orca(1) General Commands Manual orca(1)
NAME
orca - a scriptable screen reader
SYNOPSIS
orca [option...]
DESCRIPTION
orca is a screen reader for people with visual impairments, it provides
alternative access to the desktop by using speech synthesis and braille.
orca works with applications and toolkits that support the Assistive
Technology Service Provider Interface (AT-SPI), which is the primary as-
sistive technology infrastructure for Linux and Solaris. Applications
and toolkits supporting the AT-SPI include the GNOME Gtk+ toolkit, the
Java platform's Swing toolkit, LibreOffice, Gecko, and WebKitGtk. AT-SPI
support for the KDE Qt toolkit is being pursued.
OPTIONS
-s, --setup
When starting orca, initiate the GUI-based configuration.
-u, --user-prefs-dir=dirname
When starting orca, use dirname as an alternate directory for the
user preferences.
-e, --enable=speech|braille|braille-monitor
When starting orca, force the enabling of the supplied options.
-d, --disable=speech|braille|braille-monitor
When starting orca, force the disabling of the supplied options.
-l, --list-apps
Prints the names of all the currently running applications. This
is used primarily for debugging purposes to see if orca can talk
to the accessibility infrastructure. Note that if orca is al-
ready running, this will not kill the other orca process. It
will just list the currently running applications, and you will
see orca listed twice: once for the existing orca and once for
this instance.
--debug
Enables debug output for orca and sends all debug output to a
file with a name of the form 'debug-YYYY-MM-DD-HH:MM:SS.out' in
the current directory. The YYYY-MM-DD-HH:MM:SS portion will be
replaced with the current date and time.
--debug-file=filename
Enables debug output for orca and sends all debug output to the
given filename.
-v, --version
outputs orca version number and exits.
-h, --help
displays orca help and exits.
--replace
Replace a currently running orca process. By default, if orca
detects an existing orca process for the same session, it will
not start a new orca process. This option will kill and cleanup
after any existing orca process and then start a new orca in its
place.
KEYBOARD SETTINGS
Orca provides two keyboard modes, Desktop and Laptop keyboard
layout. The Orca_Modifier key is Insert in desktop keyboard lay-
out and Caps_Lock in laptop keyboard layout.
Orca uses default GNOME keyboard shortcuts to navigate the desk-
top and interact with various applications. The flat review com-
mands provide an alternative method of interaction in certain in-
accessible applications. It should not be confused with flat re-
view functionality provided by other screen readers.
Desktop Mode
Flat review commands
Numpad-7 move the flat review cursor to the previous line and read it.
Numpad-8 read the current line.
Numpad-9 move the flat review cursor to the next line and read it.
Numpad-4 move the flat review cursor to the previous word and read it.
Numpad-5 read the current word.
Numpad-6 move the flat review cursor to the next word and read it.
Numpad-1 move the flat review cursor to the previous character and read
it.
Numpad-2 read the current character.
Numpad-3 move the flat review cursor to the next character and read it.
Numpad-slash perform a left mouse click at the location of the flat re-
view cursor.
Numpad-star perform a right mouse click at the location of the flat re-
view cursor.
Bookmark commands
Alt+Insert+[1-6] assign a bookmark to a numbered slot. If a bookmark al-
ready exists in the slot it will be replaced with the new one.
Insert+[1-6] go to the position pointed to by the bookmark bound to this
numbered slot.
Insert+B and Insert+Shift+B move between the given bookmarks for the
given application or page.
Alt+Insert+B save the defined bookmarks for the current application or
page.
Miscellaneous functions
Numpad+Plus
'say all' command; reads from the current position of the caret to the
end of the document.
Numpad+Enter
'Where am I' command; speaks information such as the title of the cur-
rent application window, as well as the name of the control that cur-
rently has focus.
Insert+H enter into orca's 'learn mode'; press Escape to exit.
Insert+Shift+Backslash toggle live regions monitoring on and off.
Insert+F speak font and attribute information for the current character.
Insert+Space Launch the orca Configuration dialog.
Insert+Ctrl+Space reload user settings and reinitialize services as nec-
essary. Also launches the orca Configuration dialog for the current ap-
plication.
Insert+S toggle speech on and off.
Insert+F11 toggle the reading of tables, either by single cell or whole
row.
Laptop Mode
Flat review commands
Caps_Lock+U move the flat review cursor to the previous line and read
it. Double-click to move flat review to the top of the current window.
Caps_Lock+I read the current line. Double-click to read the current line
along with formatting and capitalization details.
Caps_Lock+O move the flat review cursor to the next line and read it.
Double- click to move flat review to the bottom of the current window.
Caps_Lock+J move the flat review cursor to the previous word and read
it. Double-click to move flat review to the word above the current word.
Caps_Lock+K read the current word. Double-click to spell the word.
Triple-click to hear the word spelled phonetically.
Caps_Lock+L move the flat review cursor to the next word and read it.
Double- click to move flat review to the word below the current word.
Caps_Lock+M move the flat review cursor to the previous character and
read it. Double-click to move flat review to the end of the current
line.
Caps_Lock+Comma read the current character. Double-click to pronounce
the character phonetically if it is a letter.
Caps_Lock+Period move the flat review cursor to the next character and
read it.
Caps_Lock+7 perform a left mouse click at the location of the flat re-
view cursor.
Caps_Lock+8 perform a right mouse click at the location of the flat re-
view cursor.
Bookmark commands
Alt+Caps_Lock+[1-6] add a bookmark to the numbered slot. If a bookmark
already exists for the slot it will be replaced with the new one.
Caps_Lock+[1-6] go to the position pointed to by the bookmark bound to
this numbered slot.
Caps_Lock+Band Caps_Lock+Shift+B move between the given bookmarks for
the given application or page.
Alt+Caps_Lock+B save the defined bookmarks for the current application
or page.
Miscellaneous functions
Caps_Lock+Semicolon
'Say all' command; reads from the current position of the caret to the
end of the document.
Caps_Lock+Enter
'Where am I' command; speaks information such as the title of the cur-
rent application window, as well as the name of the control that cur-
rently has focus.
Caps_Lock+H enter learn mode (press Escape to exit).
Caps_Lock+Shift+Backslash toggle live regions monitoring on and off.
Caps_Lock+F speak font and attribute information for the current charac-
ter.
Caps_Lock+Space launch the orca Configuration dialog.
Caps_Lock+Ctrl+Space reload user settings and reinitialize services as
necessary; also launches the orca Configuration dialog for the current
application.
Caps_Lock+S toggle speech on and off.
Caps_Lock+F11 toggle the reading of tables, either by single cell or
whole row.
FILES
~/.local/share/orca
Orca user preferences directory
~/.local/share/orca/user-settings.conf
Orca user preferences configuration file.
~/.local/share/orca/orca-customizations.py
Orca user customizations configuration file
~/.local/share/orca/orca-scripts
Orca user orca scripts directory
~/.local/share/orca/bookmarks
Orca user bookmarks directory
~/.local/share/orca/app-settings
Orca user application specific settings directory
AUTHOR
Orca originated as a community effort led by the Sun Microsystems Inc.
Accessibility Program Office and with contributions from many community
members.
SEE ALSO
• Orca wiki ]8;;https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Orca\<https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Orca>]8;;\
• Orca mailing list ]8;;https://www.freelists.org/list/orca\<https://www.freelists.org/list/orca>]8;;\
• Orca repository ]8;;https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/orca\<https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/orca>]8;;\
GNOME 20 September 2013 orca(1)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Sat Oct 3 05:59:36 CEST 2026.