Accessing text boxes in Microsoft Word
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Hi all,
How do I access the contents of text boxes in Microsoft Word? In jaws, I could get a list of objects in a word document and access them that way. NVDA as far as I know does not support this yet. I need this at work because some of my job related documents have text boxes in them. Note: At work, I am using Word 2013 but this query is Word version agnostic. Pranav
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Quentin Christensen
Hi Pranav, Firstly, the ideal solution here (even using Jaws to be honest), is to convince people not to use text boxes. NVDA doesn't currently have a direct keystroke, it's something we could look into. For now, though, there are still a couple of ways of reading text boxes currently: If the text boxes are positioned "in line with text", they can be found within the text of the document. Currently they are identified as "slash" though that's something we're working on. Once you are in a text box (or picture or other object) you can press TAB to move between them. You can add a text box into a document by pressing alt+n, x, enter then press escape once (so you are out of the text itself but the text box is still selected), then you can press TAB to move between the objects in the document (this wraps so if you press TAB on the last object in the document it will jump back to the first object). Be sure to either delete the text box you added or not save changes to this document! You can also use the accessibility checker, which is handy for finding things but I'll warn you it's not the most direct route: In Word 2016 you can get to this from the "tell me what you want to do" edit box by pressing alt+q and typing "check", but from 2013 (or from 2016) you can press alt+f (file menu), then i (info tab), then i (inspect document) then down arrow to check accessibility. This opens the check accessibility task pane but unfortunately puts the focus back in your document so you need to press F6. This shows any accessibility issues, so if you down arrow through the details it will say "Warning" then "objects not inline", then "text box 2" (not sure why, they all seem to be called text box 2?). Press enter on that text box and press SHIFT+F6 to jump back to your document with the text box selected (this works the same as the previous method of adding a new text box but without changing your document. It is more cumbersome though, I'll not deny that!). Kind regards Quentin.
On Fri, Jul 22, 2016 at 10:26 AM, Pranav Lal <pranav.lal@...> wrote: Hi all, --
Quentin Christensen Training Material Developer Basic Training for NVDA E-Book now available: http://www.nvaccess.org/shop/ Direct: +61 413 904 383 www.nvaccess.org Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NVAccess Twitter: @NVAccess
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Hi Quentin,
Many thanks for this workaround. The text boxes are not inline so I will utilize your second approach. I have no control over the people who use them. I have given them feedback but I do not hold out much hope for change.
Pranav
From: nvda@nvda.groups.io [mailto:nvda@nvda.groups.io] On Behalf Of Quentin Christensen
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2016 6:23 AM To: nvda@nvda.groups.io Subject: Re: [nvda] Accessing text boxes in Microsoft Word
Hi Pranav,
Firstly, the ideal solution here (even using Jaws to be honest), is to convince people not to use text boxes.
NVDA doesn't currently have a direct keystroke, it's something we could look into. For now, though, there are still a couple of ways of reading text boxes currently:
If the text boxes are positioned "in line with text", they can be found within the text of the document. Currently they are identified as "slash" though that's something we're working on.
Once you are in a text box (or picture or other object) you can press TAB to move between them. You can add a text box into a document by pressing alt+n, x, enter then press escape once (so you are out of the text itself but the text box is still selected), then you can press TAB to move between the objects in the document (this wraps so if you press TAB on the last object in the document it will jump back to the first object). Be sure to either delete the text box you added or not save changes to this document!
You can also use the accessibility checker, which is handy for finding things but I'll warn you it's not the most direct route: In Word 2016 you can get to this from the "tell me what you want to do" edit box by pressing alt+q and typing "check", but from 2013 (or from 2016) you can press alt+f (file menu), then i (info tab), then i (inspect document) then down arrow to check accessibility. This opens the check accessibility task pane but unfortunately puts the focus back in your document so you need to press F6. This shows any accessibility issues, so if you down arrow through the details it will say "Warning" then "objects not inline", then "text box 2" (not sure why, they all seem to be called text box 2?). Press enter on that text box and press SHIFT+F6 to jump back to your document with the text box selected (this works the same as the previous method of adding a new text box but without changing your document. It is more cumbersome though, I'll not deny that!).
Kind regards
Quentin.
On Fri, Jul 22, 2016 at 10:26 AM, Pranav Lal <pranav.lal@...> wrote:
-- Quentin Christensen Basic Training for NVDA E-Book now available: http://www.nvaccess.org/shop/
Direct: +61 413 904 383
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Quentin Christensen
You're welcome - it has raised the issue of accessing text boxes again though and we would like to make this easier so it's definitely something we'll look at. Kind regards Quentin.
On Sat, Jul 23, 2016 at 9:58 AM, Pranav Lal <pranav.lal@...> wrote:
--
Quentin Christensen Training Material Developer Basic Training for NVDA E-Book now available: http://www.nvaccess.org/shop/ Direct: +61 413 904 383 www.nvaccess.org Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NVAccess Twitter: @NVAccess
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Brian's Mail list account
Yes I needed to do this recently as i was sent some diet sheets for helping me with ahelth condition with things in text boxes. I lost the will to live trying to read them so the person who sent them removed the boxes nand reformated the text into paragraphs instead.
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Brian bglists@... Sent via blueyonder. Please address personal email to:- briang1@..., putting 'Brian Gaff' in the display name field.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Quentin Christensen" <quentin@...> To: <nvda@nvda.groups.io> Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2016 4:38 AM Subject: Re: [nvda] Accessing text boxes in Microsoft Word You're welcome - it has raised the issue of accessing text boxes again
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Yes I would like NVDA to support reading text boxes in MS Word too! That would be another great feature for NVDA.
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