[stylist] Hotkeys in the new 2010 and 2013 word and generalMicrosoft products: RE: Tech Writing:Ten StepsToMake AccessibleWord Documents For PDF Production

Mon Feb 24 21:24:05 UTC 2014

Robert,
Isn't this Virtual Ribbon setting in Jaws the only way you can access the
ribbons to begin with? I have Virtual Ribbons enabled, and I thought it
preserved MS's new groupings, which are confusing to me. I can and do use
it, and I've used the option to add things to the Quick Access Toolbar,
which you get to by up arrowing from one of the main ribbon items.

When I was learning to do styles and formatting for my novel, I ran across
at least one instance where something I had read about wasn't even on the
ribbon. You had to go into some obscure dialog and select from hundreds of
options that you could add to the ribbon.

For those who are blissfully ignorant of the MS Ribbons, what we're talking
about is a total replacement of the whole File, Edit, View ... Menus as
you've come to know and love them. The clipboard, for instance (copy, cut,
paste, etc.) which you expect to find under Edit, is now under the Home tab.
The hotkeys Control+c, x or v still work at least in Word 2010.

Just in case anyone's interested, there are three horizontal levels in
Virtual Ribbons. The middle level provides the main navigation and gives you
a selection of tabs. The lower level is called the Lower Ribbon. The upper
level is the Quick Access Toolbar

the main Ribbon tabs, which you right-arrow through are: Home, Insert, Page
Layout, references, mailings, Review, View, (I added a "Format Novel" tab
next), Add-ins, PDF, and then 3 buttons: Minimize the Ribbon, Microsoft Help
& File. These 3 "buttons" are referred to as the "Backstage view."

If you have Virtual Ribbons enabled in Jaws, you press Alt and, the Home Tab
is in focus, assuming you didn't use something else during the same session
of Word. So, once on Home, you down-arrow through a group of submenus:
Clipboard, font, paragraph, styles & Editing. Each must be opened with a
right arrow and then you up or down arrow through your choices. If you want
to get back to the level where you can move from the Home tab to the Insert
tab, you need to either back-arrow  or escape your way out.

I think for me the thing that was even more troubling than the
re-organization was the way choices were presented to begin with. I use the
Paragraph and Font dialogs, for instance, and my natural inclination is to
down-arrow through menus. That's scary, because the paragraph submenu starts
with the "bullets split button." I'm always scared of bullets. *grin*

it looks like you have to make every single choice about a paragraph or a
font separately. This is thankfully not the case. Up-arrow instead. Up-arrow
once inside the Paragraph submenu and you get "paragraph ... Button menu"
which is the paragraph dialog you used to get under the old Format menu.
Same thing with Font; up-arrow to get "font ... Button menu" for the old
Font dialog. Or, use those menu find key sequences like alt+o, f for the
font dialog and alt+o, p for paragraph.

Warning, this paragraph is not for the squeamish. Using the Backstage view,
if you down-arrow from File, for instance, you get a list of Tabs: recent,
new, print, save & send, and then the Help and Add-ins buttons again,
followed by a "menu... options" for your opened document -- the name starts
with the word "Menu" and ends with the word "options." Down-arrowing from
here you finally get the list of things you've probably been wondering about
-- exit, save, save as, open & close. Then, if you continue to down-arrow it
says "leaving menus" and you're at the "info tab." the next down-arrow is
back to the Recent tab. I really don't like this backstage view thing!

OK, I must say something nice about the ribbons, if for no other reason than
to preserve my self image as a reasonable person. I like the insert menu.
It's easy to insert links. Perhaps, I just never learned this in Word 2003,
but nonetheless, I do use the Insert tab. One thing you need to become aware
of, if you want to self-publish, especially with Smashwords, which I highly
recommend, is the nasty habit Word has of inserting bookmarks. You'll never
notice them unless you select "Show Hidden Bookmarks," but you'd better get
rid of them before sending anything to Smashwords. Word's automatic
bookmarks usually start with "OLE."

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm giving myself a migraine.
Donna
-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Robert Leslie
Newman
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2014 1:52 PM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: [stylist] Hotkeys in the new 2010 and 2013 word and
generalMicrosoft products: RE: Tech Writing:Ten StepsToMake AccessibleWord
Documents For PDF Production

Another option other than learning the new menu system, and/or doing some of
the old Windows 97-2003 style which the new version seems in some cases to
honor, I use and like the JAWS option of giving you a modified new/old menu
option. I find that it groups up a collection of the new options, into an
arrangement that looks and feels much like the older menus. Truly, it groups
stuff into submenus and it is all up and down arrowing, not like the new
ribbon menus. I suppose we could do a conference call sometime if there were
one or more people wanting to learn Window or other common keystrokes for
screen reader users. (Yeah, I am a JAWS user. I bet we have some other types
of screen reader users in the Division.)

The option JAWS has is called the virtual Ribbon Menu.

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Applebutter
Hill
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2014 12:28 PM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [stylist] Tech Writing: Ten StepsToMake AccessibleWord
Documents For PDF Production

Ashley,
One way to find out if this works in 2013 is to try. In Word 2007 & 2010, if
you start  going to a menu (like alt+t) Jaws says something like "Continue
typing the Office 2003 menu find key sequence or press escape." alt+o, f is
supposed to open the font dialog; alt+o, p, the paragraph dialog, alt+t, o,
the options dialog, alt+t, w, the word count dialog (which I have to root
Jaws cursor to the PC cursor to use), alt+f, a for "Save As...,"  and there
are many others, which I wish I knew.

These are the things we heard when we used the old menus -- for instance if
you pressed alt+t for the tools menu and then downarrowed through the
choices. Sometimes there are hotkeys like control+c for copy ... X for cut,
v for paste. But, those aren't the things I'm talking about. After every
menu choice, there was a letter or sequence of letters which, if you had
used after your initial alt+ whatever, would have gotten you directly to
that particular option.

As for Microsoft hearing the cries of their customers/enslaved masses) and
bringing back the old menus, I wouldn't hold my breath. Intelligent,
tech-savvy writers are making a living pointing out decades of MS's
nightmarish "improvements" in magazines like "PC World" to no avail. If they
won't listen to those people, they certainly won't listen to us. But, we can
always hope. *grin* Donna

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ashley
Bramlett
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2014 12:16 AM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Tech Writing: Ten StepsToMake AccessibleWord
Documents For PDF Production

Donna,
I miss the menus too and so  do many people. Now, microsoft needs to listen
to customers and maybe they'll come back.
Great question. can we use the 2003 keystrokes in 2013 version?

-----Original Message-----
From: Applebutter Hill
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 2:32 PM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [stylist] Tech Writing: Ten Steps ToMake AccessibleWord
Documents For PDF Production

Jim,
I have a lot of respect for what you do and the tremendous potential of the
field of tech writing in general. A lot of things would be a lot easier if
tech writers had more of an interest in being clear. This applies to
nonsoftware stuff too. Instructions are notorious for being impossible to
follow. My opinion, for what it's worth, is that in general people assume
too much and don't take the time to backtrack and start from the beginning.

As far as the different versions of Word ... My 2010 version & the 2007
version will tell you to "keep typing the key sequence for Word 2003" or
something to that effect. I had learned some of them -- like alt+t, o for
the options dialog and alt+t, w for Word count, but I never have found a
full list of them. I keep threatening to re install Word 2003 and just go
through the menus and write them up.

I've gotten more comfortable with the ribbons, but I don't like them. I
guess I was just going to ask if the 2013 Word still gives you the option to
use those keystrokes. If they're still doing it, you could include them and
have everything covered. What I hate is when I run across instructions that
tell me to go to the advanced tab of something I've never heard of and don't
give me any clue where it is in the ribbon.
Donna

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Homme, James
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 12:22 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Tech Writing: Ten Steps To Make AccessibleWord
Documents For PDF Production

Hi Donna,
You hinted at part of the problem. My audience may be blind people, or a
combination of all kinds of people, who have Word 2003, 2007, 2010, and
2013. Since it's an article, I debated about making little sidebars with
procedures for doing some things, and to strike a balance, I think I will
put in enough text to help my audience get to the right places, at least
enough to discover how to do some things.

And as a reader, personally, I really hate articles with short descriptions
and hyperlinks to who knows where, just to learn how to do something. I'm OK
with enough hand-holding to allow me to get through learning something
without breaking my concentration on the task at hand. This kind of thing
has more to do with usability than good writing. Good writing in this field
is a far cry from the kinds of things we talk about on this list, and I'm OK
with that. I don't intend to do anything more, except here and there, other
than try to make my writing more clear. You should have seen my writing when
I was a new programmer. Oh boy.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Applebutter
Hill
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 10:04 AM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [stylist] Tech Writing: Ten Steps To Make AccessibleWord
Documents For PDF Production

Jim,
Do you mean adding more than "save" such as giving them the old Word 2003
keystroke alt+f,a, or do you mean just telling them to save it and not
assuming they are smart enough to know that?
Donna

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Homme, James
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 7:06 AM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Tech Writing: Ten Steps To Make AccessibleWord
Documents For PDF Production

Hi,
I struggled with how much to assume my audience already knows. My manager
suggested that I fill it out with short procedures on how to do some of the
things I mention, such as when I say to save a template file, even if it is
a sentence or two to point the reader in the right direction. Does that
sound reasonable?

Thanks.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Chris Kuell
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 7:33 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Tech Writing: Ten Steps To Make Accessible Word
Documents For PDF Production

Jim,

Although I'm not in any way an advanced (or even moderately advanced)
computer user (for instance, I've never even used, never mind made, a
template in word) your instructions seem logical and easy to follow to me.
My only editorial suggestion is to kill the comma after 'that' in:

c.       Save the document with a file name, that contains no spaces or
special characters.

chris

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