOver help. Just press the Home Button one time. Your device will chirp. VoiceOver will say “Home, and the Home Screen grid is back

Now that we’re back on the home screen, let’s find the Notes app and launch it with the Activate Gesture. After exploring the screen, press the Home Button once to return to the Home Screen.

Try this with the Music app, and the app for messages.

SECTION 4: Switching Between Active apps.

If you followed the steps in the previous section, you opened four apps; Reminders, Notes, Music and Messages. Each time you returned to the Home Screen we left the app active, but running in the background. The big advantage to this is that each app remembers where you were when you switched it to the background, and it will go back to that point when you bring it to the foreground again. You do this with the App Switcher. The app switcher allows you to switch between all running applications, and to close them when you are done.

4.1: Activating the App Switcher.

You can activate the App Switcher at any time by pressing the Home Button twice at about the same speed you use for a One Finger Double Tap. Your iOS Device will chirp, and VoiceOver will say, "App Switcher."

The App switcher displays all running apps and has an icon to return to the Home Screen. You can use several techniques to determine what apps are running. You can use the Explore gesture to look around. You can use the Read Top Down gesture to announce all the running apps, or you can use the Next and Previous Item gestures to hear each item individually. Once you find the app you want, you can do one of two things. You can switch the app to the foreground again with the Activate gesture, or you can close the app.

4.2: Why Close Apps?.

Your iOS Device has a limited amount of memory for running applications. As an analogy try imagining that inside your iOS Device is a workshop with an empty work bench and shelves along the back wall. The shelves have objects representing your applications. There might be a rolodex on the shelf for the Contacts app, a weather station for the weather app, a bunch of post-it pads for Reminders, and calendars, alarm clocks and radios for their respective apps as well. A worker stands between the empty work bench and the shelves waiting for you to tell him what you want him to do. You activate the Weather app, so he runs to the shelf and gets the weather station. He brings it to the bench, and reads you what it says. Then you want to check your calendar for today’s appointments. He runs back and lays the calendar on the workbench as well. Now you start listening to music. He runs back and puts a stereo on the workbench. You check your mail. He brings a pile of messages and puts them on the bench. Finally, you check your stocks. So he brings out the stock ticker. By now the workbench is looking pretty cluttered. If you decide to record a voice memo, the worker will go get the tape recorder, but will have to shuffle some things around on the work bench to make room for it. Shuffling apps around like this is inefficient and can slow down your iOS Device.

When you close an app, you remove it from the work bench and put it back on the shelf. This frees up space for new applications. You can always put the app back in working memory by activating the icon from the home screen when you need it.

How many apps can working memory hold? That’s a tough question. There are many factors which affect that answer. How often should you close apps you aren’t using? Again there’s no correct answer. Check the app switcher at least twice a week or when you feel your device is slowing down.

4.3: Returning to the app where you left It.

If you wish to return to working in an app, then make the icon for that app the Current item in the app switcher, and use the Activate gesture, Single Finger Double Tap, to bring that app to the foreground again. The Split Tap gesture does not work inside the app switcher.

4.4: Closing an App.

If you’re done working with an app and you want to close it, make it the current item. Then flick up from the bottom of the screen with three fingers. This will close the app and remove it from the app switcher.

4.5: Exiting the App Switcher.

We have already discussed one way to leave the App Switcher. Simply use the Activate gesture, a single finger double tap, on the icon for the app you wish to jump to.

You can also exit the App Switcher by pressing the Home button, or by using the two-finger Z scrub. If you didn't close the app you were in when you entered the App Switcher, then you will return to that application. If the application is no longer open, then you will be returned to the Home Screen.

4.6: Quick App Switcher Review.

  1. You can activate the App Switcher at any time by pressing the Home Button Twice.
  2. The App Switcher shows all apps that are loaded into working memory.
  3. You can use the Explore, Next Item, Previous Item, and Read Top Down gestures to determine what items are in the App Switcher and to make an item the Current Item.
  4. You can return to the app that corresponds to the Current Item at the point you left it by activating it with a Single Finger Double Tap gesture.
  5. You can close the app for the Current Item by flicking up from the bottom of the screen with three fingers. The Three Finger Flick Up only closes apps from the App Switcher screen. It has a different meaning on other screens.
  6. The App Switcher screen is the only place where you can close applications. The advantage to closing a program using the app switcher is that it frees up memory for your device to do other things. The drawback is that you have to start from the apps opening screen the next time you use it.
  7. The advantage to keeping an app open is that when you return to it, you will go right back to the screen you were on when you left it. If the app has a lot of screens, or if you were interrupted and didn’t finish your work, this is helpful. The drawback is that if you do this with a lot of apps, your device’s performance could degrade.
  8. You can return to the Home Screen grid from the App Switcher by setting the “Home" item as the Current Item and then doing a Single Finger Double Tap.
  9. If the app you were in is still open, Pressing the Home button or doing a 2 finger Z scrub will return you to that application. Otherwise, you will be taken to the Home Screen.

4.7: The Next and Previous App Gestures.

There are two gestures available on your iPhone. They are the four finger flick left, Previous App, and four finger flick right, Next App gestures. They will rotate through the apps that you have open. If you make the gesture correctly, your iOS Device will chirp and announce the name of the app being switched to. If you hear the Thunk sound, or seem to be remaining on the same app, try flicking in the opposite direction. This gesture is difficult to do on dev ices with small screens. You may find it easier to just use the App Switcher.

This gesture is not available from the Home Screen, and it cannot take you to the Home Screen either.

If you closed the Apps which were open at the end of Section 3; Reminders, Notes, Music, and Messages, open them again. Once they are open, try flipping between them using the Next and Previous App gestures. When you are finished, go to the App Switcher and close all the open apps.

4.8: Putting it all Together.

  1. Launch the App Switcher.
  2. If there are any apps open or launched, make each one the Current Item, and use the Three Finger Flick Up to close it. Do this for all open applications.
  3. Return to the Home Screen and open the Settings App. The App opens to the Settings main menu. At the top of the menu is a Heading which reads, "Settings."
  4. Use the Explore gesture to find the “General" button.
  5. Now activate it. Take a minute to explore the screen. You’ll see it’s different from the screen when you first launched the app.
  6. Find and press the Accessibility button. The heading at the top of the screen will now say, "Accessibility."
  7. Press the Home button to return to the Home Screen.
  8. Activate the Safari app.
  9. Return to the Home Screen again and use the Split Tap gesture to activate the Reminders app.
  10. Go to the App Switcher and close all the apps except the Settings app.
  11. Activate the Settings app from the App Switcher. Explore the screen. Notice that you are back to the Accessibility menu, exactly where you were when you left the app. There was no need to drill down through the menus again.
  12. Go to the Home Screen and activate the settings icon again. Notice you still go back to the same screen within the Settings app.
  13. Go to the App Switcher and close the Settings app.
  14. Go to the Home Screen again and launch the settings app again. This time You’ll start at the main screen.

In this exercise we demonstrated how to use the App Switcher to close apps. We also demonstrated the difference between leaving the App open and coming back to it as opposed to closing it. Leaving the App open can save you time when you return to it. Closing the App frees up memory. Which technique is best depends on whether saving memory or work is more important at that particular moment.

SECTION 5: Navigating Through Lists.

Sometimes when you launch an app, the app displays a list of items that scrolls off the bottom of the display. You might notice this if you have a lot of contacts, or if you have a lot of messages in your inbox. When this happens, you need a way to scroll up and down through these lists.

Let’s take a look at the Settings application. Use one of the two Activate gestures discussed earlier to launch it from the Home Screen. Now use the Explore gesture starting at the top of the screen near the left side and let’s see what VoiceOver tells you.

  1. Use the Explore gesture at the top of the Settings Main Menu just below the status bar. Slowly move down. VoiceOver says, "Settings, heading," to indicate that your finger is passing over a group heading called Settings. Headings are text labels that appear on the display. You cannot activate labels or do anything else, but read them.
  2. Now Explore down just a little farther. VoiceOver says, "Search Field, Double Tap to Edit. A search field allows you to view only the items in a list which match the full or partial keywords you enter. More about Search Fields in Section 6.
  3. VoiceOver now says, "Airplane Mode," followed by the word On or Off. It most likely says Off. Airplane mode isolates your iOS Device by preventing it from sending or receiving any electronic signals. This prevents expending the battery looking for cellular or wireless signals in an area where there are none. Normally Airplane Mode should be Off to allow your device to send and receive signals.
  4. Explore down a little further. VoiceOver begins by saying, “WiFi," followed by the name of a wireless network, if you are connected to one. VoiceOver then ends with the word “Button."

5.1: Icons verses Buttons.

Icons and buttons are similar in that you press a button or activate an icon by using one of the two Activate gestures discussed earlier. There are some differences in the way they look, but the main difference is that Icons launch apps, while buttons take you to other screens within the app you found them in, or they perform an action like turning something on and off.

You can only get down to the first 10 to 15 items with the Explore gesture. So how do you get to the rest of the items in the list? You could use the Next Item gesture to scroll through the list one at a time, but there’s a faster way.

5.2: Three Finger Flick Up and Three Finger Flip Down.

When the screen inside an app is too long to fit vertically on the display, you can use these gestures to move the display up or down by one screen. Try the Three Finger Flick up gesture. VoiceOver will announce something like “Rows 8 to 20 of x" to indicate which rows of the application screen are currently displayed. You can now quickly scan the new buttons with the Explore gesture to see if the one you’re looking for is there. Try the Three Finger Flick Up gesture again. VoiceOver will announce the row numbers of the next set of buttons. To reverse directions use the Three Finger Flick Down. For brevity the Three Finger Flick up will be referred to as the Next Screen gesture and the Three Finger Flick Down as the Previous Screen gesture.

Try the different ways of moving around the Settings screen until you find the combination that works best for you. They are:

  1. Read Top Down gesture followed by the Pause/Play gesture when VoiceOver announces the item you want.
  2. Use the Next and Previous Item gestures.
  3. Use the Next and Previous screen gestures in combination with the Explore gesture.

See if you can find the "Twitter" button using these methods. We’re not going to activate it now. Just see if you can make it the Current Item. You’ve probably noticed by now that the items in the list are not in an easily identifiable order. So you have to scan every item to find the one you want. Don’t lose heart. There’s a way to solve this problem.

5.3: Two Finger Triple Tap.

When you are confronted by a long list of items seemingly in a random order, you can use this gesture to activate the Item Chooser. The Item Chooser will sort the list alphabetically. This makes finding things a lot easier. There’s even a search option at the top of the Item Chooser, but we’ll come back to that option later.

If you activate the Item Chooser, and decide you want to cancel it without selecting anything, you can cancel it by exploring to either side from any of its items . You will find a narrow band where VoiceOver will say, "Double Tap to Dismiss Item Chooser." Once VoiceOver says this, you can double tap anywhere on the screen to cancel.

From the Settings Screen try activating the Item Chooser. Once the list is displayed, you can use the same ways to move through the list that we just discussed. Try to find the “Twitter" item from the Item Chooser. It’s much easier when the list is alphabetized.

When you find the item you were looking for, use an Activate gesture. The Item Chooser will return you to the screen you were on when you invoked it. The item you selected from the item chooser will now be the Current Item .

The Item Chooser will also work from the Home Screen. If the Current Item is in the Status Bar, the Item Chooser will sort the Status Bar items alphabetically. If the Current Item is in the Home Screen grid or Dock, then the Item Chooser will combine all the items on the current page of the Home Screen and those in the Dock area into a single alphabetically sorted list.

From now on we’ll call the Two Finger Triple Tap the "Item Chooser" gesture.

5.4: The "Jump to Top" Gesture.

Suppose you are down near the bottom of a very long list of items and you need to get back to the top. You could repeatedly use the Previous Screen gesture, but that may take a while depending on how many screens long the list of items is. However, there is a faster way. It's a combination of two gestures, an Explore gesture in the Status Bar followed by a Single Finger Double Tap. We'll call this combination the "Jump to Top" gesture.

  1. Use the Explore gesture near the top of the screen until VoiceOver reads one of the Status Bar icons. Any one will do.
  2. Then quickly do a Single Finger Double Tap anywhere on the display. Your iOS Device displays the first screen of the list, and sets the current item to the first item.

Let's give it a try.

  1. If it isn't already open, please launch the Settings app.
  2. Make the Airplane Mode button the Current Item.
  3. Keep using the Next Screen gesture until you hear the Thunk Sound. This means you are now at the bottom of the list of settings options.
  4. Explore until one of the Status Bar icons becomes the current item, and quickly do a Single Finger Double Tap.

SECTION 6: Typing with VoiceOver.

let's launch an app from the Home Screen that allows you to enter text. The easiest one to use for this purpose is the Notes app.

  1. If you are not already there, go to the Home Screen by pressing the Home button.
  2. Find the Notes icon. Remember, you can use the Item Chooser gesture to sort all the icons alphabetically.
  3. Launch the Notes app by activating the icon.

NOTE: iOS 9 and 10 have added a "Welcome to Notes" series of screens which appears the first time you activate the Notes App after the iOS is installed. The screens briefly tell you about all the new features in Notes. At the bottom of each screen is a "Continue" button. Please activate these buttons to bypass these screens. When asked to upgrade notes, choose the "Not Now" option.

6.1: The Notes App.

The Notes App has two screens. The "Notes Content" screen shows the contents of an individual note. The "Notes List" Screen lists all the notes you have created.

If you've never used the Notes app before, Your iOS Device will open the Notes app to the Notes List Screen. Use the Read Top Down gesture to hear all the items on the screen. When VoiceOver finishes speaking, Explore until you Find the "New" or "Compose" button. Make it the Current Item, then press or activate it. You will be taken to the Notes Content Screen with a blank note displayed.

If you have used the Notes App previously, then the app opens to the screen it was on when you last used it. You will have a "new Note," or "Compose" button at the top right or bottom right of the screen. Press it to go to the Notes Content Screen and display a blank note.

The Notes Content Screen.

Now that you've had a look around, Explore the Notes Content Screen again until you find the Notes Text Field. When you do, listen to what VoiceOver has to say. It will announce, "Notes, Text Field, Is editing," and then provide some information about the text font or note style. Let's examine the first part of this statement and figure out what VoiceOver is trying to tell us.

  1. Note: This is the name of the Current Item.
  2. Text Field: This is the type of item that it is. Text Fields are items where you can enter text like typing in the blanks on a form. We have talked about several different item types now. They are icons, folders, buttons, Labels, headings and text fields. Formatted text fields can support special text like bold, italicized and underlined. Some can even hold pictures or videos like a web page or Email message. Unformatted fields support only plain upper and lower case letters as well as numbers, signs and punctuation. Beginning with iOS 8, the Notes app uses a formatted text field. We'll worry about changing formatting in a later lesson.
  3. Is Editing: This tells you that when you start typing, what you type will be entered into this field. This is important to listen for on screens with multiple text field items. If you don't hear this on the field you want to type into, you need to use the Activate gesture to start editing mode on that field.

Autocorrect and the Typing Predictor.

The Autocorrect feature suggests completions and corrections for the word you are typing. The Typing Predictor tries to anticipate the word you are about to type, or suggest completions for the word you are in the middle of typing. You can choose one of these selections by Activating it and the entire word is typed for you.

When the Notes Text Field is activated for editing, the Typing Predictor will be Centered below it. On smaller displays the Typing Predictor stretches all the way across the display. On larger displays there is some room to either side. If you are looking for the Typing Predictor, it's best to explore down from the horizontal center of the field you are editing.

Both of these features often get in the way of new Voiceover users and can often be confusing. VoiceoverEasy.net recommends that you turn these features off until you are more comfortable with typing. To turn them off you must go to the Keyboard Options Screen in the Settings app and follow these steps.

Finding the Keyboard Options Screen.

  1. Openthe Settings App from the Home Screen.
  2. Use the Explore gestureor the Next and Previous Item gesturesuntil you find the "General" button in the Settings main menu. Then Activate it.
  3. NOTE: The buttons are not listed alphabetically. If you can't find one or more of the buttons, you can invoke the Item Chooser with the Item Chooser gesture and find it in the alphabetical list. Then use the Select gesture to choose an item and exit the Item Chooser. You will be returned to the settings menu and the button you selected will be the current item. Then use the Activate gesture.

  4. Use the Explore gesture or the Next and Previous Item gestures until you find the "Keyboard" button. Then Activate it.


Autocorrect monitors you as you are typing and tries to suggest a word as soon as you type a character that it thinks doesn't belong. For example, let's say you're typing the word, "Treasure," and you type T, r, e, a, z. you will hear a warning tone, and Autocorrect suggests the word it thinks you meant. In this case it suggests, "Treat," which is not what you meant. It would be most unfortunate if you wrote your book report on, "Treat Island," by Robert Louis Stevenson.

The Autocorrection button toggles this setting on and off. When this setting is on, and your iOS Device doesn't recognize a word you are typing, it will suggest a replacement. You will hear two brief tones to let you know there is a problem, but accessing the rest of the functionality of Auto-Correct is difficult. VoiceoverEasy.net recommends that you turn this function off.

Typing Predictor.

Pressing the "Predictive" button toggles the setting between On and Off. This setting is On by default. When this setting is on, typing predictions appear just above the soft keyboard. VoiceoverEasy.net recommends that this feature be turned off until you are very comfortable with typing on the soft keyboard.

Returning to the Notes App.

Once you have the settings the way you want them, you can return to the Notes App by activating the App Switcher. Find the Notes icon, then activate it.

You can also try the Next and Previous App gestures to switch back to the Notes App without invoking the App Switcher. If one gesture doesn't work, try the other.

6.2: The Soft Keyboard.

If you continue to explore further down the Note Content Screen, VoiceOver will begin to announce capital letters. This is because your iOS Device is waiting for you to enter text into the Notes field. So it has provided you with a typewriter keyboard at the bottom of the display. Since you will be typing the first letter of a sentence, it's automatically capitalized for you.


DeviceNumber = -1
DeviceType = iOS Device

You may have noticed the number and punctuation keys are missing. You use the "More Numbers" key at the bottom left of the keyboard to access numbers and special characters. A row of numbers appears at the top just like the number row on top of a computer keyboard, and the letters are replaced by several rows of punctuation characters and other special symbols like hyphens, slashes and parenthesis. The "More Numbers" key will change to the "More Letters" key. Press the "More Letters" key to return to the letter keyboard.

There is a Delete key beneath the letter “L, and a Dictate key to the left of the spacebar which allows you to dictate instead of typing. We’ll discuss these special keys later.

Selecting alternate keyboards.

There is a key to the left of the Dictate key to select alternate keyboards. This can be handy if you need to type in multiple languages. In the United States there are two keyboards listed by default that can be alternated between using this key. The first is the standard U.S. English typing keyboard. The second is a keyboard of graphics called Emoji, spelled E, m, o, j, i. The word emoji means “picture letter” in Japanese. This is somewhat like the ancient Hieroglyphics. Rather than using words, pictures are used to convey ideas, feelings, locations, and so on. Apple has put descriptive text with each image in the Emoji keyboard, and the images are broken into categories, which can be accessed by using buttons at the bottom of the keyboard.

6.3: Standard Typing Mode.

By default your device is set up in Standard Typing Mode. If you have changed this , please change it back for this exercise. In Standard Typing Mode you use the Explore gesture to find the button for the letter or key you want, and then use the Activate gesture to press it. Let’s type the phrase "My first note" and see what happens. Don’t worry about mistakes. You can clean them up in Lesson 3.

  1. Press the "New Note" or "Compose" button to start a new note.
  2. Explore until VoiceOver says "Cap M."
  3. Now type the letter with a Single Finger Double Tap.
  4. Find the letter "Y" by Exploring the keyboard . Notice that VoiceOver has stopped saying, "Cap," before each letter. This means the next letter you type will be lower case.
  5. Use the Single Finger Double Tap to type the letter "Y."
  6. Now do the same thing with the spacebar. Notice that when you complete a word, VoiceOver speaks the word you just typed.
  7. Some people find it hard to type with the Single Finger Double Tap gesture, because their finger doesn’t always come down on the same place both times, or they don’t double tap fast enough. This is especially true if you are trying to type while traveling in a car or train. So let’s type the word, “first," using the Split Tap gesture.

  8. Explore until you find the letter, "f," but DO NOT lift your finger.
  9. while keeping your first finger on the "F," tap anywhere on the display with another finger. The letter "f" should be typed.
  10. TIP: You can do the Split Tap gesture with one finger from each hand. In this case you could use one finger from your dominant hand to find the letters on the soft keyboard, and tap with a finger from the second hand, like your thumb, to complete the gesture.

  11. Try the same techniques with the letters I, r, s, and t.
  12. Now use the Split Tap to type a space. VoiceOver should speak the word, “first."
  13. Now type the word "note" using either the Double Tap or Split Tap method, but DO NOT type a blank space. After all, this is the end of a sentence, and it deserves a nice period at the end.
  14. Activate the "more numbers" key and explore the keyboard again. The top row is now numbers, the middle two rows now have other punctuation, and the bottom row has the keys we are used to, like the Next Keyboard, Dictate, SPACEBAR, and RETURN keys. The period key is near the left side of the row just above the SPACEBAR.
  15. Explore until you find the period key and Activate it.
  16. Now Activate the "more letters" key to switch back to the letters keyboard.
  17. Activate the "Notes" or "Done" button. You will be returned to the Notes List main screen, and there is now one note in the list.

Congratulations, you are done!

Food for thought.: The soft keyboard is really nothing but an item grid just like the Home Screen. It’s items are buttons that type letters instead of icons that launch applications. In Standard Typing mode you activate the letter buttons the same way you activate icons. You can also use gestures like Explore, Next Item, Previous Item and even activate the Item Chooser to help you find what you want.

Section 7: Review.

7.1: Different Types of Items.

Let’s review the different item Types that are displayed on the screen and have been discussed in this lesson.

Table of Item Types.
Item Type. Description/Function.
Labels. Labels are blocks of descriptive text that appear on screen. You can read them, but they are inactive. In other words they don’t do anything if you attempt to activate them.
Headings. These labels appear larger and bolder than other labels. They usually indicate a relationship between the items below them. You can read a heading, but you can’t do anything else with it.
Icons. These items are small pictures which remind the user of the program which will launch when the icon is activated. Voiceover announces the name of the associated program when the icon becomes the current item.
Folders These items can contain icons and other folders. VoiceOver says, “Folder" at the end of the item’s name.
Buttons These are items found inside an application that use the Activation gestures just like icons. They normally open a sub screen from within an application, or toggle settings on and off. However, buttons can also open new applications, type letters or numbers, or start some function of an application, such as telling the Maps application to get driving directions.
Text Fields These are items that allow you to enter some type of text like a name, telephone number, email or comment. VoiceOver will announce the items name followed by "text field" as the type, and then say, “is editing," to indicate that’s where the next character will be typed. When a text field is being edited, a numeric or typewriter keyboard will appear at the bottom of the display. Formatted text fields can support special text like bold, italicized and underlined. Some can even hold pictures or videos like a web page or Email message. Unformatted fields support only plain upper and lower case letters as well as numbers, signs and punctuation.

7.2: New Gestures.

Table of New Gestures.
Gesture Name. Motion. Function.
Activate. Single Finger Double Tap, or Split Tap, Activates an Icon, presses a button, or puts a Text Field into edit mode.
Close App. Three finger flick up. This gesture is only available from the app switcher. It closes the app represented by the Current Item.
Next Screen. Three Finger Flick Up. Advances vertically one screen. This works everywhere but the Home Screen and the app switcher screen. You will hear the "Thunk" sound, if there’s no screen left to advance to.
Previous Screen. Three Finger Flick Down. This moves vertically to the previous screen, if one exists.
Jump to Top. Explore then Single Finger Double Tap. This gesture jumps to the top of a long list. While the list is displayed, make an icon in the Status Bar the Current Item and quickly Single Finger Double Tap anywhere on the display.
Next App. Four finger flick Left. Switches to the next open app, if multiple apps are open. Does not work from the Home Screen or the App Switcher. You must be in an app.
Previous App. Four finger flick right. Switches to the previous app, if multiple apps are open. Does not work from the Home Screen or App Switcher. You must be inside an App.
Item Chooser. Two Finger Triple Tap. Activates the Item Chooser which sorts items in a list into alphabetical order.

SECTION 8: Exercises.

  1. Launch the Settings app and make the Bluetooth Button the Current Item in the Settings main menu. Use the Where Am I gesture to determine how many rows are in the Settings screen list. How many rows are there?
  2. Use the Next Screen gesture and listen to VoiceOver. What are the numbers of the first and last rows now displayed.
  3. Find and Activate the FaceTime button from the Settings main menu.
  4. What is the text of the first heading on the new screen?
  5. How do you return to the main menu of the Settings Application?
  6. Where is the place most "Back" Buttons are located?
  7. Go to the App Switcher screen and close all open applications.
  8. Why is it sometimes necessary to close apps?
  9. Do you have another page to your Home Screen grid after the starting page? If so, name at least two apps that are on it.
  10. How can you view all the items on the current page of the Home Screen plus all the items in the Dock in a single alphabetized list?
  11. What is airplane Mode?
  12. What are the two screens of the Notes Application?
  13. What must you do before you can start typing in a Text Field?
  14. When the soft keyboard is first displayed, there are no numbers or punctuation marks. How do you get them to appear?

Click here for answers to Lesson 2 SECTION 8

This is the end of Part 2 of VoiceOver Basics. In this lesson you learned quite a few new gestures, and how to navigate long lists and find items in the lists. You also did some simple text entry. Lesson 3 will cover a VoiceOver device called the Rotor, and use it to change typing modes and help us to edit text.

Before you go on to the next lesson, would you like to take the optional survey for this lesson?

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