HI. Since there have been some inquiries made regarding using Word from a blindness perspective as well as from an accessibility perspective, I thought I would post a tutorial from the W7Starter's list. This information below is probably all you will need to know to use Microsoft Word 2007 with your accessibility software such as Jaws and window eyes. After having completed this tutorial, at the very least, once you begin using the Quick Access Toolbar, you will soon forget about the Word ribbon and having to hunt down tools in the menus. I'm sending the information below with the permission of the W7Starter's list owner and the list owner here. If you want to join the W7starters list for much more of this general Windows 7 information send an email message to [email protected] The list rules alone should give you a very good feel for the amount of freedom on this Windows 7 list. T-Y. Andre ----- Original Message ----- From: "RyanAndCaptain" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2010 11:24 AM Subject: Tutorial for Word 2007
Hi 7Starters, As promised, below is a tutorial you can use to make accessibility related tweaks to Word 2007. A bit late since many people are now using Office 2010, but better late than never. (smile). I will update this tutorial with Office 2010 info once I confirm JAWS will function properly in Office 2010. This tutorial is actually made-up of 2 parts. Part 1 is a collection of accessibility tweaks all blind individuals should seriously consider implementing when using Word 2007. Part 2 consists of optional configurations that are not necessary, but I have found these tweaks place lots of Word 2007 functionality at one's fingertips. I have used the following convention to quickly navigate through this document. I have used `1 to mark the beginning of sections of this tutorial, and I have used `2 to mark the beginning of the numbered steps for each procedure. Please convey any feedback if you're having problems or if something doesn't work as advertised. I'm here to help one and all so please take advantage of the free AT help. Enjoy. `1Part 1: Word2007 Configurations If you decide to install Microsoft Office 2007 on your new Windows7 computer you will find a couple of changes must be made to the interface in order to obtain the best accessibility possible. In the following sections you will be verifying that indeed the Print view is the default view and that it is configured properly. You will also disable selected Autocorrect options such as Automatic bulleting and numbering. `1Configuring Print View in Word 2007 When you launch Word 2007 for the first time it will most likely be configured using the Print View. The Print Layout view shows your document as it will look when it is printed. If you are a JAWS user you can quickly verify if you are using the Print view by pressing Insert + letter T. Listen to the entire title bar message, and at the end of the message you should hear "Print view." At first installation of Office 2007 there is a chance you might have this Print View in the 2-page view, which makes reading through documents difficult as you will end up skipping every other page. As a screen reader user you will want to configure Word 2007 to open using the Print View as well as insuring Word is in the Whole page view rather than the Many pages view. `2To Configure the Print view: 1. Launch Microsoft Word by going to the Windows7 Start menu search box and typing the following and pressing the enter key: winword. Note: Please don't open a document just yet. 2. Press Alt + letter W to select the View tab on the Ribbon. Press the tab key to reveal all the options within this View menu. 3. The first item will be Print Layout Button. Make sure you hear the word "pressed." If this button is not pressed simply press the enter key on it to activate it. 4. After completing the previous steps you should be returned to your blank document. `2To Configure the Zoom to Display single Page View: 1. Press Alt + letter W to select the View tab on the Ribbon then press the letter Q to open the Zoom dialogue. 2. You will land on a radio button. Arrow down until you select "Whole page." 3. Tab twice or until you get to a spinbox. Make sure this is set to 75%. You can either arrow up and down to make adjustments, or you can simply type in the value. 4. Tab to Ok and press enter. 5. Insure these modifications have taken by quickly pressing Alt + W then letter Q. Tab around and verify the settings are correct. Press escape to close this dialogue. `1Configuring Draft View in Word 2007 For the sighted and partially sighted, Word 2007 also gives you the option to use the Draft View. In this view text and paragraph formatting are shown, but headers, footers, and other page formatting features are hidden. Your text actually appears as a continuous scroll with margins hidden. Page breaks appear as dotted lines. The goal of this view is to focus on the content of your document rather than distracting formatting and page structure. If you prefer using the Draft view as your default view do the following: `2To Change the Default view to Draft view: 1. Launch Microsoft Word by going to the Windows7 Start menu search box and typing the following then press the enter key: winword. Do not open any personal document just yet. 2. Press the Alt key to open the Microsoft Word Ribbon. Press left arrow until you find the Office button and press enter. 3. Press up arrow a couple of times or until you find Word Options and press the enter key. 4. You are now in a category list box where you can up or down arrow through the available options. Press the letter A until you find and select Advanced. 5. Press Shift + Tab about 13 times or until you get to the following check box: Allow opening a document in Draft view. Press spacebar to check this item. 6. Press enter to close this dialogue box. You can also tab to Ok and press enter. 7. Press the Alt key then right arrow until you find the View tab and press down arrow once. Right arrow until you find "Draft button" and press enter. 8. Close Microsoft Word 2007 then launch it once again. Use your screen reader's keyboard command to Say the title of the active window /application to confirm that you are in the Draft view (This command is Insert + letter T for JAWS). You should hear the words "Draft view" at the end of the message. Note: If for any reason your changes have not taken go back and verify that your settings within Word Options/Advanced are correct as well as those within the View tab. You will find that using either the Print view or the Draft view will meet most of your needs, but each of these views serves a different purpose. The Print view shows your document as it will appear when printed, and the Draft view can be used when the focus is on composing your document without being concerned with appearance or screen clutter. You will find that as a visually impaired or blind user of Word 2007, with these tweaks either of these two views will make your word processing tasks accessible and simple. `1Disabling Bullets and Automatic Numbering By default Word will continue to automatically generate bullets or numbers if you begin typing a series of numbers or bullets followed by a press of the enter key. Word will continue this automatic numbering ad infinitum, or until you press the enter key more than twice to disable this feature. As a screen reader user, you might find reading or composing documents containing either of these two autoformat features frustrating and will want to disable them. `2To disable bullets and automatic numbering as you type: 1. Press Alt + letter F to open the Office Button menu. 2. Press the letter I to go to the Word Options menu. 3. You will now be on a categories list box. Press the letter P to select the Proofing item. 4. Tab once to the following and press enter: Autocorrect options.. 5. You will be presented with a screen containing 3 tabs. Tab two times and make sure you are on the following tab: Autoformat as you type. If you are not on this specific tab simply right or left arrow until you select this tab. 6. You will be presented with about 14 items which you can enable or disable with a press of the spacebar. Most of these items if not all are enabled by default. 7. Depending on your word processing needs, you will have to decide which of these items you want enabled or disabled. Along with the bullets and automatic numbering which are the focus of this particular tutorial, I have chosen to disable the following: Hyphens (--) with dash (-). Unchecked Internet and network paths with hyperlinks. Unchecked Automatic bulleted lists. Unchecked Automatic numbered lists. Unchecked 8. After you have made your configurations tab to Ok and press enter. 9. Tab to Ok and press enter once again to close the Word Options dialogue box. You have now completed making the most important accessibility related changes in Word 2007. You should now find Word 2007 feels very much like previous versions of Microsoft Word. I suggest you read the next few tutorials and decide if they will be of any use to you. I believe you will agree that the following information will save you lots of time and needless frustration when using Word 2007 and it's Ribbon. `1Part 2: Additional changes in Word 2007 The following sections contain a list of optional Word 2007 configurations which may make your word processing a bit more screen reader friendly. Though these changes are not essential in terms of accessibility, if you choose to make these changes you might find using Microsoft Word 2007 much easier to use and very enjoyable. First, you will make some small modifications to the Word interface. You will then learn about the Microsoft Word Ribbon. You will access and add commands to the Quick Access toolbar. You will reorganize commands on the Quick Access Toolbar. You will learn how to hide and unhide the Microsoft Word ribbon. Finally, you will access and customize the Status bar Toolbar `1Additional Word 2007 Changes Below is a set of six modifications directly related to the Word 2007 interface. Most of the following settings can be found and changed within the Office Button/Word Options dialogue box--you will have to tab through these items to find and modify them. `2To Make Changes within the Popular Options Category in Word: 1. Press Alt + letter f. 2. Press the letter I. 3. You will land on the categories list box with the following option selected: Popular. 4. Tab through this group of settings one at a time and use your spacebar to uncheck the following: Enable Live Preview. (Uncheck this) If you want to make any formatting options this feature will immediately change your document to show you the formatting changes before you actually apply them. This does not benefit the blind computer user in any way. This setting can also be processor intensive for some slower and older computers. Open e-mail attachments in Full Screen Reading view. (Uncheck this) This feature presents documents in a 2-page Print Preview mode, which might not be very accessible and at the very least makes reading documents with a screen reader difficult. Disabling this option also prevents any Word document sent via Email attachment from being automatically opened in this 2-page Print Preview mode. 5. After making these 2 changes above tab to Ok and press enter. `2To Change Proofing Options in Word: 1. Press Alt + letter f. 2. Press the letter I. 3. You will land on the categories list box with the following option selected: Popular. Down arrow to Proofing. 4. Tab through this group of settings and use your spacebar to make your desired changes. Show Readability Statistics. (Check this) After completing a spell-check this setting will give you additional information regarding the reading ease and estimated grade-level of your document. Note: If this option is not present, tab about twelve times or until you reach the following setting and check it: Mark grammar errors as you type. Press the tab key a couple of times and this Show readability option will present itself. Note: you can also enable or disable this feature by pressing F7 to run a spell-check and tabbing to the Grammar checkbox and pressing spacebar to check this item. 5. After making this or any other changes above tab to Ok and press enter. `2To Change Advanced Options in Word: 1. Press Alt + letter f. 2. Press the letter I. 3. You will land on the categories list box with the following option selected: Popular. Down arrow to Advanced or press the letter A. 4. Tab through this group of settings and make your desired changes. Enable Click and Type. (Uncheck this) Tab about 14 times to get to this setting. This setting allows the sighted person to place their mouse cursor anywhere in a Word document and begin typing. As a blind person you do not want this setting enabled as you or someone else may accidentally place the mouse cursor in the middle of a document. When you begin typing you may end up entering text in the middle of the page rather than at the beginning of the left margin. Pasting within and between Documents. (Optional) This setting can be found a single press of the tab key beyond the previous setting. These next 3 paste settings are optional but are important if you want to configure how text with formatting is copied from within the same document or between documents then pasted into any other document. For example, if you copy a paragraph with words in all caps and bold, this setting and the next couple of settings will determine if you paste into your target document the text exactly as copied with the all-caps and bold attributes, or without these attributes, or with the same formatting as your target document. Use the up or down arrow to make a selection. Show This Number of Recent Documents. (Optional) Press and hold the Alt key then tap the letter R twice or until you reach this setting. This setting allows you to specify the number of recently opened files displayed in the Office Button menu. The number of files you would like displayed is very personal, but showing 10 or 15 previously opened documents in this list can prevent the chore of having to search for them elsewhere such as your Documents folder. You can type the number of items you would like displayed, or you can up and down arrow to make a selection. Use your Say Line command as the number in the edit field may not speak automatically. Note: While in your main document, this list of previously opened documents can be accessed by pressing Alt + letter F then pressing up arrow a few times. 5. After making these or any other changes above tab to Ok and press enter. `1Introducing the Microsoft Word 2007 ribbon The new Ribbon interface has now replaced the older familiar menubar of previous versions of Microsoft Office. This interface is made up of multiple toolbars on 8 different tabs: Home tab, Insert tab, page Layout tab, References tab, Mailings tab, Review tab, View tab, and Add-Ins tab. I find it easy to grasp the concept of the ribbon if I think of each tab as a different section of a restaurant menu such as a lunch menu, a dinner menu, and a dessert menu. Each of these menus will have different foods for me to feast on, I need only sort through these items and pick out the specific item of interest. With that said, just like a restaurant menu, the various items of interest on the Ribbon can be numerous and difficult to find. The following is a set of brief tutorials written to help you lessen the clutter of the Ribbon as well as very quickly accessing items on this Ribbon. It is not a tutorial for navigating the Ribbon, it is a tutorial for quickly accessing and using the Ribbon's many features. `1Configuring the Quick Access Toolbar The Microsoft Word Quick Access Toolbar is a mini toolbar of sorts. It is physically located to the left of the title bar of Microsoft Word's main window. By default, this toolbar contains the following commands: Save, Undo, and Redo/Repeat. The beauty of this mini toolbar is that one can customize it to meet one's personal word processing needs. The Quick Access toolbar is essentially your own personal menu from which all your favorite items can be placed for fast access. `2To make the Quick Access Toolbar appear: 1. Tap the Alt key once. 2. Press the Windows Context Menu key (Shift + F10). 3. Down arrow once and make sure "Show quick Access Toolbar above the ribbon" is highlighted. Press enter on this item. 4. You can now tap the Alt key once, then press shift + Tab key to access the Quick Access toolbar. Note: you can also press the Alt key once and down arrow until you locate the Quick Access Toolbar. `2To Use Commands on the Quick Access toolbar: 1. Press the Alt key to open the Ribbon. 2. Either press Shift + tab or down arrow a couple of times or until you hear Quick Access toolbar group box. 3. To move through these items simply press the right arrow or left arrow keys. 4. To execute one of these commands press enter. 5. To close the Quick Access Toolbar press the escape key. 6. You also have access to these Quick Access Toolbar commands with the use of a hotkey. For example, the "Save" item on the Quick Access Toolbar is usually the first item you will encounter. You can press Alt + 1 to save the file you are working on. This is the same command as pressing Control + letter S. Similarly, the second item on your Quick Access Toolbar can be executed with the use of the Alt + 2 hotkey. In the upcoming sections you will find you will be able to pin items on this Quick Access Toolbar as well as the ability to organize these commands for very fast and easy access. Note: When using Quick Access toolbar hotkeys, you can only use the numbers on the number row and not the numbers on the NumPad. `1Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar As I have specified above, the Quick Access Toolbar by default holds only 3 commands. To make our word processing tasks efficient we must have fast access to many commonly used word processing tools. We will now learn how to personalize the Quick Access toolbar and stock it with the commands we use most. `2To Add Commands to the Quick Access toolbar: 1. Press Alt + letter F then press the letter I. 2. Press the letter C to move to the Customize categories list box. 3. Tab once and you will be on a combo box from where you can select items from different categories of commands. For example, you can take items for your Quick Access Toolbar from Popular commands, Ribbon commands, or any other category in this list. I suggest you press the letter A until you select the "All Commands" option as this will present you with the complete inventory of Word 2007 commands. 4. Tab once and wait a second or two for the list of commands to present themselves. 5. Press the home key to be taken to the top of this list. You can quickly access any of these choices via first letter navigation, or you can simply down arrow through each of these commands. I recommend arrowing through each of these choices one by one in order to familiarize yourself with the vast variety of commands available to you. 6. When you find a command of interest simply tab once to "Add" and press enter. For example, press the letter D until you locate the following command: Date and Time." Tab once and press enter on Add. Please note that you will not be given any confirmation of your action but know that in fact the item of interest has been added to your list of Quick Access Toolbar commands. 7. Press Shift + Tab to return to the list of possible items to be added to the Quick Access Toolbar. Down arrow to make another selection. 8. Repeat steps #6 and #7 until you are satisfied you have all the items you will need on your personalized Quick Access toolbar. It is better to add more commands than you will need as you can easily remove these commands from this Toolbar if you find you do not have a need for the item. 9. Tab once to "Customize Quick Access toolbar." Make sure this is set to "For all documents (Default)." If it is not, simply up and down arrow to adjust this setting. 10. Tab to the following setting: Show Quick Access Toolbar below the ribbon. Make sure this checkbox is checked. If it is not press the spacebar to check it. 11. Tab to Ok and press enter. You will be returned to your document. 12. to verify that you have indeed added multiple items to the Quick Access Toolbar simply press the Alt key once then down arrow about 2 or 3 times. Press your right arrow to verify that there are now more than 3 commands on the Quick Access Toolbar. Note: If you are focused on the Home Tab when you press the Alt key, you may have to press down arrow several times before the Quick Access Toolbar presents itself. 13. Press escape to close the Quick Access Toolbar. As you can see, the Quick Access Toolbar is now customized with all the Word commands you use most. To access these tools you need only press the Alt key once then down arrow until you locate the Quick Access toolbar, left or right arrow through your commands, select an item of interest, then press enter to use the item. For example, in a new document, use the steps immediately above to make your way to the Quick Access Toolbar. Right arrow until you get to the "Date and Time" entry and press enter. You will be presented with a list of about 15 different ways to enter the current Time or Date. Down arrow and press enter on one of these choices. You will now find that the date has been placed within your document. `1Rearranging Commands on the Quick Access Toolbar Though the process described above for adding commonly used commands to the Quick Access toolbar makes many word processing tasks easy, you will find that some of the items on the Quick Access Toolbar are not necessarily placed in the most easily accessible locations. Another great feature of the Quick Access Toolbar is that it will allow you to rearrange commands for fast access. `2To Rearrange Commands on the Quick Access Toolbar: 1. You will find your way to the Word Options dialogue box in a different way rather than pressing Alt + letter F then the letter I. Press and release the alt key to open the Ribbon. Now press the Windows Context menu key (or Shift + F10) then press enter on the following: "Customize the Quick Access Toolbar. 2. Tab about 5 times and you will arrive at a list box containing all the items on your Quick Access Toolbar. 3. Down arrow through this list making sure you count all the items. Item #1 will be at the top of the list and should be "Save." The last item will be at the bottom of the list. You can press the Home and end keys to get to the top and bottom of this list respectively. 4. To change the order of any of these items simply press the tab key to locate either the Move Up Button or the Move Down Button and press enter. You will have to do a little math here. For example, if you want to move the first item on this list to position 3 on the Quick Access Toolbar, since you are in position 1, you should press enter on the Move Down Button 2 times. Specifically, the first time you press the button you will land on position #2. The second time you press the button you will be at position #3. If you want to move item #13 over to position #10, simply press enter on the Move Up Button 3 times. 5. When you have finished making your modifications to the order of items on the Quick Access Toolbar tab to Ok and press enter. 6. Review your changes by pressing the Alt key once then down arrow until you are focused on the Quick Access toolbar. Right arrow through your tools making sure the most important and most used are at the beginning of the list and less used tools are at the end of the list. 7. If you find you need to make modifications to the order of items on the toolbar simply repeat steps #1 through #5. 8. If you find you would like to remove a specific item from the Quick Access Toolbar simply highlight the item, press the Windows Context menu key (Or Shift + F10), then down arrow and press enter on "Remove from Quick Access Toolbar." As a University student I have found the following items on my quick Access Toolbar indispensible when composing essays or research papers: Font.... Page setup.... Date and Time.... Line Spacing Word Count.... Clear formatting Auto format options. Zoom.... As stated in a previous section above, by default Word will automatically assign a hotkey to each Quick Access Toolbar command in the order it was pinned to the Quick Access toolbar. For example, the associated hotkeys for the items on my Quick Access Toolbar are Alt + 1 for Font, Alt + 2 for Page Setup, Alt + 3 for Line Spacing etc. Note: these are numbers on the number row above the letter keys as you cannot use these hotkeys with the NumPad. `1Hiding and Unhiding the Ribbon The Ribbon is very useful, but now that you have all your important tools on the Quick Access Toolbar, you might find that showing all of the items on the Ribbon whenever pressing the Alt key is no longer necessary. The following will show you how to hide or unhide the ribbon. `2To Hide or Unhide the Ribbon: 1. Press Control + F1 to hide the Ribbon. This is a toggle so pressing this command once again will unhide the Ribbon. 2. You can verify whether the Ribbon is showing or not by pressing the Alt key once then pressing the windows Context menu (Or Shift + F10) and down arrowing to "Minimize the Ribbon." If this item is checked then the ribbon is not showing. If this item is not check then the Ribbon is showing. You can press enter on either of these choices from this menu. 3. You will find that when the Ribbon is hidden, if you press the Alt key once, then press the tab key, the Quick Access Toolbar will open revealing all of your commands. Simply use your left or right arrow keys to move to the desired command and press enter. 4. While the Ribbon is hidden, if you want access to all of the default items on the Ribbon simply press the corresponding command such as Alt + H for the Home Tab or Alt + W for the View tab. You can now either left arrow or right arrow or tab or Shift + Tab through all of the default Ribbon tools. 5. Press the escape key a couple of times to close the Ribbon. Note: For easy access to the Quick Access Toolbar press the Alt key once. Press the Windows Context Menu key then down arrow once and make sure "Show quick Access Toolbar above the ribbon" is showing. If "Show Quick Access Toolbar below the Ribbon is showing press enter on this item. You can now press the Alt key then shift + Tab to access the Quick Access toolbar. `1Configuring the Word2007 Status bar Toolbar In Microsoft Word the status bar is the last line of text on the screen and conveys information such as the current line the cursor is on, the number of spaces from the left margin, and the amount of words in the document. Word 2007 has added a new feature that will allow you to modify the status bar so it only shows your desired information. The following instruction set will help you modify the type and amount of information presented on the Status bar. Note: for JAWS users, the status bar information is spoken when pressing the Insert + pageDown command. For Window-Eyes users this information can be spoken by pressing Insert + Control + letter S. `2To Modify the Number of Status bar Entries: 1. Press the F6 key once. The Status bar toolbar should present itself. Note: if you press the F6 key twice you will land on the Ribbon. If you press the F6 key three times you will be back in your document. You can press this key repeatedly to cycle between views. 2. With the Status bar enabled, press the Windows Context menu key or press Shift + F10. You will now be presented with a list of items you can include on your Status bar. The items currently present on the Status bar will have the "checked" designation. 3. Down arrow through this list and press the spacebar on the items you would like showing on the Status line. 4. When you are finished adding items to your Status line simply press the Escape key. 5. Keep in mind that once an item is checked, and if you press escape, your modification will stay as you configured it because this is a toggle and there is no Ok or Cancel button in this dialogue. If you find that you placed too many items on the Status bar and it is now a bit crowded, simply repeat this process and remove items from the Status bar. I like to keep items on my Status bar to a minimum. The two essential items for me as a blind computer user are Caps Lock notification and Word count. You will have to determine the number and type of status bar information important to you, but at least Word now gives us the freedom to make these types of configurations. `1Closing Notes for Word2007 Here are a few tips to keep in mind when using Word 2007: *When it comes to saving your files, you should know that by default Word saves files in the Documents folder. You can modify this location by using the Save as dialogue box and saving a file to a location other than the Documents folder. *As an optional though not at all necessary procedure, you may want to configure some changes in the Word 2007 font dialogue box to format your documents using the same settings as Word 2003 or Word XP. *You should be aware of the fact that in Word 2007, when you come to the end of a paragraph and press the enter key to start a new paragraph, Word 2007 will automatically add some space between paragraphs to make your document easier to read. *Here is a list of the default Microsoft Word 2007 Font settings. I have placed these settings here in the event you will ever want or need to return to these default settings. 11 point black Calibri Normal style Line spacing: 1 lines. Paragraph formatting: Aligned left Outline level: body text I hope this tutorial will start you on your path to mastering Microsoft Word 2007. Ryan For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/
