[nfbcs] JAWS and Office 2007.

[Bryce Samuelson]

I'm a JFW user and both in 2007 and 2010 JFW works great.  I also know that
the Freedom Scientific training guys have two totally free "books" that you
can Download to play in FSReader.  I use Office 2010 on a day-to-day basis
and am thrilled with JFW's response to the ribbon and even what Microsoft
calls "Backstage View."  That view works well navigating similar to (if not
exactly like) the classic menu system.
Bryce

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Steve Jacobson
Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 9:31 AM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] JAWS and Office 2007.

I probably shouldn't reply because I am a Window-Eyes user, but my
understanding is that JFW has a feature that lets the ribbon look like the
classic menus in later versions.  Window-Eyes does not have this feature,
though, which has caused me to deal with the ribbon directly.  My gut
feeling is that the ribbon can be mastered even though it is a bit of a
change, and I don't know that I would want to trust my screen reader to
correctly remap every single item on a ribbon as JFW tries to do.  In
addition, the ribbon pops up in more places as time goes by, so one might as
well get used to it.

What I would do is to take the approach that is given below, except that I
would concentrate on getting the keystrokes for those things that one uses
most often.  Navigating the ribbon is also possible but there are controls
that act a little like pull downs so I find that the ribbon takes longer to
explore.  While Microsoft did include keystrokes to access parts of the
ribbon directly, they are not very easy to remember, and I feel there should
have been more cases where keystrokes get you directly to items without the
use of multiple keystrokes.  However, in their defense, there are so many
things on a ribbon that we would never all agree on what should be given
priority.  Also, many of the items that used to be on the file menu can
still be found by using ALT-F.  This does not apply to other menu items,
though.  I think there are some tutorials around on using the ribbon and
they might be helpful, too.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

On Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:52:28 -0500, Mike Jolls wrote:

>Jaws 12 is what she needs.  It has the program logic to navigate the
ribbon.
>I'm in the process of upgrading to Jaws 12 but I haven't fully explored 
>the keystrokes yet and I can't give you a full report.  If you'd like, 
>I'll give you more details when I know more.  Also, I haven't explored 
>the possibility that there might be a "classic" view.  That's not a bad 
>way to go if it's available.  However, one drawback I can see with that 
>approach is if all the menu items don't have hotkeys.  For those 
>options, then you have to go to the menu where the option is located, 
>then arrow down to that item in the list and listen to each menu item 
>until you find what you want.  That's a sequential access method and 
>sequential is always the slowest even though once you're familiar with 
>the menus, it's not too bad.  What you'd like to be able to do is have 
>a keystroke for every single menu item so as you learn them, you don't 
>have to keep navigating the menus but rather one or two keystrokes 
>gives you direct access to the option.  From what I've seen, every 
>option on the ribbon has a direct key combination such as "alt-H" to go 
>to the home menu group, then "E" for edit.  You type the keystrokes in 
>that order as I recall.  Direct access is always faster than 
>sequential, so perhaps the creators of the ribbon had the blind and 
>visually impaired in mind.  I haven't learned all the keystrokes that I 
>use yet, but this is how it appears to work.  Once you learn the 
>keystrokes you need, it's direct access with no sequential navigation.  
>Provided I'm right and there's a navigation key sequence to every 
>option, then using the ribbon bar (once you've memorized the options you
use) would be superior to the classic view and having to navigate and listen
to all the options that you don't want.

>Then again, there's the upgrade price to Jaws 12, plus a learning curve.
>Always a price to pay when technology changes!!

>-----Original Message-----
>From: nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On 
>Behalf Of Alan Wheeler
>Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2011 6:30 PM
>To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List'
>Subject: [nfbcs] JAWS and Office 2007.

>Is there a way to have the classic Office view in Office 2007 while 
>using JAWS? My fiancée is having difficulty accomplishing things what 
>she needs to do using the ribbons. Is there any help for this?
> 

>"Grace is getting a high five from God even when you know yourself to 
>be a sinner." Smuts Van Rooyen Seventh-day Adventist Kansas/Nebraska 
>camp meeting Psalms 33:3 Psalms 150:5


>Alan Wheeler
>Lincoln, Nebraska
>awheeler65 at windstream.net


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