Accessible Guide for Using ReaPack with a Screen Reader
Created by Leo Pena
Edits provided by Toni Barth, Jenny K, and Scott Chesworth
ReaPack is an open-source extension for Reaper that will enable you to locate, install and update scripts, actions, plug-ins and themes. This document provides information that can help both Windows and Mac users get started.
** Note: Although hotkeys mentioned in this document apply to windows, Mac users can still follow along with the general principles and steps as outlined in this document.
1. Go to reapack.com to download ReaPack for your operating system.
Once there do the following:
2. Once downloaded, you'll need to drop ReaPack into Reaper’s User Plugins folder, so go into your Downloads folder and make sure you've got ReaPack copied to your clipboard.
Then to get to User Plugins, do this:
Once restarted, you can check that ReaPack is running by going to the Extensions top menu (Alt + X on Windows), you should find that a new ReaPack submenu is available.
Synchronizing packages makes sure that you've got the latest releases of everything that you've installed using ReaPack, as well as checking for updates to the ReaPack extension. It's wise to synchronize once before you start installing anything, just to check that you've got the latest release and that you're able to connect as expected.
To synchronize packages, follow these steps:
1. Go into Reaper.
2. Go to the Extensions top menu (Alt + X on Windows), go into the ReaPack submenu, choose "Synchronize packages".
3. Once everything has been synchronized, you'll either land straight back in Reaper's main window if there were no changes that needed to be made, or ReaPack will display a transaction report to let you know what got updated.
4. Hit the OK button (Enter) to close the transaction report if you got one.
5. Repeat these steps every few days to check for updates, and remember, you'll need to synchronize packages after updating Reaper or OSARA.
The "Browse packages" option searches the ReaPack repositories. Think of the repositories as online folders where all the goodies you can grab are stored.
To find and install packages, follow these steps:
1. IN Reaper, go to the Extensions top menu, then ReaPack submenu, then choose "Browse packages".
2. You'll land in an edit field labelled "Filter" when the window opens. This works similarly to locating actions in Reaper's action list. Type your search terms, then You can tap your down arrow to jump to the list of results. Up arrow and down arrow will move through the result’s list.
3. Find a script, action, plug-in or whichever package you want to install, then Tab until you reach the "Actions" button, hit Space on that. This will activate a context menu, and in here, you can hit Install.
5. You can follow the same steps to uninstall packages if you need to, just choose Uninstall in the Actions context menu instead.
Tip: On windows, if you want to access the actions menu from within the result’s list, you can hit shift + f10 on the package you select or alt + a to go to the actions menu.
Scripts and additional actions that you install from ReaPack can be used via Reaper's action list, like this:
1. From Reaper's main window, hit F4 to load the actions list.
2. Type your search in the Filter edit field, then tap the down arrow to jump to the list of search results.
3. Once your focus is in the list, up and down arrows move between matching actions and scripts.
4. Once you've found what you want to run, hit Enter.
5. If You might want to bind any actions or scripts you're going to use often to a key command, then Tab to find the Add button and bind a shortcut key to them. If you're using the OSARA key map, the Y key and all of its modifier combinations are unassigned by default, that's a good place to assign keystrokes for your favorite new tricks.
The “import repositories” option in the ReaPack menu allows you to add other repositories from developers to your ReaPack. To import a new repository, follow these steps.
1. Go into Reaper.
2. Go to the Extensions top menu (Alt + X on Windows), go into the ReaPack submenu, choose "import repositories".
3. You will be dropped into a combo box where you can type or paste the URL of the repository you want to import into ReaPack.
4. If you have the URL of the repository you want to import, paste it in the combo box within “import repositories”.
5. tab until you find the ok button and hit enter.
6. Once you hit ok, you will either return to Reaper’s main window, or ReaPack will take you to the “manage repositories” dialogue window, where it lists all the repositories available in your ReaPack. The most recently added repositories will appear at the bottom of the list.
7. If you get dropped into the “manage repositories” window, tab until you find the OK button and hit enter, and it will take you back out to REAPER’s main window.
The "manage repositories" option in the ReaPack menu allows you to do various actions related to the existing Repositories that you have in your ReaPack. These actions include: importing offline archive files, copying repository URLs, and removing repositories from your ReaPack.
To do any of these actions, follow the steps in the subsections below:
This can be useful in situations where you want to share repository URL s with others who would like to have access to that repository. To copy a repository URL, follow these steps:
1. Go to the Extensions top menu (Alt + X on Windows), go into the ReaPack submenu, choose "manage repositories".
2. Go to the repository you want to copy the URL link from, and right click on it (shift + f10 or applications key on windows).
3. In the context menu that pops up, hit “copy URL”, and it will copy the link to your clipboard
Note: at this moment, the context menu is inaccessible to Mac users via the key command mentioned above. However, if a Mac user wants to copy the repository URL from the manage repositories list, they can Navigate to the URL text field for the repository they want, then run VO + Shift + C to Copy the phrase to clipboard. This is a workaround until this issue gets resolved.
If you would like to remove a repository from your ReaPack, follow these steps:
1. Go to the Extensions top menu (Alt + X on Windows), go into the ReaPack submenu, choose "manage repositories".
2. Go to the repository you want to remove, and right click on it (shift + f10 or applications key on windows).
3. In the context menu that pops up, select the option “uninstall” and hit enter.
4. Then tab until you find “ok” or “apply” and hit enter. It will then give you a transaction report asking whether you would like to uninstall the repository, and you will hit yes.
One of the cool things that you can do within “manage repositories” is you can select different import and export options for online and offline use. Here are the steps for how to access those different options.
1. Go to the Extensions top menu (Alt + X on Windows), go into the ReaPack submenu, choose "manage repositories".
2. From the list of repositories, tab until you find “import/export” (or hit alt + I on windows).
In the context menu that pops up, you can:
d. Offline archive files (file extension: .ReaPackArchive) are stored inside the ReaPack folder, within the REAPER resource path in your explorer/finder.
e. Offline Archive files may be helpful when you want to share a repository with someone who doesn’t have internet access, and it gives them access to the packages within a given repository. Also, they can be useful when you don’t have access to the internet, and you want to use the packages available in ReaPack repositories while offline.
As a blind REAPER user, you'll use the OSARA keymap for general navigation within REAPER. Periodically updating the keymap ensures access to the latest improvements within the OSARA keymap, but it also removes scripts installed via ReaPack and custom key bindings from the actions list. To restore your scripts, follow these steps:
1. IN Reaper, go to the Extensions top menu, then ReaPack submenu, then choose "Browse packages".
2. You'll land in an edit field labelled "Filter" when the window opens. Type your search terms, then tap your down arrow to jump to the list of results.
3. Find the script you installed from ReaPack, then Tab until you reach the "Actions" button and hit enter on it. In the context menu that pops up, hit enter on “Reinstall”.
4. After you've chosen to reinstall and the context menu has closed, Tab to find the OK button (or hit alt + o on windows to activate the OK button). ReaPack will download and install the packages again, and a transaction report will be displayed to let you know when it's done. Occasionally a package will require Reaper to be restarted before it can be used, ReaPack will tell you whenever that extra step is needed.
· packages that are installed have an “I” in front of the package name when displaying in the results list
Pinning a package in the ReaPack browse dialog prevents that package from being automatically updated when you run "Synchronize Packages". This is useful if you want to keep a specific version of a script, extension, or library, rather than always installing the latest updates.
To pin a package version, do the following:
1. IN Reaper, go to the Extensions top menu, then ReaPack submenu, then choose "Browse packages".
2. You'll land in an edit field labelled "Filter" when the window opens. Type your search terms, then tap your down arrow to jump to the list of results.
3. Find the package that you are wanting to install, and then tab to the actions button and hit enter.
4. In the context menu that pops up, you can hit install to install the latest version of the package. This will add an I in front of the package name in the results list, indicating that the latest version will be installed when you hit OK.
· If you want an earlier version of a package, then you can arrow down to the submenu that says “versions” and select the version of the package you want to install. Once you hit enter on the version you want, this will cause an I to appear in front of the package name in the results list, indicating that the previous version is going to be installed when you hit OK.
5. Once you have installed the package version you want, then go into the action’s menu again, and hit enter on “pin current version”. This will cause the version you selected to be pinned for future installations. It will also add a p in front of the package name in the results list.
6. After you have done all that, then hit ok. This will cause ReaPack to install the package version you selected and a transaction report will appear showing you what changes have been made.
If the package you pinned is the latest version, then the next time you go into browse packages, the package will display the letters “IP” before the package name. If you installed a previous version of the package, then it will display the letters “UP” before the package name.
Note: you must install a package first before you can pin it.
Usually, when you install scripts from ReaPack, they should appear in your actions list when you are searching for them. In the case when the script does not appear, follow these steps to load it into REAPER.
1. From Reaper's main window, hit F4 to load the actions list.
2. Tab until you find a button called “New Actions”, and hit enter on it.
3. In the context menu that pops up, look for the option “Load ReaScript”, and hit enter. This opens up a dialogue window where you can browse for scripts you want to load into REAPER.
· Generally, this browse window opens in the REAPER resource path, and scripts you installed from ReaPack are stored in the “scripts” folder within your REAPER resource path under the names of the repositories that host them.
4. When you find a script, hit enter on it, and it will load the script into REAPER. After that, you can search the actions list, and the script should appear.
5. To bind a key command to it, check out the Running Packages: section of this document.
Key commands for Browsing Packages:
Alt + e: clears the filter combo box of search terms.
· Alt + e also can move you back to the filter box when you are wanting to search for something else
Alt + s: selects all packages in the packages list
Alt + u: unselects all packages in the packages list
Alt + a: activates the actions menu where you can select what to do with a package
· You can also hit shift + f10 or the applications key on a package you want and it will open up the actions’ menu when you are in the results list.
Key Commands for Import Repositories dialogue:
Alt + D: activate the discover Repositories button.
· This takes you to a webpage where you can find a list of repositories to import into ReaPack.
Alt + o: activates the OK button
Alt + c: activates the cancel button
Key Commands for Manage Repositories dialogue:
Shift + f10 (when you are over a repository): activates a context menu for doing repository specific actions.
Alt + b: selects and activates the browse packages button, which takes you to the dialogue box where you can search for different scripts and packages in ReaPack.
Alt + I: selects and activates the import/export button.
· This opens up a context menu that provides different options for importing and exporting repositories and offline archive files.
Alt + O: opens the options menu. This is a context menu that allows you to enable or disable different ReaPack settings.
Alt + c: activates the cancel button
Alt + a: activates the “apply button”. When you are uninstalling a repository from your ReaPack, this button may appear beside the OK button, and you can access it by hitting this key command. Basically, it acts like a secondary OK button.
ReaPack website: https://reapack.com/
ReaPack User Guide: https://reapack.com/user-guide
Repository list: https://reapack.com/repos