When simple markup is on, NVDA gives no indication that there are tracked changes in Word with UIA set to Always

[XLTechie]

Steps to reproduce:

1. Set "Use UI Automation to access Microsoft Word document controls" in NVDA advanced settings, to "always", (as it is automatically if the checkbox was checked during upgrade after the style of this setting changed to a combobox).
2. Open a document in Word containing tracked changes, such as this example file.
3. Make sure your markup type is set to Simple (Alt+R, T, D, choose "Simple markup").
4. Read the document with either Say-all, line by line navigation, or character by character navigation.
5. Repeat step 1, but choose "Default (when suitable)" as your UIA mode.
6. Return to the document, and repeat step 4.

Actual behavior:

As captured from NVDA's speech viewer, this is the result of step 4:

This is a normal line.
This line will contain a deletion.
This line will have incorporated an insertion and a deletion.
This line will contain replaced test text.

And this is the result of step 6:

This is a normal line.

This line will contain   deleted  a   not deleted  deletion.

This line will   inserted  have   not inserted  deleted  incorporated   not deleted  an insertion and a deletion.

This line will   deleted  contain   not deleted  replaced   inserted  test text  not inserted  .

Expected behavior:

When line 2 is reached, in the results of step 4, apparently a red mark appears in the margin of the document, to indicate that the line you are reading contains markup. In that mode, it is the only indication that you have that your document even has tracked changes, let alone that you are on a line containing them.

But NVDA is not telling the user about the visual indicator. If it did--perhaps similar to a line containing a misspelling, but at the beginning--the user would know to switch to "All markup" if he wanted to understand more about the tracked changes.

I suspect it is also a bug that not using UIA here, causes the tracked changes to be read at the level of detail they are in step 6, because apparently they are not so indicated on the screen. You only get that on the screen, if you switch your markup type to "All markup". However, I wouldn't suggest fixing that one until this one is fixed, as it is actually a helpful bug given this.

As an aside, I don't know why the speech viewer is placing extra blank lines in the speech when UIA is not set to "always"--a different, but very minor, issue.

System configuration

NVDA installed/portable/running from source:

Installed

NVDA version:

alpha-24929,1dca1100

Windows version:

Windows 10, 21H2 (OS Build 19044.1586)

Name and version of other software in use when reproducing the issue:

Microsoft® Word 2019 MSO (Version 2202 Build 16.0.14931.20118) 32-bit

Other information about your system:

Other questions

Does the issue still occur after restarting your computer?

Yes

Have you tried any other versions of NVDA? If so, please report their behaviors.

Only the previous alpha: same.

If NVDA add-ons are disabled, is your problem still occurring?

Yes

Does the issue still occur after you run the COM Registration Fixing Tool in NVDA's tools menu?

Yes

[XLTechie]

My thanks to @Qchristensen, for helping to pin this one down accurately.

[Qchristensen]

You're welcome @XLTechie! A couple extra notes from me, my system is:

Windows 10 (64-bit) Version: 21H2 (2009), Build: 19044.1586

Office 365 (64-bit) Version: 16.0.14931.20118

and I tested using an installed copy of NVDA 2021.3.3 and a temporary copy of alpha-24929,1dca1100.

In Office 365, I didn't notice any difference between UIA settings in the alpha.

For anyone experiencing this who needs a workaround, setting Word to show "All Markup" gave me all the tracked changes. To do that: Press alt, r for the review ribbon, then z, t for tracking, then t, d for show markup, then a for "All markup" and enter.

[cary-rowen]

Hi,cc @michaelDCurran @seanbudd I had this problem again and it took me a long time to investigate, any news on this issue so far? Thanks

[Qchristensen]

No update, although I thought it was worth a little extra information:

Setup: NVDA 2024.1 Beta 7 Windows 11 (64-bit) Version: 23H2, Build: 22631.3155 Office 365 (64-bit) Version: 16.0.17328.20068

With tracking set to show "All markup" (note this IS the default), this works with any "Use UI Automation in Microsoft Word" setting in NVDA's advanced settings.

With tracking set to show "Simple markup" AND NVDA's UIA setting set to "Only when necessary" in Word, I do get some changes read, but not necessarily accurately. For instance, in the line:

The quick brown fox If I delete the word brwon and type black, with simple markup and only when necessary, NVDA reads:

"The quick deleted black not deleted fox"

It's also important to note how this looks visually when planning a solution here:

• "All markup" shows each change - deleted text is red with a line through it ("strikeout"). Inserted text is red with an underline.
• "Simple markup" ONLY shows the document as it would look if you were to accept all changes. So in the case of my line, it would read "The quick black fox". The "simple markup" indication that there is a change here, is a vertical red line in the left margin beside this line. Visually, you can't tell WHAT has been changed, only that there has been a change to that line.

Of course, if Word does expose exactly what has been changed (as it almost seems to without UIA?) then I'd be happy to have NVDA present that. At the very least, it would be good to indicate that there has been a change on this line (matching what you get visually).