[access-uk] Re: Why I hate Word - from a JAWS user

Hi Damon et al

What I do is create my document first.  Saving it as I go along, I then start 
to format it as appropriate.

I have the bulleted and numbered lists turned off in the formatting tabs so 
that I can number or bullet lists and adjust them myself without Word deciding 
to add.  I try to keep fancy visuals to a minimum unless it is absolutely 
essential for pretties to be added.

Just my thoughts.


Jackie Cairns
Braille Specialist
Email: jackie.cairns@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sight and Sound Technology Ltd
Welton House North Wing
Summerhouse Road
Moulton Park
Northampton
NN3 6WD
Tel: 01604 798024
Mob: 07887 883815
www.sightandsound.co.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
Tristram Llewellyn
Sent: 14 January 2010 10:11
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Why I hate Word - from a JAWS user 

If you have found something else that makes you more productive than Word that 
is absolutely fine not everyone may fall into the Microsoft Word hegemony.  
However, if you have no choice then there may be things to investigate.  Twenty 
seconds to edit window from start seems a little long typical of perhaps Word 
2002 or 2003 and not so well specced PC perhaps.

 

Sighted people do get into trouble with Word and formatting it is just probably 
that you are not in a position to notice and I have to say that the Windows 
versions of Word are often far more tolerant than say on the Mac in this regard 
(I have used Word 2004 and now 2008 for Mac).

 

However, I think there are a couple of things that can help especially 
regarding formatting.  The first is an obvious thing but is often missed 
especially among a sighted crowd which is this, leave the formatting until you 
have the text sorted.  As a blind user this should be a less difficult 
adjustment to make since you will be more interested in the ideas rather than 
the eye-candy.

 

When you are creating what might be a list of some kind write the first item, 
then hit return and create second item and hit return etc. (ad nausium).  If 
you leave the formatting until you have got things right and leave a blank line 
especially for a bulleted list you should be fine.  When you come back to 
format put yourself at the top of the list and use control+shift+down arrow to 
hear each item in the list you wish to bullet and then select your bulleting 
style etc.

 

You could take the same the same approach with numbered lists although this is 
where you frequently find you have missed an item and automatic numbers 
themselves can be helpful.  If this is the case the best tactic is to locate 
your cursor at the end of the numbered item after which you need to insert your 
new item (right at the end of the line) and then press ENTER.  The secret of 
the bulleted and number lists are the hard returns, If you wish to create a 
line without incrementing the numbers or putting in another bullet you can 
press shift+return to create a soft return.

 

As far as font formatting is concerned try to use the built in styles because 
that way you will get a consistent look rather than having to remember what you 
did with the last title or section.  On Word 2000-2003 you can press 
control+shift+S to get into the style list whilst ALT+H, L will get you into 
the style list in Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010.

 

When highlighting a title (which usually just sits on one line) put yourself 
and the beginning of the line and press shift+end which will ensure you only 
highlight that line rather than any subsequent lines then apply formatting or 
style to taste.

 

I wouldn't expect this to solve all your problems, and I may be teaching to 
suck eggs in which case excuse the post but it may be helpful to someone else 
on the list just starting out in any case.

 

Regards.

Tristram Llewellyn
Sight and Sound Technology
Technical Support
www.sightandsound.co.uk

Mail:
Tristram: tristram.llewellyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Technical: Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
General - info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Phone:
Support line: 0845 634 7979

Sight and Sound Technology Limited is a company registered in England and 
Wales, with company number 1408275. 

Sight and Sound Technology
Welton House North Wing
Summerhouse Road
Moulton Park
Northampton
NN3 6WD
           
VAT Number - GB 860 2121 66.

From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
Damon Rose
Sent: 14 January 2010 09:38
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Why I hate Word - from a JAWS user 

 

Microsoft Word is meant to be brilliantly accessible. And indeed you can tell 
that Freedom Scientific have put a lot of work into it to make it as accessible 
as possible, it being a fairly indispensible part of the software port folio in 
your average office. 

Tables are accessible. You can increase font and change colours. You can alter 
margins, add page numbers, use hyperlinks, there's a hundred things you can do 
with it and they're all accessible. However, if you aren't a mouse user and 
can't whizz your way across the screen and appreciate the results once you've 
altered them, then it takes absolutely blinking ages to read and create 
documents that your sighted colleagues take minutes to create. 

Want to make your heading a bit bigger? And perhaps embolden it too? Well if 
you're not too careful, you might accidentally do same to the text below it in 
a last minute change of heart about the content. Result: it looks 
embarrassingly rubbish. 

Create a bullet point list and find yourself playing around with it for several 
minutes because you've got one too many bullet points and you can't get rid of 
the unnecessary bullet, or Word decides it wants to bullet point things that 
you didn't want. 

The best most accessible documents are the ones you create. You know them, you 
know your way round them. But it's still difficult. The documents that your 
colleagues like the most because they're 'at a glance' user friendly, are the 
ones you find most difficult to access. 

Access to Word is a myth because it's so time consumingly unusable. 

When you launch Word it takes 20 seconds before a blank document opens, longer 
if you're clicking on a pre-existing document. There's so much lag and there's 
a lack of control that makes me want to scream. 

So that's why I use Metapad and .txt files for as much of my work as possible, 
only transferring to Word if I need to spellcheck or format it in a fancy way. 
It's faster, unbelievably faster. Or that's my finding. 

And yes, I have had Word training, I do understand how it works, but there's so 
much darn pussyfooting around when creating documents that I can't help but 
think there must  be a better way. 

That's all I wanted to say. Do have a nice day. Xxx 

























Damon Rose
Senior Content Producer bbc.co.uk/ouch
BBC Vision Learning 

Tel: 020 8752 4427 (x0224427)
email: damon.rose@xxxxxxxxx 

Have you heard the award-winning Ouch Podcast yet? A razor sharp disability 
talk show presented by Mat Fraser and Liz Carr: www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/podcast 
<file:///\\www.bbc.co.uk\ouch\podcast> 

 


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