
Use VoiceOver cursor tracking and cursor wrapping on Mac
By default, the VoiceOver cursor and keyboard focus are synchronized—set to follow (or track) each other. This is called cursor tracking. You can also set the VoiceOver cursor and the mouse pointer to track each other.
It can be useful to turn off cursor tracking, and use the keyboard, mouse pointer, and insertion point independently. For example, in Messages you can move the VoiceOver cursor to the message portion to hear incoming messages, while the keyboard focus remains in the text field to type outgoing messages.
When you use cursor wrapping, VoiceOver treats the items in a window or column as a continuous loop to make them easier to navigate.
Note: VO represents the VoiceOver modifier that you press with additional keys to enter VoiceOver commands. By default, you can press Control and Option together or just press Caps Lock.
Turn on cursor tracking for the mouse
Go to VoiceOver Utility (press VO-Fn-F8 when VoiceOver is on).
Click the Navigation category, click the “Mouse pointer” pop-up menu, then choose a behavior for the mouse pointer:
Follows VoiceOver cursor
Moves VoiceOver cursor
Turn off cursor tracking
Go to VoiceOver Utility (press VO-Fn-F8 when VoiceOver is on).
Click the Navigation category, then deselect “Synchronize keyboard focus and VoiceOver cursor.”
Click the “Mouse pointer” pop-up menu, then choose “Ignores VoiceOver cursor.”
To temporarily turn cursor tracking on or off while you’re working, press VO-Shift-F3. This command doesn’t change the settings in VoiceOver Utility; it just switches them on or off until you press the command again.
Work with cursor tracking turned off
Move the VoiceOver cursor to the keyboard focus: Press VO-Shift-F4.
Move the keyboard focus to the VoiceOver cursor: Press VO-Command-F4.
Move the VoiceOver cursor to where the mouse pointer is focused: Press VO-Shift-F5.
Move the mouse pointer to where the VoiceOver cursor is focused: Press VO-Command-F5.
Turn on and use cursor wrapping
Go to VoiceOver Utility (press VO-Fn-F8 when VoiceOver is on).
Click Navigation, then select “Allow cursor wrapping.”
To use wrapping, do any of the following:
Wrap from the last item in a window to the top of the window: Press VO-Right Arrow.
Wrap from the first item in a window to the bottom of the window: Press VO-Left Arrow.
Wrap from an item at the bottom of a column (such as a list) to the first item in the next column: Press VO-Down Arrow.
Wrap from an item at the top of a column (such as a list) to the last item in the previous column: Press VO-Up Arrow.
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