Customize punctuation in VoiceOver on Mac
You can change how much punctuation you hear when VoiceOver reads text, and customize what you hear. For example, you can have VoiceOver read “star” instead of “asterisk.”
Note: VO represents the VoiceOver modifier. See Use the VoiceOver modifier.
Change how much punctuation to hear
Open VoiceOver Utility (press VO-Fn-F8 when VoiceOver is on), click the Verbosity category, then click Text.
Click the Punctuation pop-up menu, then choose how much punctuation you want to hear, or create a custom punctuation group.
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.
Customize: 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 custom punctuation group to use when you type code.
Create a custom punctuation group
Open VoiceOver Utility (press VO-Fn-F8 when VoiceOver is on), click the Verbosity category, then click Text.
In the Punctuation pop-up menu, click Customize.
Click the Add button
below the list of groups to add a punctuation group, then choose to base your custom group on All, Some, or None.Your custom group will inherit and include the punctuation entries from All, Some, or None.
Type a name for your custom group.
If you change your mind and want to remove a group you created, select it in the list of groups, then click the Remove button
to remove the punctuation group.Below the list of inherited entries, click the Add button
to add a punctuation entry to your custom group, then specify the following items for the new entry:A punctuation symbol: Double-click the field, then type the symbol. For example, if you want to change how VoiceOver reads asterisks, type the * (asterisk) symbol.
An action: Click the action pop-up menu, then choose Ignore, Replace, or Remove. For example, if you want VoiceOver to read “star” instead of “asterisk,” choose Replace.
Tip: Depending on the language and voice you’re using in VoiceOver, some punctuation that you chose to ignore may still be read by VoiceOver. If this is bothersome, change the action to Remove.
A replacement: Double-click the field, then type what you want VoiceOver to read. For example, if you want VoiceOver to read “star” instead of “asterisk,” enter “star.”
If you change your mind and want to remove an entry you created, select it in the list of custom entries, then click the Remove button
to remove the punctuation entry.When you’re ready, click Done.
Use a custom punctuation group
You can use the Verbosity rotor to easily switch between the standard levels of punctuation—All, Some, or None—and custom punctuation groups you create.
Press VO-V.
Press the Left Arrow or Right Arrow key until you hear “punctuation” and the current setting.
Press the Up Arrow or Down Arrow key until you hear the name of the custom punctuation group you want to use, then press the Space bar to select it.
To close the Verbosity rotor, press the Escape key or Fn-Tab.
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