Accessibility features in Office Help

Microsoft Office Help includes features that make it accessible to a wider range of users, including those who have limited dexterity, low vision, or other disabilities.

The Help task pane that provides access to all Office Help content. As a task pane, the Help task pane appears as part of the active application. The Help window displays topics and other Help content and appears as a window next to, but separate from, the active application.

In the Help Task Pane

F1: Display the Help task pane.
F6: Switch between the Help task pane and the active application.
TAB: Select the next item in the Help task pane.
SHIFT+TAB: Select the previous item in the Help task pane.
ENTER: Perform the action for the selected item.
UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW: In a Table of Contents, select the next and previous item, respectively.
LEFT ARROW and RIGHT ARROW: In a Table of Contents, expand and collapse the selected item, respectively.
ALT+LEFT ARROW: Move back to the previous task pane.
ALT+RIGHT ARROW: Move forward to the next task pane.
CONTROL+SPACE: Open the menu of Pane options.
CONTROL+F1: Close and reopen the current task pane.
RIGHT ARROW: Expand a +/- list.
LEFT ARROW: Collapse a +/- list.

In the Help window

TAB: Select the next hidden text or hyperlink, or Show All or Hide All at the top of a topic
SHIFT+TAB: Select the previous hidden text or hyperlink, or the Browser View button at the top of a Microsoft Office Web site article
ENTER: Perform the action for the selected Show All, Hide All, hidden text, or hyperlink
ALT+LEFT ARROW: Move back to the previous Help topic.
ALT+RIGHT ARROW: Move forward to the next Help topic.
CONTROL+P: Print the current Help topic.
UP ARROW AND DOWN ARROW: Scroll small amounts up and down, respectively, within the currently-displayed Help topic.
PAGE UP AND PAGE DOWN: Scroll larger amounts up and down, respectively, within the currently-displayed Help topic.
ALT+U: Change whether the Help window appears connected to (tiled) or separate from (untiled) the active application.
SHIFT+F10: Display a menu of commands for the Help window; requires that the Help window have active focus (click an item in the Help window).

Press F10 or ALT to select the menu bar, and then press TAB until the insertion point appears in the Ask a Question box. Type your question, and then press ENTER.

To select a topic, use the UP or DOWN arrow keys, and then press ENTER to open the topic in the Help window.

Many Help topics use hidden text and expandable hyperlinks to show or hide additional information within the topics. This way, you don't have to jump to a different Help topic to see information, and the content is easy to scan. You can use the expandable hyperlinks one at a time, or use Show All or Hide All to open or close all of the expandable hyperlinks in the topic.

Press TAB to select the next hidden text or hyperlink, or to select Show All or Hide All at the top of a topic. Within the Help window, press SHIFT+ TAB to select the previous hidden text or hyperlink, or to select Show All or Hide All at the top of a topic.

Note If you are using a screen reader to read Help topics, you must first expand all the links in the topic by using the Show All button.

In Windows XP Control Panel, click Network and Internet Connections, and then click Internet Options.
In Windows 2000 Control Panel, double-click the Internet Options icon.
On the General tab, click Accessibility, and then click Ignore colors specified on Web pages.
Click OK.
In the Internet Options dialog box, do one or both of the following:
Change the color of the background or text in Help
- On the General tab, click Colors, and then select the options you want.
Change the font in Help
- On the General tab, click Fonts, and then select the options you want.

Note If you change the font and background color of the Help topics in the Help window, the change will also affect the font and background color when you view a Web page in Microsoft Internet Explorer.