Text, Verbosity category, VoiceOver Utility on Mac
Use the Text pane of the Verbosity category in VoiceOver Utility to customise the amount of punctuation, text, and text attributes you hear, among other options.
To open VoiceOver Utility, press Command-F5 to turn VoiceOver on, then press VO-Fn-F8.
Note: VO represents the VoiceOver modifier. See Use the VoiceOver modifier.
Option | Description |
|---|---|
Punctuation | Choose how much punctuation you want to hear: All: Hear all special symbols and punctuation except for spaces. VoiceOver reads a sentence like this: “She turned and stopped comma then started walking again period”. Some: Hear keyboard symbols and many math symbols, such as + (plus sign). None: Hear text as you would normally read it, with pauses for commas and periods. Customise: Create a custom punctuation group to use as needed. For example, if you don’t want to hear question and exclamation marks when typing emails, but do want to hear them when typing programming code, you can create a customised punctuation group to use when you type code. See Customise punctuation. |
Repeated punctuation | Choose how you want to hear repeated punctuation: always, with a count, or a specific number of times. |
Repeated spaces | Hear repeated spaces as a count or sound effect, or choose not to hear repeated spaces. |
Line Indentation | Hear leading whitespace spoken as the number of spaces and tabs, or as the level of indentation (spoken or sounded). Choose Customise Level to set the default number of spaces per indent. Note: In some apps, such as Xcode, the level of indentation may be inferred from context and may not match your VoiceOver Utility customisation. |
While typing speak | Choose what you want to hear while typing (called the typing echo): Characters, Words, Characters and Words, or Nothing. |
When moving the cursor | Choose how you want to hear text when moving the VoiceOver cursor: “Speak text the cursor passes” or “Speak text to the right of the cursor”. |
When text attributes change | Choose how you want to hear changes in text attributes: Do Nothing, Play Tone, or Speak Attributes. |
When encountering a misspelled word | Choose how you want to hear misspelt words: Do Nothing: Hear the word. Play Tone: Hear a sound effect. Speak Attributes: Hear “misspelled,” then the word. Change Pitch: Lower the pitch. |
When encountering a link/attachment | Choose how you want to hear links and attachments: Speak: Hear “link,” then the link text, or “embedded,” then the attachment name. Change Pitch: Hear the link text or attachment name in a different voice pitch. Play Tone: Hear a sound effect. Do Nothing: Hear the link text or attachment name. |
Read numbers as | Choose how you want to hear numbers: Words or Digits. |
When reading a capital letter | Choose how you want to hear upper case letters or words that start with upper case letters, depending on your settings for typing echo: Change Pitch: Hear the letter or word in a different voice pitch than lowercase text. Play Tone: Hear a sound effect. Speak Cap: Hear “cap,” then the letter or word. Do Nothing: Hear the letter or word. |
When deleting text | Choose how you want to hear text that you’re deleting: Change Pitch: Hear the text you’re deleting in a different voice pitch than other text. Play Tone: Hear a sound effect. Speak: Hear “deleting,” then the text you’re deleting. Do Nothing: Hear the text you’re deleting. |
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