Hello,
As I love to write stories, I was looking for an app who responded to all my needs: write, save documents, and sync between all platforms -Windows included-; I have read many threads about this here, then I thought I had the solution under my fingers: Word, with my Microsoft 365 subscription.
But, there is a but: on my iPhone and iPad, Word gives me many serious issues (iPhone 13 pro max and iPad mini 6th generation with latest iOS stable release).
First one:
I create and start writing the file on my computer and save it on OneDrive.
Let's assume the file is called "foo-01.docx" and the directory is foo-stories.
After I have no longer my PC in hands and want to continue writing on iPad -or iPhone-, I opwn Word on the device, I go to Open tab, then select the file from OneDrive and... It's in read-only mode! Cannot modify it, I am forced to save a copy so the OneDrive foo-stories folder will have a "copy of foo-01.docx" with most recent editing, letting the original foo-01 without any editing.
...And I have to remember that when I go back to PC I must work on "copy of foo-01" instead.
Second issues are regarding editing itself.
Let's assume I am working in the "copy of foo-01" of before, or in any brand-new created Word file.
If I use the rotor positioned on Lines, flicking up and down does not read line by line; it lets cursor stay on the same line. This is the first.
Then, input Braille screen gives me no audible feedback on what I'm writing, I'm forced to use traditional virtual qwerty and consequently I'm much slower to write. This of Input Braille comes with most recent Word update.
Then, hardware keyboard. I have a Bluetooth Logitech k380 connected both with iPhone and iPad.
Well, with Microsoft Word I do not manage to edit the file using traditional editing modes, that is, turning quicknav off and use option+shift+arrows to select words, or shift+arrows to select characters, and so on.
I also tried SimpleNote, this was enough for me to use for my stories; but when I edit my notes from Windows -the web app-, the computer adds an extra unwanted character every new line, and after I start typing on iPhone or iPad again, the problem of line by line editing persists: cursor does not read lines properly.
I am really stuck now!
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Comments
I’m with you Elena
Hi Elena.
Sadly more than giving you a solution, I just want to let you know that microsoft for macOS and Ipados or ios is a nightmare for us.
I hate that selection thing where I don’t know what the heck I’m selecting.
On the other hand, I don’t have that issue while opening a file and saving it again. Therefore I sugest to signout and signin again with your office 365 account again.
For the selection topic, I just realised today that the google docs app works nice and softly with the character, line and paragraph selection shortcuts, but there the problem is that everything is saved to the google drive account and you have to convert the file once saved, which it is easy to do, but requires an extra step. Also a thing to consider with google docs, is that when deleting characters, it doesn’t say what character is deleting, which can be known by moving cursor left to right, so for me is not a big deal. But anyway I suggest to give it a try and see if you can work better with it. I will start using google docs as my ipad replacement for word, because also when you apply format such as bold text, centering paragraph, etc. It speaks outloud everything, and I for my job use a lot of text formating, and that’s why I couldn’t change windows for macOS as my main operative system on my day by day tasks, from a traditional word processing worker, macOS is not a solution for us using screen readers.
Hth and greetings from Mexico.
MS Word and blue tooth keyboards
I can't tell you how many years I've complained to Microsoft about not being able to reliably make selections in the iOS Word app. They always tell me that it is my keyboard's fault (even though this works fine in all other apps).
I have also experienced many of the same issues you report with MS Word. I have since given up on Word and either use the Apple Notes app for plain text or, more recently, the Voice Dream Writer app.
Surprised at Microsoft for still not making this app as accessible as other iOS apps.
--Pete
I find Office 365 to be a…
I find Office 365 to be a miserable experience on anything other than Windows. A lot of blind users here quite like Ulysses which is a markdown editor that runs on Mac, iOS and iPadOS. If you're up for paying yet another yearly subscription, that might be a good option, but unfortunately it doesn't run on Windows. You could try running an editor that supports markdown. I like VScode and Notepad++
markdown editor
For Windows I have, as a markdown editor... Microsoft Word. No, I am not teasing anyone, it's the truth
the used extension is writage.
It's a paid one but it's worth it.
Even if, mostly, I use notepad++ or even the simple notepad.
But what I need is an app where I can write on Window and then on iPad or iPhone, and the other way around.
SimpleNote would give me this, even with MarkDown, but when I write on Windows I have the issue of lines. Every time I press Enter on my computer, the iPhone or iPad detect a strange character that prevents VoiceOver from reading next line.