As I'm dealing with vision issues resulting from my head injury, I've been contemplating whether changes to the appearance of my computer interface would make things easier for me. Perhaps a light grey or beige background rather than stark white? Perhaps a different font might be easier to read?
The problem is that, as a translator, I'm expected to deliver my translations with the same formatting and appearance as the client-provided source text. So if I were to change the background colour or the font, I'd have to change it back before delivering the text. Since some texts have specific and complex client-provided formatting, changing it back would be time-consuming and increase the likelihood of introducing errors that would make the client unhappy.
I would really like to be able to change the appearance on my screen without changing the underlying formatting - like imposing my own style sheet upon what I see. Web browsers have accessibility options that let you override a webpage's formatting - I'd also like to be able to do this in a Word document.
Early versions of Word (circa 1993) had the option of making the interface look like WordPerfect 5.1, which many users at the time would have been accustomed to. However, the final document wasn't grey text in whatever font that is on a blue background - the final document was text in the colour selected by the user, in the font selected by the user, on the background selected by the user.
Word could do this in 1993. So why not also do it now, so people with visual issues can work on an eye-friendly interface while creating a document that meets the graphic and/or layout standards of their employer or their client?
4 comments:
You can do this. I will post instructions when I can, hopefully tonight.
The default Word screen gives me an instant headache, always has. With the newest version of Word, I had to hunt for the capability, but I did find it. More soon.
Here are a few things that might help.
From Word or any program in the Office suite, go to File > Account > Office Theme. Options are white, light gray, dark gray.
On Windows start menu, go to Settings (Gear) > Personalization. Then look through Background, Colours, and Themes. A combination of those may be what you need.
I hope your vision issues are temporary.
Thanks! I never, ever, ever would have thought to look under Account, or to tweak Windows settings in parallel.
I'll give that a try on my work computer, see if I can figure out a permutation that makes things easier
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