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Re: MS Office 2013 - Accessibility changes

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From: Karlen Communications
Date: May 15, 2013 2:52PM

Other significant changes are:

Ctrl + letter O opens the File/Backstage area where you can choose your file
location. There is no way to get the old Open dialog/window back. I now use
the list of recent documents with some pinned and some not or I locate the
file in File Explorer and press Enter to open it....this saves me time.

Alt + F, A opens the File/Backstage area where you can choose the location
for your file. If you want the old dialog/window, press F12.

You can save a document as a tagged PDF by pressing F12 and choosing PDF
from Files of Type. Again, this saves time. Remember to activate the Options
button once you choose PDF to identify headings as Bookmarks.

Alt + F, N opens the "Start Screen" where you can choose from a template.
Ctrl + N still gives you a new document. Alt + F, N will not give you the
old New dialog/window. That is no longer available. To access any personal
templates you have to choose Personal from the types of templates and the
view of the templates changes from the default ones, to the ones you've
identified as personal or created yourself.

You can change the "fishbowl" from the white where you can't see the
document/page outline to a light grey or darker grey by going to the
File/Backstage area and your account information.

You can turn off the Start Screen in the application options. Each
application launches with the Start Screen instead of a blank document. The
check box to turn this off is in the first category of options.

The old spell check dialog is gone. Spell check is done through a pane that
does have keyboard commands but you can't access the word in context.
Pressing F7 will open the Spell Check Pane. I now use Alt + F7 to do a spell
check which will move you to the next spelling mistake and open a context
menu...a keyboard command that has always been there.

I did a session on this at Accessing Higher Ground last November and
recently did a webinar for EASI on the changes in Office and accessibility
changes. I will be doing a conference session on this at the University of
Guelph later this month.
http://www.accessconf.open.uoguelph.ca/

You can now open PDF documents in Word and read them although there is no
structure to the document and saving the document back as a tagged PDF gives
you horrid Tags.

There is a Resume Reading tool that lets you get back to the place you were
editing if you create the document using the Word 2013 DOCX format. This is
really handy.

Reading Layout is still inaccessible but has been reworked for tablet
viewing for those who don't need TTS or screen reading.

In PowerPoint, the slides are wider to accommodate the wider monitors and
the presenter tools have been reworked for tablet use.

Just a few of the changes.

Cheers, Karen
Microsoft MVP for Word