[blindlaw] Update on Track Changes in Microsoft 365

Fri May 3 00:04:44 UTC 2019

Thanks to everyone for their kind messages!  They really mean a great
deal to me.  Honestly I think just having a real live person in the
room instead of talking over phone and email can make such a big
difference.

amar, I also really like your idea about trying to get either
Microsoft or Vispero to document that 365 is the most usable with
Jaws, especially in its advanced features.  We had briefly talked
about documentation in various respects, and I will raise it with them
again.

Laura

On 5/2/19, Denise Avant via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Dear Laura,
> Thank you for this great advocacy. Your time and attention to these issues
> has helped not only lawyers, but other blind people using advanced word
> features.
>
>
> Denise R. Avant, Esq.
> President,
> National Federation of the Blind of Illinois
> 773-991-8050
> Live the life you want.
>
> For more information about NFBI,
> Go to www.nfbofillinois.org
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Laura Wolk via
> BlindLaw
> Sent: Wednesday, May 1, 2019 3:12 PM
> To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Laura Wolk <laura.wolk at gmail.com>
> Subject: [blindlaw] Update on Track Changes in Microsoft 365
>
> 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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