Office 365 and NVDA - peculiar or expected behaviour?

[Vlad Dragomir]

Hello everybody,
I admit I didn't use Office for quite a while. I'm slowly coming back to it, but I've noticed a number of changes that worry me a bit. I'd like to ask you all if this is expected behaviour or not. I might be having problems with NVDA without knowing. By the way, I am using Office 365 and NVDA 2026.1. Here's the list of discoveries:
1. In Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook, NVDA doesn't read everything in the File/Options dialogue. Example: In Word/Options/General, when tabbing once, NVDA announces: Optimise for best appearance, radio button checked. I checked with the Narrator, and it should be: When using multiple displays group: Optimize for best appearance, radio button checked. NVDA seems to ignore these groups which are important, and I am sure things were different a few versions ago.
2. In Excel, I am pretty sure that NVDA used to announce every cell when navigating, like this: A1, a2, B1, B2, etc. Now all it says when I press the arrow keys is: Cell. Cell. Cell. Cell.
3. In Powerpoint specifically, still inside the Options dialogue, NVDA doesn't say anything whenever there is an edit field, for example when we need to set the time interval for automatic saving. These fields are properly announced in Word, Outlook and Excel though.
Are these deliberate changes, or is my NVDA misbehaving? I should also mention that I did these tests a second time with all add-ons disabled with exactly the same results.
I will be grateful to anyone able to help me solve this mystery. To me these are moderately serious regressions, but of course I might be totally wrong.
Many thanks in advance, and a perfect weekend to everyone.
Vlad.

[Aung Pyae Phyo]

​Hi Vlad,

​Greetings from Myanmar! I completely understand your frustration. I am currently working on a comprehensive Microsoft Office keyboard shortcut manual for my local community and TikTok viewers, so I spend a lot of time testing Office accessibility. The issues you described do not mean your NVDA is completely broken; rather, they sound like classic UI Automation (UIA) API compatibility hiccups between the recent Office 365 updates and NVDA 2026.1.

​Here are a few technical troubleshooting steps you can try:

​For the Excel "Cell. Cell." issue: This usually happens when Excel's UIA implementation gets out of sync. Press NVDA+Control+G to open Settings, then navigate down to the Advanced category (you will need to acknowledge the warning). Look for the option that says "Enable UI Automation for Microsoft Excel worksheet controls". Try toggling this setting (if it's on, turn it off; if it's off, turn it on), restart NVDA, and test again. Also, double-check your NVDA Document Formatting settings to ensure "Report cell coordinates" hasn't been accidentally unchecked.

​For the missing Group Names in Options (Word/PowerPoint): Press NVDA+Control+O for Object Presentation settings and verify that "Report object group names" is checked. If it is already checked, this is likely a Microsoft UI change. In the Advanced settings again, you can experiment with toggling "Use UI Automation to access Microsoft Word document controls".

​For the silent Edit Fields in PowerPoint: When the focus lands on a silent field, try using Object Navigation (NVDA + Numpad 4/6 or NVDA + Shift + Arrow keys on a laptop layout) to manually read the current navigator object. Sometimes the focus is there, but the event isn't being fired to the screen reader.

​Microsoft pushes Office 365 updates frequently, and they sometimes temporarily break accessibility APIs until NVDA catches up with a patch. If toggling UIA settings doesn't resolve it, reverting to a slightly older Office 365 build might be the most stable temporary workaround.

​I hope these steps help you sort out the mystery! Let us know how it goes.

​Best regards,

Aung Pyae Phyo

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[Aung Pyae Phyo]

​Hi Vlad,

​Greetings from Myanmar! I completely understand your frustration. I am currently working on a comprehensive Microsoft Office keyboard shortcut manual for my local community and TikTok viewers, so I spend a lot of time testing Office accessibility. The issues you described do not mean your NVDA is completely broken; rather, they sound like classic UI Automation (UIA) API compatibility hiccups between the recent Office 365 updates and NVDA 2026.1.

​Here are a few technical troubleshooting steps you can try:

​For the Excel "Cell. Cell." issue: This usually happens when Excel's UIA implementation gets out of sync. Press NVDA+Control+G to open Settings, then navigate down to the Advanced category (you will need to acknowledge the warning). Look for the option that says "Enable UI Automation for Microsoft Excel worksheet controls". Try toggling this setting (if it's on, turn it off; if it's off, turn it on), restart NVDA, and test again. Also, double-check your NVDA Document Formatting settings to ensure "Report cell coordinates" hasn't been accidentally unchecked.

​For the missing Group Names in Options (Word/PowerPoint): Press NVDA+Control+O for Object Presentation settings and verify that "Report object group names" is checked. If it is already checked, this is likely a Microsoft UI change. In the Advanced settings again, you can experiment with toggling "Use UI Automation to access Microsoft Word document controls".

​For the silent Edit Fields in PowerPoint: When the focus lands on a silent field, try using Object Navigation (NVDA + Numpad 4/6 or NVDA + Shift + Arrow keys on a laptop layout) to manually read the current navigator object. Sometimes the focus is there, but the event isn't being fired to the screen reader.

​Microsoft pushes Office 365 updates frequently, and they sometimes temporarily break accessibility APIs until NVDA catches up with a patch. If toggling UIA settings doesn't resolve it, reverting to a slightly older Office 365 build might be the most stable temporary workaround.

​I hope these steps help you sort out the mystery! Let us know how it goes.

​Best regards,

Aung Pyae Phyo

On Sun, Jun 7, 2026, 7:04 AM Vlad Dragomir <vladdrag...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[vladdrag...@gmail.com]

Aung Pyae Phyo,

 

Hello and thank you for this response, I appreciate that you took the time to attentively read my request.

Unfortunately, I already played with those settings you suggested, and that changed literally nothing. Also, you say I should check that Report object group names” is checked. Maybe we are using different versions of NVDA. There is no such setting on my end. Maybe it’s hidden somewhere else, but I surely don’t have it in Object Presentation.

The labels of those silent fields aren’t being read even with object navigation. That’s why I became a little worried and decided to post here.

The mystery is still  there, even bigger than last night.

Warmest greetings to you from Europe! Please stay safe.

Vlad.

[Aung Pyae Phyo]

​Hi Vlad,

​Thank you for testing those steps and getting back to me.

​Since even Object Navigation cannot find those labels, we can confirm with 100% certainty that this is not an issue with your NVDA software or your personal settings. Your NVDA is working perfectly fine.

​The root cause is entirely on Microsoft's end. NVDA relies on Microsoft's UI Automation (UIA) tree to read what is on the screen. In this recent Office 365 update, Microsoft has accidentally broken or removed the accessibility tags from their own code. Because Microsoft is no longer sending that information, NVDA is completely blind to those specific elements.

​Since this is a Microsoft bug, the best next step is to find your exact Office 365 version and build number (from the Account page in Word or Excel) and share it here. We can then open an issue on the NVDA GitHub page so the developers can officially report this broken update to Microsoft.

​Don't worry about your NVDA installation, Vlad! It is just a waiting game for Microsoft to fix their accessibility tree in the next update.

​Best regards,

Aung Pyae Phyo

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[vladdrag...@gmail.com]

Hello again,

Thanks for being so fast again, it’s impressive!

 

That part is easy, the version is:

Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2605 Build 16.0.20026.20140) 64-bit

 

If this can help somehow. Thanks again and best regards.

 

Vlad.

[Aung Pyae Phyo]

​Thanks for providing the exact build number so quickly! Having the precise version (Version 2605 Build 16.0.20026.20140) is incredibly helpful.

​Since this mailing list is archived and monitored by many power users and NV Access contributors, keeping this specific build information in our thread will be a huge help. Anyone else running into the same "Cell. Cell." or silent options menu bugs can now easily search for and find this discussion, confirming they aren't alone. It also gives us the exact data needed to file a solid bug report on the NVDA GitHub page.

​I will keep an eye out on this thread to see if other users on this specific build chime in, or if a workaround is found. Thank you for investigating this with me, Vlad.

​Wishing you a wonderful weekend ahead!

​Best regards,

Aung Pyae Phyo

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Please note: the NVDA project has a Citizen and Contributor Code of Conduct.
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[vladdrag...@gmail.com]

Yes indeed, I am surprised, I seem to be the only one having these issues. But it’s Sunday, someone else might chime in later next week.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Vlad.

[Sarah Alawami]

I am not. I'm also running I believe the same version you are.

Microsoft® Word for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2605 Build 16.0.20026.20140) 64-bit  

Happy sunday.

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Please note: the NVDA project has a Citizen and Contributor Code of Conduct.
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[Sean Randall]

I don’t see a "Report object group names" setting anywhere. AM I missing something?

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[Andrew Downie]

No problems here either with NVDA 2026.1.1 or 2026.2 beta 1.  Using Office 365 MSO (Version 2605 Build 16.0.20026.20140) 64-bit.

Andrew

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[vladdrag...@gmail.com]

Thank you both for the feedback. Something strange must be happening on my end then. No idea what to do yet.

Take care all!

V.