Finding What you Want in Ribbon Menus – by Wayne Senior

I’m using Word to write this article. I write lots of documents using Word. No matter how many documents I write, finding a menu option that I don’t use regularly takes time, and can be frustrating.

Ribbon menus may be visually attractive, but they are difficult for blind people to navigate. I’ve taken a break from telling JAWS how to speak properly, to tell you how I get around the problem of the ribbon menus, so I can find the menu items I want quickly. Although the focus of this article is Word, you may adapt my advice when using other Microsoft Office apps, such as Outlook and Excel.

When blind people press the alt key to access the menu bar, they typically go across to a menu, and press the down arrow to open it. If they were to press the alt key then press the up arrow, they would hear their screen-reader say “Quick Access Toolbar”. Thinking they were in the wrong place, they may try to get away from there.

Actually, that’s a good place to be. The Quick Access Toolbar contains menu items you may want to be able to access quickly, hence the name. You may see the items, and think you don’t want to access any of them quickly. I thought that, but if you keep pressing the right arrow, eventually you will reach the Customize Quick Access Toolbar item. Yes, the word “customize” is spelled the American way, even in the British English version, but let’s not digress.

If you select that item, you will be presented with a list of menu items you can add to the Quick Access Toolbar. You may not want to add any of those items. I didn’t. Keep going down, and you will eventually reach More Commands. Select this item to choose from items from the list of categories. If you are not sure of the category where the menu item you want is located, choose All Commands. This gives you a very long list of items, and should include the item you want to add to the Quick Access Toolbar.

This tab of the Options menu can be navigated simply by pressing tab and shift+tab. When you find an item you want to add to the Quick Access Toolbar, you can add it by activating the “Add>>” button. If you keep tabbing, you will reach a list of the items that are on your Quick Access Toolbar. When on an item, you can tab to options that allow you to change its position, or remove it from the Quick Access Toolbar. Remove the items you don’t want, and replace them with items you do want.

So, you have customised your Quick Access Toolbar. Now you should find the menu items you have added when you go there. If you can remember the position of each item, you don’t need to select it by navigating to the Quick Access Toolbar. If you want to access it even more quickly, press alt and the number of the item. Example: alt+4.

Your customisations do not transfer across devices. It is easy to forget what you have added when you replace your old computer with a new computer. I recommend creating a document which lists the items you have added to the Quick Access Toolbar, and saving it to One Drive, a memory stick or an external hard-drive.

One thing you may find annoying when navigating the Quick Access Toolbar, is being placed in a search box if you press the left or right arrow key too many times. In the File menu, select Options. Check the option to “Collapse the Microsoft Search box by default”.

I hope this article has made using Word easier for those of you who didn’t know about the Quick Access Toolbar. I’ll end by listing some of the items on my Quick Access Toolbar:

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