[gui-talk] NVDA 2014.3/Soon To Be Released

[David Goldfield]

While it's not out yet, version 2014.3 of the free and open source NVDA 
screen reader is scheduled for its final release at the end of this 
month.  Of course, this could be delayed if the release candidates or 
test versions are found to contain serious bugs. However, it's very 
likely that we'll see the next version by the end of August or early 
September, with the first release candidate due out very shortly.  Users 
of Microsoft Office will find this new update particularly useful, as it 
contains many enhancements to Office.  Here are some of the additions 
which we'll see in the upcoming new version.

1. The opening and closing sounds can optionally be disabled.
2.  NVDA will be able to work with the calendar which is a part of 
Microsoft Outlook 2007 and higher.  Times are announced while moving 
with arrow keys.  You will be told if the selected time is within any 
appointments.  Pressing the tab key will speak the selected appointment.
3.  NVDA has enhanced support for the inbox in Outlook 2010 and above.  
If you disable the report table row/column headers option, you can 
disable the speaking of column titles such as from, subject, etc.  You 
will also be able to use table navigation commands to move from one 
column to the next within the inbox message list.
4.  While in a Word document, pressing insert-F can now report paragraph 
indenting.  There is also a new "report paragraph indenting" setting 
which will speak this information automatically.
5.  When you press the enter key from within a Word document, NVDA can 
now report newly inserted items such as a new bullet, number or tab 
indent.  As an example, when you're entering a numbered list, NVDA will 
speak the newly inserted number when pressing the enter key.
6.  Pressing insert-alt-C reads the text of a comment if the cursor is 
located within a comment in a Word document.
7.  There is now improved support in automatic row and column header 
reading in both Word and Excel.
8.  In Word, NVDA reports the distance from the left edge of the page 
when you press the tab key.
9.  In speech as well as with Braille, NVDA now speaks labels for 
commonly used formatting hotkeys from within Word:  (bold, italic, 
underline, alignment, outline level, superscript, subscript and font 
size). (
10.  In Excel, NVDA can read comments in a selected cell, also with 
insert-alt-C.
11.  There is a new dialog to edit comments in the selected cell.
12.  Excel offers more labels or descriptive information for more 
selection hotkeys.
13.  Pressing insert-F from within Excel now reports vertical and 
horizontal alignment of the current cell.  There is also a new alignment 
option from within the Document Settings dialog to report this information.
14.  In Excel, NVDA can report the style of the currently selected cell, 
either with the insert-F command or by enabling an option from within 
the Document Settings dialog.
15.  There are new options for speaking the locations of shapes from 
within Powerpoint.
16.  The insert-delete speak location command provides a bit more 
information while within edit fields and from within browse mode 
documents, such as Web pages.
17.  The LibLouis Braille translator has been updated.
18.  Bugs have been fixed to improve access to Outlook, Google chrome, 
Word, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

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         David Goldfield,
        Founder and Peer Coordinator

    Philadelphia Computer Users' Group for the Blind and Visually Impaired