David, I use tab too and I have struggled with weather to teach tab
or Vo Keys. what I found was that since Vo keys provided more
information and especially since the person was a beginner I started
dialogs that way. After they would get the hang of that and get all
of the pertinant info I would suggest trying the tab key once they
understood the dialog. Unfortunatley, tab does not provide as much
info in Mac land as in Windows so sometimes it's great and sometimes
it's not. I believe the abillity to get consistant information will
be the key to intruducing people to the Mac. Yes, it definately is a
bit clutzy at furst holding down keys but again, it's a new way of
doing things and once you start it turns in to a reflex. It's like
developing a habit.
My habit in windows was to use tab and arrows. When I discovered I
could use My Mac in much the same way as I use windows, I jumped on
it. I also remember thinking at the time that it would have saved me
alot of struggle to have learned this way instead of using VO keys
for everything. Yes, it is necessary to use the two in conjunction
quite a bit and there are some Macs I have had trouble with while
trying to use the tab and arrows even though I set them up the same
way as I have mine set up, I look at the VO keys though as something
of a review senario and tabs and arrows where they work as the more
direct mechanisms. I still have not gotten comfortable with using VO
keys for things I can use tab and arrows for even though I've worked
hard at it.
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