Tab Navigation in Tables Announces Selection Changes in Word When Using UIA

[Neurrone]

Originally reported in #11956.

Steps to reproduce:

1. With use of UIA enabled, create a table in word and enter some data. A 2x2 table suffices.
2. Use tab to navigate between the cells in the table.

Actual behavior:

I'm navigating between a cell that has the text "account" in it, and the next cell has the text "balance". Here's the speech output when pressing tab.

column 2  Balance
Balance selected
Account unselected

The text that is no longer selected gets announced. The newly selected cell also gets read twice.

Expected behavior:

NVDA should speak the contents of the new cell, and the fact that the text got selected. For example, "column 2 Balance selected".

System configuration

NVDA installed/portable/running from source:

Installed

NVDA version:

alpha-24131,9f8fff86

Windows version:

Windows 10.0.19043.1288]

Name and version of other software in use when reproducing the issue:

Microsoft® Word for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2110 Build 16.0.14527.20168) 64-bit

Other information about your system:

Other questions

Does the issue still occur after restarting your computer?

Yes

Have you tried any other versions of NVDA? If so, please report their behaviors.

No

If NVDA add-ons are disabled, is your problem still occurring?

Yes

Does the issue still occur after you run the COM Registration Fixing Tool in NVDA's tools menu?

N/A

[Neurrone]

@feerrenrut could this be added to the next milestone or the one after next?

With the merging of #13437, this will become an issue for anyone dealing with tables if they don't know about turning off the usage of UIA.

[CyrilleB79]

@feerrenrut could this be added to the next milestone or the one after next?

With the merging of #13437, this will become an issue for anyone dealing with tables if they don't know about turning off the usage of UIA.

And given the issue is not present with object model access to Word document, it would be a pity if we began to give instructions on how to deactivate UIA on mailing lists.
The risk is that people then remain with Word without UIA even when this issue is fixed.

[CyrilleB79]

Also see #11775 where there is the same type of issue.

[LittleStar-VIP]

Hello,
I think I have experienced the same problem.
I am using nvda 2022.1 beta3 portable version with office 365.

1. create a table in word
2. When I tab to a new cell that contains the text 'hello world'
3. nvda speaks 'hello world hello world selected another piece of text is not selected'

Besides the problem of speaking what text have been selected and unselected, the same piece of message is spoken twice. Take the example above, the text 'hello world' appeared twice even though there is only one 'hello world' in the cell which will create confusion to user.

[Adriani90]

Still reproducible in NVDA 2023.2