[blindlaw] Update on Track Changes in Microsoft 2016 and 2019

[Amar Jain]

Great job Laura. Would you mind sharing your contact coordinates off the list? Since you seem to be a heavy user of track changes like I am, let’s discuss some thoughts which I have.

I am reachable on +91-9892622230 / amarjain at amarjain.com

Regards,
Amar Jain

Sent from my iPhone

> On 20-Jun-2019, at 5:23 AM, Laura Wolk via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> All,
> 
> I have some more great news on the track change front.  As of the June
> Jaws release, many of the most detrimental track change issues have
> been fixed in Microsoft Office 2016.  These include:
> 1. Jaws reporting an accurate number of revisions in the virtual viewer.
> 2. Footnotes and comments no longer being sluggish/gaining the ability
> to select text in footnotes and comments so long as all markup is
> chosen.
> 3. Being able to pull up a list of revisions in footnotes in the
> virtual viewer, as long as the cursor is in the footnote pane when you
> do this.
> 4. Jaws now says the call number of the footnote as you navigate the
> footnote pane, and when navigating above the line, it says the word
> "footnote" or "endnote" when it reaches the call number.
> 
> changes that are not incorporated include:
> 1. not hearing the exact type of revision in-line as you navigate the
> document; Jaws just says "revision"
> 2. When the Braille display is plugged in, switching to all markup
> does not fix the footnote sluggishness problem.  In addition, dots 78
> still display across the footnote, Braille Marking doesn't work, and
> the cursor routing buttons do not work.  I'm going to try my darnedest
> to get this addressed.  But this is a vast improvement.  I'd love it
> if anyone could verify they've noticed these changes also.
> 
> I have also been told that all issues have been addressed in Office
> 2019.  I don't have access to that version though.  If someone is an
> Office 2019 user, please be in touch.
> 
> I think I will have more updates RE 365 tomorrow.  I had meant to
> provide updates on that front in this email as well, but somehow, in
> tinkering with my home machine, which is older and more finicky, I've
> inadvertently broken something and none of my programs are responding
> as expected.  If anyone wants to trade some accessible word for a home
> or remote computer consult, let me know!  In the meantime, I've had
> enough robotic synthesizers for one day!  Stay tuned for th enext
> episode.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Laura
>> On 5/1/19, Laura Wolk <laura.wolk at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Dear all,
>> 
>> I am very happy to report some extremely positive changes on the Track
>> Change front.  I just met with members of Vispero and Microsoft for
>> two hours to review many of the changes that we have proposed.  Almost
>> all of them are implemented in the latest version of Jaws that was
>> just released today.  As I expected, these are only being implemented
>> in Microsoft Office 365.   I highly encourage everyone who is
>> experiencing difficulties with track Changes to work with their
>> employers to obtain Office 365 as a reasonable accommodation, and
>> folks at the Microsoft Enterprise answer Desk should be available to
>> field any questions and to verify that in fact Office 365 is the most
>> fully functionable, accessible version of Office with Jaws.  Anyway,
>> here are the changes I verified.
>> 
>> 1. Jaws now displays the **correct!** number of revisions in a
>> document in a mere matter of seconds. We tested this with a document
>> with 406 revisions.  Jaws almost immediately announced the number, and
>> I had to wait about four seconds for the full list to load.  Game
>> changer.
>> 2. Jaws now announces the revisions in-line exactly where they occur,
>> instead of just stating "revision" or "insertion" at the beginning of
>> the line.  Jaws also now announces font change attributes immediately
>> following the change.  A few notes on this:
>> a. In the virtual viewer list, Jaws still just says "revised
>> property."  But they know how to fix this and aim to have it addressed
>> in the June release.  But to reiterate, the precise font changes are
>> announced in-line as you scroll with Jaws using the arrow keys.
>> b.  Currently, the font attribute change is also displayed in words on
>> the Braille display.  This is cumbersome, especially in legal
>> documents.  They are going to try to figure out a way to toggle
>> whether that information is displayed in Braille.  Again to be clear,
>> this only occurs when you're looking at font attribute revisions, not
>> every time you make a font change when track changes aren't on.
>> 3. And now the moment we've all been waiting for... Footnotes are no
>> longer sluggish!  **and** you can actually select text!  Same goes for
>> comment bubbles!  Notes.
>> a.  This currently only works in all markup.  It does not work in
>> simple markup.  They are aware of this and know how to change it, and
>> aim to have it addressed in the June release.
>> b. To change mark up modes, hit alt, r, t, d, then arrow down to
>> select the mark up mode you desire.
>> 4. cursor routing buttons work in footnotes, dots 7-8 no longer
>> display throughout the entire footnote, and Braille marking properly
>> works in footnotes.
>> 5. You can now access revisions in the footnotes.  You have to have
>> all markup selected, and you have to be in the footnote pane when you
>> call up the virtual viewer.  They are working on a way to have them
>> accessible from above the line as well.
>> 6. Jaws announcing revisions even when track changes are off:
>> Currently, this is occurring because control+shift+e is a Microsoft
>> keystroke that tells the program to stop tracking changes, but even
>> when it's off, the underlying "code" is still there so that the
>> revisions will display again once you turn the feature back on.  Jaws
>> still has acces to that code, even if you toggle track changes off,
>> and sometimes this causes confusion.  If this happens, change markup
>> to no markup by hitting alt, r, t, d and arrowing down to no mark up.
>> That should solve it.
>> 
>> The teams are also aware of the issue regarding pasting large amounts
>> of text into comments causing the programs to crash.  They aim to
>> address that as well.
>> 
>> Again, I am sorry that we will not be seeing changes in 2016 or 2013,
>> but this honestly is a quicker and more robust solution than I ever
>> expected, and i am very pleased.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
> 
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