Report background and highlighting colors in Microsoft Word

[LeonarddeR]

I noticed that NVDA is unable to report background and highlighting color changes in Microsoft Word. Check the attachment for an example.

Steps to reproduce

1. Type a two lines of text in an empty document
2. Select the second line of text
3. Press alt+h,i and select a highlighting color
4. Select again, press alt+h,h and select a differenc background color
5. Arrow up and down in the document with color reporting enabled

Actual result: NVDA reports no difference
Proposed result: NVDA reports both background and highlighting color changes

[LeonarddeR]

Given the recent work that has been done to improve MS Word support (#2961, #5800, #5946), I'd like to bring this ticket under attention again.

@feerrenrut, mind assigning a priority to this?

[nishimotz]

Requested the enhancement in Japan, regarding Microsoft Outlook as well.

[Adriani90]

This would be really helpful. I hope it will come any time in the future into NVDA.

[ABuffEr]

Hi @LeonarddeR ,

I heavily played with UIA and VBA in recent days, around this situation.

Imho, it's very confused even API side.

Had you find a reliable way to distinguish between background and highlight color?

I found only this property useful to be sure whether there is an highlighting and what's the color applied...

[LeonarddeR]

I haven't played with this for years, so I have no idea honestly.

[ABuffEr]

Meanwhile I encountered problems with attached document, so i suspect the situation is changed from 2016, even in current Word support of these formatting in documents made with previous versions.

However, Range.Shading.BackgroundPatternColor seems a good candidate to query for background.

I'll continue to investigate, these seem to be things quite important in school, for teachers and students.