Microsoft word: Track changes toggle notification

[nvaccessAuto]

Reported by pranavlal on 2015-08-19 15:41
I do not get any feedback when I press ctrl+shift+e in Microsoft word. I should hear if track changes have been enabled or disabled. This occurs in word 2010 and 2013 on windows 7.

[LeonarddeR]

This is related to #3293

[bhavyashah]

The wording of this ticket suggests to me that this is a bug rather than a feature request, whereas my understanding of this issue implies the opposite. In other words, was Ctrl+Shift+E as a track keyboard shortcut for toggling track changes supposed to be part of #1353's implementation as a common Microsoft Word shortcut key, or is Ctrl+Shift+E something that User pranavlal would like newly supported and verbalized in a similar manner? Since User pranavlal explicitly mentioned Word 2010 and 2013 as affected versions, I would be curious to find out whether or not this is the case with other versions of Word - 2016 (CC @ehollig) and 2007 (CC @Qchristensen maybe?) also.

[derekriemer]

This is a word shortcut, and a notification that the track changed.

[Qchristensen]

Firstly, I can confirm that this affects every version of Word, at least from 2007 - certainly in both Word 2007 and Word 2016 (to add to Word 2010 and 2013 that have already been mentioned), NVDA does not report anything when control+shift+e is pressed in Word (except for the keys themselves if that is enabled) - there is no indication that track changes has been turned on or off.

So, possibly a feature request since it's not something that has been supported before, and it's not something which is "wrong", but a piece of information not being provided. Either way, it would be a useful piece of information to be aware of.

Visually, the "track changes" button on the Review ribbon appears as pressed or not, depending on the current state of the feature. That is only visible when that ribbon is visible. However, a sighted user would know whether track changes are on, as soon as they either type or delete something, where this is not reported by NVDA when typing. When moving through text (eg with arrows or say all), text is reported as inserted or deleted as appropriate if track changes was on when that change was made. Even then, it doesn't tell you if the feature is currently on (if you turn track changes off, any changes made while it was on but not yet accepted or rejected are still annotated).

[derekriemer]

Any idea on priority?

[Qchristensen]

As a feature, we wouldn't normally assign a priority.

Currently, btw, the easiest way to ascertain whether track changes is on is:

1. Press alt+r, g. NVDA announces the Track changes item. If it announces "checked" as part of the description, then Track changes is on, otherwise track changes is off.
2. If desired, press ENTER to toggle track changes, otherwise press alt to exit the ribbon.

Alternatively:
a. Type a letter
b. Press the left arrow. If NVDA reads "inserted" and the letter, then track changes is on. If NVDA just reads the letter, then track changes is off.
c. Press delete to remove the letter if desired.
d. Press alt+r, g, g to toggle track changes as desired.

[Qchristensen]

This is still an issue, but actually I believe a duplicate (I never noticed previously) of #942