JAWS - Set up automatic column and row title reading in Excel

JAWS - Set up automatic column and row title reading in Excel

Problem

A JAWS customer wishes to have row or column titles read back as they navigate with arrow keys in an Excel worksheet.

Resolution

JAWS can be made to speak row and column titles in Excel. This can be useful when navigating data to know what column or row header is under without having to navigate to find out.There are two methods you can use to get JAWS to automatically read row or column titles during navigation in Excel documents:

• If the customer owns or can edit/save the worksheet themselves using named ranges.
• If the customer does not own the document or the sheet is protected JAWS can be used with method two below. JAWS will then save the necessary information under the JAWS user settings for that document.


Method 1 - Using named ranges 

JAWS can be made to respond reading column or row titles using named range in an Excel worksheet.  


Column titles

Column tiles are the row in a worksheet that the column titles reside, naming this range will allow you to hear those titles when moving the cell point left and right within the data below.

  1. Open the Excel document as normal and navigate to the the left most row where the column titles begin. 
  2. Press ALT to open the ribbon and right arrow to formulas tab and press down arrow.
  3. Then press TAB until you reach Name Manager and press spacebar to activate the button.
  4. Then press SPACEBAR on the New button in the next window.
  5. In the dialogue at the name prompt enter the name RowTitle
  6. Then press TAB to reach the OK button and press SPACEBAR on it to complete the definition.

Row Titles

If the spreadsheet has labels for rows in the worksheet you can create row titles so that when pressing up/down within the data will have JAWS read the row titles back to you as you navigate.

  1. Press ALT to open the ribbon and right arrow to formulas tab and press down arrow.
  2. Then press TAB until you reach Name Manager and press spacebar to activate the button.
  3. Then press SPACEBAR on the New button in the next window.
  4. In the dialogue at the name prompt enter the name RowTitle
  5. Then press TAB to reach the OK button and press SPACEBAR on it to complete the definition.



  • For speaking just row titles enter the text: ColumnTitle
  • For speaking both row and column titles enter the text: Title

    Method 2 - Define row and column headers with JAWS

    Using this method you can only use one column or row definition for an Excel document.


    Column titles

    1. With an Excel document open navigate to the row to where column titles are and press SHIFT+SPACE to highlight the row of column titles to be spoken by JAWS.
    2. Then press ALT+CONTROL+INSERT+C to define the row for column titles. This will allow column titles to be read as you navigate across the worksheet data.

    Row titles

    1. With the Excel document open position the cell pointer at the column to spoken as row titles and press CONTROL+SPACE to highlight the column
    2. Now press ALT+CONTROL+JAWSKEY+R to define the row titles column. This will allow JAWS to speak the row when navigating up/down the worksheet data.


    Note
    You can also press INSERT+V to use Quick Settings to define row and column titles.

    Method 3 - Use layered hotkeys

    For those who wish to read the row/column header information these keystrokes may help. Each keystroke must pre preceded by JAWSKey+SPACEBAR then execute the hotkey below for the relevant option:

    Read first cell in current column. ALT+1
    Read second cell in current column. ALT+2
    Read third cell in current column. ALT+3
    Read fourth cell in current column. ALT+4
    Read first cell in current row. CTRL+1
    Read second cell in current row. CTRL+2
    Read third cell in current row. CTRL+3
    Read fourth cell in current row. CTRL+4


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