I seem to have accidentally changed how VoiceOver interacts with the menu bar, and I can't get it back to the normal behaviour.
Instead of VO-M taking me to the menu bar, it goes directly to the Apple menu. The menas that pressing 'E' for Edit or 'F' for File no longer works. Using VO-<UP> will take me to the menu bar, but moving to the right opens up each menu, and I have to again do VO-<UP> to get back to the menu bar.
I assume that I accidentally entered some VoiceOver key combination that has altered the menu bar interaction, but I don't know what actually triggered this. Restarting VoiceOver did not help, nor did logging out or restarting the computer.
Has anyone else encountered this, and more important, does anyone know how to undo this?
Comments
Mouse pointer setting
My immediate thought is that the "Mouse pointer" popup menu in VoiceOver Utility > Navigation was changed to have the mouse pointer following the VoiceOver cursor, which can alter how VoiceOver interacts with the menu bar. Changing it to "Ignores VoiceOver cursor" should resolve the problem.
HTH
Thanks, Tyler.
Yes, that was it. I'm not sure how I ended up altering that setting, but switching back to "ignore" did the trick.
Mouse setting
A couple of us on here have the suspicion that this changes on its own sometimes. There isn't a keyboard shortcut to change it, but we've never been able to quite pin down what does it, and it seems to be very rare.
There was a report on Golden Gate that this setting can also prevent you from going into VO Utility and changing it back, although it's possible Apple might fix it before it goes to production (don't laugh, it could happen...)
So another way you can turn it off is to press VO+H twice to go to commands help, then type in "follow". You'll see the option to turn off the opposite behaviour (ie VO focus follows mouse). Press enter on this to change it. Remember in VO utility this is all stacked under one setting. So if you use this, you can actually turn it off which might be enough to get you going again. I'm guessing this setting was changed after they had implemented the command to have the third option and no one ever bothered to update the command.
Changing mouse pointer tracking
I've had a long-standing feedback report with Apple regarding this, that the VO Utility setting spontaneously changes to "Follows VO Cursor." And to understand why this bug is so heinous, just read this post. When menu behavior changes, your brain doesn't immediately think, "Oh, mouse tracking must have changed." The behavior and cause have no obvious correllation.
VO+Shift+F3 is a fix--thanks, Mr Grieves. It will toggle the setting to "Moves," and a second press will toggle it to "Ignores." And on Golden Gate, this keystroke does appear to actually change the setting in VO Utility, rather than change the behavior without changing the actual setting. However, when I press this shortcut, VoiceOver provides no audio feedback, giving me no clue as to which setting I'm selecting.
Argh. There has to be someone at Apple who can track down this bug and fix it.
My Feedback report: Mouse Pointer spontaneously changes to Follows VoiceOver Cursor, FB19564032.
I opened a second, requesting that VO+Shift+F3 cycle through all three of the options rather than just two, in the hopes that someone might resolve the setting curruption issue in the process of addressing this obvious functionality shortfall: Provide command to cycle through Mouse Pointer options, FB19583607.
For anyone performing bug archaeology, here's my forum thread from last year on this topic.
My work around
I too experience this bug. For the longest time, however, I attributed the problems to user error.
I have noticed that it seems to occur after my Mac has gone to sleep, or the screen lock has been enabled.
I am now in the habit of simply toggling VO every time I unlock or wake my Mac.
Suboptimal, but effective.
SeaNoEvil
VO+Shift+F3
This one is odd - if you turn on keyboard help and try the shortcut, it suggests it toggles behaviour between VO, the mouse pointer and the keyboard. Also if you do the VO+H, H thing I mention above it doesn't tell you there is a keyboard shortcut for it. It's all a bit of a mess really.