macOS Sonoma 14
macOS Ventura 13
macOS Monterey 12
macOS Big Sur 11.0
macOS Catalina 10.15
macOS Mojave 10.14
macOS High Sierra
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Table of Contents
macOS User Guide
- Welcome
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- What’s in the menu bar?
- Work on the desktop
- Search with Spotlight
- Quickly change settings
- Use Siri
- Get notifications
- Open apps from the Dock
- Organize your files in the Finder
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- Connect to the internet
- Browse the web
- Preview a file
- Take a screenshot
- Change your display’s brightness
- Adjust the volume
- Use trackpad and mouse gestures
- Use Touch ID
- Print documents
- Keyboard shortcuts
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- Apps on your Mac
- Open apps
- Work with app windows
- Use apps in full screen
- Use apps in Split View
- Use Stage Manager
- Get apps from the App Store
- Install and reinstall apps from the App Store
- Install and uninstall other apps
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- Create and work with documents
- Open documents
- Mark up files
- Combine files into a PDF
- Organize files on your desktop
- Organize files with folders
- Tag files and folders
- Back up files
- Restore files
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- Change System Settings
- Choose your desktop wallpaper
- Add and customize widgets
- Use a screen saver
- Add a user or group
- Add your email and other accounts
- Automate tasks with Shortcuts
- Create Memoji
- Change your login picture
- Change the system language
- Make text and other items on the screen bigger
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- Set up a Focus to stay on task
- Set up Screen Time for yourself
- Use Dictation
- Send emails
- Send text messages
- Make a FaceTime video call
- Edit photos and videos
- Use Live Text to interact with text in a photo
- Start a Quick Note
- Get directions
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- Work across devices using Continuity
- Use iPhone as a webcam
- Use iPhone with Desk View
- Stream audio and video with AirPlay
- Use one keyboard and mouse to control Mac and iPad
- Hand off between devices
- Unlock your Mac with Apple Watch
- Make and receive phone calls on your Mac
- Sync music, books, and more between devices
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- Manage Apple ID settings
- Set your Apple ID picture
- What is iCloud?
- What is iCloud+?
- Store files in iCloud Drive
- Share and collaborate on files and folders
- Manage iCloud storage
- Use iCloud Photos
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- What is Family Sharing?
- Set up Family Sharing
- Set up Screen Time for a child
- Share purchases with your family
- Watch and listen together with SharePlay
- Share a Photo Library
- Collaborate on projects
- Find content shared with you
- Find your family and friends
- Play games with your friends
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- Play music
- Listen to podcasts
- Watch TV shows and movies
- Read and listen to books
- Read the news
- Track stocks and the market
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- Apple Music
- Apple TV+
- Apple Arcade
- Apple News+
- Podcast shows and channels
- Manage subscriptions in the App Store
- View Apple family subscriptions
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- Guard your privacy
- Use Mail Privacy Protection
- Control access to your camera
- Use Sign in with Apple for apps and websites
- Set up your Mac to be secure
- Keep your data safe
- Create a passkey
- Understand passwords
- Keep your Apple ID secure
- Find a missing device
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- Get started with accessibility features
- Vision
- Hearing
- Mobility
- Speech
- General
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- Connect an external display
- Use the built-in camera
- Connect a Bluetooth device
- Use AirPods with your Mac
- Optimize your Mac battery life
- Optimize storage space
- Burn CDs and DVDs
- Control accessories in your home
- Use Windows on your Mac
- Resources for your Mac
- Resources for your Apple devices
- Copyright
If you have trouble reading text on your screen, you can have your Mac speak text whenever you press a keyboard shortcut. You can customize the keyboard shortcut and set other options—for example, you can choose to show an onscreen controller that lets you easily change the speaking rate, stop speaking, and more.
Listen to spoken text
On your Mac, choose Apple menu
in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.)Click Spoken Content on the right.
Turn on “Speak selection.”
On your Mac, press the specified keyboard shortcut (the default key combination is Option-Esc).
If text is selected when you press the keyboard shortcut, the selected text is spoken. Otherwise, available text items in the current window are spoken; for example, if Mail is the current window, an email message is read.
If you set the option to automatically show the controller, it appears onscreen when your Mac starts speaking. Use the controller to change the speaking rate, move forward or backward one sentence in the text, pause and resume speaking, or stop speaking.
Note: If no text items are available, a beep sound plays.
To stop the speaking, press the keyboard shortcut again.
You can set a keyboard shortcut to quickly turn “Speak selection” on or off. Choose Apple menu 
in the sidebar (you may need to scroll down), click Keyboard Shortcuts on the right, then click Accessibility. See Use macOS keyboard shortcuts.
Customize how spoken text appears on the screen
On your Mac, choose Apple menu
Click Spoken Content on the right.
By default, your Mac speaks text when you press the keyboard shortcut Option-Esc. To set a different keyboard shortcut and change other settings, click the Info button
next to “Speak selection”:Keyboard Shortcut: Press the key combination you want to use. For example, press the Option and Tab keys together to set the keyboard shortcut as Option+Tab.
Highlight Content: Click the pop-up menu, then choose to have words, sentences, or both highlighted as your Mac speaks. Click the Word Color and Sentence Color pop-up menus to choose the highlight color.
If you don’t want spoken content highlighted, choose None from the Highlight Content pop-up menu.
Sentence Style: Click the pop-up menu to have spoken sentences indicated by an underline or with a background color.
Show Controller: Click the pop-up menu to choose to automatically show the controller when you press the keyboard shortcut, or to never or always show it.
The controller is especially useful when your Mac is reading long pieces of text. You can use the controller to pause, resume, or stop the speaking, change the speaking rate, and skip ahead or backward in the text.
When you’re done choosing options, click OK.
next to “Speak selection”:You can also use VoiceOver, the built-in screen reader for macOS, to hear descriptions of every item on the screen and to control your Mac using the keyboard. See the VoiceOver User Guide.
See alsoHave your Mac speak announcementsChange the voice your Mac uses to speak textIf you can’t hear your Mac speak
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