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                    MacSword Quick Start for Leopard and Snow Leopard with Voiceover Revision 003

You will find a good deal of information in this guide, please read it carefully before trying to use this program.

For MacSword version 1.4.3

Note: It is possible that MacSword 1.4.3 will also work with Mac OSX 10.4 Tiger and voiceover. However, this has not been tested at this time. You are welcome to either attempt using this guide with Tiger or refer to the MacSword Guide for Tiger which uses an earlier version of MacSword.

You can download MacSword 1.4.3 from: www.MacSword.com

Getting Started with MacSword and Voiceover Basics

This guide will cover:
Installing and uninstalling MacSword ,Using the Bible, Strong's Concordance Numbers, Commentaries and the Search or Find System, as well as a few other hints to get you started.

Voiceover Terminology

First of all, lets talk about some Voiceover terms.

1. When you hear "VO keys" this means that you will be using the control and option keys with another key in order to cause something to happen in Voiceover.

2. When you here the term "interact" that means that you will need to use the VO keys-shift-down arrow keys to interact with the text or screen.

3. Stop interacting with VO keys-shift-up arrow keys.

4. Double-clicking: Sometimes you will want to double-click an item with the mouse. Here are the steps for doing this.
A. Move to the item you want to double-click with vo keys and arrows. Use vo keys-f3 to make sure your voiceover cursor is on the item.
B. Make sure your mouse is also on the item. Use vo keys-f5 to see if the mouse is on the item; if not, do vo keys command -f5 to move the mouse to the item and then do vo keys f5 to make sure the mouse has really moved. If the mouse doesn't move to the item, you may need to do some troubleshooting of your voiceover settings that is beyond the scope of this quickstart.
C. There are two ways of double-clicking the item once the mouse is lined up. One involves using vo keys and the other involves using mouse-keys.

vo keys: Press vo keys-shift-space twice in succession quickly.
Mouse-keys: Mouse-keys has to be set up by going to System Preferences > Universal Access. In the Mouse tab, you can enable mouse-keys and/or check the check box so that pressing the option key five times toggles mouse-keys on and off.
Once mouse-keys is enabled, you can use mouse-keys by pressing the option key five times quickly if mouse-keys needs to be turned on and then pressing the 5 key on the numeric keypad (the one with the dot) twice quickly. If you do not have a numeric keypad, hold down the fn. key and press the letter "i" twice quickly.

5. Note that there are even more ways of using voiceover in Snow Leopard than in Leopard, especially with the addition of quick nav and the various commanders.. It is not possible to cover all commands or methods that can be used. If you know or discover a method that accomplishes tasks with MacSword using different techniques than are described here, feel free to use whatever works for you.

Section 1, Installing MacSword
Note, Because of differences between this version of MacSword and previous versions, it may be best to uninstall your previous version if you have one before installing the new version. This is probably not absolutely necessary, but may save some confusion as to the location of modules. To uninstall your previous versions or this version of MacSword, see the section below on uninstalling MacSword.

To install MacSword 1.4.3:
1. Download the zip file from: www.MacSword.com.
Use the download link and then the link that says MacSword-1.4.3.dmg.zip. Your download should start automatically in just a few seconds. If for some reason this doesn't happen, there is a link on the page to click to initiate the download. This is clearly indicated on the page.

2. When your download is completed, MacSword-1.4.3 should be mounted on your Desktop. If this for some reason does not happen, go to your default downloads folder--by default this would be Downloads in your home directory (/Users/_your_user_name]/Downloads. From there, you can use vo keys-space to open the .zip file and then vo keys-space again to open/mount the .dmg file.

3. In the image browser for the opened .dmg, you will find a MacSword application and Readmes folder. You can inspect the Readmes folder at your convenience, but for now, move to the MacSword application and press command-c to copy it.

4. Press command-shift-a to go to the Applications folder and press command-v to paste the MacSword application.

5. In your Applications folder open the MacSword application. You may get a dialog asking if you want to open this application since this is your first time opening it; do vo keys-space on open.

6. You may now get a dialog telling you that no MacSword modules can be found and advising you to download and install modules or check your preferences. Just press vo keys-space on "ok".

7. Now you will be in the Modules window. You will see bibles commentaries lexicons devotionals books. These are the categories of the modules you can have in MacSword.

8. Make sure you are connected to the Internet. The following steps for installing MacSword modules using the automated installer require an Internet connection. They are also likely not to work if you are using a slow connection such as a dialup connection; you may get no error messages but will be unable to obtain a list of modules from which to choose for automated installation. In this case, it would be best for you to go somewhere where you can use a non-dialup connection. If you are unable to do this, you will have to resort to downloading and installing modules manually or finding somebody who can send you a cd or dvd containing the modules you need. Manual module download and installation are not at this time covered in this guide.

9. Do vo keys-m to access menus. Right-arrow to the MacSword column and arrow down to the "module installer" and Press enter.

10. You will be in an alert dialog that says this is the first use of the module installer. do you want to refresh the default crosswire install source?" Do vo keys-space on "ok".

11. After a few seconds you may hear the word "toolbar". At any rate, check your window title with vo keys-f2 and you will find that you are in the module manager. You will see two tables with a search text field in between. The first table has "crosswire" in it and probably says "collapsed level zero. The second table has a list of all the available modules--Bibles, commentaries, lexicons, devotionals and books--that can be downloaded. Each row in this second table has the following information: Name; task (with pop-up button to the right); status (all not installed the first time you run the installer); Description; revision; version; and type.
There are two ways you can proceed here.

A. You can look at each row in the table and change the pop-up from "none" to "install" for those items you want to install.
B. If all those rows are a bit overwhelming, you can go into the first table and do a right arrow on the collapsed "crosswire". This will expand the Crosswire into four categories. You can then interact with the first table, move to the category where you want to make selections, stop interacting with the table, move to the second table, and change the tasks pop-up for the items you want to install to "install". You can proceed this way with each category.

12. You can make as many selections as you want to make but remember also that you can run the installer and add more modules or remove modules at any time.
After you have made your selections for this first time, go to the toolbar and press vo keys-space on "process tasks". The installer will install the modules you have selected. You will find in the window if you move with vo keys-right-arrow what item is being installed and the progress of the install. Modules are by default installed in your home folder under Library/Application Support/Sword/modules. The Sword folder as well as a Macsword folder, also in Application Support, are actually created the first time you open the MacSword application.

13 When the installation is completed, close the module manager window with command-w or the close button. Then quit MacSword with command-q. When you reopen the application, all of the modules you have installed will be available to you.

Uninstalling MacSword

1. In Finder, go to Applications using command-shift-a.

2. Interact with the icon scroll area and find MacSword. You may be
able to do this by typing Macs rather quickly. Otherwise browse with
ctrl-option-right-arrow till you find it or use the item chooser. Depending on which version of MacSword you have installed, it may be a folder or just an application.

3. When MacSword is selected, press command-option-backspace to send it
to trash and then you can press command-option-shift-backspace and empty
trash.

4. Use command-w to close your applications window. To avoid confusion,
you also should trash any installation files for MacSword you have in Downloads or on your Desktop or anywhere on your computer.

5. Look in your home directory in Library > Preferences for any MacSword files. There should be one ending in .plist. If so, send it to trash and empty the trash.

6. If for some reason you are uninstalling MacSword 1.4.3, there will also be a couple of folders in your home directory under Library > Preferences > Application Support. Browse there with Finder and send both the Sword and MacSword folders to trash and empty the trash.
MacSword should now be completely uninstalled.

Section 3 Setting up MacSword

Text can be made bigger for low vision users. The function to do this is under options in menus.

This is a great Bible study program, however there are some things that a Voiceover user needs to do to make the program usable with the Mac. Here is how I do it and it works for me.
MacSword is on my Dock, so I go to the Dock with VO keys-d and right arrow until I hear MacSword and press enter to open the program.

If you do not have MacSword on your Dock, do the following:

From the finder press command-shift-a which will take you in to the applications menu and start typing MacSword and you should hear MacSword spoken. At this point, press command-o or vo keys-space to open the MacSword folder.

When you open this folder, you will want to find a good way to get around in this folder. I use list view. For list view, press, command-2. Now everything in this folder is in a list and numbered. You will need to find MacSword.app. When you have found it, press command-o or vo keys-space to open it.

Now that you have the MacSword application open you can put it on your Dock so that you will not need to go through all of that again.

Do the following.

With the MacSword application open, press, VO keys-d to go to the Dock. Now right arrow, or left arrow without the VO keys until you hear, MacSword running. Now, if using Snow Leopard, press vo keys-shift-m to enter the context menu and arrow down to the options submenu. Right-arrow and arrow down to "keep in dock". and press enter. If using Leopard, simply arrow down without vo keys to "keep in dock" and press enter. Now MacSword will be in the Dock the next time you want to use it.

Disabling tool tips: may be optional
In previous versions of MacSword it was necessary to disable tool tips to keep voiceover from saying "busy" repeatedly. This may or may not be necessary with your computer when using MacSword 1.4.3. If you are repeatedly hearing "busy" when trying to use MacSword, you need to disable tool tips. To disable tool tips do the following:

1. In the MacSword window, press command-comma to go into preferences.
2. vo keys-right- or down-arrow to the Interfaces tab and select it with vo keys-space.
3. Find the box that says "use tool tips in references" and uncheck it with space or vo keys-space.

You may be interested in other options in Preferences. Go ahead and explore the tabs while you are there. Then close Preferences window with command-w.

Section 4: Using MacSword

The first thing you should hear in the MacSword program when you reopen it after installing your modules is: "MacSword modules". You will probably also hear "bibles group". The various categories, depending on what you have installed, will probably all be collapsed so that you see only categories as you arrow down. To expand a category, use right-arrow. You can start by doing this with the Bibles category and then arrow up and down within that category to see the Bible translation modules. You can do this with all the categories, and once all categories are expanded you can arrow up and down in the list to find all of your modules. If you see a table or the word "group" but are unable to arrow, you may need to interact before being able to arrow and/or expand categories.

You will probably want to start by opening a Bible module. To do this:

1. Arrow to the Bible translation you wish to open.
2. Make sure the voiceover cursor is on the module you wish to open and line up your mouse with the item
3. Double-click. Especially in Snow Leopard, You will probably need to use the mouse-keys method described earlier in this document but the vo keys method may work for you so try that first if you are not used to mouse-keys or have not set it up.

When the module has been successfully opened, you will hear "html content".You may have to interact with the html content and use vo keys-right-arrow to read. You will be in the "about this book" section of the module you have opened.

Finding a Location/Reference

There are two methods for going to a location/reference.

A. Typing Method

1. Tab to about navigation combo box. Because this is a combo box it should not be necessary to Press the space bar to clear the contents field but if you have problems it won't hurt to go ahead and do this. Now type in the book name in capital letters, for instance JOHN. Be sure to use capital letters or you will be very frustrated when it doesn't work. Also, it is usually possible to type the first few letters rather than the whole book name as long as there is only one book that starts with the letters you have typed.

2. Now tab once more to where you will hear a number and the words, navigation combo box.
Again, it should usually not be necessary to Press the space bar to clear this field. Now type in the chapter number and if you want a specific verse, add a period and the verse number, lets say, 3.16 and press enter. If you want a range of verses in the chapter, use a dash between the first and last verse of your range: 3.14-20.

3. Now tab, or, back tab to HTML content . You may or may not need to interact with the html content. You should find your selection.

B. Navigation Method

1. Tab to the "about" navigation box. Arrow down and you will hear "interacting with list". Arrow to the book you want and press enter.
2. Tab or backtab to the navigation combo box with a number in it. Arrow down to the chapter you want and press enter.
3. Tab or backtab again to the navigation field with a number in it--it should be the number you just selected. Right arrow and type the verse number or range preceded by a period and then press enter (This step is not necessary if you want the beginning of the chapter).
4. Tab or backtab to the html area and you should find your selection.

Note that you use the same methods to choose a new location/reference though the navigation field will now say the book and chapter you have selected rather than "about".

Opening Other Modules in the same place in a new window

If you would like to use the same method to open a commentary, or, another translation in another window, so that you can move between the windows, [we will talk about moving between windows later in this guide] you may use the window chooser, VO keys-f2 twice arrow down to modules and press enter. Then use the method above to make your new choice. Your choice a commentary, or, translation will open in the same place in the Bible as your last selection.

The Mac almost always gives you more than one way to do things and here is another way to do the same thing.

To open a commentary, or, another translation to the same point in the Bible as your last selection, do the following.

First of all stop interacting with your last selection, if you are still in the HTML window.

Open a new window with command-n and tab to module pop up button. You will hear the current selection spoken. Pressing down arrow will open a drop down menu.

Continue to arrow down until you hear your new selection spoken Then press the spacebar to choose your new selection a commentary, or translation.

It doesn't matter which method you choose, you will get to the same place.

Now you have 3 windows open, the modules window, your first selection window and your second selection window.
You can choose to look at any one of the windows by using the window chooser, VO keys-f2 twice and arrowing down through the windows and pressing enter on the one you want, or, you may move between the 3 open windows with command accent; the key just below the escape key.

If you would like to change the chapter and verse information in one of your windows, tab to the relative navigation combo boxes, type in your new references and press enter.
This comes in really handy when you are in Church, or, in Sunday school, you can stay in the same window and just change the Bible reference to keep up with the Bible text that is being taught.

Just another word or two about windows. How many windows can you have open at one time? I don't know. I have used 10 open windows with no trouble and I am sure I could have opened more.

If you want to keep all of your windows open when you shut down MacSword, just press command-q to close the program without closing any of your windows. The next time you open MacSword, all should be as you left it. It is also of course possible to close some windows and leave others open.

Menus and Strong's Concordance Numbers

Remember this program also has a menu system, which you can access with VO keys-dash-m, or control-F2. Take a few minutes to explore the menu system, using just your left and right or up and down arrow keys. This will be a great help to you in learning to use the MacSword Bible study program. Strong's numbers for instance can be accessed from menus under options. Cursor down to Strong's numbers and check the check box with the space bar. Now when you go back to your text, you will find the Strong's numbers imbedded in the text. If you find a word, name or phrase that you would like to know more about, just press enter on the number you wish to use and arrow around in the new window with the arrow keys. You may need to use Voiceover Keys and the arrow keys in the new window.

When you have finished with Strong's numbers, remember to go back and uncheck the box.

A Few Commands

To use the commands listed below, you must tab out of the html content before performing them and then tab back to the html content.
Next chapter, command-right arrow
Previous chapter, command left arrow
Next book or entry, command-down arrow
Previous book or entry, command-up arrow.
Use the back button in your toolbar to go back to previous references done in the window and then the forward button to move forward through the references you set up.

Word or Phrase Search

to do a word or phrase search do the following:

Command-f is the find command.

The first thing you will hear is, "Find window". The Find window will come up with the Voiceover cursor on the words "combo box". Type in your word, phrase, or search string.

Next tab through the choices of how you want the search to be done. You will find a couple of pop-up buttons, a checkbox, and a help button and find button. When you have set up your search, tab or back tab to "find" depending on where in the window you are and press enter or, if you know the search is set up correctly you can just press enter after typing your search string. The search takes just a few seconds, unless you are searching for the first time, in that event it may take several minutes to index. Voiceover may or may not tell you when the search is done,

Next tab over to where you hear, "table". You may then move through the table with just the arrow keys. However, if the arrow keys do not respond, try Interacting with the list, or, using VO keys-up and down arrow keys.

If you would like to see one of the verses in your search in context, that is to say see the chapter in the Bible where the verse is located, while you are on the row or verse, line up the reference with your mouse and double-click. You will be taken to that chapter but this will be done in another window so the windows you already have set up will not be changed.
Unless you close the "find" window, you can go back to that window and look at and access more references. You can also type over your previous selection and type in another word or phrase. Since this is a combo box, your previous searches will still be accessible by arrowing up and down in the combo box. If instead you type command-f from within a module, a new blank find window will be opened.

Personal Commentary

One of your download choices when you install modules is the personal commentary. This choice gives you a place to write your own notes on a passage. When you open the personal commentary, you can navigate to a particular chapter or have it one in the same passage you already have open in your Bible choice. The html content will tell you that this commentary may not be complete but in this case it isn't supposed to be complete. Just do a command-e and you will have the verse numbers, each with a text edit field in which you can write.

As you can see, this is a wonderfully versatile and useful Bible study program. There are other ways you can use it, but Hopefully, this will get you started in MacSword. We have many things to learn about this program and many more things to learn about God's Word. Let's learn together.

In Christ service
for God's glory,

Keith Reedy, Director

Cheryl Homiak, Volunteer

BIBLES FOR THE BLIND AND
VISUALLY HANDICAPPED INTERNATIONAL

www.biblesfortheblind.org

Disclaimer: The information on this site is provided as a public service to the blind and visually handicapped community. While we have done our best to ensure the information provided is accurate, please realize the use of any information on this site is solely at your discretion and we take no responsibility for use or attempted use of this information.