Word with Screen Reader: Undo Redo

Hello, my name is Vikki Vaughan. Today, we will discuss using shortcut commands to select an entire Word document. We will also examine how to reverse actions using the undo and redo commands.

For most of us, the word processor is one of the most frequently used applications in our daily lives. One of the advantages to using a word processing application like Word is that we can use simple keystroke commands to manipulate text. We can also change the appearance of the entire document to give it a more polished and professional look.

The first step in the editing process is selecting the text. After selecting our text, we have many choices. We can change the font, color, size and style of the text. We can place emphasis on certain words with various attributes such as bold or italics. We can also cut, copy and paste text.

For more information regarding these various choices, please refer to Hadley's videos entitled, Cut, Copy, and Paste, and Text Attributes.

In our first task today, we'll use a Windows shortcut command to select an entire document. Let's start with an opened Word document that we placed on our desktop. If you'd like how to review how to locate and open a Word document from the desktop, please view our instructional video entitled Navigating the Desktop.

The document we will use today is The Declaration of Independence. You might recall, from our previous videos, that it's always a good idea to begin any task by navigating to the top, whether it's in a document or on a webpage. We do this with the Windows command of Control + Home. This moves the insertion bar, also called the cursor, to the beginning of our document. I'm pressing Control + Home now to navigate to the top.

Screen Reader: The Declaration of Independence.

Vikki: Selecting all of the text in a Word document is one of the easiest commands to remember. Simply press Control + A for all and our entire document is selected. I'll do that now, Control + A.

Screen Reader: 9,109 characters selected.

Vikki: We heard our screen reader announce the number of characters on the clipboard. The clipboard is a short-term storage area in your computer.

You can learn more about using the clipboard in the Cut, Copy and Paste video that I mentioned earlier. In NVDA, we can also read what is on the clipboard, but pressing the shortcut NVDA + C. When we have a large amount of text on the clipboard, like we had with this document, instead of reading it all, NVDA will announce how much text is on the clipboard.

The JAWS command to read the context of the clipboard is JAWS + Shift, plus down arrow. JAWS also announces the number of characters selected when there's a large amount of text on the clipboard.

One note of caution about selected text. Whether it's one character or the entire document, once the text is selected, you can press any key except for CAPS lock, shift, function, control, or the arrow keys, our text will be replaced by whatever key we pressed.

For example, if we pressed a letter or punctuation key now, it would replace our selected text. If we press the space bar, the selected text would be replaced with a space.

We want to take special care when we use the select all command to avoid pressing any key that might inadvertently cause our selected text to disappear.

This might be a good time to discuss the undo command. This handy command will get us out of a pinch, such as accidentally selecting and deleting an entire document. Let's demonstrate. All of our text is currently selected, and I will press the X key.

Screen Reader: X.

Vikki: As we heard, my entire document was replaced with the single letter X. Of course, in real life, we would want to quickly undo this mistake. A simple command of Control + Z will reverse the last command, and in this case, reinstate my entire selection from the clipboard. So we'll do that now. Control + Z. My accident is undone and my text reappears. It is still selected, so I'll press my left arrow key to unselect.

Screen Reader: Reading.

Vikki: It's important to note that we should execute the undo command as soon as possible after our mistake. Each time we press Control + Z, we move back through each preceding command and each command is undone.

That can mean actions such as selecting words, applying style features such as bold, or editing commands such as pasting. These can all be undone with Control + Z.

Let's say we've undone a command and we're having regrets. Pressing Control + Y will redo the last action. You can only use the redo command after the undo command. I'll demonstrate that now by pressing Control + Y.

Screen Reader: X.

Vikki: Once again, the X replaces my document. I will quickly revert back to our entire document with Control + Z and press the left arrow to unselect our text.

Screen Reader: Reading.

Vikki: With these helpful tips, you can use Windows shortcuts to select an entire document for future use. You can also undo and redo any action with a simple keystroke. I'm Vikki Vaughan and I thank you for joining me today.