A faster, more efficient Editor experience with Narrator in Word

Hi, Insiders! We are Doug Geoffray and Shireen Salma, Product Managers on the Office Accessibility team. Today, we are excited to share improvements we’ve made to the Editor experience for people using Narrator in Word for Windows. Reviewing and fixing spelling and grammar issues will now be faster, clearer, and more efficient.

A faster, more efficient Editor experience with Narrator in Word​

If you’re sighted, you can often catch spelling errors implicitly through visual cues like red squiggles. Those of us who use screen readers, by contrast, must take explicit steps to identify these same issues, which makes Editor an essential assistive experience for discovering and fixing spelling and grammar errors.

If you use screen readers, especially at higher speech rates, reviewing spelling and grammar issues in the Editor pane can feel inefficient and overwhelming. Previously, when moving through errors, Narrator would announce a large amount of information at once, repeat labels, read out spelling at full speed, and required extra navigation steps or keystrokes just to reach suggestions or take remediation actions. While complete, this experience often made it harder to focus on what mattered most: what the error is and how to fix it efficiently.

With this update, we focused on streamlining how errors, context, and suggestions are presented (without changing the visual UI) so you can work more efficiently and with less cognitive load when you use screen readers.

How it works​

1. In your Word document and with Narrator on, press F7 to initiate spellcheck. Narrator will voice the error type, the word in error, the context of the error, number of suggestions, followed by each suggestion.
2. On your keyboard, press number 1 to activate the first suggestion, press number 2 to activate the second, and so on.
3. Press the letter i for Ignore once, the letter g for Ignore all, and the letter a for Add to dictionary.

Tips and tricks​

Here is what you can expect with this update to Editor.

Clearer, more focused announcements: When you move to a spelling or grammar issue in the Editor pane, Narrator now presents information in a more intentional order:

• The type of issue (for example, spelling or grammar).
• The problematic word or phrase.
• The sentence context, so you understand how the error appears in your writing.
• Available suggestions to fix the issue.
• For spelling errors, Narrator will also slow down temporarily when spelling out the incorrect word, making it easier to understand, even if you normally use a fast speech rate. This approach reduces unnecessary repetition while ensuring you still get the information you need to decide what to do next.

Faster access to suggestions and actions: We’ve improved keyboard efficiency so fewer key presses are required to fix issues. These changes help you move from one issue to the next with less friction and fix any spelling issue with a single key press:

• Simply press 1 to activate the first suggestion, press 2 to activate the second, and so on.
• Press the letter i for Ignore once, g for Ignore all, and a for Add to dictionary. These keys now perform the action directly instead of just moving focus.
• The overall tab and arrow navigation order has been refined to reduce the number of key presses and keep it efficient.

Availability​

This improved Narrator spellcheck experience is available in Word for Windows for users running Version 2601 (Build 19725.20126) or later.

Recent accessibility posts​

We have heard from some of you that you'd love to be able to keep track of the availability status of accessibility experiences and features we have covered on our blog in the past several months, so take a look below and do let us know if this provides the information you are looking for.

Feedback​

We’d love to hear how this experience works for you. Open Editor review issues with Narrator, and let us know what you think by selecting Give Feedback to Microsoft in Word.