#MICROSOFT WORD FOR MAC HOW TO#

Thousand-page manuals have been written to help users learn MS Office, and there are several excellent books describing how to use VoiceOver with a Mac, so I won't presume to do either here. From personal experience I can assure you that constantly switching in and out of Windows can be cumbersome at best, which is why I was excited when Microsoft announced the availability of MS Office 2016 for Mac, including VoiceOver support. Until now, Mac VoiceOver users who need to use Office had only two viable choices: creating a Windows Bootcamp partition, or a virtual Windows machine using VM Fusion, and running Office from there. More recently, Microsoft introduced Office for Android, but as is the case with the iOS version, touchscreen reader accessibility is still very much a work in progress. Microsoft has made numerous accessibility improvements since the publication of that article, however many if not most iOS users still prefer to use Pages, Numbers, Keynote, or Notes.

Office for iOS, which we reviewed in the May 2014 issue of AccessWorld, offers limited VoiceOver support. Anyone with one of these devices can review Office documents, spread sheets, and PowerPoint presentations, though to save or share a file you'll need a subscription to Office 365. Recently, Microsoft unveiled Office for iOS, which runs on iPhones and iPads. There was a 2011 version of Office for Mac, but it lacked support for Apple's built-in screen reader, VoiceOver. There are many alternatives, from Open Office to the iWork suite for Mac, but if you are working with a document which uses advanced Office features, or is highly formatted, it may not look the same if you import it into a different productivity suite, or export and save your work into a MS Office compatible format.įor many, familiarity with MS Office for Windows was enough to keep them firmly attached to their Windows PCs. It's used by most workplaces-it is, after all, called Office-and by students everywhere. For millions around the world, Microsoft Office is a must-have productivity suite.

Microsoft word for mac