Marja E

Q: Can Anyone Suggest An Accessible Word Processor? With Sortable Tables?

Hi,

 

I have sensory issues, coordination issues, and rsi. I haven't been able to find a word processor which meets my accessibility and usability requirements.

 

I need to be able to write up game rules, game scenarios, historical notes, etc. I need to be able to avoid worsening my rsi, possibly using Enhanced Dictation or Dragon if I can get one of them to work. I need to be able to avoid flashing lights. Unfortunately, due to a bug in Apple's text-rendering tools, LibreOffice, OpenOffice, and Pages do not allow users to stop the accursed flashing cursors. But with some command-line preference fixes, Bean, and Textedit, do.

 

A lot of the writing may involve personal names, place-names, switching N3 to O3, very close editing, data entry, and so on.

 

Some of the writing involves tables. And it would be much easier if I could input the data in the same order as the source text provides, and sort the data afterwards.

 

None of the writing requires fancy formatting except for the tables. I've had a lot of trouble with losing formatting when switching from one application to another. I still have a lot of trouble with that. I also have trouble with something suddenly switching to a "default font" that I don't use and haven't used in the document, or something crashing because an editor used fancy Word formatting and wants me to work with that version, or numbered lists splitting, or the like. I absolutely detest styles.

 

It has to be able to import text from different file formats, [odt, rtd, doc, preferably even cwk and pages] and use a common open file format.

 

Any suggestions?

MacBook Air (11-inch Mid 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)

Posted on Sep 26, 2016 4:12 PM

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Q: Can Anyone Suggest An Accessible Word Processor? With Sortable Tables?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Marja E,

    Marja E Marja E Sep 26, 2016 8:14 PM in response to Marja E
    Level 1 (23 points)
    Accessibility
    Sep 26, 2016 8:14 PM in response to Marja E

    Scrivener might be an option, but it's highly specialized. It is designed to pull every part of each project into itself, but it can't read my drawings, which are an important part of my projects, and it doesn't really fit in with Calibre which wants to collect everything in its library. I have issues with loud noises, so I went with an ssd drive which doesn't have that much disk space.

  • by Marja E,

    Marja E Marja E Oct 9, 2016 9:06 PM in response to Marja E
    Level 1 (23 points)
    Accessibility
    Oct 9, 2016 9:06 PM in response to Marja E

    Another option is to go back to LibreOffice, but use the Windows version, running in Wine or one of its adaptations such as Wineskin and Winebottler.

     

    This page discusses steps to block blinking in Wine:

     

    http://www.jurta.org/en/prog/noblink