Text Marks the Spot
Sighted readers can glance at a web page and find where the article actually starts in a second or two. They tune out the menu, the cookie banner, the related-stories list without thinking about it. Screen reader users have always had to walk past all of that one item at a time.
Text Marks the Spot does that walking for you. When a page loads, the cursor goes to where the content starts and NVDA reads it. No keypress needed. From there your usual NVDA keys take over.
Everything runs locally. No network calls, no AI, no telemetry.
Hear it in action
A short audio clip of the add-on flipping through three web pages (mp3).
Download and install
There are two ways to get Text Marks the Spot, and the difference between them matters.
The easy way, and the one I recommend, is the NVDA Add-on Store, where the add-on now lives. In NVDA, press NVDA+N for the menu, go to Tools, then Add-on Store, find Text Marks the Spot under Available add-ons, and install it from there. The big payoff is that NVDA keeps it current for you. When I ship a new version, your copy updates on its own and you never have to think about it.
The other way is to download it straight from this page: Get Text Marks the Spot. Open the downloaded file, NVDA prompts to install, and you accept and restart NVDA when it asks. One thing to know going in: an add-on you install this way does not update itself. You will have to come back and grab the newest version by hand when one comes out. If you would rather have updates handled for you, use the store instead.
If you want a specific version, the releases page lists them all.
To uninstall later: in NVDA, go to Tools, then Add-on Store, and open the Installed add-ons tab. Select Text Marks the Spot, choose Remove, then close the Add-on Store and restart NVDA when it asks.
How it works
When a page finishes loading in browse mode, the add-on looks at the page's structure and decides what kind of page it is. An article gets a different landing than a list of stories, a form, or a "thank you" page.
If the add-on isn't confident about what the page is for, it stays silent and your normal NVDA keys behave the way they always have. A wrong guess is worse than no guess.
What it does
The landing depends on the kind of page:
- Article (Wikipedia, news story, blog post): the cursor moves to the first real paragraph and NVDA reads it. You skip the menu, the cookie banner, and the "skip to main content" link without pressing H or P.
- List or index page (news homepage, search results, a grid of cards): the cursor moves to the first headline and NVDA reads it, so you can start scanning with
H from there.
- Form page (signup, login, contact): the form's title is announced and focus moves to the first field.
- Status page (closed form, "thank you for submitting", maintenance, 404): the cursor lands on the status sentence.
- Result widget (speed test, weather, single-quote stock price, battery level): the cursor lands on the label so the value reads on the next arrow press.
- Search box already focused: silent. The site already decided where you should start.
- Video player, dashboard, app, or anything unrecognized: silent.
Keyboard commands
The add-on binds three gestures. Every other NVDA key behaves the way it always has.
Z in browse mode: scan forward from the cursor to the next real paragraph. The add-on skips headings (use NVDA's H for those) and skips ads, menus, and share buttons.Shift+Z in browse mode: return to where the add-on first placed you on this page. A quick jump back. If the add-on has not placed you anywhere yet, for example when you switch back to a tab that was already open, Shift+Z runs the detection right then and takes you to the result.NVDA+Z in browse mode: add or remove the current site from the exclusion list. NVDA asks before changing it. On an excluded site, press Z twice quickly for a one-time detection that does not change the list.
Outside browse mode (terminals, edit fields, native apps), Z types a normal letter. The same happens in browse mode when you have turned single letter navigation off with NVDA+Shift+Space, so a web app's own Z shortcut still works.
If you assign Z's or Shift+Z's command to a different key in NVDA's Input Gestures dialog, that key is handled differently: NVDA gives it to the add-on in every program, not only on web pages, and outside browse mode the add-on then passes it on to the program. Pick a key you don't need for typing.
Tips and tricks
- The cursor lands on the first real paragraph automatically. If that pick is off, press NVDA's
H to find the heading of the section you want, then press Z to drop onto the first paragraph below it.
Shift+Z at any time returns you to where the add-on first placed you. Handy after wandering with arrow keys when you want to start over.- Switching between browser tabs never triggers an automatic landing; that is deliberate, so quiet tab checks stay quiet. When you come back to a tab and want a landing, press
Shift+Z.
- On slow-loading sites (Gmail, some news pages), the content sometimes shows up after the add-on's first scan. The add-on retries once automatically about a second and a half later. You can also press
Z to trigger a fresh scan from where you are.
NVDA+S cycles NVDA's speech mode and the add-on respects it. In beeps mode NVDA beeps for each line. In off mode the cursor still moves but nothing is spoken.
Disabling on a site you do not want it on
Press NVDA+Z in browse mode. NVDA asks whether to add the current site to the exclusion list. Press Y to confirm. The add-on stays silent on that site afterward.
To re-enable a site, press NVDA+Z again on it.
여기까지가 README 앞부분입니다. 나머지는 원문에서 읽을 수 있습니다. README 전문 보기 ↗
