1orca(1) General Commands Manual orca(1)
2
6 orca - is a scriptable screen reader and magnifier
7
9 orca [option...]
10
12 orca is a screen reader for people with visual impairments, it provides
13 alternative access to the desktop by using speech synthesis, braille,
14 and magnification.
15 In addition, orca only provides access to applications/toolkits that
17 support the assistive technology service provide interface (AT-SPI),
18 which include GTK, Mozilla, Firefox, Evolution, OpenOffice, StarOffice,
19 Java/Swing, etc.
20 WARNING: suspending orca, e.g. by pressing Control-Z, from an AT-SPI
22 enabled shell (such as gnome-terminal), can also suspend the desktop
23 until Orca is killed.
24
26 -s, --setup, --gui-setup
27 When starting orca, bring up the GUI configuration dialog.
28 -t, --text-setup
30 When starting orca, initiate the text-based configuration.
31 -n, --no-setup
33 When starting orca, force the application to be started without
34 configuration, even though it might have needed it. This is use‐
35 ful when starting orca via something like gdm.
36 -u, --user-prefs-dir=dirname
38 When starting orca, use dirname as an alternate directory for
39 the user preferences.
40 -e, --enable=speech|braille|braille-monitor|magnifier|main-window
42 When starting orca, force the enabling of the supplied options.
43 -d, --disable=speech|braille|braille-monitor|magnifier|main-window
45 When starting orca, force the disabling of the supplied options.
46 -l, --list-apps
48 Prints the names of all the currently running applications.
49 This is used primarily for debugging purposes to see if orca can
50 talk to the accessibility infrastructure. Note that if orca is
51 already running, this will not kill the other orca process. It
52 will just list the currently running applications, and you will
53 see orca listed twice: once for the existing orca and once for
54 this instance.
55 --debug
57 Enables debug output for orca and sends all debug output to a
58 file with a name of the form 'debug-YYYY-MM-DD-HH:MM:SS.out' in
59 the current directory. The YYYY-MM-DD-HH:MM:SS portion will be
60 replaced with the current date and time.
61 --debug-file=filename
63 Enables debug output for orca and sends all debug output to the
64 given filename.
65 -v, --version
67 outputs orca version number and exits.
68 -?, -h, --help
70 displays orca help and exits.
71 --replace
73 Replace a currently running orca process. By default, if orca
74 detects an existing orca process for the same session, it will
75 not start a new orca process. This option will kill and cleanup
76 after any existing orca process and then start a new orca in its
77 place.
78 -q, --quit
80 Kill and cleanup after any existing Orca process.
81
84 Orca provides two keyboard modes, Desktop and Laptop keyboard layout.
85 The Orca_Modifier key is Insert in desktop keyboard layout and
86 Caps_Lock in laptop keyboard layout.
87 Orca uses default GNOME keyboard shortcuts to navigate the desktop and
89 interact with various applications. The flat review commands provide an
90 alternative method of interaction in certain inaccessible applications.
91 It should not be confused with flat review functionality provided by
92 other screen readers.
93
96 Flat review commands
97 Numpad-7 move the flat review cursor to the previous line and read it.
99 Numpad-8 read the current line.
101 Numpad-9 move the flat review cursor to the next line and read it.
103 Numpad-4 move the flat review cursor to the previous word and read it.
105 Numpad-5 read the current word.
107 Numpad-6 move the flat review cursor to the next word and read it.
109 Numpad-1 move the flat review cursor to the previous character and read
111 it.
112 Numpad-2 read the current character.
114 Numpad-3 move the flat review cursor to the next character and read it.
116 Numpad-slash perform a left mouse click at the location of the flat
118 review cursor.
119 Numpad-star perform a right mouse click at the location of the flat
121 review cursor.
122 Bookmark commands
124 Alt+Insert+[1-6] assign a bookmark to a numbered slot. If a bookmark
126 already exists in the slot it will be replaced with the new one.
127 Insert+[1-6] go to the position pointed to by the bookmark bound to
129 this numbered slot.
130 Alt+Shift+[1-6]
132 Insert+B and Insert+Shift+B move between the given bookmarks for the
134 given application or page.
135 Alt+Insert+B save the defined bookmarks for the current application or
137 page.
138 Miscellaneous functions
141 Numpad+Plus
143 'say all' command; reads from the current position of the caret to the
144 end of the document.
145 Numpad+Enter
147 'Where am I' command; speaks information such as the title of the cur‐
148 rent application window, as well as the name of the control that cur‐
149 rently has focus.
150 Insert+H enter into orca's 'learn mode'; press Escape to exit.
152 Insert+Shift+Backslash toggle live regions monitoring on and off.
154 Insert+F speak font and attribute information for the current charac‐
156 ter.
157 Insert+Space Launch the orca Configuration dialog.
159 Insert+Ctrl+Space reload user settings and reinitialize services as
161 necessary. Also launches the orca Configuration dialog for the current
162 application.
163 Insert+S toggle speech on and off.
165 Insert+F11 toggle the reading of tables, either by single cell or whole
167 row.
168 Insert+Q quit orca.
170 Debugging
172 Ctrl+Alt+Insert+Home report information on the currently active script.
174 Ctrl+Alt+Insert+End print a debug listing of all known applications to
176 the console where orca is running.
177 Ctrl+Alt+Insert+Page_Up print debug information about the ancestry of
179 the object with focus.
180 Ctrl+Alt+Insert+Page_Down print debug information about the hierarchy
182 of the application with focus.
183
186 Flat review commands
187 Caps_Lock+U move the flat review cursor to the previous line and read
189 it. Double-click to move flat review to the top of the current window.
190 Caps_Lock+I read the current line. Double-click to read the current
192 line along with formatting and capitalization details.
193 Caps_Lock+O move the flat review cursor to the next line and read it.
195 Double- click to move flat review to the bottom of the current window.
196 Caps_Lock+J move the flat review cursor to the previous word and read
198 it. Double-click to move flat review to the word above the current
199 word.
200 Caps_Lock+K read the current word. Double-click to spell the word.
202 Triple-click to hear the word spelled phonetically.
203 Caps_Lock+L move the flat review cursor to the next word and read it.
205 Double- click to move flat review to the word below the current word.
206 Caps_Lock+M move the flat review cursor to the previous character and
208 read it. Double-click to move flat review to the end of the current
209 line.
210 Caps_Lock+Comma read the current character. Double-click to pronounce
212 the character phonetically if it is a letter.
213 Caps_Lock+Period move the flat review cursor to the next character and
215 read it.
216 Caps_Lock+7 perform a left mouse click at the location of the flat
218 review cursor.
219 Caps_Lock+8 perform a right mouse click at the location of the flat
221 review cursor.
222 Caps_Lock+8 perform a right mouse click at the location of the flat
224 review cursor.
225 Bookmark commands
227 Alt+Caps_Lock+[1-6]
229 add a bookmark to the numbered slot. If a bookmark already exists for
231 the slot it will be replaced with the new one.
232 Caps_Lock+[1-6] go to the position pointed to by the bookmark bound to
234 this numbered slot.
235 Alt+Shift+[1-6]
237 Caps_Lock+Band Caps_Lock+Shift+B move between the given bookmarks for
239 the given application or page.
240 Alt+Caps_Lock+B save the defined bookmarks for the current application
242 or page.
243 Miscellaneous functions
245 Caps_Lock+Semicolon Caps_Lock+Enter
247 Caps_Lock+H enter learn mode (press Escape to exit).
249 Caps_Lock+Shift+Backslash toggle live regions monitoring on and off.
251 Caps_Lock+F speak font and attribute information for the current char‐
253 acter.
254 Caps_Lock+Space launch the orca Configuration dialog.
256 Caps_Lock+Ctrl+Space reload user settings and reinitialize services as
258 necessary; also launches the orca Configuration dialog for the current
259 application.
260 Caps_Lock+S toggle speech on and off.
262 Caps_Lock+F11 toggle the reading of tables, either by single cell or
264 whole row.
265 Caps_Lock+Q quit orca.
267 Debugging
269 Caps_Lock+Alt+Ctrl+Home report information on the currently active
271 script.
272 Caps_Lock+Alt+Ctrl+End prints a debug listing of all known applications
274 to the console where orca is running.
275 Caps_Lock+Alt+Ctrl+Page_Up prints debug information about the ancestry
277 of the object with focus.
278 Caps_Lock+Alt+Ctrl+Page_Down prints debug information about the object
280 hierarchy of the application with focus.
281
284 ~/.orca
285 Orca user preferences directory
286 ~/.orca/user-settings.py
288 Orca user preferences configuration file.
289 ~/.orca/orca-customizations.py
291 Orca user customizations configuration file
292 ~/.orca/orca-scripts
295 Orca user orca scripts directory
296 ~/.orca/bookmarks
298 Orca user bookmarks directory
299 ~/.orca/app-settings
301 Orca user application specific settings directory
302
306 Orca development is a community effort led by the Sun Microsystems Inc.
307 Accessibility Program Office and with contributions from many community
308 members.
309
311 For more information please visit orca wiki at
312 <http://live.gnome.org/Orca> ⟨http://live.gnome.org/Orca⟩
313 The orca mailing list <http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-
315 list> To post a message to all orca list, send a email to orca-
316 list@gnome.org
317GNOME 10 Nov 2008 orca(1)