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Level 1

28 points

Can VoiceOver read PDFs?

Thanks to you guys I am going to attempt VoiceOver. The question that I have is this: The fonts in PDFs that I receive are too small for me to read. I now know that VoiceOver can enlarge them. However, after a few minutes of reading my eyes give up. I need VoiceOver to read the PDFs. I've tried Text to Speech, but you can't highlite text in a PDF. So please tell me that VoiceOver will read to me.

Thanks

John

iMac 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.5.8), iBook 500 G3 OS 10.4.11

Posted on Mar 29, 2010 11:02 PM

6 replies

Limnos

Level 10

410,767 points

Mar 29, 2010 11:12 PM in response to John Gorman

I just highlighted the text in part of a PDF opened in Preview using Preview's text tool. Text To Speech spoke the text. This was in Tiger but I can't imagine they would have removed that in Leopard.

Of course this depends upon the text really being text, not an image of text as might happened with a scanned document or a logo.

Mar 31, 2010 2:07 PM in response to John Gorman

Yes, VoiceOver can read PDFs, as long as they are indeed text PDFs and not just pictures of text.

Open the PDF in Preview. Set the options using the View—>PDF Display menu command. You can choose between Single Page and Single Page Continuous, depending on how you want to read.

Then navigate to the "scroll area" (VO-right arrow repeatedly), then type VO-A. If you're in Single Page mode, VoiceOver will read an entire page, then stop. To move to the next page, press Page Down (or fn-Down Arrow on a laptop), then repeat VO-A.

In Single Page Continuous mode, VO-A will read the entire document. To pause in either mode, press Ctrl on its own. To restart, press Ctrl once more.

Should your PDF turn out to be a picture of text, you can convert it by running it through an OCR program such as Abbyy FineReader Express or ReadIRIS.

HTH

Archie
(Note: VO is shorthand for Ctrl-Option)

PS: You might find it helpful to join the Mac-Access mailing list.

John Gorman Author

Level 1

28 points

Apr 1, 2010 10:54 PM in response to Archie Robertson

Thanks Archie
I am just in the very begining stages of trying to master VoiceOver. I will probley come back to you guys for more help when I hit a stone wall. I have viewed the tutorials on VO and the teacher says that I can contact someone at Apple.com/accessability but I have not been able to see that link. Any suggestions?

Thanks again

John

Apr 2, 2010 8:53 AM in response to John Gorman

Hello again, John,

I'm afraid the reason you can't find the page is because you've misspelt it… SORRY!

The page is at http://www.apple.com/accessibility/

(note, double-s i b, not double-s a b).

However, while human help can be found that way, it's really an online resource centre, providing downloadable manuals etc.

You can also get started by using the VoiceOver tutorial, which is available via the command VO-Cmd-F8. It's fully voiced and in large black print on white, so it's pretty easy to get through.

But I strongly recommend that you consider upgrading to Snow Leopard. VoiceOver probably changed more than any other component of OS X in the switch from Leopard to Snow, and the new facilities provided are greatly improved.

Good luck with it!

Archie

John Gorman Author

Level 1

28 points

Apr 9, 2010 9:25 PM in response to Archie Robertson

Archie:

After watching the tutorials on the Accessibility Page, the Project Mgr. says that I can get help at "acessibility@aple.com". The only problem is that that address is returned by the mailman. Any ideas why?

John

Limnos

Level 10

410,767 points

Apr 9, 2010 9:46 PM in response to John Gorman

Any ideas why?

Apart from the two misspellings in the email address you quote?

accessibility@apple.com

Did you try text to speech again? I got it to work.

Can VoiceOver read PDFs?