Hi All, Here is my report after talking to FS Tech Support about the Excell 2010 sort dialog box sort levels. The bottom line is that JAWS is not able to read the sort level information because of the way Microsoft is displaying it. I am using JAWS 12, but FS says that there would be no difference when using JAWS 13 or 14. They say that Microsoft would need to change the way this dialog box is displaying information.
If you are working with 2 levels of sorting or maybe even 3 levels, you might be able to wing-it keeping the following information in mind. 1. There is no good way that I have found to have JAWS tell you what sort level is being displayed in the lower half of the dialog box. There is a way to actually change the sort level via the keyboard, but JAWS is in no way providing you with valuable information. Here is what you do: 1.A. After using the Tab key to navigate to the "My Data has Headers" checkbox, press Tab 2 more times until you here JAWS say "Sort Field". Don't get this confused with the item found after the 3rd TAB press which is "Sort Field Combo Box". 1.B. When you are focused on the "Sort Field" you can use the Up and Down arrows to change which sort level is being displayed. When JAWS does say something, it will only be "Sort Field", no matter which level it has changed to. If you are pressing the Arros key and JAWS is saying nothing, you know that you are at the top of the list when pressing Up, and at the bottom of the list when pressing Down. So if you have 2 levels of sort, you will only hear "Sort Field" once as you change from one level to the other. If you have 3 levels of sort, and you are on the 3rd one, pressing the up arrow will result in you hearing "Sort Field" 2 times as you move up the list to Level 1. Once on Level 1 you will not hear anything more when the up arrow is pressed. 2. When you add one or more levels, one and/or 2 new buttons will appear in the dialog box between Copy Level and the Options button. As best as I can tell, when JAWS is focused on the Up button you can use the Control+Up Arrow Command, and when focus is on the Down button you can use the Control+Down arrow command. These buttons are used to move the Sort level that is currently being displayed in the dialog box to a new level in your sort hierarchy. So if you have 3 levels of sorts, and you are currently viewing the information for Level 2, and you use the Up button command, the Level 2 sort will be moved up a level to Level 1 and the Level 1 sort will be moved to the Level 2 position. JAWS provides absolutely no feedback to what is happening when you use these buttons. The reality is that using the multiple sort level feature of Excel requires sighted help to be efficient. It is a very tedious task to move between each "Sort Field" level and then check what is being used for that sort in the various boxes below it. You will need to hold a lot if information in your head while you figure this out. HTH, Annette -----Original Message----- From: JAWS-Users-List [mailto:jaws-users-list-boun...@jaws-users.com] On Behalf Of Annette Carr Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 7:17 AM To: jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com Subject: Re: [JAWS-Users] Sorting in Excel 2010 Maybe if I have time today, I will call FS Tech Support and see what they have to say about it. I'll keep you posted. Annette -----Original Message----- From: JAWS-Users-List [mailto:jaws-users-list-boun...@jaws-users.com] On Behalf Of inthaneelf Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 1:04 AM To: jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com Subject: Re: [JAWS-Users] Sorting in Excel 2010 ok, thanks for letting me know what happened, sad happenings this inthane -----Original Message----- From: JAWS-Users-List [mailto:jaws-users-list-boun...@jaws-users.com] On Behalf Of Annette Carr Sent: Monday, March 18, 2013 7:24 PM To: jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com Subject: Re: [JAWS-Users] Sorting in Excel 2010 When I used Insert+B to read the Sort dialog box, I heard less information than I can find using Tab. Using the JAWS cursor to navigate the dialog box yielded an interesting result. It read everything that I can find with TAB, but a lot of it was read together. I could not find any info that tells me what level I am on. The only clue is whether you find an up and/or down level button. Annette -----Original Message----- From: JAWS-Users-List [mailto:jaws-users-list-boun...@jaws-users.com] On Behalf Of inthaneelf Sent: Monday, March 18, 2013 2:20 AM To: jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com Subject: Re: [JAWS-Users] Sorting in Excel 2010 perchance use of the read dialog (insert b) command might work in the box to give you more information? this is just a guess from reading your messages, I'm still using office 2003, although I have a fair collection of notes on 2007 and 2010, (and of course will be adding 2013 notes as they start appearing) someone try it and let me know if it works? please. inthane -----Original Message----- From: JAWS-Users-List [mailto:jaws-users-list-boun...@jaws-users.com] On Behalf Of Annette Carr Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2013 6:14 AM To: jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com Subject: Re: [JAWS-Users] Sorting in Excel 2010 Hi Scott, Unfortunately, I now have more questions about sorting levels in Office 2010 than answers. I did find that after you add a level, a new button appears in the dialog box between Copy level and Options. The name of this button changes between Move up and Move Down. When it is labeled Move Down, JAWS announces Control+Down arrow, and when the button is labeled move Up JAWS Control+announces Up Arrow. If you have more than 2 levels, you will Control+find 2 buttons between Copy Level and Options. One is labeled Move Down and the other Move Up. The Control Arrow commands still correspond in the same way as described above. At this point I have not play around with Sort when there are the 2 buttons. So the rest of what I have to say relates to when there is only one of these buttons. It appears that you can use either Control+Arrows or Space to change this button. The problem comes in when you go and look at the values for the sort. It does not appear to change, and there is nothing that tells you what level you are on and how many levels actually exist. The next step would be to do some investigating with the JAWS cursor, as well as get some sighted assistance to get an understanding to what is displayed on the screen. Maybe someone else will jump in and shed more light on this topic. HTH, Annette -----Original Message----- From: JAWS-Users-List [mailto:jaws-users-list-boun...@jaws-users.com] On Behalf Of Scott Duck Sent: Friday, March 15, 2013 11:01 AM To: Jaws List Subject: [JAWS-Users] Sorting in Excel 2010 Hi, I recently upgraded to Office 2010 from Office 2003. I have found that sorting data in Excel, like many things, works differently in Office 2010. In Excel 2003 and earlier, when sorting data, all of the sort fields are right there together and you can tab and shift tab back and forth between them. In Excel 2010, you set the parameters for one sort level , you add a level, and then set the parameters for that level . When you add a level, JAWS focus moves to the parameters for that level and, as far as I can tell, you can't go back to the previous level to look at the parameters or change them. Is there a easy way to do this? Thanks, Scott Duck For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/
