NVDA: Keyboard Shortcuts To Read Text With

Hello. In this video which is almost 5 minutes long, I demonstrate the keyboard shortcuts that can be used with the screen reader NVDA in order to read text aloud.

I think all in all there are 16 shortcuts that I list in this video.

At the start of the video I also tell you how to check which keyboard setting NVDA is set to- laptop or desktop.

The video has a full set of subtitles with it, but if you would prefer to read from a full transcript, then find one below

Start of Video Transcript

Hello everyone. It is James from the Visual Impairment Team in Devon.

In this video I am going to demonstrate the shortcut keys that use can use in NVDA to read text.

NVDA can either be setup to work with a desktop style keyboard or a laptop style keyboard.

Depending on which one it is will change some of the keyboard shortcuts that we will need to read the text.

If you are unsure, then you can check what your setup is by pressing the NVDA key and the N key together- mine is the insert key.

Then press P for preferences and k for keyboard settings.

Mine is set to laptop.

To switch between desktop or laptop, press the up arrow or the down arrow.

Then press the enter button.

So now let me run through some of the keyboard commands for reading text with NVDA.

I will be demonstrating the keyboard shortcuts for a laptop but I will talk you through the keyboard shortcuts for a desktop as well.

There are four levels that NVDA can read text on a page or in a document. They are line, sentence, word and character.

Line

To read out the current line of text, on your laptop press the NVDA key + Shift key + the . key. To do this on your desktop, press number pad 8.

To read out the next line of text, on your laptop press the NVDA key and the down arrow. To do this on your desktop, press number pad 9.

To read out the previous line of text, on your laptop press the NVDA key and the up arrow. To do this on your desktop, press number pad 7.

To read out the top line of text on your laptop press the NVDA key + Control key + Home key and if you are using a desktop keyboard you need to press the Shift key and the number pad 7 key.

To read out the bottom line of the text, on your laptop press the NVDA key and the Control key and the End key. To do this on your desktop press the shift key and number pad 9 key.

Sentence

I could be wrong but when it comes to reading out sentences you use the same shortcuts on a desktop keyboard as you do on a laptop keyboard.

To read out the current sentence press the Alt key + the . key.

To read out the next sentence, press the Alt key +  the down arrow.

To read out the previous sentence, press the Alt key and the up arrow.

Word

To read the current word on your laptop press the NVDA key and the Control key and the . key. To do this on your desktop, press number pad 5.

To read out the next word, on your laptop press the NVDA key and the Control key and the right arrow key. To do this on your desktop, press number pad 6.

To read out the previous word, on your laptop press the NVDA key and the Control key and the left arrow key. To do this on your desktop, press number pad 4.

Character

To read out the current character, on your laptop press the NVDA key +  . key. To do this on your desktop, press number pad 2.

To read out the next character, on your laptop press the NVDA key and the right arrow. To do this on your desktop, press number pad 3.

To read out the previous character, on your laptop press the NVDA key and the left arrow. To do this on your desktop, press number pad 1.

And finally to read everything out from where the review cursor is on your laptop press the NVDA key and the shift key and the a key. To do this on your desktop, press number pad + key.

And that is it!

Thanks for watching my video demonstrating the keyboard shortcuts that allow the screen reader NVDA to read out text from documents.  

If you have any comments or questions or anything to add to the discussion, please leave them below.

End of Video Transcript