Help needed with Microsoft Office for Mac

By rajasekhar, 23 July, 2014

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Please help with using Microsoft Office with VoiceOver. I bought my first MacBook Pro and need help. Regards, Rajasekhar, India

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By Michael Hansen on Thursday, August 7, 2014 - 12:56

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Hello rajasekhar,

Unfortunately, Microsoft Office for Mac is not accessible with VoiceOver.

Apple's iWork apps--the Apple equivalent to Microsoft office, if you will--are quite accessible, though, and should have come preinstalled on your Mac if you bought it new. That is what I would look into learning how to use.

i am very familiar with voiceover as I do am Iphone 4s and now I am switching over to the Macbook pro.
when can we expect voiceover becoming accessible with ms office?
what if I forward a pages document from my macbook to a windows pc?
will any formating will be lost?
i am very comfortable with ms outlook.
so should I configure mail on my macbook or can I configure ms outlook loaded on my macbook.
thanks for the help.
regards,
rajasekhar
india

By Michael Hansen on Thursday, August 7, 2014 - 12:56

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Hello Rajasekhar,

Unfortunately, no Microsoft Office products--Word, Outlook, etc.--are currently accessible to VoiceOver users on the Mac.

To answer your question about documents...I would think the best option for cross-compatibility between Windows and Mac would be to save the files in a Microsoft Word or other universal format, but my knowledge of word processing on the Mac is rather limited.

As for Mac Mail, yes, definitely try getting started with that first, as Outlook for Mac is not accessible.

Rajasekhar:

It is difficult to predict when MS Office for Mac will be accessible with VO since the problem is with Microsoft. I hope that the next version of MS Office will be accessible, but we don't have a way to know if it will be, or when it will be released.
On the other side, Pages, the word processing app from Apple is very good with accessibility since the release of the most recent upgrade. My experience is that documents saved as Word documents seem to keep the formats pretty well. My only advice: You need to keep an open mind, since Pages is very different to Word, but once you have some experience with it,you will have no problems with it.

By KE7ZUM on Thursday, August 7, 2014 - 12:56

There have been pteititons to make office accessible for close on 6 years now and it appears that MS hath turned a deaf ear on all of us who want this.

Take care.

By splyt on Thursday, August 7, 2014 - 12:56

The fact that MS has made some of tthe office apps accessible ion IOS might say us something. I hope the next versions of office will be accessible but who knows what will happen.no way of knowing

By rajasekhar on Thursday, August 7, 2014 - 12:56

i am somewhat confused with a few things. what is the difference between Mac OS, mawericks and mountain lion. which one of the above should I have on my new macbook pro? what are the differences from a blind person's view point. regards, rajasekhar, India

By splyt on Thursday, August 7, 2014 - 12:56

Mac OS: the operating system by Apple that runs on macintosh - sae as windows, an operating system by Microsoft that runs on pc.

Montain Lion: The mac OS version 10.8. The very same way that Microsoft gives a name to each version of windows (windows 2000 = windows 5.0, windows XP = windows 5.1, windows Vista = windows 6.0 and windows 7 = windows 7.0) Apple gives names to their versions of the operating system.

Maverix: the Mac OS version 10.9. The very same way that Microsoft gives a name to each version of windows (windows 2000 = windows 5.0, windows XP = windows 5.1, windows Vista = windows 6.0 and windows 7 = windows 7.0) Apple gives names to their versions of the operating system.

You should run the lattest versionsupported deppending upon your mac. If it is new Maverix should be running. Also please be aware that Pages and the works in general, in its current version * wich great accessibility support * runs only on Maverix, then you should use it if you need to work with these versions.

By Tree on Thursday, August 7, 2014 - 12:56

I love the new pages and as has already been stated it does a very good job importing and exporting word docs. I'm a student and also deal with word docs exclusively in my job. As far as I know I have never come across any formatting issues when either importing or exporting word docs. If you are going to be working with lots of word docs and sharing them with other people the only slight annoyance you will run into is that you can only export word docs, pages can not save them. This simply means that its best to make a pages document while editing it, so that you can save your changes and then simply export into word when your ready to share. I think you will find that pages offers a very good experience after you have gotten use to it, which I think will take much less time then microsoft word.

By John W. hess on Thursday, August 7, 2014 - 12:56

Good morning. I work for a Government agency and am required to submit reports that sometimes include tables, bulleted and numbered lists and web links. So far after exporting a pages document in to word I have not received any complaints in regards to formatting. Also, these apps are free and after receiving your new mac running Mavericks you can download them from the Mac Ap store.

By KE7ZUM on Thursday, August 7, 2014 - 12:56

Be aware of the bug I posted regarding pages though. I have an applevis thread on it. just look for bug regarding pages and osx.

Take care.

Hi.

I realised that the MS apps didn't work after Our computer guy enstalled it. Just one question. I have a brailleNote Apex and export and import word documents. When I inport them from Pages, first saving them as a word document, can't read them on my Apex. When I try to read a Word Doc on pages from the Apex it won't let me.
Does this affect anyone else?
Thank you

Hi.

I realised that the MS apps didn't work after Our computer guy enstalled it. Just one question. I have a brailleNote Apex and export and import word documents. When I inport them from Pages, first saving them as a word document, can't read them on my Apex. When I try to read a Word Doc on pages from the Apex it won't let me.
Does this affect anyone else?
Thank you

By Daniel Angus M… on Sunday, May 7, 2017 - 12:56

just to let you all know, Microsoft Office is now accessible. you need either Office 2016 or Office 365. Microsoft is continuly making refinements to their Office Access, and that is why I am an Office insider on the fast ring. I am finding office to be a work in progress, Outlook works with no issues.