Hi, Rebecca. I've been using Office 2016 for only two weeks. So far, I find no advantages over 2010. I have been meaning to try out certain features. For example, I believe 2016 handles PDF files, but I haven't looked into it so far. After all, PDF files have become increasingly accessible, especially with JAWS 2018. Otherwise, 2016 doesn't act as smoothly for me as 2010 did.
for example, often when I press the down arrow key, all I hear is the first letter of that next line rather than the whole line. All I need do is go back up and back down again, but it's an extra step and a distraction. In spell-check, "word in context" is no longer available. It's easy enough to escape out of spell-check and do a "say line" command, but I do miss that option. In Outlook 2016, you need to press control-y to go to the folders list. Shift-tab no longer works. Of course, this is just a question of forming a new habit, and you may already use control-y as your default. Outlook 2016 takes a long time to open. I do have a lot of folders and messages, but it seems to take much longer than it did in 2010. There's a trick to setting up Word 2016 so that you can open files from your chosen directory. I would gladly check my notes to explain if the time came. One last curiosity. When I do a search-and-replace in Word 2016, I'm told: "All done. We made X replacements." Who is "we"? Microsoft? Of course, it isn't literally MS looking over my shoulder, just a way they've chosen to confirm an operation, but it's a little creepy. So far the only reason I can see for upgrading to 2016 is to keep up with technological changes. I had hoped it would overcome certain unrelated problems I've been having, such as with Windows updates, but those problems turn out to be exactly what I said: unrelated. Well, if you do a lot of work on documents with other people, it looks like 2016 has some useful features. -----Original Message----- From: JAWS-Users-List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Rebecca Lineberger Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2018 5:08 PM To: jaws user's list <[email protected]> Subject: [JAWS-Users] Office 2010 vs. 2016 vs. 365 I'm running Windows 10, Fall Creator update, 1709. But I'm still using Office 2010. I hesitate to update since on the list at least, and probably naturally enough, I see more problems than benefits. I've been reading a bit about 2016 and 365 from books on each downloaded from Bookshare. Does anyone have any thoughts about either? It seems these days that screen readers are always playing catch-up as Microsoft constantly introduces changes. Since my computer is behaving and I don't need a new one, the upgrade to a later version of Office would be a choice and not a necessity. Just wondering about others' experiences. Thoughts would be appreciated. Rebecca "The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better" From: Center for Action and Contemplation For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/
