Tom, You have spoken a Great Truth. One needs to be able to take the time to get used to those blamed ribbons because they, unfortunately, seem to be the way of the future. In 6 months we will all be saying that the ribbons are no big deal (*NOT*) - (LOLLOLLOLLOL) Cy, The (optimistic) Anasazi From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Lange Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2011 9:50 PM To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Worth upgrading to JAWS 12 from 11 question Hi Ed, You wrote, in part: We are, however, upgrading to Office 2010 in about 60days. So, if I'm stuck with the ribbons, won't I need JAWS 12? Yeah, it would probably be a good idea to upgrade in that case, since Office 2010 was a little dicey with version 11 when I tried it a while back. Is it actually possible to use Office 2010's ribbons with a keyboard? Yes, they're quite usable. What I've heard generally is that ribbons are unworkable and that without the JAWS virtual ribbons, Office 2010 is unusable. I suspect that's an overstatement. I believe that there are people using WindowEyes and System Access with Office 2010, and I more than suspect that neither of those screen readers offers the virtual ribbons feature. To my knowledge, those screen readers don't have the virtual ribbons feature. I think what you're hearing about the unusability of the ribbons has a lot to do with people's comfort level with the ribbon interface. While they can be problematic for some, they are, in my opinion, quite useful and in fact, I prefer to use the ribbbons as they are rather than mess around with the virtual ribbons. One issue that I have with the virtual ribbons, and it's a biggie, is that you cannot use the key tips. At the same time, I'm pretty busy and really don't have time to learn a whole new interface. I find my self challenged as it is in learning Google Docs, which I've been required to do for a particularly significant client. So, I guess the question raised in the subject line still remains. Well, when you're not in crunch mode, take some time to really explore the ribbon interface and while you're doing it, make a note of key tips for functions that you'll be most likely to use. You can pick your favorite ones and add them to your quick access toolbar, which, although limited in size, can be customized to suit your taste. Each of the items in the quick access toolbar can be accessed with alt plus a number, as in alt+1, alt+2, alt+3, et cetera et cetera. I like that, actually. For example, alt+1 could be used for the font dialog, alt+2 for the paragraph dialog, and alt+3 for page setup. Just some ideas. Hope this helps. Tom