Hi good people,

I am using Jaws22 on a Windows 10 Enterprise platform

When I can, I tend to use stand alone Excel documents as they generally run faster and smoother than shared Google Excel documents. Now people want me to use the shared document so I need to find ways of dealing with the annoying things it brings into my life. Any help with the following would be appreciated please.

Document slowness causing lag and Jaws reading out former cell contents plus the new cell content. So let’s say I tab from the cell with the name John in it to a cell with Fred in it. Jaws reads John and then Fred not just Fred. This doesn’t always happen but it happens enough to have me checking the cell contents twice. I think the slowness is because the document is coming to me over the net rather than native on my laptop, not sure but it sure slows down productivity and it doesn’t seem to effect the sighted as much.

Document navigation

In the Google excel doc I turn off the virtual cursor with insert Z. This makes getting around much easier. I have a devil of a job finding the tabs and often have to turn the virtual cursor back on and then page down until I find the tabs, it’s all a bit hit and miss. I saw a youtube clip which suggested there was a shortcut of control+shift+k that would bring up a tabs list to choose from but this key combo does nothing on the doc I am using.

Reading cell contents

Sometimes I have a cell with a formula, so let’s say cell c3 is set up to report the variance between text in a3 and b3 and report the results in c3, so it may read + Spinnach Now if I want to read c3 I can use F2 to go into the cell however that gives me the formula not the result. I am not sure how I can ask Jaws to spell out the contents of c3. Sure I can go back to a3 or b3 and look at those cells individually but there must be a way of getting Jaws to spell out a specific cell content without actually having to F2 it.

Jaws verbosity

The last thing this document does is read the blessed column title each time I move to a new cell. I don’t mind the cell reference such as a1 but anything else, aside from the contents, is a nuisance. Can I change the verbosity to reduce the info provided without effecting other sighted users.

Text analyser

Finally, working in an office of sighted folks everyone loves their colours, coloured cells for this and that and this in red and this in blue. Is there any way of setting the text analyser so it can have Jaws speak in a higher pitch or different voice when it hits text in different colours. I know this doesn’t work in email messages but was wondering if Excel has greater flexibility to handle such a need. Yes, I have asked that people use text rather than colours.

Finally, any general hints anyone can offer would be appreciated. I like to think I am fairly handy around Excel however the google doc platform is a whole new, and sometimes rather unforgiving matter entirely.

Cheers and thanks

Murray

Hello Murray:

So, here is a crazy question. Are you collaborating on these spreadsheets or do you simply need to read and understand them? If the latter, you can download them as Excel documents and review them locally on your own machine. I know that Google has a rich set of commands one can execute with Google Sheets, but you don’t have to use Google Sheets unless you are editing in place for others to see.

Cordially,

Curtis Chong

Hi good people,

I am using Jaws22 on a Windows 10 Enterprise platform

When I can, I tend to use stand alone Excel documents as they generally run faster and smoother than shared Google Excel documents. Now people want me to use the shared document so I need to find ways of dealing with the annoying things it brings into my life. Any help with the following would be appreciated please.

Document slowness causing lag and Jaws reading out former cell contents plus the new cell content. So let’s say I tab from the cell with the name John in it to a cell with Fred in it. Jaws reads John and then Fred not just Fred. This doesn’t always happen but it happens enough to have me checking the cell contents twice. I think the slowness is because the document is coming to me over the net rather than native on my laptop, not sure but it sure slows down productivity and it doesn’t seem to effect the sighted as much.

Document navigation

In the Google excel doc I turn off the virtual cursor with insert Z. This makes getting around much easier. I have a devil of a job finding the tabs and often have to turn the virtual cursor back on and then page down until I find the tabs, it’s all a bit hit and miss. I saw a youtube clip which suggested there was a shortcut of control+shift+k that would bring up a tabs list to choose from but this key combo does nothing on the doc I am using.

Reading cell contents

Sometimes I have a cell with a formula, so let’s say cell c3 is set up to report the variance between text in a3 and b3 and report the results in c3, so it may read + Spinnach Now if I want to read c3 I can use F2 to go into the cell however that gives me the formula not the result. I am not sure how I can ask Jaws to spell out the contents of c3. Sure I can go back to a3 or b3 and look at those cells individually but there must be a way of getting Jaws to spell out a specific cell content without actually having to F2 it.

Jaws verbosity

The last thing this document does is read the blessed column title each time I move to a new cell. I don’t mind the cell reference such as a1 but anything else, aside from the contents, is a nuisance. Can I change the verbosity to reduce the info provided without effecting other sighted users.

Text analyser

Finally, working in an office of sighted folks everyone loves their colours, coloured cells for this and that and this in red and this in blue. Is there any way of setting the text analyser so it can have Jaws speak in a higher pitch or different voice when it hits text in different colours. I know this doesn’t work in email messages but was wondering if Excel has greater flexibility to handle such a need. Yes, I have asked that people use text rather than colours.

Finally, any general hints anyone can offer would be appreciated. I like to think I am fairly handy around Excel however the google doc platform is a whole new, and sometimes rather unforgiving matter entirely.

Cheers and thanks

Murray

HI Curtis,

Yes, I am editing in place otherwise if it was just me I would save them as Excel documents and make life much easier

Best

Murray

Hello Murray:

So, here is a crazy question. Are you collaborating on these spreadsheets or do you simply need to read and understand them? If the latter, you can download them as Excel documents and review them locally on your own machine. I know that Google has a rich set of commands one can execute with Google Sheets, but you don’t have to use Google Sheets unless you are editing in place for others to see.

Cordially,

Curtis Chong

Hi good people,

I am using Jaws22 on a Windows 10 Enterprise platform

When I can, I tend to use stand alone Excel documents as they generally run faster and smoother than shared Google Excel documents. Now people want me to use the shared document so I need to find ways of dealing with the annoying things it brings into my life. Any help with the following would be appreciated please.

Document slowness causing lag and Jaws reading out former cell contents plus the new cell content. So let’s say I tab from the cell with the name John in it to a cell with Fred in it. Jaws reads John and then Fred not just Fred. This doesn’t always happen but it happens enough to have me checking the cell contents twice. I think the slowness is because the document is coming to me over the net rather than native on my laptop, not sure but it sure slows down productivity and it doesn’t seem to effect the sighted as much.

Document navigation

In the Google excel doc I turn off the virtual cursor with insert Z. This makes getting around much easier. I have a devil of a job finding the tabs and often have to turn the virtual cursor back on and then page down until I find the tabs, it’s all a bit hit and miss. I saw a youtube clip which suggested there was a shortcut of control+shift+k that would bring up a tabs list to choose from but this key combo does nothing on the doc I am using.

Reading cell contents

Sometimes I have a cell with a formula, so let’s say cell c3 is set up to report the variance between text in a3 and b3 and report the results in c3, so it may read + Spinnach Now if I want to read c3 I can use F2 to go into the cell however that gives me the formula not the result. I am not sure how I can ask Jaws to spell out the contents of c3. Sure I can go back to a3 or b3 and look at those cells individually but there must be a way of getting Jaws to spell out a specific cell content without actually having to F2 it.

Jaws verbosity

The last thing this document does is read the blessed column title each time I move to a new cell. I don’t mind the cell reference such as a1 but anything else, aside from the contents, is a nuisance. Can I change the verbosity to reduce the info provided without effecting other sighted users.

Text analyser

Finally, working in an office of sighted folks everyone loves their colours, coloured cells for this and that and this in red and this in blue. Is there any way of setting the text analyser so it can have Jaws speak in a higher pitch or different voice when it hits text in different colours. I know this doesn’t work in email messages but was wondering if Excel has greater flexibility to handle such a need. Yes, I have asked that people use text rather than colours.

Finally, any general hints anyone can offer would be appreciated. I like to think I am fairly handy around Excel however the google doc platform is a whole new, and sometimes rather unforgiving matter entirely.

Cheers and thanks

Murray