Questions about the current status of Libre Office support

[Carlos Esteban Martínez Macías]

Hi everyone, I hope you are all doing well.
I am writing to share a situation that is quite common in certain regions and to ask for some advice.
I am currently completing my community service, which is a mandatory requirement at my university. Each student volunteers at an organization chosen from a list provided by the institution. Since there is a specialized education center for the blind on that list, I decided to work with them, teaching computer literacy, typing skills, and the basics of NVDA. My decision was welcomed with open arms.
I am currently teaching two different groups. On one hand, I have students who attend in person to learn basic life skills like Braille and orientation and mobility; these are children using a PC for the very first time with the goal of developing the necessary skills to integrate into mainstream schools. On the other hand, I teach virtual classes on Monday afternoons to students who are already integrated into mainstream education.
My question regarding LibreOffice concerns this second group. These students have devices with Microsoft Office installed, but without a license. I haven't broached the subject of purchasing Office—whether as a one-time purchase or a subscription—out of consideration for their families' finances. They cannot always afford it, nor do they always have the means to make online purchases. I will not force anyone to buy software.
These students are between 9 and 11 years old. Since they are just starting out, I don't think it's a good idea to introduce them to Google Docs or Office Online yet. Before that, they need to master web browsing and filling out forms.
I’ve noticed that recent versions of NVDA have incorporated improvements to LibreOffice support, some of which were contributed by developer Michael Weghorn, who is listed as an expert in LibreOffice support in the NVDA GitHub repository.
I would like to ask, especially those who use LibreOffice (primarily Writer) in their daily lives: How does NVDA perform when editing documents in this word processor? How is the overall performance? What kind of formatting information can be accessed with NVDA?
And most importantly, as I research shortcuts to teach Writer: What are the most notable similarities and differences between the keyboard shortcuts in LibreOffice and Word? This is just to have a basic reference; I will take care of looking up the specific shortcuts in the official documentation myself.
Thank you very much for reading, and I look forward to your replies. Also, I kindly ask you to refrain from suggesting any illegitimate ways to activate Office. I do not promote software piracy, nor will I instill it in my classes for legal, technical, and security reasons. If anyone suggests doing so, I will completely ignore the comment.
In the meantime, I am using Notepad to teach basic editing, text navigation, and file management. WordPad used to be useful for teaching basic formatting, but it is no longer included in Windows 11. Even though I have two students still using Windows 10, I am not using WordPad with them either, as they will eventually update and lose access to it.
Best regards,

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Carlos Esteban Martínez Macías.

Soporte a usuarios, colaborador en la Comunidad de NVDA en español.

 

Support to users, contributor in the Spanish community of NVDA.

https://nvda.es

Experto certificado en NVDA

[Zvonimir Stanecic]

Hi Carlos,

Let's answer your questions in detail.

Recently, Libreoffice received many accessibility fixes, as well as improvements from the NVDA side.

Let's tackle this in detail:

a) the formatting shortcuts like ctrl+e are spoken, i.e their state,

b) formatting information is spoken via insert+f, like in word,

c) navigation through edit boxes is far more stable compared to Microsoft office, i.e it is more snappier, and faster.

Basic shortcuts for formatting like bold, italic, and paragraph adjustments are the same in most situations.

the problem is the font adjustment, which is done via toolbar. Yes, you need to go around with f6 to find toolbar, then change your font in the current document. 

Headings can be added via ctrl+1 to 6.

 This is very broad topic, and it will not be enough for one e-mail message.

I hope I helped,

Zvonimir

W dniu 29.03.2026 o 19:49, 'Carlos Esteban Martínez Macías' via NVDA Screen Reader Discussion pisze:

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[David Griffith]

I installed a portable version of Libre Office last week.

I made some accessibility comments which you may find in previous emails but to try and summarise.

I installed Libre Office Portable version 26 multi-language.

I am running on Windows 11 and tested using and installed version of NVDA 2025.

I can get exact version numbers but essentially all up to date versions of Windows NVDA and Libre Office Portable were used.  

1. Writer's accessibility with NVDA was significantly improved since the last time I tested it a few years ago. Of particular interest that the previous unavailability of the Say All command had been resolved and with several documents was able to use the NVDA down arrow command in Desktop layout to achieve this.
2.  In general all the menus I investigated with NVDA were accessible and quite pleasant to use, especially compared to Word / Office Ribbons.
3. There were a few, relatively rare,  occasions where dialogue content was not automatically voiced by NVDA. An important example of this was in the Spell checking dialogue where the first suggested change to an error was not voiced - however, this could be resolved by using NVDA up arrow to read the current line. Another way of resolving this was to simply cursor up and down which would force NVDA to read all the words in the suggested change list in the spell check dialogue. The circumstances in which this occurred were rare but you should be aware that this workaround of reading current contents with NCDA may be required from time to time.
4. The most disappointing aspect was the relative inaccessibility of the startup wizard which runs for the first time you start Writer. I could not tab and interact with this dialogue, though you could read it with object review or NVDA plus B. The workaround I deployed was to press alt N to activate the next buttons until I could use alt c to close the startup wizard with default configurations. This wizard does not reappear after first use and I have noticed no adverse affect of using this default configuration.
5. Writer now has good support for headings with NVDA, which announces heading style in text review and headings can be applied with control 1 for heading level 1. Control 2 and 3  for heading 2 and 3. In general I found the support for insetting and reading format changes was indistinguishable from using Word.
6. Table construction was usable but not perfect. I was able to insert a regular table and add content by navigating through the table with the tab key. However, NVDA does not read the cell content on tab navigation. You instead have to use NVDA up cursor, as above in respect of each cell to read the contents. If, however, you navigate by collumn NVDA will announce each cell as it cursors up and down the column. The table is also  announced with cell contents included with any read  all command.
7.     None of NVDA specific table commands worked for me. This is obviously an area where some further work could improve matters.    

In summary I was pretty impressed with the developments in accessibility with Libre Office Writer compared to the last time I used it. I have not investigate the more advanced features like Table of Contents creation or comments fields, but would judge it perfectly adequate for basic word-processing with NVDA with the above caveats of occasional use of NVDA up arrow to read certain elements if you find they are not voiced on navigation. Simple tables can be constructed and read adequately.

    

David Griffith

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From: 'Carlos Esteban Martínez Macías' via NVDA Screen Reader Discussion <nvda-...@nvaccess.org>
Sent: 29 March 2026 18:49
To: nvda-...@nvaccess.org <nvda-...@nvaccess.org>
Subject: [NVDA] Questions about the current status of Libre Office support

 

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[Carlos Esteban Martínez Macías]

Great, thanks for your answers. I will try LibreOffice next weekend. So, I think I can use Writer for teaching.

Regards.

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