Foreign.
Here. And for today's Digital bite, I want to walk you briefly through a utility in the Voiceover utility that can help modify your experience with your Mac. So some of you know that I recently had to reset up my Mac, and as I was doing this, I realized I should be talking people through what I have learned thanks to Chanel and Herbie and several other individuals. I'm going to give Chanel and Herbie most of the credit, though, because they're like, yeah, just go here and do this and really help me. So if you don't do your voiceover utility with VOF8VOFN F8, if that doesn't work for you right away, and then press Command and the number 8 on the number row. This will take you to the commands category. And if you go to the commands category, pick what voiceover modifier you want to use. But you can also check some boxes and you have numpad. You also have option key, and you can pick which option key you want to use. Left or right option, or both option keys. You can also select the trackpad, and you can select different options for trackpad. There's quick nav. There's a lot of automation in here. And then when you pick the ones that you want to control, go to the end with VO end and you'll hear help. And you'll hear help. If you press VO left arrow, you'll hear command set, edit. Press VO space on this, and this puts you into a table if you locate the table view, because by default it's going to be in column view. I find this the easiest. So I'll choose table view. And then if I VO right arrow twice, once past the table and the second time is add, I can press VO space on this. This then adds a blank row to this T. So I interact twice myself, and then I VO right arrow once to none, pop up and I press VO space. Now, there's several options in here. I'm going to tell you what I do, but there are, as I said, trackpad, numpad, quicknav, listen for key and none. I choose typically option key. And if you press V or right arrow or enter on this, I think enter works. Yep, it does. Then you have letters, letters with shift, so capital letters, numbers, symbols, and inside of each of these, you have options. So let me show you one thing that I do. I like to use right option T to tell me the time. And I also like to use right option shift T or right option capital T to give me the seconds remaining in A minute. So if I choose the option shift submenu and scroll down to T, these are in alphabetical order. I can press enter on that and it'll say option shift t none. Interact with the table and then press VO right arrow. This will say empty cell. Press vo right arrow again and you'll hear none. Press VO space on this and this pops up a menu where you can pick general information, navigation, text, web fine table size and position, Audio braille, visual speech hotspots, 2D braille and custom command. I go down to custom commands and I pick in here there's things like Open application, Open utility, Open file. I'm going to pick Run applescript and when I pick Run applescript, I have an applescript actually that chatgpt wrote for me because chatgpt has knowledge about applescript. And so I'm going into the Script editor folder in my icloud folder. You can quickly get there by pressing Command shift I and then arrowing down to Script editor. And then I'm going down to remaining seconds in minute. And if you want this, reach out to me on Mastodon Payom P A Y O W N Dragonscave space and I'll be happy to get you this Apple script. I'm going to hit enter on this and then it says command assignment, Option shift T. Custom commands run Apple script and then it reads the name of the script. Now when I press option shift T, I get a notification that says scrod wants to access files managed by icloud drive. I'll hit allow on that. And now if I hit option shift T, I hear. So what I had to do is I actually had to open the script so it would download from the cloud because it wouldn't use the script. But now it is working. I know you didn't hear any of that, but hopefully you'll go in and poke around with the commanders that are available or commands that. Is that what it's called? What's it called? What's it called? Let me go over here. Oh, once you're done making your changes, find the done button at the bottom and then you can go and navigate the commands in the voiceover utility. Also, huge shout out to Brad. I think he was part of my understanding how to navigate commands as well. There's your digital byte for today. Have a beautiful day.
Have you ever wondered where a setting is and you just can't find it on your iPhone? Over the 15 years that I've had my iPhone, I can't believe it's been that long. Things have Gotten more complex, more layers of settings layer upon layer upon layer. And it's a good thing, but sometimes you just can't find the setting you're looking for. So a couple years ago, I became wise to the fact that there's actually a search box that you can use at the top of the Settings screen. And sometimes I forget to use it, but I'm so glad when I remember. So however long it's been there, it's awesome to have a search box. So I was going to give you an example here of a common thing that you could search for that will yield a lot of results. So you can see how this works. So when you open Settings, there is a heading that says settings. And then right next to that, if you're using voiceover and you swipe right, there's a little search box. You can type any word that you remember that might be a part of that settings name or description. So I decided that I would type the word lock just because I figured there are going to be a lot of things that have to do with locking, unlocking, and that sort of thing. So here's what I have.
Lock search field.
And then if I go ahead and double tap the search button at the bottom of the keyboard, then I get a lot of neat results. So we're going to swipe right here.
Cancel button.
We don't want to cancel.
Auto lock, display and brightness button.
Okay, so there's your auto lock, display and brightness. That's a common thing that I always do when I set up someone's iPhone is it's always on that 30 second. And who has time to do anything in 30 seconds, especially when you're swiping around. Here's another item.
Lock slash unlock Display and brightness button. Lock Sound sounds and haptics button. Enable caps lock. General right arrow keyboard button.
Okay, so who knew caps lock would come up under keyboard?
Prevent lock to end call Accessibility Right arrow touch button.
Okay, so here's a good one. So we want to prevent the phone from hanging up the call when we happen to press that lock button. And so it's under accessibility and under touch. Now, who would think that I would think something about the phone itself, but apparently it's an accessibility option. I think it should just be a general option for everyone.
Allow access when locked. Passcode button.
Okay, there's a good one.
Allow Siri when locked. Siri button.
That's a good one. So allow the S lady when locked. And there is a setting for that, and it's under the S lady's Settings.
Lockdown mode, Privacy and Security button.
So what it's telling you, it's telling this setting and then where you can find it under Privacy and Security, for.
Instance, allow Siri when locked. Apple Intelligence and Siri right arrow Allow Siri when locked button.
So this one, you would have to go to Apple Intelligence and Siri and then the settings for her in particular.
Stop sounds when locked. Accessibility right arrow Audio and visual right arrow, Background sounds button.
Okay, so when you hear the little right arrow and such, it's giving you the path name. So we have a few different layers here. We're going to have to go to Accessibility and a couple layers in to find this setting.
Notifications when locked Accessibility right arrow, Voiceover right arrow, Verbosity right arrow System notifications button.
Wow. Okay. Allow notifications when locked. This is buried in there about three or four layers. So this is why it's super handy for you to know how to search for something. Because then if you want to go right to that setting, you notice that all of these are buttons. So you can just double tap and it will take you right to that setting. You don't have to remember that path. It's just giving you the pathway to find it in the future.
Notes Apps right arrow, Notes button. Notes Apps right arrow, Notes button.
And that's the end of those settings. There are probably about 10 things in there. Who knew there were so many things having to do with locking? And so then if we go up.
To the top Auto Lock display and brighten Cancel Lock.
If we cancel cancel, then we're going to double tap cancel. And now we're back to Settings and the search box Search field is now empty. So I hope this is helpful. If you're racking your brain, you just can't find that setting. That handy search box is just awesome. And you may find things in there you didn't know about that you'd also like to adjust.
Hey, all, Marty here. Do you ever get annoyed when your phone makes a chime every time you restart it? Or maybe you would like it to make a chime every time you restart your phone so that you actually know that it's restarting. Well, I'm going to walk you through how to either turn this setting on or off. First thing you want to do is open up Settings, then go to Accessibility, Then you go to Audio and Visual. Then you go to Power on and off Sound. There you can decide whether you want to have it on, which means every time your phone reboots, it will make a chime and that's when it's turning off and turning back on. Or you can have it have no sound and then it will just restart your device in silence. So you can choose either one of these settings depending on how and what you feel your needs are. So check that out and enjoy.
Sam.