Word with UIA: Fix case where comment contents don't read

[LeonarddeR]

Link to issue number:

None

Summary of the issue:

When playing with comments in Word 16.0.15225.20204 lately, I discovered that NVDA was unable to show the comment contents in the elements list or when pressing NVDA+Alt+C

Description of how this pull request fixes the issue:

Somehow, Microsoft decided to describe the comment thread in the name property and moved the contents of the comment to the Full Description property.

Testing strategy:

Created a new document, added a comment. Checked in both the elements list and when pressing alt+NVDA+C that the comment read correctly.

Known issues with pull request:

I'm not sure whether my assumption is correct that Microsoft really changed something here, but given this seems to have worked before, I guess that this is the case. Therefore I built a workaround that should fallback to the name of the comment UIAElement if the FullDescription is empty, however I'm unable to test this for older versions of Word. it would really help if Microsoft would clarify things here.

Change log entries:

Bug fixes

• NVDA is no longer unable to read the contents of a comment in newer versions of MS Word when UIA is used.

Code Review Checklist:

• Pull Request description:
  • description is up to date
  • change log entries
• Testing:
  • Unit tests
  • System (end to end) tests
  • Manual testing
• API is compatible with existing add-ons.
• Documentation:
  • User Documentation
  • Developer / Technical Documentation
  • Context sensitive help for GUI changes
• UX of all users considered:
  • Speech
  • Braille
  • Low Vision
  • Different web browsers
  • Localization in other languages / culture than English

[LeonarddeR]

Explicitly requesting a review from @michaelDCurran here

[seanbudd]

This perhaps should target beta. Have you reported this to MS Word?

Can anyone test this PR with an older version of Word?

[cary-rowen]

I can confirm that this PR addresses the issue of alpha-25551 not reporting comment content in 'Microsoft 365MSO (Version 2205 Build 16.0.15225.20172)'.

@seanbudd: "Can anyone test this PR with an older version of Word?"

What is the old version of mso you expect to test, I might be able to test it.

[LeonarddeR]

I tried to change the target branch, but Github gets stuck at that point with a loading message for the target branches.

[LeonarddeR]

Have you reported this to MS Word?

NO, since this is in fact not a bug. Pretty sure that in earlier version of word, you wouldn't be able to find out who was the author of a comment when walking through the comments tree. However, we need to know when this change happened so we can come up with an evidence based solution.

[seanbudd]

I've updated the target branch.

@LeonarddeR - could you provide an estimate to @cary-rowen?

@seanbudd: "Can anyone test this PR with an older version of Word?"

What is the old version of mso you expect to test, I might be able to test it.

[LeonarddeR]

That's why I asked @michaelDCurran to review this as well😉, because he might be able to find out what version of Word he tested with when working on this lately. I think it was in februari, see #13341. So I assume a version between February and now changed this.

[seanbudd]

Suggested change

	# Newer versions of Word present the comment text in the FullDescription property
	# Newer versions (which? estimate?) of Word present the comment text in the FullDescription property

[michaelDCurran]

I don't remember what version of Word I tested against, but I'm pretty sure it had already changed before then. I.e. I was already seeing info about the comment thread, but not individual comment contents.
In fact, I thought it may have happened when they introduced the new comments pain in 16.0.1493 or so.
Currently in NVDA, for a comment thread, it just describes the comment thread itself, and how many replies.
This PR on the other hand, will describe the first comment in the thread.
I guess it depends on which we think is more useful and appropriate?
Possibly describing the first comment and number of replies?
These days, to actually interact with threaded comments in MS Word, I would suggest that the user uses the Modern comments pane built in to MS Word. I.e. move to a comment, then press alt+f12 to move focus to the comment and thread of replies.

[cary-rowen]

Not sure if this is related, there is a document with comment and I can see the content in the element dialog, but press NVDA +Alt +C and NVDA only reports 'no comment'.

test.docx
@LeonarddeR can you take a look at this?
Both the latest Alpha and the build of this PR are reproduce this.

[LeonarddeR]

Currently in NVDA, for a comment thread, it just describes the comment thread itself, and how many replies. This PR on the other hand, will describe the first comment in the thread. I guess it depends on which we think is more useful and appropriate? Possibly describing the first comment and number of replies? These days, to actually interact with threaded comments in MS Word, I would suggest that the user uses the Modern comments pane built in to MS Word. I.e. move to a comment, then press alt+f12 to move focus to the comment and thread of replies.

We at least want to show the threads in the elements list I assume. I will try to look into this furhter, but it is pretty hard to do so when I can't test with older versions. Having said that, as we stick to UIA by default in 16.0.1500 or newer, would it be safe to drop the older comments support altogether (i.e. the part that constructs a comment announcement based on scary object nav)?

[michaelDCurran]

Yes, I think it would be fine to remove the older comment support now.

[seanbudd]

Is there a reason why this is still targeting beta?

[LeonarddeR]

I hoped it would be an easy fix, but it turns out it isn't. I have a week off in two weeks so I should be able to look into it then.

[LeonarddeR]

I thought this would be an easy fix, but for all comments to end up in the elements list in a threaded fashion, I'm, pretty sure a new iterator is required. This falls far beyond my skills I'm afraid.