OS X Mountain Lion Pocket Guide (19 page)

This tab lets you select which microphone you want to
use by clicking the drop-down menu under the microphone picture. Note
that the microphone image changes according to the level of noise
detected by your chosen microphone—when there’s more noise, more of
the microphone image lights up.

To enable Mountain Lion’s dictation feature, click the On radio
button next to Dictation. Clicking the Shortcut pop-up menu allows you
to change the shortcut key to tell your Mac to start taking dictation.
Click the Language pop-up menu to pick which language you want to
dictate in.

The “About Dictation and Privacy...” button brings up a
pane that tells you what Apple uses to help your Mac accurately
transcribe your words and how you can restrict access to dictation.

Here’s where you control what voice your Mac speaks
with. The System Voice menu offers six standard voices, but you can
access many more if you choose Customize.... You’ll also see a slider
to control how fast the voices read selected text. Adjust the slider
and then listen to the result by clicking the Play button.

You’ll also find three checkboxes that allow you to
control when your Mac notifies you audibly. You can have your Mac
announce when alerts are displayed (see
Notifications
). Want more control over the audible
alerts? The Set Alert Options button becomes clickable once you check
the Announce box; click the button to choose the voice for alerts,
pick what phrase your Mac uses (you can even type in your own phrase),
and set a delay between when the alert appears and when you’re
notified (
Figure 5-7
). The Play
button lets you check your settings.

Figure 5-7. Creating a customized alert

You’ll also find a checkbox that will make your Mac announce
when an app needs attention (this is usually indicated by the app icon
jumping up and down in the Dock). The final checkbox gives you the
option to have your Mac speak text at a keypress. Check the box and
then, if you wish, click the Change Key button to change the default
keyboard shortcut (Option-Esc).

The last two buttons on this tab take you to other preference
panes that now handle functions that were controlled by the Speech
preference pane in earlier versions of OS X.

The Display settings include two checkboxes. The “Invert
colors” box does just what you’d expect: displays the opposite color
of what your Mac normally would. When this setting is turned on,
everything from your desktop image to your Dock icons is displayed in
the opposite colors—black turns white, green turns purple, etc. If you
want to eschew color altogether, check the “Use grayscale” box (a
great way to simulate a retro computing experience).

The Enhance Contrast slider bumps up your monitor’s
contrast, making subtle details harder to see but text easier to read.
The Cursor Size slider controls, well, the size of your
cursor.

VoiceOver is OS X’s screen-reading utility, but that
simple description doesn’t really explain how much you can do with
VoiceOver. Since VoiceOver can do so much, these settings include a
button labeled Open VoiceOver Training. Clicking that button opens a
comprehensive tutorial on how to use VoiceOver that even includes a
practice mode. Clicking Open VoiceOver Utility instead lets you
control various aspects of VoiceOver. As you might imagine, if you use
VoiceOver, you may end up creating a vast number of custom rules and
shortcuts, so you’ll be pleased to learn about the Portable
Preferences feature (which you access by clicking Open VoiceOver
Utility). If you’re going to use a different Mac, you can take all of
your custom settings with you. Simply pop in an external drive (flash
drive, etc.), and you’ll be able to save your settings and take them
along.

These settings give you two ways to magnify what’s on
your screen. You can check the box labeled “Use keyboard shortcuts to
zoom” and then use the listed shortcuts. Or you can check the box next
to “Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom” and then choose
which button you want to press when you want to magnify the screen.
For example, if you choose the Control key, then when you press
Control while swiping up on your trackpad, the screen will be
magnified (the more you swipe, the bigger everything gets). The
keyboard shortcuts and scroll gesture options are independent of each
other, so if you like you can use
both
methods to
zoom.

You’ll also find a Smooth Images option. Checking this
box will keep text and pictures smooth when you zoom the screen;
unchecking it will result in jagged edges.

You also have an option to make zooming follow your
keyboard focus
(the place where the text would
show up if you started typing). Keyboard focus is determined by
VoiceOver, and if you turn on this setting, the area where your typing
is going to appear will be magnified. If you leave this setting off,
your Mac will instead zoom based on where your cursor is.

The Zoom Style pop-up menu lets you choose between
Fullscreen (where everything gets bigger when you zoom) and
Picture-in-Picture (where a window will pop up and follow your cursor;
only the part of the screen inside that window will be
enlarged).

Clicking More Options brings up some ways to fine-tune your
zooming experience. You’ll find sliders labeled Maximum and Minimum
Zoom, a checkbox for showing a preview rectangle when the screen isn’t
zoomed, and radio buttons for controlling how the screen image moves
when you’re zoomed in.

These settings let you make your Mac’s screen flash when
there’s an alert instead of using audio alerts (quite useful when your
Mac is muted), and there’s an option to play stereo audio in
mono.

This section allows you to set your double-click speed
using a slider, and gives you a box to check if you want your Mac to
ignore its built-in trackpad when you’re using a different method of
controlling the cursor, like a USB mouse or a wireless mouse.

You’ll also find two buttons for fine-tuning your
trackpad or mouse experience. Clicking Trackpad Options gives you a
chance to set the scrolling speed and to enable or disable scrolling
with inertia via a pop up menu. If you leave scrolling with inertia
enabled, then when you flick the trackpad, whatever window you’re
viewing will continue to scroll for a bit after your finger leaves the
trackpad. If you turn this setting off, the window stops scrolling
when you stop touching the trackpad. You’ll also see a checkbox for
enabling dragging. Check this box and you can choose between two
options: with or without Drag Lock. If you enable Drag Lock, you can
click something and it will be stuck to your cursor. To drop the item
you clicked, simply click again.

If you click the Mouse Options button instead, all you get is a
slider for adjusting scrolling speed.

Those who have trouble using a mouse or a trackpad can
control their cursors with their keyboards instead by heading to this
section and turning on Enable Mouse Keys. This is also where you set
the length of time you have to hold the directional keys before your
cursor starts to move. You can specify the cursor’s maximum speed, and
the “Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse or wireless trackpad is
present” checkbox does just what it says.

Slow Keys puts a delay between when you press a key and
when your Mac acknowledges that you’ve done so. Turn this feature on
and you can adjust that delay period with the Acceptance Delay slider.
If your fingers move slowly, this feature can save a lot of unwanted
repeated keystrokes. The “Use click key sounds” checkbox tells your
Mac to make one sound when you press a key and a different sound when
that key press is accepted.

For some, pressing the various keystrokes required to
operate a Mac can be challenging. Sticky Keys solves this problem.
Instead of being forced to hit multiple keys at the same time (such as
⌘ and P to print), Sticky Keys makes your Mac interpret pressing ⌘ and
then pressing P the same as if you’d pressed them simultaneously.
You’ll also find checkboxes that allow you to turn Sticky Keys on or
off by tapping the Shift key five times, enable a beep when a modifier
key is pressed, and display the pressed keys onscreen as you press
them (these last two settings work only if Sticky Keys is
enabled).

This is where you control
speakable
items
(short verbal commands you give to your computer
like, “What time is it?”). This category has three tabs: Settings,
Listening Key, and Commands.

On the Settings tab, the Microphone menu is where you
choose which mic to use. You can select one that’s plugged into your
Mac or go with the built-in mic (assuming your Mac has one). The
Calibrate button opens a window where you can practice giving your Mac
verbal commands. Use the Upon Recognition settings to make your Mac
play a sound to acknowledge that it has received your command (you get
to choose the sound).

The Listening Key tab allows you to have the Mac listen
either only while you’re pressing the Listening Key or after you speak
a keyword. (The Change Key button lets you pick which key you press to
tell OS X to start listening.) If you decide to go with a keyword, you
can choose whether it’s optional, and whether it’s required before or
after the command. The default keyword is “computer,” but it’s
probably wiser to go with a word that you don’t say when frustrated
(as in “stupid computer!”). “Rosebud” works well; just don’t watch
Citizen Kane
while computing.

The Commands tab is where you control exactly what speakables
are allowed. In the “Select a command set” list, turn a particular set
of commands on or off by checking the box next to it (click the name
of a set to see a short explanation of what commands are included in
it). For example, you could choose Contacts in the list and then click
Configure to see a list of all your contacts. Then you could use
speakable commands to tell your Mac to open an email to one of your
contacts. Uncheck a particular contact and you won’t be able to use
speech commands to reach that person. Click the Open Speakable Items
Folder button to display, well, the Speakable Items folder. This is
where all your speakable actions are stored. You have a bevy of
choices built right in, and you can create your own using
Automator.