Moderated Finding Alternates to MS Word
JAWS does indeed work with the programs which you mentioned.
Jarte is, essentially, a Wordpad-like program with a spell checker, along with some additional features. For an additional $20 or so you can upgrade to Jarte Plus, which offers even more features. It can detect the presence of a screen reader and enables what it calls screen reader mode, adding even more accessibility to the program. It is not as full-featured as Word but it may contain enough features which will do what you need.
Libreoffice and Openoffice are much more feature-rich and they do work with JAWS. However, the spell checker, while technically accessible, may not be quite as "speech friendly" as what you have with Word. I have also not tested features such as its equivalent of track changes to see how much audible feedback you receive, assuming that this feature is even included. However, it still may be accessible enough to meet your needs.
David Goldfield,
Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist
JAWS Certified, 2019
WWW.DavidGoldfield.org
Hi,
Does anyone know if Jaws 2020 works with alternate word processors like Jarte or OpenOffice or Libre Office? I'm looking for alternate to MS Word.
Thanks,
~Ann
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2020 11:21:12 PM
To: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io>
Subject: Finding Alternates to MS Word
Does anyone know if Jaws 2020 works with alternate word processors like
Jarte or OpenOffice or Libre Office? I'm looking for alternate to MS Word.
Thanks,
~Ann
--
Brian - Windows 10 Pro, 64-Bit, Version 1909, Build 18363
Tolerance is the positive and cordial effort to understand another's beliefs, practices, and habits without necessarily sharing or accepting them.
~ Joshua Liebman
It exists in versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It also has a look and feel that's as close to MS-Office as I've ever seen. I have not, as yet, used it with any of my blind or visually-impaired clients. If you do experiment with it please do report back with regard to accessibility or the lack thereof.
--
Brian - Windows 10 Pro, 64-Bit, Version 1909, Build 18363
Tolerance is the positive and cordial effort to understand another's beliefs, practices, and habits without necessarily sharing or accepting them.
~ Joshua Liebman
Yes, Jaws works very well with jart and liberal office as well. I like using jart a lot, have a great day.
Hi,
Does anyone know if Jaws 2020 works with alternate word processors like
Jarte or OpenOffice or Libre Office? I'm looking for alternate to MS Word.
Thanks,
~Ann
There are a whole set of tutorials on using Libre Office Writer on the following link.
They assume using NVDA but I imagine most if not all of it will be transferable to Jaws also.
http://www.talking-computers.org.uk/jimonlibreoffice.html
From: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of David Moore
Sent: 19 March 2020 22:37
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: Finding Alternates to MS Word
Yes, Jaws works very well with jart and liberal office as well. I like using jart a lot, have a great day.
On Thu, Mar 19, 2020, 6:21 PM ann <tate886@...> wrote:
Hi,
Does anyone know if Jaws 2020 works with alternate word processors like
Jarte or OpenOffice or Libre Office? I'm looking for alternate to MS Word.
Thanks,
~Ann
The last time I took a stab, I was kind of frustrated that the menus do not automatically read with my JFW version at least (2018) and you have to use the JAWS cursor if you want to go through choices. If you know how many times to arrow or if you know the keyboard shortcuts, that’s no problem really, but I was new to the programme and didn’t know any of that. The menus did read automatically in NVDA as I remember. And maybe newer JAWS VERSIONS WORK MORE RESPONSIVELY WITH Libre.
If not…
You can use Openoffice. It is not updated with the frequency that Libre is, but it is very similar, and as far as I know is not actually *dead*. The Writer appears to work quite well with JAWS.
Sent: March 19, 2020 7:49 PM
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: Finding Alternates to MS Word
There are a whole set of tutorials on using Libre Office Writer on the following link.
They assume using NVDA but I imagine most if not all of it will be transferable to Jaws also.
http://www.talking-computers.org.uk/jimonlibreoffice.html
From: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of David Moore
Sent: 19 March 2020 22:37
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: Finding Alternates to MS Word
Yes, Jaws works very well with jart and liberal office as well. I like using jart a lot, have a great day.
On Thu, Mar 19, 2020, 6:21 PM ann <tate886@...> wrote:
Hi,
Does anyone know if Jaws 2020 works with alternate word processors like
Jarte or OpenOffice or Libre Office? I'm looking for alternate to MS Word.
Thanks,
~Ann
Hi,
Does anyone know if Jaws 2020 works with alternate word processors like
Jarte or OpenOffice or Libre Office? I'm looking for alternate to MS Word.
Thanks,
~Ann
The last time I took a stab, I was kind of frustrated that the menus do not automatically read with my JFW version at least (2018) and you have to use the JAWS cursor if you want to go through choices. If you know how many times to arrow or if you know the keyboard shortcuts, that’s no problem really, but I was new to the programme and didn’t know any of that. The menus did read automatically in NVDA as I remember. And maybe newer JAWS VERSIONS WORK MORE RESPONSIVELY WITH Libre.
If not…
You can use Openoffice. It is not updated with the frequency that Libre is, but it is very similar, and as far as I know is not actually *dead*. The Writer appears to work quite well with JAWS.
From:
main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of David
Griffith
Sent: March 19, 2020 7:49 PM
To:
main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: Finding Alternates to MS
Word
There are a whole set of tutorials on using Libre Office Writer on the following link.
They assume using NVDA but I imagine most if not all of it will be transferable to Jaws also.
http://www.talking-computers.org.uk/jimonlibreoffice.html
From: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of
David Moore
Sent: 19 March 2020 22:37
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re:
Finding Alternates to MS Word
Yes, Jaws works very well with jart and liberal office as well. I like using jart a lot, have a great day.
On Thu, Mar 19, 2020, 6:21 PM ann <tate886@...> wrote:
Hi,
Does anyone know if Jaws 2020 works with alternate word processors like
Jarte or OpenOffice or Libre Office? I'm looking for alternate to MS Word.
Thanks,
~Ann
Hm, interesting. I wonder if that is a JFW improvement or some weird quirk of my setup causing this, then.
Could well be the former of course; I know I’m by now quite behind with upgrades…
Sent: March 19, 2020 10:01 PM
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: Finding Alternates to MS Word
I had no problems with Libra and Jaws 2019.
Glenn
The last time I took a stab, I was kind of frustrated that the menus do not automatically read with my JFW version at least (2018) and you have to use the JAWS cursor if you want to go through choices. If you know how many times to arrow or if you know the keyboard shortcuts, that’s no problem really, but I was new to the programme and didn’t know any of that. The menus did read automatically in NVDA as I remember. And maybe newer JAWS VERSIONS WORK MORE RESPONSIVELY WITH Libre.
If not…
You can use Openoffice. It is not updated with the frequency that Libre is, but it is very similar, and as far as I know is not actually *dead*. The Writer appears to work quite well with JAWS.
From: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of David Griffith
Sent: March 19, 2020 7:49 PM
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: Finding Alternates to MS Word
There are a whole set of tutorials on using Libre Office Writer on the following link.
They assume using NVDA but I imagine most if not all of it will be transferable to Jaws also.
http://www.talking-computers.org.uk/jimonlibreoffice.html
From: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of David Moore
Sent: 19 March 2020 22:37
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: Finding Alternates to MS Word
Yes, Jaws works very well with jart and liberal office as well. I like using jart a lot, have a great day.
On Thu, Mar 19, 2020, 6:21 PM ann <tate886@...> wrote:
Hi,
Does anyone know if Jaws 2020 works with alternate word processors like
Jarte or OpenOffice or Libre Office? I'm looking for alternate to MS Word.
Thanks,
~Ann