The Home Tab
This is the tab that is selected when JW Library is first opened. At the top of the screen just below the status bar you will find "Home, heading."
Next is a "History" button. This can be used to find items that you recently opened.
The History button in the top bar of JW Library is not context sensitive. That means that it will show a list of the items you have recently had open. It doesn't matter whether they were opened in the current Library tab, the Bible, or or any other tab. You might find a chapter within a book of the Bible, a lesson in a brochure, a song from the songbook, a video from the Teaching toolbox, Etc. It holds quite a few items.
You can double tap the clear button at the bottom of the history list if you wish to erase it. Why? You might ask.
I could imagine clearing the history and then going to different places in different publications that you might want to use later that day in service. That way you have a kind of bookmarks list that works from anywhere. The real bookmarks list only works within the currently open publication, and erasing items from it does not work with Voiceover.
Double tap the Done button in the top right corner of the History dialog if you change your mind and do not want to open anything from the history list, but want to go back to where you were when you opened it.
The Refresh button will check for newly published or updated publications. It does not download or update the publications themselves, only their listings.
The Settings button is self explanatory. I have explained a few of the items in the Settings menu in the First Time Opening JW Library page of this guide.
At times a Breaking News item will be shown just under the Home heading. Double tapping the news item will open and article about it.
The following sections will always be shown on the Home tab of JW Library
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Daily Text
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Favorites
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Frequently Used
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Teaching Toolbox
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What's New
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Online
These sections are arranged vertically on the screen. Below each heading will be a list of items that may be arranged horizontally or in a grid, depending on screen size. This means that there can be many pages of items that non-VoiceOver users would scroll sideways to see. It usually works for Voiceover users to move through the items by swiping right repeatedly.
The Home tab seems to work best with VoiceOver when my phone is in landscape. I am not sure that the orientation makes any difference on my iPad.
It is often possible to navigate through the sections by turning the VoiceOver rotor to containers, and then swiping down or up with 1 finger.
Warning, sometimes it harmlessly fails. If the button for the title of any publication, video, or other item is spoken your next swipe up or down will no longer move by container. Instead VoiceOver will move through the options in that publication's Actions menu. You will need to turn the rotor to containers again to move between sections.
You will notice that most of the sections are also headings. It can work to move between them with VoiceOver rotor heading navigation, but container seems to be more reliable. The exception is if you have set up a custom Voiceover command for moving by headings as I've described here. Custom Commands
You will also notice that sometimes when swiping up the items announced are not the same as when swiping down. I can't explain why this happens.
Daily Text
Read this page to learn how to find and read the Daily text.
Favorites section
The favorites section will initially be empty, but it can be filled with the publications you choose to place there. Skip down to the "To Favorite a publication" heading on this page to learn how.
Frequently Used section
The Frequently Used section will also be empty at first, but will fill up on its own as you use JW Library more.
Teaching Toolbox section
This section is filled with items that are likely to be used in the ministry. Opening these videos and publications from the Teaching Toolbox is much simpler than locating them from the Library Tab.
It is also possible to switch the language of the items that appear here, and picking a language from the list is possible with Voiceover. Picking the correct publication in the correct language is much more difficult.
What's new? section:
This list of publications is refreshed regularly to show items that have recently been released or updated. You will likely find it useful to swipe through this section frequently.
As you swipe right or left through the publications in this section VoiceOver will announce their name, type, Duration or size, Language, and how long ago it was released.
If no size is given for a publication that is not audio or video, then you know that it has already been downloaded.
Downloading Publications
Double tapping on a publication that isn't downloaded will start the download. The publication will not automatically opened when the download finishes, so you will need to come back to it after some time has passed. You will not be told that the download has completed, but if you touch the publication' again and swipe down through the Action menu Download will no longer be an option.
Of course, Internet access is required for downloading. You may be prompted to allow downloading, especially if you are on a cellular connection instead of on WiFi.
If you double tap a publication that has already been downloaded it will open. No Internet access is required to use publications that have already been downloaded.
Audio and video publications are streamed instead of downloaded by default when you double tap them. This saves space on your device. If you know you will want to replay a media publication, you can choose to download it instead.
To download an audio or video publication: instead of double tapping the publication, swipe down with 1 finger to move through the Actions Menu. When you hear download double tap.
Audio items will just start downloading, but videos will ask you to choose the resolution or quality of the video.
To update a publication:
When on the name of an item in any list of publications, swipe down with 1 finger until you hear Update, then double tap.
Sometimes when you open a publication you will hear a message telling you there is an update to it available. You might think that message would mean that a button to update it is somewhere on the screen at that moment. Actually, the update button disappears so quickly that it is pretty much impossible for anyone to catch it in time. Don't even bother trying to do that. it is far easier to update it by using the Updates tab that can be found in the Library tab. Even the Bible will appear in that list when it has an update.
To delete a downloaded publication:
When on the name of an item in any list of publications, swipe down with 1 finger until you hear More, then double tap.
The menu that appears on the screen is the same one that sighted non-VoiceOver users get when they tap the three dots after each publication.
Voiceover will likely say, "Share Link," as the menu appears.
swipe right through the options until you hear delete button, then double tap it.
As you probably noticed, this same More menu used when deleting publications can also be used to do other things.
To favorite a publication:
Locate the publication you want to favorite in any list of publications.
swipe down with 1 finger until you hear More, then double tap.
When the More menu appears swipe right through the buttons that show the available options.
When you hear Add to Favorites button, double tap.
The same method can be used for removing a publication from Favorites.
Share a publication
You can read the directions for sharing a publication from JW Library on the page I've linked to below. Share
Online
Here are several buttons that will take you out of JW Library and open various sites from jw.org in Safari, or which ever browser is your default.
The screenreader accessibility of Watchtower Online Library is not as good as the jw.org official site or the JW Library iOS app.