WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Track Changes

for

From: Karlen Communications
Date: Oct 3, 2011 5:57AM

I usually keep my original document clean without Track Changes turned on.
This allows me to send a copy of the document to several people and
consolidate their changes more effectively. There is an excellent article on
strategies for using Track Changes on the Microsoft site.

One of the constant issues with using Track Changes is that sometimes when
you choose to view the document as Final with no markup, some of the markup
still sneaks through which is why I use my original as the final document.

If you don't turn on Track Changes in the original document, when you review
and decide to copy changes made in text from a document with Track changes
turned on, only the revised content is copied and pasted, not the mark-up.

The article can be found at
http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-word/archive/2008/09/05/pasting-tracked-
changes.aspx - note that they've formatted a few paragraphs as headings so
if you're using a screen reader you can skip over these and move directly to
Pasting Track Changes.

There is a new article with a video on the Word Blog site:
http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-word/archive/2011/05/05/remove-tracked-c
hanges-video.aspx Microsoft is promoting the ability to use Track Changes in
the cloud/Office Web Apps.

An older Article on the Microsoft Office Blog can be found at
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/track-changes-while-you-edit-HA0
01218690.aspx and deals with regular track changes.

To turn Track changes on press Ctrl + Shift + E. This is a toggle so it will
turn them off again.

To accept a revision press alt + R, A and to reject a revision press Alt +
R, J.

Other keyboard commands for the Track Changes Group are:

Alt + R, T, D to display various aspects of revisions.
Alt + R, T, M to show markup
Alt + R,T, D to show the Review Pane which is not accessible. My advice is
to not even try to explore it.

Alt + R,F to move to the previous revision/track changes.
Alt + R, H to move to the next revision/track changes.

I recommend that the changes be viewed inline as the content makes more
sense when you're using a screen reader. I show Track Changes inline and
Comments in Balloons.
The settings for Track Changes can be found by pressing Alt + S, G, letter
O. The Track Changes dialog opens and you can choose what gets displayed in
balloons and also change the default colour of Track Changes from red (which
can be difficult to see) to something else.

JAWS will read the text with the revisions as it would be read if the
revisions were accepted so it is less confusing. If you want to examine the
revisions more closely use the JAWS commands for listing or moving to a
specific revision or use the Word commands to move to the previous or next
revision.

JAWS has two helpful keyboard commands: JawsKey + Shift + R to list
revisions which lets you select one and navigate directly to it; and Ctrl +
Shift + apostrophe to list comments which gives you a list and again lets
you select a comment, move to it and read it.

JawsKey + Alt + R toggles revision/track changes detection on or off.

If you are in SayAll in JAWS you can use the letter R to move to the next
revision. I don't find this helpful because it only moves you to the next
revision and doesn't seem to continue from that point until you move the
cursor past that revision.

If you just want a list of the track changes without context press Windows
Key + semi-colon while using JAWS. This opens a virtual viewer and you can
choose to display comments, footnotes, endnotes or revisions/track changes.

Sorry I don't have specific keyboard commands for other screen readers which
is why I included the Word Track changes keyboard commands.

Cheers, Karen
Microsoft MVP for Word