[nabs-l] NVDA Questions

[Arielle Silverman]

Hi all,
I apologize if these are dumb questions to ask, but I know nothing at
all about NVDA and I am wondering what your experiences have been with
it, how it compares to JAWS in terms of compatibility with basic
Microsoft applications and what the learning curve is like to
transition from JAWS to NVDA. I have been a consistent JAWS user for
the past twenty years and I have generally been happy with JAWS, but
recently I have been feeling kind of disappointed with the Web browser
support in Windows 7 and I am also getting tired of paying for JAWS
upgrades, so I am considering switching to NVDA. I need a screen
reader that works smoothly with Microsoft Word, Excel, and Web
browsers but not much else (though SAS support would be nice too).
What are your suggestions? And if I already know JAWS commands, is it
a big switch to go to NVDA?
Thanks,
Arielle