1orca(1) General Commands Manual orca(1)
2
6 orca - a scriptable screen reader
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 and
14 braille.
15 orca works with applications and toolkits that support the Assistive
17 Technology Service Provider Interface (AT-SPI), which is the primary
18 assistive technology infrastructure for Linux and Solaris. Applications
19 and toolkits supporting the AT-SPI include the GNOME Gtk+ toolkit, the
20 Java platform's Swing toolkit, LibreOffice, Gecko, and WebKitGtk. AT-
21 SPI support for the KDE Qt toolkit is being pursued.
22
24 -s, --setup
25 When starting orca, initiate the GUI-based configuration.
26 -u, --user-prefs-dir=dirname
28 When starting orca, use dirname as an alternate directory for
29 the user preferences.
30 -e, --enable=speech|braille|braille-monitor
32 When starting orca, force the enabling of the supplied options.
33 -d, --disable=speech|braille|braille-monitor
35 When starting orca, force the disabling of the supplied options.
36 -l, --list-apps
38 Prints the names of all the currently running applications.
39 This is used primarily for debugging purposes to see if orca can
40 talk to the accessibility infrastructure. Note that if orca is
41 already running, this will not kill the other orca process. It
42 will just list the currently running applications, and you will
43 see orca listed twice: once for the existing orca and once for
44 this instance.
45 --debug
47 Enables debug output for orca and sends all debug output to a
48 file with a name of the form 'debug-YYYY-MM-DD-HH:MM:SS.out' in
49 the current directory. The YYYY-MM-DD-HH:MM:SS portion will be
50 replaced with the current date and time.
51 --debug-file=filename
53 Enables debug output for orca and sends all debug output to the
54 given filename.
55 -v, --version
57 outputs orca version number and exits.
58 -h, --help
60 displays orca help and exits.
61 --replace
63 Replace a currently running orca process. By default, if orca
64 detects an existing orca process for the same session, it will
65 not start a new orca process. This option will kill and cleanup
66 after any existing orca process and then start a new orca in its
67 place.
68 KEYBOARD SETTINGS
72 Orca provides two keyboard modes, Desktop and Laptop keyboard
73 layout. The Orca_Modifier key is Insert in desktop keyboard lay‐
74 out and Caps_Lock in laptop keyboard layout.
75 Orca uses default GNOME keyboard shortcuts to navigate the desk‐
77 top and interact with various applications. The flat review com‐
78 mands provide an alternative method of interaction in certain
79 inaccessible applications. It should not be confused with flat
80 review functionality provided by other screen readers.
81
84 Flat review commands
85 Numpad-7 move the flat review cursor to the previous line and read it.
87 Numpad-8 read the current line.
89 Numpad-9 move the flat review cursor to the next line and read it.
91 Numpad-4 move the flat review cursor to the previous word and read it.
93 Numpad-5 read the current word.
95 Numpad-6 move the flat review cursor to the next word and read it.
97 Numpad-1 move the flat review cursor to the previous character and read
99 it.
100 Numpad-2 read the current character.
102 Numpad-3 move the flat review cursor to the next character and read it.
104 Numpad-slash perform a left mouse click at the location of the flat
106 review cursor.
107 Numpad-star perform a right mouse click at the location of the flat
109 review cursor.
110 Bookmark commands
112 Alt+Insert+[1-6] assign a bookmark to a numbered slot. If a bookmark
114 already exists in the slot it will be replaced with the new one.
115 Insert+[1-6] go to the position pointed to by the bookmark bound to
117 this numbered slot.
118 Insert+B and Insert+Shift+B move between the given bookmarks for the
120 given application or page.
121 Alt+Insert+B save the defined bookmarks for the current application or
123 page.
124 Miscellaneous functions
127 Numpad+Plus
129 'say all' command; reads from the current position of the caret to the
130 end of the document.
131 Numpad+Enter
133 'Where am I' command; speaks information such as the title of the cur‐
134 rent application window, as well as the name of the control that cur‐
135 rently has focus.
136 Insert+H enter into orca's 'learn mode'; press Escape to exit.
138 Insert+Shift+Backslash toggle live regions monitoring on and off.
140 Insert+F speak font and attribute information for the current charac‐
142 ter.
143 Insert+Space Launch the orca Configuration dialog.
145 Insert+Ctrl+Space reload user settings and reinitialize services as
147 necessary. Also launches the orca Configuration dialog for the current
148 application.
149 Insert+S toggle speech on and off.
151 Insert+F11 toggle the reading of tables, either by single cell or whole
153 row.
154
157 Flat review commands
158 Caps_Lock+U move the flat review cursor to the previous line and read
160 it. Double-click to move flat review to the top of the current window.
161 Caps_Lock+I read the current line. Double-click to read the current
163 line along with formatting and capitalization details.
164 Caps_Lock+O move the flat review cursor to the next line and read it.
166 Double- click to move flat review to the bottom of the current window.
167 Caps_Lock+J move the flat review cursor to the previous word and read
169 it. Double-click to move flat review to the word above the current
170 word.
171 Caps_Lock+K read the current word. Double-click to spell the word.
173 Triple-click to hear the word spelled phonetically.
174 Caps_Lock+L move the flat review cursor to the next word and read it.
176 Double- click to move flat review to the word below the current word.
177 Caps_Lock+M move the flat review cursor to the previous character and
179 read it. Double-click to move flat review to the end of the current
180 line.
181 Caps_Lock+Comma read the current character. Double-click to pronounce
183 the character phonetically if it is a letter.
184 Caps_Lock+Period move the flat review cursor to the next character and
186 read it.
187 Caps_Lock+7 perform a left mouse click at the location of the flat
189 review cursor.
190 Caps_Lock+8 perform a right mouse click at the location of the flat
192 review cursor.
193 Bookmark commands
195 Alt+Caps_Lock+[1-6]
197 add a bookmark to the numbered slot. If a bookmark already exists for
199 the slot it will be replaced with the new one.
200 Caps_Lock+[1-6] go to the position pointed to by the bookmark bound to
202 this numbered slot.
203 Caps_Lock+Band Caps_Lock+Shift+B move between the given bookmarks for
205 the given application or page.
206 Alt+Caps_Lock+B save the defined bookmarks for the current application
208 or page.
209 Miscellaneous functions
211 Caps_Lock+Semicolon
213 'Say all' command; reads from the current position of the caret to the
214 end of the document. Caps_Lock+Enter
215 'Where am I' command; speaks information such as the title of the cur‐
216 rent application window, as well as the name of the control that cur‐
217 rently has focus.
218 Caps_Lock+H enter learn mode (press Escape to exit).
220 Caps_Lock+Shift+Backslash toggle live regions monitoring on and off.
222 Caps_Lock+F speak font and attribute information for the current char‐
224 acter.
225 Caps_Lock+Space launch the orca Configuration dialog.
227 Caps_Lock+Ctrl+Space reload user settings and reinitialize services as
229 necessary; also launches the orca Configuration dialog for the current
230 application.
231 Caps_Lock+S toggle speech on and off.
233 Caps_Lock+F11 toggle the reading of tables, either by single cell or
235 whole row.
236
239 ~/.local/share/orca
240 Orca user preferences directory
241 ~/.local/share/orca/user-settings.conf
243 Orca user preferences configuration file.
244 ~/.local/share/orca/orca-customizations.py
246 Orca user customizations configuration file
247 ~/.local/share/orca/orca-scripts
250 Orca user orca scripts directory
251 ~/.local/share/orca/bookmarks
253 Orca user bookmarks directory
254 ~/.local/share/orca/app-settings
256 Orca user application specific settings directory
257
261 Orca originated as a community effort led by the Sun Microsystems Inc.
262 Accessibility Program Office and with contributions from many community
263 members.
264
266 For more information please visit orca wiki at
267 <http://live.gnome.org/Orca> ⟨http://live.gnome.org/Orca⟩
268 The orca mailing list <http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-
270 list> To post a message to all orca list, send a email to orca-
271 list@gnome.org
272GNOME 20 September 2013 orca(1)