VoiceOver Navigation Tips for JW Library

My first suggestion used to be to use a HID (Human interface Device) such as any kind of bluetooth keyboard with JW Library, because having one connected would make JW Library on an iPhone return focus to the link you just used when you close the Study pane. It saves a lot of time to not have to hunt around finding your place again every time you read a scripture or other linked reference material. Then it stopped working for later versions of iOS 16 and early versions of iOS 17.

After iOS 17.4, strangely, I have discovered that it works just as well as it used to if I tell VoiceOver that my keyboard is a braille display. Yes, one of my human interface devices is a braille display that once again started working in the old useful way, but my macro-pad and Logitech keyboard are not braille displays, but do appear in the list of devices in Voiceover Settings under Braille. I simply double tapped on one of them when connected and VoiceOver's focus was controlled nicely in JW library. Yay!

I have also noticed that having a human interface device connected and claiming to be a braille display causes VoiceOver focus to be placed at the top of newly opened articles instead of on the Back button. it is amazing how much of an improvement that is. I urge anyone else with a keyboard to try this.

The only caveat is that Voiceover focus always being placed at the beginning of articles can also be a problem. This is because it happens when you close the study pane in the Bible, or select a bookmark, or probably if you activate a link to a specific spot in a publication. Because of this, I only use the keyboard when I am reading articles and using the links in them, not when I am doing Bible study.

If I need to use a bookmark, which I rarely do, I turn off the keyboard until I've found the correct place by double tapping the bookmark and then touching about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of my screen. This is where the correct position can usually be found in my experience.

In iOS 17 a new Command has appeared. It is called "Move to Item at Center." It allows a keyboard or Braille display to mimic something you have to do all the time. That is tap somewhere near the center of the screen to reposition VoiceOver focus on the spot on the screen where visual focus is. The position isn't going to be precisely where you needed it every time, but it will be pretty close.

There is no default assignment for the Move to Item at Center command, so you will have to add it if you want to use it.

To assign a keyboard command go to: VoiceOver Settings > Commands > All Commands > Basic Navigation.

Activate the Assign New Command button, and press the key you would like to use. All keyboard commands for VoiceOver will automatically add Caps-lock or Control+Option to the letter you chose. I pressed z so my Move to Item at Center command is Control+Option+Z which is fairly easy to hit.

Obviously, assigning a gesture to that command would be pointless since tapping the center of the screen does the same thing.

Instructions for assigning commands to use with a Braille display can be found near the bottom of this page.

Move by verse number

It is possible to quickly move by verse number inside any chapter of the Bible using a keyboard command or custom gesture.

The command is "Move to next item with bold text." The default assignment is Control-Option-Command-B. Add shift to move backwards.

To assign a custom voiceOver gesture to Move to Next Item with Bold Text:

Go to Settings > Accessibility, VoiceOver. You could also just tell Siri, "Open VoiceOver settings."

Swipe right repeatedly until you find the Commands button.

Double tap the Commands button.

Double tap "All commands."

Double tap "Text Navigation."

Double tap "Move to next item with Bold text."

Double tap the "add Gesture" button.

Now swipe through the options to find a gesture that either isn't in use, or is a VoiceOver command you don't need. Don't worry. It is always possible to change or remove custom commands, or even reset all VoiceOver Commands to their defaults.

I used four finger swipe up, because swiping up with 3 fingers scrolls down, but maybe my logic is inexplicable to you.

After you've double tapped the gesture you want, you will be put back in the dialog that has the add gesture button. Confirm that your new gesture is present.

If the assignment didn't work, just assign it again. This is a bug I have encountered. It has always worked the second time.

Bold text is also used in many other places to mark important things. Sometimes they are also headings, but other times they are not, so I find this command very useful. For instance: the numbers of questions and paragraphs in the Watchtower study articles are bold text, and so are the read scriptures.

In the Research Guide, in the Scriptures Explained tab, there is a list of Bible books that is easy enough to navigate, but the huge amount of information for that Bible book can really only be navigated by moving through the verse numbers with the next bold text command.

Reading Scriptures

There is a way to read scriptures in JW Library with VoiceOver without the clutter of verse numbers and marginal reference letters. It requires customizing VoiceOver settings and/or a hardware keyboard.

The correct command is Move to Next Item with Plain Text.

The default keyboard command is Control-Option-Command-P.

Add Shift to that combination to read the Previous Item with Plain Text.

VoiceOver iOS keyboard commands can also be touchy. If I don't release the P before the modifier keys it tends not to work. I can use it more easily because I have a custom 8-key MacroPad and I have assigned a key to Control-OptionCommand-P.

If full keyboard access is turned on in Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard, the system decides Control+Option+Command+P is the pass through command. I recommend the simple solution of turning off Full Keyboard access if you always use VoiceOver when you have a keyboard attached. It is possible to clear or reassign the pass through command if you do need Full Keyboard access to remain on for some reason.

It is also possible to assign a custom VoiceOver gesture for this command, but there are not enough gestures for everything one might want to do. Unfortunately, it can not be put on the VoiceOver rotor. Don't confuse static text, which can be on the rotor, with plain text, which can't. Static text is any text that isn't a link or control. plain text is text that is not bold, italic, underlined, Etc.

It also used to work to read the text of scriptures on jw.org using the read plain text command for VoiceOver on either iOS or Mac, but iOS 17 incessantly jabbers "description" and reads the whole box annoying reference letters and all. That makes navigation easier, but I'd be shocked if anyone could avoid being distracted by all that jabber and manage to absorb the meaning of the scripture.

The same is true of the footnote symbols that VoiceOver reads as letters in the Study Bible in JW Library.

To assign a custom voiceOver gesture to Move to Next Item with Plain Text:

Open VoiceOver settings and find and double tap the Commands button.

Double tap "All commands."

Double tap "Text Navigation."

Double tap "Move to next item with plain text."

Double tap the "add Gesture" button.

Now look through the options to find a gesture that either isn't in use, or is a VoiceOver command you don't need. I used 4 finger swipe down, because 2 finger swipe down is for continuous reading, and 3 finger swipe down is already taken.

After you've double tapped the gesture you want, you will be put back in the dialog that has the add gesture button. Confirm that your new gesture is present.

If the assignment didn't work, just assign it again. This is a bug I have encountered. It has always worked the second time.

Of course, smooth reading of the NWT Study Bible also requires setting up custom punctuation rules for Voiceover in order to remove the ʹ and · which I describe on the following page of my website. Custom Punctuation Unfortunately, that doesn't fix reading them in Braille, which is another disaster no one else seems to be able to empathize about.

Lock VoiceOver keys

You can lock the VoiceOver modifier keys by pressing Control+Option+Semicolon. That would allow you to press fewer keys at once because you wouldn't have to hold down the Control and Option keys. Pressing Control+Option+Semicolon will unlock them.

Remember to unlock the VoiceOver modifier keys in order to use quick-nav or type text.

Commands with VoiceOver modifier keys locked:

Space - activate

Escape - back

A - read all from VoiceOver cursor

RightArrow - next item

LeftArrow - previous item

Command+H - next heading

Command+L - next link

Command+B - next bold text

Command P - next plain text

Command+J - next form field

K - toggle keyboard learn mode

Add shift to go to previous item.

Find

Of course use of a bluetooth keyboard or braille display will allow you to search for verse numbers, as well as anything else you might want to find. It significantly speeds up looking up scriptures. The command is Control-Option-F on a bluetooth Mac style keyboard.

Substitute Control-Alt-F on a Windows style keyboard.

Space-F is likely on a braille display, but different displays can have different commands, so look it up in VoiceOver Settings > Commands. Under the heading "Braille displays" will be the name of your braille display. Activate that and you can review or change any command you want.

Note: With iOS17.0-- search with a Braille Display is completely broken. Upgrade immediately because iOS 17.1 fixes search with a Braille display and some completely awful and dangerous bugs.

You can assign a gesture to find, but it doesn't do any good, because the on-screen keyboard never appears, so it is impossible to enter the text to search for. The VoiceOver Item Chooser, which is supposed to be kind of like search or find is really not of much use at all, so don't bother with it.

Jump to beginning

There are also ways of eliminating virtually all fumbling around to find the beginning of an article. The 2 options for doing this are moving by heading or by container. If you do not want to set up any custom VoiceOver commands then moving by container is the option you'll want to use. This is because Containers is one of the few options that does not frequently become unavailable.

Make sure Containers are on your VoiceOver rotor by going to Settings > Accessibility, VoiceOver > Rotor. Swipe through the items that can be placed on the rotor. If you don't hear Selected before Containers double tap to select it. I would recommend putting Containers right at the top of the Rotor list.

When Voiceover is running and QuickNav is on control-RightArrow is the keyboard command for moving forward by container. Control-LeftArrow moves backward by container.

Dots 5-6-8 + Space is the next container command on some braille displays. Dots 2-3-7 + Space would then be for previous container. However, Braille displays differ so the previous and next container command may not be the same on your display. You can use Dots 1-3 + Space to enable keyboard learn mode, then try pressing different combinations to find out what they do. Press Dots 1-2 + Space to escape keyboard learn mode.

In JW Library just after you activate a Button for a publication or a section within a publication Voiceover focus is usually on the Back Button. From there you can turn the Voiceover Rotor to Containers and 1 flick down will usually bring VoiceOver focus right to the beginning of every article or the 1st item in a list of chapters in the Bible. It will also bring focus right to the 1st useful content in the Study Pain. If you hear "Tab Bar" when you flick down instead, tap near the top of the screen once with 4 fingers. Now focus will be back at the top, so you can flick down with 1 finger to get past all the buttons and to the beginning of the article. Of course you can also flick up with 1 finger to move back through the different containers.

On the Home tab of JW Library moving by container can also be very useful. From the top 1 flick down will put VO on the Daily Text. You can flick down again to try to move through the different sections like Favorites, Teaching Toolbox, and New. Warning, sometimes it harmlessly but annoyingly fails. If the button for the title of any publication, video, or other item is spoken your next flick up or down will no longer move by container. Instead VoiceOver will move through the options in that publication's Actions menu.

Note: In i OS 17 you can change this behavior. If you want the VoiceOver Rotor to stay on containers instead of switching to Actions you can turn off "Change Rotor with Item" in Voiceover Settings > Rotor. You'll just have to remember and get used to turning the Rotor to Actions or Adjust Value when you want swiping up/down to do what VoiceOver used to do automatically.

Benefits of Heading gesture

A headings gesture is especially useful in the extensive display of videos. They are in categories chosen from a list, but after choosing a category they are further broken up in to sub-categories. These sub-categories are headings. The videos under each sub-category heading are listed horizontally rather than vertically. This makes the whole list act quite oddly. Heading navigation helps a lot, though it doesn't completely eliminate the navigation oddness. I don't know how anyone ever finds the video they want without being able to move by headings.

Braille Custom Commands

If you have a bluetooth braille display many useful commands can be assigned.

To assign a custom braille display command go to Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Commands.

near the bottom of the list of types of commands will be a Braille devices.heading. Find the button with the name of your currently connected braille device and activate it.

Find Navigation in the list of categories and activate it.

Now find Next Heading, Next plain Text, Next Bold Text, Move to Item at Center, or whatever command you would like and activate it.

Activate the Assign New Braille Keys button.

Now press the command you want to use on your braille display. I've resorted to using dot 7 or 8 with various dot combinations since most dot combinations with spacebar are already taken. Of course, there are some that are already assigned but are redundant or of no use.

There will be a warning message if that command is already assigned. You can choose to use it anyway, but just make sure you really don't want the default anymore.

Tip: assigning a custom command is even a good idea when there is already a quick-nav letter. This is because Quick-Nav doesn't' always work, and even when it does, it is extremely sluggish. For example, pressing L on a webpage or in an app may take seconds to move VoiceOver focus to the next link. Pressing a custom command on your braille display that is assigned to move to next link will move focus very quickly. Since my braille display has thumb-keys for scrolling the display, I assigned Space + dot 2 and Space with dot 5 to previous and next link respectively.

Sorry, i don't know what to suggest for braille display commands to assign for next plain text and previous and next bold text. I only suggest that you find something, because they make using JW Library so much more efficient.

If many of the other commands you need to make navigating in JW Library efficient are assigned to custom Braille commands then you can set your VoiceOver rotor on static text when reading aloud or following along in a publication at the meeting or on a study. Why? Because pressing the next rotor item command as soon as you encounter a ) (right paren) character can jump past 1 or more reference links and put the next thing you want to read at the beginning of the display. Usually scrolling past the links that aren't read aloud takes just a little too much time, so this improves reading efficiency.

Feedback

I hope you have found this document accurate and useful. If you have a comment or tip that you think I should hear you can send me a text or leave me a voicemail. My Google Voice number is (651)321-4786.

To be honest, I'd love to hear from anyone who has read this, because I'm feeling discouraged and wonder if I should bother writing anything anymore.