Re: [orca-list] All about Orca

[Kyle <kyle4jesus gmail com>]

I don't know the answers to all your questions, but I'll answer the ones 
I can inline.

Amy had a few questions that went something like this:
> 1. I was wondering how to copy and paste using orca in Linux?


Copy and paste isn't done using Orca, but rather using the desktop 
environment. It should be very similar to what you're used to doing. Go 
to the beginning of the text you want to select, use shifted arrow keys 
to select the text, then press control+c to copy it to the clipboard, or 
control+x to cut it. Then go to the place where you want to paste, in 
any application that will accept text, and press control+v where you 
want the text pasted. I see you mention trying to copy from a terminal 
in another question. This is handled somewhat differently. The most 
reliable method I found to do this has been to pipe my command through 
tee like


ls *txt | tee TextFileList


Then I can put TextFileList into a text editor and copy what I want 
using standard commands. On the other hand, there is a method for doing 
this using the flat review functionality I explain below. Easiest is to 
copy whole lines by going to the line where you want to start, pressing 
the left click emulation key, the slash key on the number pad, 3 times 
rapidly, then going to the last line you want to copy, pressing 
shift+slash on the number pad, then pressing control+shift+c in the 
terminal to copy your highlighted text to the clipboard. But the tee 
method has the added benefit, aside from its increased reliability and 
standard way of copying since you're using a text editor, that you won't 
have to worry about command output scrolling off the screen, because the 
entire output of the command is stored in the file you specify, so you 
can just navigate through the file and find what you want to copy just 
like you would any other text file.


> 3. I like to use Jaws to write my assignments. I was wondering is there a
> way I can copy the text from the termal terminal and somehow put it into the
> word doc that I have on my regular machine?


Most virtual machine software has what is referred to as a bidirectional 
clipboard, where you can copy from the host OS and paste into the guest, 
or copy from the guest and paste into the host. But that's pretty 
roundabout for what it sounds like you're trying to do, and doesn't 
always work. It would be much easier to just use LibreOffice or possibly 
a Google doc. Writing a Google doc has the added benefit of being 
accessible to both the virtual machine and its host at the same time. So 
you could write most of your document from the main machine and just 
paste into the same document from in your virtual machine's browser.

> 4. How can I read a word at a time after I executes a command in the
> terminal?


Orca has complete flat review functionality. Using your number pad if 
you have one, you can use 7, 8 and 9 to review by lines, 4, 5 and 6 to 
read by words and 1, 2 and 3 to read by characters. These all work as 
expected, where the left key goes up or to the left, the middle key 
reads the current line, character or word, and the right key moves the 
review down or to the right.


> 5. How can I let Orca to read the text from the terminal back to me again?
> When I type a command and hit enter, Orca reads to me only once. I am not
> sure how to make Orca repeated to me.


That is the functionality of the flat review I mentioned. You can hold 
down the Orca key, 0 on the number pad and press the 7 key to skip back 
to the top, and then you can use the keys I mentioned in the previous 
answer to review the text in the terminal as needed. The text editor 
method I mention using the pipe through the tee command will do the same 
thing, but it's a text file, so you can read the output in your favorite 
text editor, usually either gedit or pluma, depending on your system, no 
matter how many screens the output took. Hope this helps.

~Kyle