The beginning of this may seem like a really arcane discussion. Some of you who used MS DOS will remember that operations were accomplished by typing commands like “deltree” and entering. IBM and then IBM based personal computers used this system through the 1980s and early 1990s. Windows 95 used the mouse to move an arrow or cursor about the screen and avoided the need to memorize a large number of typed commands.

Another way of moving quickly has been the use of keystroke (keyboard) commands. This has been largely abandoned – or never learned – by PC and laptop users. But they still work, and some are very useful. For the novice the vast number of commands is daunting. Howevert of 20 keystrokes that are worth learning; commands like ctrl+F (control + F).

This command can be used to find a word or phrase in almost any document or application. I use an accessibility program, ZoomText, developed by AI Squared, that lets me have the computer read things to me, enlarge text, change the screen and text colors, enlarge the arrow and cursor and do a number of other things that make computers useful to those with low vision. Most of the changes are accomplished using keystrokes – or they can be accomplished by a special keyboard that has an extra set of buttons across the top that substitute for the keystrokes. I don’t change things a lot with the exception of my color set-up. Typically, I use “video reversal” which changes every color to the opposite point on the color wheel, and this produces a black screen, yellowish-white text configuration as I am very light sensitive, but ctrl+shift+C changes the color to normal. I use this all of the time for looking at photographs. They just don’t make sense with the color reversal setting that I use in place.

MidiStroke converts midi note, program or CC messages into keystrokes. Any single midi message can trigger as many keystrokes as you like, in order. As one example, you could use one note on message to select all, copy, move to the right, paste, move right and paste again. The O!ce v.X suite comprises Word, Excel, Entourage and PowerPoint. Using keyboard shortcuts instead of your mouse can greatly increase your e!ciently and productivity on your Apple computer. To learn more about other Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts and access later versions of O!ce keyboard shortcuts please visit www.osxkeyboardshortcuts.com.

Installing Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is a two-step process. First you download the installation package, and then you install Acrobat Reader DC from If you're running Mac OS X 10.8 or older, the Adobe Reader download page looks like this: You can install an older version of Acrobat Reader. Adobe acrobat pro free for mac.

So, yesterday, when Hillary Clinton was talking about the Alt Right I had one of those moments when I have a hard time dismissing one meaning of a term and embracing another. The right arrow on your PC/laptop moves the cursor to the right, and the reverse for the left arrow.

One disadvantage of ZoomText magnification is that as one magnifies the screen parts of it disappear off of the side. So, since I use a 2X magnification (really small by low vision standards) half of the page is off the screen. By typing 'alt+right arrow' the screen moves to the left without moving the cursor so that the right side of the screen is visible. That is a very helpful command for me. Alternatively, I can move the mouse and do the same thing.