Microsoft Word text editor: accessibility enhancement - History

URL: https://github.com/paulber19/wordAccessEnhancementNVDAAddon.git

Download:

• Current stable version: 3.8.1
• Previous stable Version: 3.7.3
• Development's versions

Sorry, but this document is an automatic translation from french language.

1. v3.8 (February/26/2026)

Compatibility with NVDA 2026.1.

NVDA versions prior to 2025.1 are no longer supported.

What's new:

• added the script "windows + alt + b" to set the view in draft mode.

Bug fixes:

• the parameters of the synthesizer used for automatic reading are again correctly saved (regression since version 3.7 of the extension).
• the displaying of automatic reading parameters is possible again (regression since version 3.7 of the extension).

Development:

• to display the "What's new" of a new version of the extension, the "changes.html" document is no longer opened by "urlopen", but is downloaded, saved momentarily in the "appData\local\temp" folder and opened in the browser.
• taking into account the closure of the rawgit.com site for updating add-on.
• use of json instead of pickle to store the add-on update status.

Compliance with the NVDA API:

• taking into account the movement of the NVDA version in the "buildVersion.py" module.

2. v3.7 (June/06/2025)

Compatibility with NVDA 2025.1.

NVDA versions prior to 2024.1 are no longer supported.

What's new:

• addition concerning text verification:
  • scripts to move from spelling error to spelling error without switching to navigation mode.
  • scripts to move from grammatical error to grammatical error without switching to navigation mode.
  • script to display suggestions for spelling mistake under cursor.
• vocalization of the result of the action of the "control+majuscule+o" and "control+majuscule+p" shortcuts (respectively switching to plan mode and switching to page mode) of Word.
• addition, for all versions of NVDA supported by the add-on, of the vocalization of the result of the action of Word shortcuts supported by the latest version of NVDA.
• addition in the document description of the view type.
• added a script to switch between voice for autoplay and voice for Word.

changes:

• to resolve the conflict of "windows+control+right and left arrow" commands with those of Windows (virtual desktop change), movement commands in a table are no longer blocked outside the table. The "Not in a table" message is no longer announced and the commands are then sent to Windows.
• The setting regarding the use of symbol dictionaries is no longer part of the settings saved for the autoplay voice.
• To ensure compatibility with NVDA 2025.1, the vocal settings for automatic reading are erased during the first start of the add-on on this version. It is necessary to record them again.

Bug fixes:

• the update search is no longer done when the "Automatically search for updates" option is unchecked just after starting NVDA.

Development :

• when installing the add-on, the current configuration is no longer saved in the extension folder but is now saved in the user configuration folder. This allows you to still keep the current configuration if an installation goes wrong.

Compliance with the NVDA API:

• use of the "ExecAndPump" method of the "systemUtils" module.
• taking into account the movement of the "outpuDevice" parameter from the "speech" section to the "audio" section of the NVDA configuration.
• taking into account the memorization of the audio output device by its ID instead of its name. Take into account the obsolescence of Gui.messagebox and Gui.message.messagebox, replaced by messagedialog:
  • Messagedialog is now used for all NVDA versions greater than 2025.1.

3. v3.6 (October/11/2024)

compatibility with NVDA 2024.2, 2024.3 and 2024.4. What's new:

• improvement regarding comments:
  • added a "windows + alt +o" script to announce or display comments replies under the cursor.
  • added a "windows + alt +y" script to reply to the comment under the cursor.
  • possibility of indicating the name of the author when inserting a comment.
  • in the element insertion dialog, added the "Reply to comment" element to reply to the comment under the cursor.
  • in the dialogue listing the comments:
    • added a button to read the replies to the comment.
    • added a button to reply to the comment.
    • added a button to modify the author's name.
• moving from sentence to sentence now works correctly when UIA is used.
• the scripts for moving from paragraph to paragraph with the possibility of skipping empty paragraphs are brought into compliance with those of NVDA.
• The script for reading the text of the element under the cursor (footnote or endnote) now allows, on the second press of the command gesture, to modify this text.
• automatic reading of footnotes or endnotes is now operational when the "Use UI Automation to access Microsoft Word Document Controls" option is either "When appropriate" or "Always".
• added a script (without input gesture) to set the option "Use UI Automation to access Microsoft Word Document Controls" without needing to access the "Advanced" category of NVDA settings.

Bug fixes:

• correction in the documentation of the horizontal and vertical movement keys in "table command layer" mode activated.
• deleting an endnote or footnote no longer causes an error when automatic reading of notes is activated.
• the text associated with the comment is now correctly displayed when there is only one comment listed.

Changes:

• scripts concerning movements from sentence to sentence or from paragraph to paragraph no longer appear in the add-on 's input gestures category because they are triggered by non-modifiable Word commands.
• the "Escape" key no longer allows you to deactivate the "table command layer" mode.

4. v3.5 (March/28/2024)

What's new:

• Compatibility with NVDA 2024.1 and dropping support for NVDA versions prior to 2023.1.
• taking into account the "Speech on demand" mode introduced in nvda 2024.1: all scripts announcing information will vocalize this information. In this mode, all other scripts will remain silent.

Development :

• removal of code specific to versions prior to NVDA 2023.1.

5. v3.4 (February/15/2023)

Compatibility with NVDA 2023.1

6. v3.3 (May/24/2022)

Features:

• addition in the document information, of:
  • the indication "contains hidden text" in the statistics,
  • the indication of the state of the "show hidden text" option of Word.

Bug fixes:

• no translation of certain types of elements in the dialog opened with "nvda+f7".
• error when moving from bookmark to bookmark.
• error getting document information when page borders are not uniform.
• the options of the "Document formatting" category are no longer modified when a search for comments is made using the "Search for elements" dialog (windows+alt+f5).

Changes:

• removal of the message which asked, for a good functioning of the extension, to uncheck the option "Use UI Automation to access the Controls of Microsoft Word documents when available".

7. v3.2 (February/04/2022)

• Compatibility with NVDA 2022.1.
• reset the configuration in the event of errors in the configuration file.

Changes:

• during an automatic update of the extension, it no longer asks the user if he wants to keep the current configuration parameters of the extension.

8. v3.1 (December/19/2021)

Compatibility with NVDA 2021.3. Versions of NVDA prior to 2020.4 are no longer supported.

9. v3.0 (June/23/2021)

Compatibility with NVDA 2021.1. Versions of NVDA prior to 2019.3 are no longer supported.

New features:

• Extension of the script for inserting a comment to insert a footnote or endnote.
• concerning the dialog which displays the list of elements found:
  • added "Edit" button for comments, footnotes and endnotes.
  • added "delete all" button for footnotes and endnotes.
• addition of automatic reading of inserted, deleted or modified texts.

Bug fixes:

• correction of the error reported when displaying document information.
• correction of the NVDA bug of the "nvda + f7" script not working in edit mode: it is no longer necessary to activate at least once before, the navigation mode

Other changes:

• reorganization of the extension parameters.
• restructuring of the user manual
• removed code specific to Python 2.7.

10. v2.3 (31/12/2020)

• compatibility with NVDA 2020.4
• added automatic reading of endnotes.
• addition of the type of element selected in the title of the "Elements's list" dialog opened by "nvda + f7".
• programmable limitation of the element search time in the "Elements's list" dialog.
• optional loop navigation in navigation mode.

11. v2.2.1 (09/12/2020)

updated Turkish translation.

12. v2.2 (06/12/2020)

• compatibility with NVDA 2020.3
• fixed the conflict of the quick navigation key for bookmarks (, "):" - "by default and" ¡"for Spanish keyboard.
• addition of the "What's new" button in the dialog proposing the installation of a new update.
• addition of the "View history" button in the "Update" category of the add-on's parameters.
• code cleaning (corrections of errors detected by Flake8)

13. v2.1 (28/07/2020)

Compatibility with NVDA 2020.2

14. v2.0 (16/04/2020)

• compatibility with NVDA 2020.1.
• add scripts to move to the first or last cell in the table.
• add of the announcement of the arrival of the first or last cell in the table.
• selection of the cell after a displacement by command in a table(to have the same behavior as standard when moving by tabulation).
• the number of line or column is announced in accordance with option "Cell coordinates" of the category "Document Formatting" of NVDA.
• adaptation of scripts for the spell checker of Word 2019.
• automatic reading of comments and footnotes (NVDA 2019.3 and above).
• correction of a too long response time at the end of the document and when moving by paragraph.
• compliance with NVDA for the compatibility test of extensions with NVDA.
• browseMode quick navigation keys configurable according to the language of NVDA.

Changes for the user: the navigation mode command keys and some command gestures have been modified to be compatible with a Qwerty keyboard.

15. v1.0.1 (07/03/2020)

• correction of the documentation.
• translation of the addon in Spanish by Gunther Melendez, changes by Rémy Ruiz.

16. v1.0 (07/02/2020)

This add-on changes name to avoid confusion with other add-ons. His version starts with 1.0.

• compatibility with NVDA 2019.3.
• input gesture modifications:
  • replacement of the key NVDA by pressing the "windows" in the combinations with the "alt" key.
• suppression of the input gestures of scripts for moving with announcement of all cells.
• added script to enable or disable the announcement of the cells in that row or column during a displacement into a table.
• add table layer mode bringing the possibility to use the arrow keys to move around the tables.
• add the script to announce the current cell.
• add the script "document Information",
• improvement of the accessibility of the spelling corrector of Word 2013 and 2016.
• deletion of the announcement of the header level changes.
• preparation of the compatibility to python 3.

17. v3.1 (April 10, 2016)

• adding the announcement of the column for the keyboard command "key_line_page"

18. v3.0 (10 March 2016)

• removal scripts of a fast-moving (duplicate with the mode of navigation of NVDA),
• removal scripts to announce in the second support the title of the rows or columns (use now the option included in NVDA),
• compatibility with NVDA 2016.1.

19. v2.5 (22 June 2015) (not released)

• change the keyboard command: "nvda+control+f6" "alt+backspace" and nvda + numpad delete".
• indication of the position relative to the left and upper edge (command "alt + backspace"", "alt + numpad delete")
• adding the search objects in the current page (command nvda+alt+f5)
• compatibility mode with the navigation of NVDA (change navigation shortcuts)

20. v2.4 (11 June 2015)

• correction block appeared since NVDA 2015.1
• add the script to select the mode quick navigation

21. v2.3 (14 December 2014)

• add command to move the focus to the previous or next sentence ("alt+ up or down Arrow")
• correction of documentation and translation
• fixed manifest.ini

22. v2.2 (1, November 15, 2014)

• added quick navigation
• separation into two categories of objects graph (those in the text layer, the drawing layer)
• add the script "nvda+alt+r" to read the text-editing cursor,
• add the script "nvda+alt+e" to read the note at the end or bottom of the page to the cursor

23. v2.1 (1 October 2014)

• added button "Find and view",
• adding shortcuts to the buttons of the dialog boxes,
• Correction of the documentation
• change the background color of the list items.
• fixed default selection on pressing button "Search and copy to clipboard"

24. v2.0 (24 September 2014)

• compatibility with version 2014.3
• added scripts for tables
• added script for enabling or disabling the skip empty paragraphs

25. v1.0 (24 January 2014)

• Creation of the add-on