[access-uk] Re: Why I hate Word - from a JAWS user
- From: Tristram Llewellyn <tristram.llewellyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:10:32 +0000
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
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Sight and Sound Technology
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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:
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