Using Save & Open Dialog Boxes with VoiceOver

Assistive Technology Team, August 2012

This guide has been written using Mac OSX and TextEdit. Word 2011 for Mac is not compatible with VoiceOver. To be able to effectively use the Save & Open dialog boxes is a fundamental skill for using TextEdit and many other programs.

Using the Open Dialog

  1. Open the Open dialog by pressing COMMAND-O. You will hear “Plain Text Encoding”
  2. Press Tab 5 times to check the current location (a pop up button).
  3. If you want to open documents from another location that you have used recently, press the DOWN ARROW to choose the location you want and then press ENTER. If you have not used the location recently, you must navigate to the new location in a different way (see Navigation to a Location section of this document for instructions)
  4. From the location pop up button, press Tab 3 times to get to the list of documents. Use the UP and DOWN arrows to go to the file you want to open, then press ENTER.

Using the Save Dialog

  1. Open the Save As dialog by pressing SHIFT-COMMAND-S
  2. You will hear “Save As”. Press the LEFT ARROW to start interacting with the filename. Your cursor will be placed at the start of the default file name. Either leave the default file name, or type the name you want the file to have.
  3. Press Tab 3 times to check the location of where the file will be saved.
  4. If you are happy with the location, press ENTER to save the file
  5. If you are not happy with the current location, change the location to a recently used location by pressing the DOWN ARROW to choose the location you want and then press ENTER. Press ENTER again to save the file.
  6. If you are not happy with the current location and have not used the location recently, you must navigate to the new location in a different way (see Navigation to a Location section of this document for instructions).

Navigating to a location

Note that in many cases you may find it easier to use Spotlight to open files or folders. To start Spotlight press COMMAND-SPACE. Type the word or phrase you want to search for and the results appear immediately in a menu below the search field – use the UP/DOWN ARROWS to find the item you want and then press ENTER. The more complete your search term, the more refined your list of results will be.

To quickly get to the My Documents folder from the Save As or Open window:

  1. From the location pop up, press TAB twice. You will hear “Sidebar”. The sidebar contains a list of top level folders and drives.
  2. Press D or Documents
  3. Press TAB once more to view a list of all folders and documents contained within the Documents folder.

To get to a USB memory stick or external disk if you know the drive name:

  1. From the location pop up, press TAB twice. You will hear “Sidebar”. The sidebar contains a list of top level folders and drives.
  2. Use the UP/DOWN ARROWS to find the USB drive, and then press TAB once more to view a list of all folders and documents contained on the USB drive.

To open any location:

  1. From the location pop up, press TAB twice. You will hear “Sidebar”. The sidebar contains a list of top level folders and drives.
  2. Go to the top level drive or folder using the UP/DOWN ARROWS, then press TAB once more to view a list of all folders and documents in that location.
  3. Use the UP/DOWN ARROWS to move through the list. You can use the RIGHT ARROW to expand a folder to see all the folders inside it. You can use the LEFT ARROW to collapse a folder so you have a shorter list to navigate. Note that in the Save As dialog box, you can use the LEFT/RIGHT arrows to move backwards and forwards through the folder hierarchy.

Further Information

For further help and advice, please contact the Assistive Technology Team by email at or by phone on 01224 273336.

Copyright 2012 University of AberdeenPage 1