My computer restarted last night to install a windows 11 update. This morning, when I open the document I'd been working on yesterday, control+page up/down no longer navigated by page once I had previously pressed control+F to search for something. They would work properly until then. Once I'd pulled up the Find dialog and dismissed it, control+page down performed a "find next" like shift F4. My Microsoft 365 says it's up to date. When i went to the keyboard customization options, the "all categories" filter was no longer there, nor were options like go to next page, comment, heading, etc. Can someone try to reproduce this behavior?
I tried a chat with the Microsoft disability answer desk with horrible results. They wanted to connect remotely to "isolate the problem with my machine." When I prodded them that the first step is to try and reproduce the problem on their end, the guy said he couldn't, because they were running the enterprise version and the consumer version was different. My opinion of MS disability support just plummeted.
Comments
same thing is happening to me
Hi,
Yep, I just tried this. And The CTRL Page Up and Page Down keys work fine, I can navigate forwards and backwards through pages until I search for something using CTRL + F, and then exactly the same thing happens to me. I press Escape to get out of the search results, but then, pressing CTRL + Page Up or Page Down takes me through those search results. They shouldn't even be there since I've escaped out of them. I tried moving through the navigation pane with F6, and all sorts of other random things ChatGPT suggested, but nothing. I just googled this too, and found a page about pressing CTRL G to go to the 'go to' dialog, and then hitting 'next' and apparently that resets the search thing. But I just reopened the Word document I was working in, and now I can't CTRL Page Down at all, it just keeps reading out the title. It's like it's completely stuck now. I just restarted NVDA, and the same thing is happening. Edited to add I've just restarted my computer because I just didn't know what else to do, and the Page Up and Page Down keys are now back to normal. I won't be messing about with this in a hurry. Maybe you should try the MS help desk again, because if they connect to your machine, at least they can see the problem.
Possible workaround
Just now seeing this thread, and thought I'd check it out on my end. Looks like this is happening for me as well, where once I do a find for something, CTRL + PGUP/PGDN navigates by search results.
However, I also am finding with my setup that after doing the aforementioned search, I can still navigate by pages by pressing PGUP/PGDN without a modifier.
This is with NVDA, latest public release, fyi. 🙂
just tried this
Hi Brian,
I just tried this and it doesn't work properly for me. I'm on the latest NVDA. I mean, Page Up and Page Down without any modifiers move through the pages, but they seem to move through several lines and then jump to the next page. CTRL Page Up and Page Down before you invoke the search command literally jumps you from one page to another, it doesn't take you through any lines of text, it just jumps you to the next or previous page straight away.
This has always been the…
This has always been the expected behaviour for me, especially page up/down. They're meant to scroll, something we can do beautifully on windows as blinds but less so on mac.
Hmm, could be an add-on
Not sure if this is the reason, but I do have an older NVDA add-on called "Office desk", that is supposed to give a couple of accessibility enhancements to word and OneNote. I will have to investigate further, but for now it's the only reason that I can think of, as to why page up or page down by themselves work for me, once control plus F has been invoked.
As far as I know this won't…
As far as I know this won't do anything but feel to try.
What I think is happening
Are any of you using the Enterprise version of 365? I assume the behavior is the same, but that was the excuse the answer desk guy gave for not hitting a few keys to try it himself.
This has nothing to do with screen readers. Microsoft made an unfortunate change in how Word behaves.
It seems as though the behavior of control-pageUp/Down has been changed, perhaps deliberately, from "goTo Next/Prev Page" to "GoTo next/prev item." Thanks to Tara reminding me about control-G, what I'm getting now is that the GoTo item is set to page by default when opening Word. Since the Find dialog is actually one tab in the Go To dialog, searching for something changes the Go TO unit to the search string. Going back into the dialog to jump to a page resets the control-page up/down unit to pages.
Meanwhile, page up/down by themselves are just wack. On my system, they're now moving by line! Others of you are reporting different things. Their normal behavior is to scroll by one screen of text, which is a visual unit of no use to me as a totally blind user.
Perhaps none of you use the keyboard customization feature, but I find it one of the best things--ok, maybe the only good thing--about Word on both Mac and Windows. If Word can do it, you can assign a key combination to it. Or, you could. Now, there's no option to Go To specific units in the list of assignable actions, except for next/previous comment under the review tab shortcuts. I used to could jump by heading without entering browse mode, and page was an option.
I would think that many other users, even at Microsoft itself, will discover at least the problem with unmodified page up/down and something will happen, but I'm going to try pointing out to microsoft again how bad these changes are through the disability support line and chat, since you can get a human that way, as opposed to the standard feedback hub.
scrolling through screens
Yes, I think that's what was happening to me when I was just pressing CTRL Page Up and Down on their own without any modifiers. I've installed the Office Desk add-on, but probably won't have time to mess about with it today.
Wondering about Screen Readers
I wonder because all of you have mentioned NVDA and not JAWS if JAWS is acting the same wacky way as NVDA.
Screen readers and Hotkeys
Regarding the enterprise version, I honestly do not know what version of office I have. It's just whatever came preinstalled on my machine. Likely it's not enterprise, however. With regards to screen readers, I currently only have access to NVDA and narrator. I have not had access to JAWS in some time, so unfortunately cannot test on that.
RE: Screen Readers and Hotkeys
I am still running a Windows 10 machine both for work and for home use, so also cannot test it with Windows 11.
New partial fix
So, after a bit of trial and error, I have found a partial workaround. There are some steps here, but this will at least give you some semblance of control back to Word.
1. Open Word, and a multipage document.
2. Press Alt + F, then arrow down to Options and press Enter.
3. You can arrow down to Customize Ribbon, or pressing C 2 times should put your focus there. Tab over to Customize ..., and press Enter.
4. Note, there are a ton of options here. Starting in Categories, type 'Com' to put the focus on 'Commands not in the ribbons'.
5. Tab over one time to, Commands, then, type, 'Go to next', then arrow down until you land on "Go to next page". Tab over to the edit field labeled "Press New Shortcut Key". Here, I pressed Page Down, by itself.
6. Tab over a couple times, and press space or Enter on, 'Assign', button.
7. Repeat step 5, only this time type, Go to prev, then arrow down until you land on "Go to prev page". Tab over to the Press new shortcut key, and here I pressed Page Up, again by itself.
8. Tap over to the, 'Assign', button and press Space or Enter, then tab over to the Ok button, again press Space or Enter.
9. You will be back on the Customize Ribbons screen, just tab over to the Ok button and press Space or enter again, and you are done.
A note on this pseudo fix. This will make Page Up and Page Down do what Control + page Up/Page Down does. However, the way search works in Word now, you will absolutely have to press Escape to get page navigation function back, after any search. Even with this workaround.
Best I can do for now, but hope it helps you all out. 🙂
Thanks Brian
I must be TL;DR, because I noted trying to assign these hotkeys in both my previous posts. But I needed the tip, because the go-to options used to be under the "all categories" filter, or at least that's where I always went to look for it; now they've removed that. One of the first things I've done every time I've installed office for the last 30 years is reassign page up/down. The weird thing now is that I can't enter those keys without a modifier into the hotkey field. Something's got hold of them and is sending some odd key code, only in Word. But when I reassigned control page up/down, they work consistently for me, even after a search.
Final update
I was able to assign unmodified page keys after switching to Narrator. Must be an NVDA addon thing. I also found my beloved "All Categories." They moved it from the top of the list way, way, way down.
Shift+F4 now *also* moves by the last-selected Go TO unit, by the way--e.g., headings, if I last set the dialog to headings--and I don't see a dedicated find next command in the keyboard customization options. I rarely use control+G, so maybe it was always like that. But now it's a duplication; so, in conclusion, what they've done here is kind of dumb and inconvenient.
Good collaborative effort. It takes a village, y'all.
So, if I understand you…
So, if I understand you correctly, control plus page up, and control plus page down, now work as you are familiar with them, that is to say before the latest update to Word?
Edit: you don't have to answer this, I just realized you had posted again, while I was typing out this reply. Lol
My next mission will be to…
My next mission will be to do a deep dive into a search for the fine commands within Microsoft Word.
*Queue Mission Impossible theme music*
tried this with JAWS and CTRL + G
Hi,
So, just tried this with JAWS, and I get exactly the same results. However, I pressed CTRL + G, to bring up the 'go to' dialog after doing a search. I tabbed around until I found the 'go to what' option, I don't know which one is selected, but I pressed Enter on 'page', and then tried pressing CTRL + Page Up and Page Down to navigate through pages, and it now works as it should. I tried this in JAWS and NVDA and choosing the 'page' option under the 'go to' dialog works every time. I tried out that Office Desk NVDA add-on, but it didn't make a difference. It was only when I started messing around with the 'go to' dialog that I was able to get it back to normal. Edited to add I'm using the MS Office Home edition, that's the one that most likely everybody is using here since it's the default one that comes pre-installed when you get Windows. The only way someone would be using enterprise is if they're using a computer provided by a company they work for. If you were paying for Enterprise, you'd know about it, because you'd be paying a lot more than the Home edition I imagine. And I think the Enterprise version has stuff like Access and Desktop Publisher, apps the Home edition doesn't have.
@Tara
I'm glad you figured out a way to make it work for you. Hopefully in the future there won't be any more updates that switch out hotkey preferences, but at least now we have a general idea of how to fix things back to the way we are used to. 😅
FWIW
Hate to resurrect my thread, but for anyone who's interested in customizing shortcut keys as discussed above, I found the control page key assignments under Browse Next and Browse Previous. Shift F4 is buried under "Tools Find Next." Again, though, this one is essentially broken, because it now duplicates Browse Next and there's seemingly no way around it.
FYI, another interesting shortcut I noticed was "Customize Shortcut": alt+control+Numpad plus. You can use this to see what a particular keystroke is currently assigned to. After pressing the key, NVDA doesn't provide any feedback, but you are in the field waiting for a new shortcut assignment. Pressing any other key than Tab at this point will mess something up. Instead, press the key that's of interest to you, then Shift Tab to land on the field that tells you its current command assignment. You can then Tab back into the hotkey field to reassign it.
Here's feedback I sent to Microsoft using the Help menu. I'm sure this will immediately shoot its way to the CEO's desk and heads will roll...
A change to Word 365 has in effect removed keyboard functionality for Find Next (Shift+F4) and for navigation by page (Control+PgUp/Dwn). Now control + pgUp/Dwn perform Browse Previous/Next and Shift+F4 unnecessarily duplicates Browse Next instead of specifically repeating the last text search. Customizing the keyboard can restore page navigation for advanced users who wish to do so, but there is currently no customization option to separate Browse Next from Find Next. I consider this an oversight and a bug: a typical user needs to constantly both find text AND navigate the pages of their document to adjust layout. It represents a serious regression and inconvenience for keyboard-only users, including people with disabilities. Constantly switching the browse unit in the Go To dialog or navigation pane is cumbersome and limited.
Wow, I learned a couple of…
Wow, I learned a couple of new thing in your last message, cool! But with microsoft poor naming especially recently...
By the way on the latest video of tech linked they talked about microsoft copilot *accidentally* being removed and microsoft even saying sorry we're working on it, many in the comments say it's not a bug but a feature and I agree..
So with their poor branding it's incredibly hard to know which exact version of the office apps we have, there are too many variants out there now.
All things being what they…
All things being what they are, I'm just happy that Paige navigation is still feasible. Even if we have to do some bizarro black magic spell craft in order to get it to work. Lol
Page navigation / scrolling…
Page navigation / scrolling is one of the reason why I still stick to Windows for some text based tasks, it's severely underrated.
save your template
by the way, if any of you go nuts bending word to your will with keyboard customization and style customizations (also highly recommended), I truly recommend saving your default normal template someplace safe. It tends to get rewritten by word occasionally, either after a crash or when installing a new version. You will notice when modifying styles or the keyboard a field for specifying which template it should apply to. Normal.DOTM is the default. I think it's in the save options where you can see where these are stored. it's in your user directory under app data/roaming.