Cannot see neither Blue-on-Blue nor Grey-on-Grey colors in Office

[John]

Hi,
Neither of the provided color schemes (Windows XP and Windows Vista)
in Office 2007 beta 2 applications work for me.

The Blue scheme is the worst.

I guess you would agree that reading blue letters on almost identical
blue background is impossible without special screen reader software.

Grey-on-grey (Vista) scheme is more visible, but gives me a headache.

What to do?

Will Microsoft add more accessible color schemes in the final Office?
Or should I start looking for some other office product?

Thank you
John

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi John,

MS may provide additional color schemes later, but hasn't, that I recall, committed to do so yet. You can sort of get a feel for
what different color sets might look like by toying with the
color schemes such as Storm and Wheat, under Accessibility=>Display=>High Contrast in the Windows Control Panel.

Be sure to send your feedback directly to the MS Product team using the Office 2007 feedback tool from the link below.

============
Hi,
Neither of the provided color schemes (Windows XP and Windows Vista)
in Office 2007 beta 2 applications work for me.

The Blue scheme is the worst.

I guess you would agree that reading blue letters on almost identical
blue background is impossible without special screen reader software.

Grey-on-grey (Vista) scheme is more visible, but gives me a headache.

What to do?

Will Microsoft add more accessible color schemes in the final Office?
Or should I start looking for some other office product?

Thank you
John >>
--
I hope this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office system products MVP

LINKS for the 2007 Office System

1. Read about it, try it, or watch the movie
the 2007 Microsoft Office system iinfo is at
http://microsoft.com/office/preview

2. Already have 2007 Office System Beta 2?
Send Microsoft your feedback (with pictures)
http://sas.office.microsoft.com/

3. Use the 2007 OfficeOnline website without Office2007

a. Install the ActiveX access control
http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=XT101650581033
b. then visit http://officebeta.iponet.net

 

[John]

You can sort of get a feel for

what different color sets might look like by toying with the
color schemes such as Storm and Wheat, under Accessibility=>Display=>High Contrast in the Windows Control Panel.

Thank you for your response.

I am not visually impaired and don't really want to mess with global
Windows XP color schemes because the rest of my Windows apps
display just fine in the usual Black on light gray color scheme.

I was just unpleasantly surprised by some of the new office 2007
"innovations" and especially by invisible blue text.

I will try to use product feedback links, which you provided.
By the way, thank you for providing these links, I was not able
to find them myself.
I went to the Office preview page at
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/default.mspx
but there were no feedback links there at all.
Therefore, I went to the Community, Newsgroups and posted my
problem here.

Thank you again
John

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi John,

Discussing things you like, or may not like in the community newsgroups is fine It helps each of us to perhaps see something
from a persepective that hadn't been thought of before, or to see that there's a commonality for a feature being 'cool' or 'where
did this go' <g>. The feedback tool is the way to be sure that the MS Product team sees, directly, input on the results of their
work, pro and con.

You should be able to turn on a 'high contrast' scheme, while Word 2007, for example, is running using the check box and 'apply'
just to see the colors, and then uncheck the box and click apply and it shouldn't stay permanent then on your usual Windows color
schemes, but just in case, I usually save my current color scheme through the Display Appearance properties first <g>.

==============
Thank you for your response.

I am not visually impaired and don't really want to mess with global
Windows XP color schemes because the rest of my Windows apps
display just fine in the usual Black on light gray color scheme.

I was just unpleasantly surprised by some of the new office 2007
"innovations" and especially by invisible blue text.

I will try to use product feedback links, which you provided.
By the way, thank you for providing these links, I was not able
to find them myself.
I went to the Office preview page at
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/default.mspx
but there were no feedback links there at all.
Therefore, I went to the Community, Newsgroups and posted my
problem here.

Thank you again
John>>
--
I hope this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office system products MVP

LINKS for the 2007 Office System

1. Read about it, try it, or watch the movie
the 2007 Microsoft Office system iinfo is at
http://microsoft.com/office/preview

2. Already have 2007 Office System Beta 2?
Send Microsoft your feedback (with pictures)
http://sas.office.microsoft.com/

3. Use the 2007 OfficeOnline website without Office2007

a. Install the ActiveX access control
http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=XT101650581033
b. then visit http://officebeta.iponet.net

 

[John]

Thank you for your response.

I tried the High Contrast scheme and, of course,
it distorted all Windows apps colors and sizes too dramatically
to be useful for a common user like me.

I also explored colors for individual Windows display elements
in Display | Appearance | Advanced, but, since office 2007
does not use standard Windows display elements,
these colors don't apply.

I also looked at the links you provided for a feedback form,
and it appears that only http://sas.office.microsoft.com/
has something to do with a feedback, but it talks about
"Send a Smile to Office", which requires installing some toolbar icon
and does not look serious nor professional (more like a kindergarten
than office). I wonder whether there is a simple no-nonsense
feedback form for the office somewhere.

Thank you
John

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi John,

The send a smile tool is the one MS designed for Office 2007. It allows you to send a combination of screenshots and descriptive
text for any part of the Office 2007 setup you're using along with basically a like/dislike rating.

You can use keyboard shortcuts if you don't want to use the tray icons.

If you're using the OfficeOnline preview website, which includes the Office 2007 help files, you can use the individual 'feedback'
links at the top of each of those pages to send comments as well
http://officebeta.iponet.net

========
Thank you for your response.

I tried the High Contrast scheme and, of course,
it distorted all Windows apps colors and sizes too dramatically
to be useful for a common user like me.

I also explored colors for individual Windows display elements
in Display | Appearance | Advanced, but, since office 2007
does not use standard Windows display elements,
these colors don't apply.

I also looked at the links you provided for a feedback form,
and it appears that only http://sas.office.microsoft.com/
has something to do with a feedback, but it talks about
"Send a Smile to Office", which requires installing some toolbar icon
and does not look serious nor professional (more like a kindergarten
than office). I wonder whether there is a simple no-nonsense
feedback form for the office somewhere.

Thank you
John >>
--
I hope this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office system products MVP

LINKS for the 2007 Office System

1. Read about it, try it, or watch the movie
the 2007 Microsoft Office system iinfo is at
http://microsoft.com/office/preview

2. Already have 2007 Office System Beta 2?
Send Microsoft your feedback (with pictures)
http://sas.office.microsoft.com/

3. Use the 2007 OfficeOnline website without Office2007

a. Install the ActiveX access control
http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=XT101650581033
b. then visit http://officebeta.iponet.net