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External keyboard equivalents of VoiceOver gestures on iPhone and iPad
Many of the keyboard commands you will use while working with the Mail app are keyboard equivalents of VoiceOver gestures. Most keyboard equivalents of VoiceOver gestures require the VoiceOver modifier key or keys to be held down while another key or keys are tapped. The default modifier requires two keys to be held down - the control and option keys, which are the second and third keys along the bottom row from the left on the Apple Magic Keyboard without a numeric keypad, the smaller of the two Magic Keyboard sizes. On the Logitech K380 keyboard they are the first and third keys. The location will vary with other keyboards. There is an alternative modifier which requires just one key to be held down, the caps lock key, which is two keys above the bottom left key on most keyboards. Your choice can be set in Settings / Accessibility / VoiceOver / typing. where you maty select one or both options to be available to you.
I have followed Apple's convention here and use the two capital letters, V and O, to indicate when the modifier needs to be held down. For example, the keyboard equivalent of a double tap is to hold down the modifier key or keys and tap the space bar. This is written as VO - space, the capital letters V and O, a hyphen and then the word space.
Apple also offers a feature called QuickNav which permits the omission of the VO keys for some commands. I do not describe QuickNav here; you will find details in Apple's user guides.
I have listed a selection of keyboard VoiceOver gesture equivalents in the keyboard control section below. A complete list may be found at Settings / Accessibility / VoiceOver / Commands / Keyboard Shortcuts. If you are an experienced VoiceOver user you may wish to reassign some commands here to make it easier to use your favourite commands.
Opening the Mail app
OK, let's get started. The Mail app can be started with the Siri command "Open Mail" or you can use touch gestures and locate the app on your Home screen and double tap. However, if you prefer to take total control with the keyboard, here's how.
Ensure that you are on the Home screen by typing VO-H. Your simplest option is probably to use the VO-right arrow equivalent of a swipe right to repeatedly swipe right and locate the Mail app and then type VO-space, the equivalent of a VoiceOver double tap, to open it. Other quicker options should be available but I have sometimes had problems with them and leave you to experiment if you wish.
External keyboard control of the Mail app for iPhone and iPad VoiceOver users
Much of the time you will be able to work with a keyboard by performing keyboard equivalents of touch gestures. This won't be possible, however, for those times when you search for a button by feeling for it at a known location like a back button near top left of the screen or a send button near top right of the screen. Back buttons are easy. The keyboard equivalent is always the escape key at the top left of the keyboard. Other buttons can be located using the item chooser for which you type VO-I. With the item chooser, you can either swipe right with VO-right arrow through all of the items on screen or use the Section Index to move more quickly to the item you need. Be aware that the item chooser lets you place VoiceOver's focus on an item. It does not activate the item. When you have heard the item's name spoken, activate it with VO-space.
Here are some keyboard equivalents for touch gestures that you will find useful in Mail.
To select the next item, use VO-right arrow, the equivalent of swipe right.
To select the previous item, use VO-left arrow, the equivalent of swipe left.
To activate the selected item, use VO-space, the equivalent of double tap.
To speak from the current position, use VO-A, the equivalent of a two finger swipe down).
To pause or resume VoiceOver speech, tap the control key. (This is the second key from the left on the bottom row of the small Apple Magic Keyboard and the first on the Logitech keyboard.)
To go back to the previous screen, use the escape key on its own. Escape is the top left key. This is the keyboard equivalent of locating and double tapping a back button or performing a two finger scrub gesture.
To return to the home screen, use VO-H.
To perform a VoiceOver swipe up or down, use VO-up arrow or down arrow.
To open the item chooser, use VO-I.
Mail keyboard shortcuts
The Mail app provides a few keyboard shortcuts of its own which are used by holding down the command key and tapping another key. There is a command key on either side of the space bar. Either may be used in these shortcuts.
To begin a new email, use command-N.
To reply, use command-R.
To view previous email when a message is open, use command-up arrow.
To view next email when a message is open, use command-down arrow.
Keyboard text editing commands with VoiceOver on an external keyboard
The keyboard editing commands will be useful when entering or correcting the body of the email message. These commands work only when QuickNav is turned off. QuickNav sometimes seems to turn on automatically so, before using the keyboard editing commands, please ensure that QuickNav is off by tapping the left and right arrow keys simultaneously. This toggles QuickNav. A rising tone will be heard if QuickNav has just been turned on and a falling tone will be heard if QuickNav has just been turned off.
Some of these keys require the option or command key to be held down while you tap another key. The option key is marked as alt on some keyboards. On a standard Apple keyboard and the Logitech K380 keyboard, it is the second key to the left of the space bar.
To go forward or back one character, use right arrow or left arrow.
To go forward or back one word, use option-right arrow or option-left arrow.
To go up or down one line, use up arrow or down arrow.
To go to the beginning or end of the paragraph (note that a paragraph is ended with a newline character), use option-up arrow or option-down arrow.
To go to the previous or next paragraph, use option-up arrow or option-down arrow.
To go to the beginning or end of the text field, use command-up arrow or command-down arrow.
To select text as you move, use shift + any of the insertion point moving tools above.
To select all text, use command-A.
To copy, cut or paste the selected text, use command-C, command-X or command-V.
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