CCC's main window is divided into three main sections. At the top is a toolbar, and beneath that there is a split pane divided vertically. The view on the left is called the sidebar, the view on the right holds the task configuration view. When you open CCC for the first time, the sidebar is hidden. The sidebar is automatically revealed when you add a new task.
The sidebar is split horizontally. The top half contains a table of backup tasks, the bottom half lists locally-attached volumes on your Mac. When you select a task in the task list, the details of that task are presented in the right pane of the window. Likewise, if you select a volume from the list in the bottom of the sidebar, the details of that volume are presented in the right pane. CCC requires that you save any changes you have made to a task before selecting another task or a volume, so if you switch away from a task that is currently being edited, you will be prompted to save unsaved changes, revert the task to its on-disk state, or cancel the event that would have changed the task selection.
Navigation challenges and solutions
The "Automatically interact when using tab key" setting in VoiceOver Utility > Navigation can make navigation to CCC's task configuration view quite challenging. If you prefer to leave this setting enabled, we recommend that you hide CCC's sidebar to avoid navigation challenges. You can use CCC's View menu to select tasks and volumes (in other words, the contents of the View menu completely replaces the need for the sidebar).
Quick Nav
The Tab key will effectively move your cursor to each control in CCC. With Quick Nav enabled (to enable it, simultaneously press the left and right arrow keys), you can also navigate through non-control user interface elements, such as labels, scroll views and split view dividers. Largely this is quite intuitive, however there is one place where the order of elements as interpreted by the window is not very intuitive. This is only applicable when the sidebar is revealed -- if the sidebar is hidden, focus goes to the source selector, and the following is irrelevant.
Upon launch, CCC places focus on the tasks table. The task configuration view lies to the right of the tasks table, so you would think that you could use the right arrow key to move focus to the task configuration view. However, the tasks configuration view is ordered in front of the tasks table, so you must use the left arrow key to get from the tasks table to the task configuration view. Alternatively, use the Tab key.
Simple Mode
Simple Mode significantly reduces the number of user interface elements -- the sidebar, toolbar, scheduling selector, and advanced settings are all suppressed, leaving the user three primary controls: Source, Destination, Clone button. For users that desire a basic ad hoc clone from one volume to another, this simplified interface is the perfect solution.