[Trainer-Talk] Odd JAWS Issue When Navigating by Characters in a Word 365 Document

Sat Sep 7 09:38:12 UTC 2019

Forgive the large amount of messages from me on this topic but the problem with character navigation in Word just occurred again. Interestingly, a clue that I received that indicated that navigation might fail is that I didn't hear the word "edit" when Word first opened. In other words, normally JAWS would say something like, "document 1, Microsoft Word, edit." This is something we're used to hearing and that final word "edit" indicates that the edit field is in focus and that you can commence with typing and editing. In this case, I didn't hear the word "edit." Anticipating a possible navigation failure I pressed the alt key to move focus to the ribbon and then pressed the alt key a second time to move focus away from the ribbon and back into the document. When I did that, JAWS did say "edit" but navigation was almost impossible, this time saying "blank" when I moved through the document. At that point I pressed insert+f4 to shut down JAWS and then pressed ctrl+alt+J, which is my hotkey to start or restart JAWS. JAWS restarted, I was still in my Word document and navigation behaved normally. I don't know how much of this is due to a flaky Office update or to a corrupted copy of JAWS. I suppose that a JAWS repair is likely in order. I suppose I will have to bite the bullet to do it. The only reason why I've resisted doing it so far is that I have some custom quick navigation keys that I've set up. It also means that I will likely have to reinstall Leasey but these things can be done. Any other suggestions before I do the repair?

Incidentally, when I press insert+space, followed by the letter Z for alternate user directory mode the navigation issues do not get fixed. My understanding is that this mode allows JAWS to run a temporary configuration which matches the default settings.

David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist JAWS Certified: 2019 WWW.David-Goldfield.Com<http://WWW.David-Goldfield.Com>

On 9/7/2019 5:19 AM, David Goldfield via Trainer-Talk wrote:

Hello. Regarding my previous message the problem with Word navigation seems to have fixed itself, which I am finding just as perplexing as the original problem. I did not alter any JAWS settings. I simply went into another program to see if the same issue occurred, the program being LibreOffice Writer. When navigating in a Writer document the cursor navigation behaved normally, consistently speaking each character as I pressed right arrow. When I closed Writer and opened Word the problem, at least for now, has magically fixed itself. I had, by the way, closed and reopened Word several times and this did not fix the problem. While I'm grateful that the issue seems to be fixed I'd still welcome any input in case it resurfaces as I'd like to understand what happened to break the navigation and what happened to correct it.

The one thing that just occurred to me is that I closed JAWS to see if the issue occurs with NVDA, which it did not. I suppose it's possible that the act of shutting down and restarting JAWS is likely what may have fixed the issue but I'd still like more information if any of you have any insights.

David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist JAWS Certified: 2019 https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=WWW.David-Goldfield.Com&data=02%7C01%7C%7Caa4dcb7d967c45145dee08d73374a77b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637034448420977583&sdata=azycfWNXrvP1w7uGRY5EPZDeUCOgiTfEb7P0S2ewo6s%3D&reserved=0<https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2FWWW.David-Goldfield.Com&data=02%7C01%7C%7Caa4dcb7d967c45145dee08d73374a77b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637034448420977583&sdata=Kr%2Fz9VBKKLnpxEdgtxTmdGUcfBpQ5KQLFo9VgZfe4hY%3D&reserved=0><https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2FWWW.David-Goldfield.Com&data=02%7C01%7C%7Caa4dcb7d967c45145dee08d73374a77b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637034448420977583&sdata=Kr%2Fz9VBKKLnpxEdgtxTmdGUcfBpQ5KQLFo9VgZfe4hY%3D&reserved=0>
On 9/7/2019 4:01 AM, David Goldfield via Trainer-Talk wrote:

I posted the following message in the main JFW users' list. I have decided to repost it here as some of you may possibly have encountered this problem with either yourselves or with students with whom you've worked. Here is the message.

Hello.

I am recently encountering a perplexing problem which I am noticing on two different computers.

Both machines are running Windows 10, build 1903, with the latest set of updates for both Windows as well as Office 365.

When I navigate in a Word 365 document using left arrow or right arrow to move character by character I often hear silence instead of the character next to the caret. As an example, if I type

Now is the time for all good men

and begin navigating with right arrow from the beginning of the line I might hear the O in "now" but when I move to the W the character does not speak. It doesn't say "space" or something else, it is just silent. Yet when I press numpad-5 to read the current character it usually will speak the character.

Enhanced editing support is definitely enabled in the JAWS settings for Word. I wondered if this was a cursor blink rate issue. I notice that the JAWS cursor blink rate setting is set to 53, which it claims is the fastest setting. Concurrently, the cursor blink rate in my Keyboard settings in Control Panel is set for 100 and, no matter what I try to change it to, it always goes back to 100 once I select OK. It seems that the JAWS cursor blink rate setting is forcing the Windows cursor blink rate setting to conform to what JAWS wants, which I found absolutely mind-blowing. I first discovered this in Chrome when I was receiving inaccurate results when moving the cursor on a Web page I use at work but most other Web pages speak normally when moving the cursor. This all started today and I am at a total loss as to what is happening. I am open to ideas and suggestions from others who may have a clue as to what's going on as I clearly do not. I would really prefer to not have to do a JAWS repair but if doing so will absolutely fix the problem then I will do it.

--
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist JAWS Certified: 2019 https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=WWW.David-Goldfield.Com&data=02%7C01%7C%7Caa4dcb7d967c45145dee08d73374a77b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637034448420987592&sdata=1VFwYUljW0n0t0DAv%2FXJYq69EO%2BVk31nHYyHeTRKX80%3D&reserved=0<https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2FWWW.David-Goldfield.Com&data=02%7C01%7C%7Caa4dcb7d967c45145dee08d73374a77b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637034448420987592&sdata=KfdFRCqbYZnbz8LnP19pocTU9hPHFIIhn7RoDPIQA3Q%3D&reserved=0><https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2FWWW.David-Goldfield.Com&data=02%7C01%7C%7Caa4dcb7d967c45145dee08d73374a77b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637034448420987592&sdata=KfdFRCqbYZnbz8LnP19pocTU9hPHFIIhn7RoDPIQA3Q%3D&reserved=0><https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2FWWW.David-Goldfield.Com&data=02%7C01%7C%7Caa4dcb7d967c45145dee08d73374a77b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637034448420987592&sdata=KfdFRCqbYZnbz8LnP19pocTU9hPHFIIhn7RoDPIQA3Q%3D&reserved=0><https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2FWWW.David-Goldfield.Com&data=02%7C01%7C%7Caa4dcb7d967c45145dee08d73374a77b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637034448420987592&sdata=KfdFRCqbYZnbz8LnP19pocTU9hPHFIIhn7RoDPIQA3Q%3D&reserved=0>
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