Submitted by Musicruz on 18 February, 2013 - 14:59.
so after VO+shift+m, how are you going to move the app? I tried this method before, and yes you can select the apps, but I can't move the apps around properly. They are just going everywhere. I think this time Apple just design this for now to kill the apps in the app switcher and to delete the apps on the spring board. Hopefully, in the next upgrade, we'll be able to arrange the icon.
I could be wrong on this one, but hey, I would love to be able to do this myself. If you guys know anyway, please share.
Hello Rebecca and Musicruz, Here's an example of how you can use the VO+Shift+M keyboard shortcut to organize your home screen by moving apps into folders. Suppose I have my iPhone paired to my Apple Wireless Keyboard, and I want to organize some apps on the second page of my Home screen into folders. This describes what I might do and hear VoiceOver say on my iPhone home screen; you can apply it to your own situation, and may get slightly different announcements. In this case I'll move "Where To?" into a folder with the "AroundMe" app. At the start, both apps are on the second page of my home screen, and neither is in a folder.
1. If I'm not at the home screen, I'll press VO-H to start there (VoiceOver says "Home" and the name of of the first app on the screen)
2. Option-Right arrow to navigate to the next page (VoiceOver says "Page 2 of 3, Utilities folder, 4 apps, double tap to open" because the Utilities folder is the first element on the second page.)
3. Navigate with your arrow keys to the "Where To?" app. VoiceOver will prompt you with the "double tap to open" message, which we ignore.
4. When focused on the app you want to drag, press VO-Shift-M to execute the pass-through gesture. You'll hear the triple tone associated with a successful execution of the pass-through gesture and VoiceOver will say "moving Where To?", or whatever app you are focused on that you want to drag into a folder.
5. Now use your arrow keys to navigate to the second app you want to place into the same folder. Alternatively, this could be an existing folder to which you want drag your app, but we'll assume we want to move move to the app "AroundMe", and put it into the same folder.
6. When focused on the "AroundMe" app, do another VO-Shift-M to drop the "Where To?" app you were dragging on top of the "AroundMe" app. VoiceOver will say "Creating Lifestyle folder. Opening Lifestyle folder. Double tap to edit." In this case, it is because "Lifestyle" is the category for the "AroundMe" app.
7. VO-Space to edit the text field for the name of the folder. VoiceOver will say, "Inside Lifestyle folder" VO-Right arrow. VoiceOver will announce "Clear text button". VO-space to clear the text.
8. VoiceOver will say "Folder name, text field, is editing." Type in the new name of the folder, "Navigation". VoiceOver will say "Folder name, Navigation, text field."
9. To drop the "Where To?" app into the folder and get out of drag mode, press escape. VoiceOver will say, "Navigation, opened."
10. To check that there are two files in the folder you can press right arrow. I'll hear the apps "Where To?" and "AroundMe" announced with each press of the right arrow key, followed by the boink noise that indicates I've reached the end of the field if I try a third press of the right arrow key.
11. To get out of the open folder, press escape. VoiceOver will say "Closing Navigation folder, W&Y pages." (The White and Yellow pages app is another app on page 2 of my home screen, and it has received focus when we closed the folder.)
12. You can continue to put another app into this folder with the same VO-Shift-M shortcut to start dragging. When your focus is on a folder, VoiceOver will say, for example, "Navigation folder, two apps. Double tap and hold to move." So if I used my arrow keys to navigate to another app on the same page, like "HopStop", to put it into the Navigation folder, the steps would be similar to the sequence used above from step 3, where once you have navigated to the app you want to move you use VO-Shift-M. One difference is that when you are on the folder you want to insert the app into, VO will say, for example, "On navigtion folder, folder name Navigation, double tap to edit" to indicate the folder.
13. Again when you press escape to get out of the drag mode and place the app in the folder, VoiceOver says, "Navigation opened".
14. Then, when you right arrow through the apps in the folder you'll hear three apps announced, "Where To?", "AroundMe", and "HopStop" in the case of the above example.
15. Once again, press escape to get out of the folder and return to the home screen page.
HTH. I wrote this up in response to a recent mac-access list query, but didn't have a chance to post.
Hello Maria,
The ability to drag and drop apps with the VO-Shift-M keyboard shortcut seems to still be under development. This shortcut for the double tap and hold pass through gesture emerged in iOS 6, but still shows focus issues in its behavior. I've found this useful for putting apps into folders, but not for generally rearranging apps on the home screen. At present I can use this shortcut to move apps to the location of another app, but not to blank sections of the home screen. I have been able to move apps into the dock by dragging them to the position just before the apps in the dock, where you hear VoiceOver say "page 2 of 3" (for example), but only if there is already a blank spot in the dock. So far the most stable actions with this shortcut have been the creation of folders or the addition of apps to folders by dropping apps onto other apps or folders that are on the same page, and moving the app in the top left corner of a screen to another page by using Option+right arrow to change the page after starting to drag that app with VO-Shift-M, then using the escape key to terminate the drag and drop once on another page.
If I have experimented with a drag and drop action that did not successfully complete, such as trying to drop an app into the dock when there is not a free space, then I usually have to toggle VoiceOver off and on again with triple click home to reset things in order for the folder creation to work again. But I did find that I could reliably use this shortcut to create and add to folders with a keyboard as long as I followed a standard sequence of command actions such as I outlined in my earlier comment. In the example I used, I wanted to rename the folder. The steps to clear the default folder name and type in a new one are not necessary if you want to accept the default folder name.
Hope this helps. This is probably a feature that will see more development before VO-Shift-M appears in the list of VoiceOver keyboard shortcuts described in the iPhone User Guide in a later version of iOS 6.
#1 here's how it's done
> Hi, I’ve figured out that you can select an app in the home screen to move
> with Shift + VO + M.
#2 here's what you can try
> Hi, I’ve figured out that you can select an app in the home screen to move
> with Shift + VO + M.
#3 To Isaac
so after VO+shift+m, how are you going to move the app? I tried this method before, and yes you can select the apps, but I can't move the apps around properly. They are just going everywhere. I think this time Apple just design this for now to kill the apps in the app switcher and to delete the apps on the spring board. Hopefully, in the next upgrade, we'll be able to arrange the icon.
I could be wrong on this one, but hey, I would love to be able to do this myself. If you guys know anyway, please share.
regards,
Musicruz
#4 Example of moving apps on home screen into folders with keyboard
Hello Rebecca and Musicruz, Here's an example of how you can use the VO+Shift+M keyboard shortcut to organize your home screen by moving apps into folders. Suppose I have my iPhone paired to my Apple Wireless Keyboard, and I want to organize some apps on the second page of my Home screen into folders. This describes what I might do and hear VoiceOver say on my iPhone home screen; you can apply it to your own situation, and may get slightly different announcements. In this case I'll move "Where To?" into a folder with the "AroundMe" app. At the start, both apps are on the second page of my home screen, and neither is in a folder.
1. If I'm not at the home screen, I'll press VO-H to start there (VoiceOver says "Home" and the name of of the first app on the screen)
2. Option-Right arrow to navigate to the next page (VoiceOver says "Page 2 of 3, Utilities folder, 4 apps, double tap to open" because the Utilities folder is the first element on the second page.)
3. Navigate with your arrow keys to the "Where To?" app. VoiceOver will prompt you with the "double tap to open" message, which we ignore.
4. When focused on the app you want to drag, press VO-Shift-M to execute the pass-through gesture. You'll hear the triple tone associated with a successful execution of the pass-through gesture and VoiceOver will say "moving Where To?", or whatever app you are focused on that you want to drag into a folder.
5. Now use your arrow keys to navigate to the second app you want to place into the same folder. Alternatively, this could be an existing folder to which you want drag your app, but we'll assume we want to move move to the app "AroundMe", and put it into the same folder.
6. When focused on the "AroundMe" app, do another VO-Shift-M to drop the "Where To?" app you were dragging on top of the "AroundMe" app. VoiceOver will say "Creating Lifestyle folder. Opening Lifestyle folder. Double tap to edit." In this case, it is because "Lifestyle" is the category for the "AroundMe" app.
7. VO-Space to edit the text field for the name of the folder. VoiceOver will say, "Inside Lifestyle folder" VO-Right arrow. VoiceOver will announce "Clear text button". VO-space to clear the text.
8. VoiceOver will say "Folder name, text field, is editing." Type in the new name of the folder, "Navigation". VoiceOver will say "Folder name, Navigation, text field."
9. To drop the "Where To?" app into the folder and get out of drag mode, press escape. VoiceOver will say, "Navigation, opened."
10. To check that there are two files in the folder you can press right arrow. I'll hear the apps "Where To?" and "AroundMe" announced with each press of the right arrow key, followed by the boink noise that indicates I've reached the end of the field if I try a third press of the right arrow key.
11. To get out of the open folder, press escape. VoiceOver will say "Closing Navigation folder, W&Y pages." (The White and Yellow pages app is another app on page 2 of my home screen, and it has received focus when we closed the folder.)
12. You can continue to put another app into this folder with the same VO-Shift-M shortcut to start dragging. When your focus is on a folder, VoiceOver will say, for example, "Navigation folder, two apps. Double tap and hold to move." So if I used my arrow keys to navigate to another app on the same page, like "HopStop", to put it into the Navigation folder, the steps would be similar to the sequence used above from step 3, where once you have navigated to the app you want to move you use VO-Shift-M. One difference is that when you are on the folder you want to insert the app into, VO will say, for example, "On navigtion folder, folder name Navigation, double tap to edit" to indicate the folder.
13. Again when you press escape to get out of the drag mode and place the app in the folder, VoiceOver says, "Navigation opened".
14. Then, when you right arrow through the apps in the folder you'll hear three apps announced, "Where To?", "AroundMe", and "HopStop" in the case of the above example.
15. Once again, press escape to get out of the folder and return to the home screen page.
HTH. I wrote this up in response to a recent mac-access list query, but didn't have a chance to post.
#5 Wow Esther I had no idea apps
Wow Esther I had no idea apps could be moved with the keyboard. this is fantastic and a fantastic description.
#6 Keyboard movement of apps still under development
Hello Maria,
The ability to drag and drop apps with the VO-Shift-M keyboard shortcut seems to still be under development. This shortcut for the double tap and hold pass through gesture emerged in iOS 6, but still shows focus issues in its behavior. I've found this useful for putting apps into folders, but not for generally rearranging apps on the home screen. At present I can use this shortcut to move apps to the location of another app, but not to blank sections of the home screen. I have been able to move apps into the dock by dragging them to the position just before the apps in the dock, where you hear VoiceOver say "page 2 of 3" (for example), but only if there is already a blank spot in the dock. So far the most stable actions with this shortcut have been the creation of folders or the addition of apps to folders by dropping apps onto other apps or folders that are on the same page, and moving the app in the top left corner of a screen to another page by using Option+right arrow to change the page after starting to drag that app with VO-Shift-M, then using the escape key to terminate the drag and drop once on another page.
If I have experimented with a drag and drop action that did not successfully complete, such as trying to drop an app into the dock when there is not a free space, then I usually have to toggle VoiceOver off and on again with triple click home to reset things in order for the folder creation to work again. But I did find that I could reliably use this shortcut to create and add to folders with a keyboard as long as I followed a standard sequence of command actions such as I outlined in my earlier comment. In the example I used, I wanted to rename the folder. The steps to clear the default folder name and type in a new one are not necessary if you want to accept the default folder name.
Hope this helps. This is probably a feature that will see more development before VO-Shift-M appears in the list of VoiceOver keyboard shortcuts described in the iPhone User Guide in a later version of iOS 6.
#7 hopefully
Hopefully when the next upgrade comes out their will be a way to move the apps.