[Athen] RE: Indenting Notification in Excel

[Robert Beach]

I don't create the sample worksheets from the chapters in Excel, I create them as tables within the Word document.  That way all of the information is together, not in two different places.  I create the worksheets the student will need to complete in Excel, buth they could be done in Word as well.

As far as the indent, put three periods or hyphens in front of the text so the student will know the item is indented.  I use periods myself.



________________________________________
From: athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu [athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of CUTLER_ELLEN [CUTLER_ELLEN at smc.edu]
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2012 12:27 PM
To: 'athen-list at u.washington.edu'
Subject: [Athen] Indenting Notification in Excel

Hello,

A couple of weeks ago a few of you confirmed my thought that images of spreadsheets in an Accounting textbook should be created in Excel to make the information and formatting meaningful to a JAWS user.

All was going well until indenting. As you know, indenting is used within the same column to indicate that one item is a subset of another. I activated the Editing/Indentation Indicate option (available through Quick Settings) but still did not hear indentation feedback.

I then spoke with Technical Support at Freedom Scientific and was told that even though I activate the Quick Settings within Excel, it does not mean those settings are applicable to Excel. Furthermore, I was told that when you choose Excel in Settings Center/Speech and Sound Schemes, the Sound Schemes available are not necessarily applicable to Excel, that the only way to know if a scheme will work in Excel is by trial and error. Lastly, I was told that the only way I may get  JAWS to recognize indentation in Excel as it reads is to create a custom script which would be extremely difficult.

Yes, Insert F does indicate whether there is an indent, but it is not practical to use Insert F on every cell as you listen.

Do you all have any ideas about how to design a spreadsheet for a JAWS user to communicate what a sighted user sees as indented text?

Thanks, Ellen