What's New in NVDA 2017.1 and Upcoming 2017.2 Release

Highlights of 2017.1 release in Feb 2017 include: reporting of sections and text columns in Microsoft Word; Support for reading, navigating and annotating books in Kindle for PC; and improved support for Microsoft Edge. In the 2017.2version planned to be released in upcoming June, 2017, some of its highlight new features include: full support for audio ducking in the Windows 10 Creators Update; fixes for several selection issues in browse mode, including problems with select all; significant improvements in Microsoft Edge support; and improvements on the web such as indication of elements marked as current (using aria-current). Below are details about 2017.1 release.

New Features

• In Microsoft Word, the types of section breaks and section numbers can now be reported. This is enabled with the "Report page numbers" option in the Document Formatting dialog.
• In Microsoft Word, text columns can now be reported. This is enabled with the "Report page numbers" option in the document formatting dialog.
• Automatic language switching is now supported in WordPad.
• The NVDA find command (NVDA+control+f) is now supported in browse mode in Microsoft Edge.
• Quick navigation for buttons in browse mode (b and shift+b) is now supported in Microsoft Edge.
• When copying a sheet in Microsoft Excel, column and row headers are remembered.
• Support for reading and navigating books in Kindle for PC version 1.19, including access to links, footnotes, graphics, highlighted text and user notes. Please see the Kindle for PC section of the NVDA User Guide for further information.
• Browse mode table navigation is now supported in Microsoft Edge.
• In Microsoft Excel, the report review cursor location command (desktop: NVDA+numpadDelete, laptop: NVDA+delete) now reports the name of the worksheet and the cell location.
• Added an option to the exit dialog to restart with debug level logging.

Changes

• The minimum braille cursor blink rate is now 200 ms. If this was previously set lower, it will be increased to 200 ms.
• A check box has been added to the braille settings dialog to allow enabling/disabling braille cursor blinking. Previously a value of zero was used to achieve this.
• Updated eSpeak NG (commit e095f008, 10 January 2017).
• Due to changes In the Windows 10 Creators Update, the "Always duck" mode is no longer available in NVDA's Audio ducking settings. It is still available on older windows 10 releases.
• Due to changes in the Windows 10 Creators Update, the "Duck when outputting speech and sounds" mode can no longer ensure audio has ducked fully before starting to speak, nor will it keep audio ducked long enough after speaking to stop rappid bouncing in volume. These changes do not affect older windows 10 releases.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed freeze in Microsoft Word when moving by paragraph through a large document while in browse mode.
• Tables in Microsoft Word that have been copied from Microsoft Excel are no longer treeted as layout tables and therefore are no longer ignored.
• When trying to type in Microsoft Excel while in protected view, NVDA now makes a sound rather than speaking characters that were not actually typed.
• Pressing escape in Microsoft Excel no longer incorrectly switches to browse mode, unless the user has previously switched to browse mode explicitly with NVDA+space and then entered focus mode by pressing enter on a form field.
• NVDA no longer freezes in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets where an entire row or column is merged.
• Reporting of cropped/overflowed text in Microsoft Excel cells should now be more accurate.
• NVDA now reports when a check box is read-only.
• The NVDA launcher will no longer show a warning dialog when it can't play the logo sound due to no audio device being available.
• Controls in the Microsoft Excel Ribbon that are unavailable are now reported as such.
• NVDA will no longer announce "pane" when minimizing windows.
• Typed characters are now spoken in Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps (including Microsoft Edge) in the Windows 10 Creators Update.
• Mouse tracking now works across all screens on computers with multiple monitors.
• NVDA no longer becomes unusable after exiting Windows Media Player while focused on a slider control.