NVDA fails to read cells in Excel 2003

[michaelDCurran]

Steps to reproduce:

Running NVDA 2017.2 and Excel 2003, move around an Excel worksheet with the arrow keys. Note that NVDA does not announce the active cell.
An error is generated in NVDA's log:

ERROR - eventHandler.executeEvent (09:03:43):
error executing event: gainFocus on <NVDAObjects.window.excel.ExcelCell object at 0x04F92BB0> with extra args of {}
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "eventHandler.pyo", line 143, in executeEvent
  File "eventHandler.pyo", line 91, in __init__
  File "eventHandler.pyo", line 98, in next
  File "C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\nvda\addons\remote\globalPlugins\remoteClient\__init__.py", line 341, in event_gainFocus
  File "eventHandler.pyo", line 98, in next
  File "NVDAObjects\__init__.pyo", line 899, in event_gainFocus
  File "NVDAObjects\window\excel.pyo", line 1413, in reportFocus
  File "textInfos\offsets.pyo", line 392, in getTextWithFields
  File "NVDAObjects\window\excel.pyo", line 948, in _getFormatFieldAndOffsets
  File "comtypesMonkeyPatches.pyo", line 37, in new__getattr__
  File "comtypes\client\dynamic.pyo", line 93, in __getattr__
  File "comtypes\automation.pyo", line 643, in GetIDsOfNames
COMError: (-2147352570, 'Unknown name.', (None, None, None, 0, None))

Technical info:

The 'displayFormat' property does not exist on Excel range objects prior to Excel version 13.0. However, the check (around line 948 of source/NVDAObjects/window/excel.py) compares two strings, which does not yield correct results when comparing single digit verses double digit versions. For example:

"8.0" > "12.0"

evaluates to true when really the rest of the code expects false.
Thus we need to convert the part before the decimal point to an integer when comparing.

[zahra21]

Hi @michaelDCurran,
while this issues is closed, i am really curious that in which situations nvda 2017.2 cant navigate in excel 2003?
i tested with nvda 2017.2 several times and i could navigate in one excel file without problem!
however, i am not familiar with nvda coding and nvda log, and never read log.
but as i mentioned, i did not have issue when navigating in one file with excel 2003 using nvda 2017.2!
i did not try with excel 2007 until now, when i am writing this comment.
i really wish to know the answer for my question.
please answer me!
God bless you and His infinite mercy i pray for you!

[feerrenrut]

@zahra21 This issue was fixed in 2017.3, perhaps the problem does not affect the specific version of office that you have.

[zahra21]

thanks for replying me.
in nvda 2017.3 in bug fixes,
i read that:
• In Microsoft Excel 2003 and 2007, cells are again reported when arrowing around a worksheet. (#7243)
but i tested in excel 2003 and could navigate between cells of one excel file.
i really wish to know, what issue was when i did not experienced it in excel 2003?!
i did not have 2007 to test. where can i download it?
i really love nvda versions especially 2017.2 and 2017.3
i always sincerely pray for you and all nvda developers and sincerely wish divine infinite mercy and blessings for you.

[zahra21]

i did not test log when testing nvda 2017.2 with excel 2003.
but navigation between cells worked without issue for me.
which new code, feature, or bug fixed, in nvda 2017.2, caused issue for some users of excel 2003 which i did not experience and i am very curious to know the fact?
in testing one excel file with nvda 2017.1, 2017.2, and 2017.3, i did not observe any difference for navigation between cells in excel 2003.
can you please email me offline that i can ask my other technical questions which are related to firefox in the email?
my real name is Zahra,
but my email address is: nasrinkhaksar3@gmail.com
i dont have problem that my email address be visible in github.
i am very glad to be in contact with you and other nvda developers directly.
God bless you all!