You are correct Richard. The angst against Word 2007 and the Ribbon
is not limited to users of screen readers. I know a lot of people who
work for the military and also with federal and state government
agencies and it seems that many are delaying upgrading or regretting
it if they already have. It is a fundemental change in interface for
all users. Personally, my dislike of the program has more to do with
the typical issues I have with MS's bloated applications that use up
more system resources than they have to, have too many supposedly
helpful new features that one has to turn off if one doesn't find
them helpful and that continue to carry bugs and quirks that users
have been complaining about for years to over a decade. That said, I
am not sure the ribbon concept isn't a good idea. I haven't tried it
yet, but it actually sounds to me as if it might have some real good
points once one learns to use it whether one is sighted or blind.
For those who don't like Word, is Word Perfect no longer accessible?
I used WP throughout college when I didn't need any accessibility
software, continued to use it when I needed screen magnification and
then for a while when I moved to exclusively using a screen reader.
This was quite a few versions ago, back around 2004 or so, so maybe
it isn't accessible anymore. I know one doesn't have a choice if one
is taking a class that requires using Word or works somewhere where
the entire office uses Word, but at home one can use what one wishes.
Currently I do all of my word processing using a mix of Jart,, a
freeware called Treepad and Final Draft, but the most specialized
formatting I generally need is screenplay style which Final Draft
takes care of for me. I know that most companies use Word and that
most cases where one might need to submit a document electronically
want it in Word format, I know this is the standard in the publishing
world for publishers and agencies that accept electronic submissions,
but Word Perfect and most other applications will convert files to
Word format with no difficulty.
Of course it would be easier if open source projects like Open Office
and Celtx the open source screenwriting and online collaboration
application would address accessibility issues and make their
applications truly accessible, but there still some commercial
options out there like Corel's products that, again unless they have
become inaccessible, work great and can convert documents,
spreadsheets and so on into MS compatible formats.
Just my thoughts,
Chris
At 02:36 PM 4/30/2010, Petty, Richard wrote:
And, we, as creen reader users, have not been the only ones
aggravated by the new interface. I've read it's caused others a lot
of consternation. Recently I read of some who decided they didn't
want to have to deal with a new learning curve for not much real
performance change. Microsoft didn't take the opportunity to fix
table styles, which have been broken for over a decade. They didn't
fix the master documet feature either. I understand many have moved
over to Open Office. Since that's not a good option for us and as
much as I hate to say we have to suck it up and take what's there,
in this case at least, I don't see another good solution, at least
not for those of us who have to use complex formatting features in
Word. So, I've decided it's time to take the plunge.
Recently when I made the switch to Windows 7 I had some good help
from several of you here, including CathyAnne. So, for those of us
who haven't already made the switch, I guess I wish us all good luck.
Richard Petty
ILRU - Independent Living Research Utilization
[email protected]
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Grimsby JR. [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 10:35 AM
To: 'Ray Campbell'
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: RE: word 2007 is horrible I want my word 2003!
Hi, and there is a nice little utility for those of you who just can't
stand the ribbon. N now why you can't stand the ribbon is beyond me
because it is majorly cool. But for those of you who don't like it do a
Google search for classic menus for office. That will add to your ribbon a
classic menu interface so you get all the new features of 2k7 with the
classic interface of 2k3.
Now try something new every once and a while, and remember just because you
are not used to something doesn't mean it is not accessible. It just means
you are not used to it. The ribbon is a good example of this.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ray Campbell [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 7:09 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: word 2007 is horrible I want my word 2003!
Hi. You know what? The rest of the world, including potential employers,
is using Word 2007. So, you might as well learn it now. I know you don't
want to hear this right now, but it's really not that bad once you get used
to it. I use Word 2007 all of the time with few problems. Once you learn
where things are in the ribbon, you will be fine. Many of the keystrokes
you have learned, such as ctrl-S to save files, ctrl-N for new documents,
ctrl-O to open files, ETC. still work.
Thanks,
Ray Campbell
[email protected]
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