The next version of NVDA is about to be officially released, and as is customary, you can test new features now with a release candidate. NVDA 2016.2 focuses its improvements on the Microsoft Office suite and also will alert you to incorrectly spelled words as you type by playing a short buzzer sound. This feature can be turned off from NVDA’s Keyboard Preferences. Gramatical errors can also now be indicated while you type, along with some additional formatting features in Microsoft Excel. Follow this link for the complete blog post, and check out the full list of changes below.
What's New in NVDA 2016.2
Highlights of this release include the ability to indicate spelling errors while typing; support for reporting grammar errors in Microsoft Word; and improvements and fixes to Microsoft Office support.
New Features
• In browse mode in Internet Explorer and other MSHTML controls, using first letter navigation to move by annotation (a and shift+a) now moves to inserted and deleted text. (#5691)
• In Microsoft Excel, NVDA now reports the level of a group of cells, as well as whether it is collapsed or expanded. (#5690)
• Pressing the Report text formatting command (NVDA+f) twice presents the information in browse mode so it can be reviewed. (#4908)
• In Microsoft Excel 2010 and later, cell shading and gradient fill is now reported. Automatic reporting is controlled by the Report colors option in NVDA's Document Formatting preferences. (#3683)
• New braille translation table: Koine Greek. (#5393)
• In the Log Viewer, you can now save the log using the shortcut key control+s. (#4532)
• If reporting of spelling errors is enabled and supported in the focused control, NVDA will play a sound to alert you of a spelling error made while typing. This can be disabled using the new "Play sound for spelling errors while typing" option in NVDA's Keyboard Settings dialog. (#2024)
• Grammar errors are now reported in Microsoft Word. This can be disabled using the new "Report grammar errors" option in NVDA's Document Formatting preferences dialog. (#5877)
Changes
• In browse mode and editable text fields, NVDA now treats numpadEnter the same as the main enter key. (#5385)
• NVDA has switched to the eSpeak NG speech synthesizer. (#5651)
• In Microsoft Excel, NVDA no longer ignores a column header for a cell when there is a blank row between the cell and the header. (#5396)
• In Microsoft Excel, coordinates are now announced before headers to eliminate ambiguity between headers and content. (#5396)
Bug Fixes
• In browse mode, when attempting to use single letter navigation to move to an element which isn't supported for the document, NVDA reports that this isn't supported rather than reporting that there is no element in that direction. (#5691)
• When listing sheets in the Elements List in Microsoft Excel, sheets containing only charts are now included. (#5698)
• NVDA no longer reports extraneous information when switching windows in a Java application with multiple windows such as IntelliJ or Android Studio. (#5732)
• In Scintilla based editors such as Notepad++, braille is now updated correctly when moving the cursor using a braille display. (#5678)
• NVDA no longer sometimes crashes when enabling braille output. (#4457)
• In Microsoft Word, paragraph indentation is now always reported in the measurement unit chosen by the user (e.g. centimeters or inches). (#5804)
• When using a braille display, many NVDA messages that were previously only spoken are now brailled as well. (#5557)
• In accessible Java applications, the level of tree view items is now reported. (#5766)
• Fixed crashes in Adobe Flash in Mozilla Firefox in some cases. (#5367)
• In Google Chrome and Chrome-based browsers, documents within dialogs or applications can now be read in browse mode. (#5818)
• In Google Chrome and Chrome-based browsers, you can now force NVDA to switch to browse mode in web dialogs or applications. (#5818)
• In Internet Explorer and other MSHTML controls, moving focus to certain controls (specifically, where aria-activedescendant is used) no longer incorrectly switches to browse mode. This occurred, for example, when moving to suggestions in address fields when composing a message in Gmail. (#5676)
• In Microsoft Word, NVDA no longer freezes in large tables when reporting of table row/column headers is enabled. (#5878)
• In Microsoft word, NVDA no longer incorrectly reports text with an outline level (but not a built-in heading style) as a heading. (#5186)
• In browse mode in Microsoft Word, the Move past end/to start of container commands (comma and shift+comma) now work for tables. (#5883)
Changes for Developers
• NVDA's C++ components are now built with Microsoft Visual Studio 2015. (#5592)
• You can now present a text or HTML message to the user in browse mode using ui.browseableMessage. (#4908)
• In the User Guide, when a %kc:setting command is used for a setting which has a common key for all layouts, the key may now be placed after a full-width colon (：) as well as the regular colon (:). (#5739)
Category: News
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J.J. Meddaugh is an experienced technology writer and computer enthusiast. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University with a major in telecommunications management and a minor in business. When not writing for Blind Bargains, he enjoys travel, playing the keyboard, and meeting new people.
