OK
Track Changes are challenging. One, however, can manage.
The problem with the standard JAWS techniques is that they are flawed.
The quick keys function works best, but in a long document, JAWS just gives up
and says there are no more changes when, in fact, I know there are more. The
created dialog box (Windows Key plus semicolon) sometimes causes even a fast PC
to grind and grind. After all that, JAWS will just give up.
Here is the best technique I've found.
Don't use JAWS to find revisions.
Word itself has a function for finding "next revision." Find that on the
ribbon, press the applications key, and assign it to the quick access tool bar.
In my case, Alt-3 jumps to the next revision. The main downfall is that this
technique also finds comments (and puts you inside them). Getting out of
comments is a bear, but that's another seminar.
Once Word has actually found the revision, use the arrow keys. JAWS won't
accurately tell you much unless track changes is turned on. Then, be sure, in
the quick settings menu, you turn on "count and insertions and deletions." You
can also turn on author and date. That can sometimes be helpful.
When you navigate by character, JAWS actually is pretty accurate in identifying
what has been inserted and what has been deleted. Of course, this would be a
painful way to review a hole document. That's why I use the word function to
locate the revisions.
Font and formatting changes can be an annoyance if you are just looking for
substance. Sometimes, if I am getting a revised document from an adverse
party, I just want to know if all the changes were, in fact, made or shown.
Then, I use Legal Blackline to compare the documents. Then, I can turn off
format changes to reduce the clutter.
Also, I like to switch the view to "Draft" instead of "Print" when reviewing
extensively track changed documents.
I'm an attorney, and I cannot afford to miss a change. The techniques above
work, though they can be tedious
Another tool to consider is a product called DeltaView. DeltaView actually
compares two documents, and you can ignore how Word shows the changes, picking
your own. For example, set insert to blue and delete to red. Set moved text
to italics. To be really, absolutely clear, you can enclose deleted text with
characters such as braces {} or less than greater than symbols <>.
You can also number the changes. This can be helpful if you want to identify
and explain a change. The numbering also helps because you can search through
the document looking for changes (both insertions and deletions) by searching
for the "DeltaView ChangeNumber" style.
Now, how to search for styles in a Word document is yet another seminar.
Sorry for the long message.
Remember, you can change the view between "Final" and "Final Showing Mark-Up"
to make sure your final document looks right. Believe me, even for sighted
colleagues, track changes can be messy. By switching to "Final," I often find
changes sighted colleagues miss.
I agree that JAWS could do a better job. Except for WindowEyes (which came
late to the game with track changes), the others don't even try (as of the last
time I checked).
-----Original Message-----
From: Jfw [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Tim Ford via Jfw
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2014 9:57 PM
To: Artur Räpp; The Jaws for Windows support list.
Subject: Re: [AccessSTEM] Help with study on helping blind persons
independently format documents
There is a JAWS command, Windows key plus ;, and that brings up a box with four
choices, revisions being one of them. Press enter, and JAWS sets up a very
handy list box separately showing each revision. Each has a link that takes
you directly to that portion of the document. This is probably the same as
that described below, the only difference being how you get to that point.
-----Original Message-----
From: Artur Räppvia Jfw
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2014 7:35 PM
To: 'Gudrun Brunot' ; 'The Jaws for Windows support list.'
Subject: RE: [AccessSTEM] Help with study on helpingblind persons independently
format documents
Hello
I use JAWS quick keys for track changes (jaws key+z, then r) With this command
I can move from one change to an other and JAWS reads it.
HTH
Artur
-----Original Message-----
From: Jfw [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Gudrun Brunot via
Jfw
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2014 11:47 PM
To: 'Hamid Hamraz'; 'The Jaws for Windows support list.'
Subject: RE: [AccessSTEM] Help with study on helping blind persons
independently format documents
Dear Lourdes: This is such a valuable endeavor. I have hair-raising examples I
could sent you, only, it would be illegal. I am a translator, and I
occasionally get assignments that involve working with track changes. We're not
just talking about someone deleting something that I wrote and replaced it with
another word. I'm talking about a text that another person generated. The
document was then translated. The originator decided to make changes to the
original. This revised document was submitted to the translator, so he would
apply the changes to the second version of the target document. This was sent
to me--that is, both the original document with the originator's revisions,
plus the second version of the translated documents, with the revisions
applied--we hope. My job was to be comparing these two latest documents and
make sure all the revisions had been applied.
In theory, there are ways of dealing with revisions in JAWS. You will hear JAWS
say "revision" as you read the text line by line, but there is nothing that
really shows exactly when a deletion starts/ends, when an insertion
starts/ends, and so on. Not to speak of deleted/inserted spaces. If you go over
the line character by character, you have some chance of seeing start and end,
but it gets hairy indeed if the revisions stretch over several lines or pages.
Changed formats are another headache. I have sent a letter to Freedom
Scientific, actually to one of its trainer, proposing that there be settings in
the braille display preferences to not only show that there is an attribute
(dots 7-8), but to differentiate them--dot 7 for deletions or strike-through
which is actually a font option as well, and dot 8 for insertion. Trouble is,
insertion is not a font option, so that has to be set up in some other way.
Sound could also be used. I'd love an ascending piano two-note plink for "start
insertion" and a descending one for "end insertion." A two-part click for
"start deletion" and a reverse one for "end deletion". That could be a sound
scheme, and it should work whether you're reading the text from beginning to
end, line by line, word by word, etc.
So, I'm sorry I can't send you the documents from hell--they would be truly
fantastic examples of how things do not work for us. I asked the agency if I
could use them, and the answer was nope.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jfw [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Hamid Hamraz via
Jfw
Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2014 10:29 PM
To: JFW; [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Fw: [AccessSTEM] Help with study on helping blind persons
independently format documents
Sorry folks if this is off-topic, but it will potentially be helpful to all
blind people.
----- Original Message -----
From: Lourdes Morales Villaverde
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2014 8:51 PM
Subject: [AccessSTEM] Help with study on helping blind persons
independentlyformat documents
Greetings,
I'm part of a group of researchers from the University of California, Santa
Cruz. We are investigating ways in which tools may assist blind people with
tasks related to document formatting, and as a first step we need to gather
information about document formatting practices, errors and barriers of blind
persons. To do this, we need to collect a large number and variety of documents
that were created and formatted by blind persons (with at most light
perception) without help from sighted persons.
Please help us by providing your documents. As this is a National Science
Foundation study, we follow a strict rule of maintaining your and your
documents’ confidentiality and destroying documents after the study is finished.
We will run a draw for two $50 Amazon gift certificate as a token of
appreciation for those who provide us with at least 5 documents created with
any word processor (Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, etc.). Please only send us
documents that are at least 3 pages long.
If you are interested in helping us, please email your documents to
[email protected]. Also, if you know someone who fits the criteria and might be
interested in helping us, please forward this email. We really appreciate your
help.
Thank you for you time.
Best regards,
--
Lourdes M. Morales Villaverde
Computer Science Ph.D. Student
Interactive Systems for Individuals with Special Needs Lab Baskin School of
Engineering University of California, Santa Cruz
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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AccessSTEM mailing list
[email protected]
http://mailman13.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/accessstem
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