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NVDA Keystrokes
free screen reader for Windows PCs

The default NVDA key is caps lock. This can be changed in settings to any preferred key.

  • CTRL - Stop speech
  • Shift - Pause / Resume speech
  • NVDA + Spacebar - Toggle between browse mode and Focus mode. Browse mode is best for reading documents and is indicated with a tone. Focus mode is best for editing documents and is indicated with a typewriter click. If you are trying to write into a document or a form and you cannot, it is likely NVDA is in the wrong mode. Toggle it using this command!
  • NVDA + m - Toggle mouse commands. With this on, NVDA will read whatever you hover the mouse over. I toggle this off to prevent being overwhelmed with audio
  • NVDA + s - Toggle speech modes between: Off, Beeps, Talks (Talks is the default)
  • NVDA + n, t, s - Turns on the NVDA speech viewer. You can see what NVDA is saying whilst the speech is turned off
  • Down arrow - Read next line/item. Press up to move upwards to previous line/item
  • Tab - Move to next focusable control (button, link, input field etc.)
  • Shift + TAB - Move to previous focusable control
  • H - Within a webpage, PDF or Word document, cycles through all headings. Press Shift to move backwards
  • NVDA + 1 - Toggle input help on / off. With it on, every key combination you press will not be actioned, instead you will hear what it would do. Useful for learning
  • L / I - Cycle through Lists and list Items In web pages, PDFs or Word docs. Press shift as well to move backwards through lists
  • T - Cycle through tables. Press shift to move backwards through page
  • CTRL + ALT + up/down/left/right - Navigate through tables
  • NVDA + F7 - Elements list. Showing list of all headings, links, form controls and landmarks on the current page