Comment 1 by jteh on 2015-09-17 12:02
I can't reproduce this. I start Word, switch to browse mode, switch to focus mode, then alt+tab out. When I alt+tab back in, I hear no sound. Are you saying you hear another focus mode sound at that point? If so, the first thing is to try restarting with add-ons disabled to see if an add-on is misbehaving.

Comment 2 by elliott94 (in reply to comment 1) on 2015-09-18 09:07
Replying to jteh:

I can't reproduce this. I start Word, switch to browse mode, switch to focus mode, then alt+tab out. When I alt+tab back in, I hear no sound. Are you saying you hear another focus mode sound at that point? If so, the first thing is to try restarting with add-ons disabled to see if an add-on is misbehaving.

I apologise; it appears that Firefox is necessary to see this behaviour. To that end, these steps should work to replicate the issue:

1. Open Word, and switch to Browse Mode. Then, immediately switch back to Focus Mode.
2. If not already open, launch a fresh copy of Firefox. When launched, you should hear the sound that signifies that you are now in Browse Mode.

The issue with this behaviour is that as soon as the open Word document regains focus, depending on the state of Browse/Focus modes in Firefox a sound will play. For example, if in Focus Mode in Word and you want to browse a web page in Firefox using Browse Mode, every time that Firefox regains focus a sound is played.

Again, apologies; I realise that I should have tested this combination properly before opening this ticket.
Changes:
Changed title from "Office 2010: Notification of Browse/Focus Modes when Window regains Focus" to "Office 2010: Notification of Browse/Focus Modes when Firefox regains Focus"

Comment 3 by jteh on 2015-09-18 10:33
Yes, the decision as to whether to report the mode is global. The idea is that if you were previously in focus mode, you should know that you're switching to browse mode (even for a different document), since you might have forgotten what mode you left that document in. Imagine filling a form in focus mode, switching to a browse mode document and then switching back to the form. It's important for you to know that you're in focus mode, since otherwise, you might try to use browse mode commands. You should find taht this behaviour is consistent between both Word and web browsers.

Comment 4 by bhavyashah on 2015-09-18 10:37
Hi,
Eliot,
Although I cannot provide a solid solution for your requirement, a possible work around would be to disable sounds indicating focus and browse mode and enabling speech feedback instead, at least when you are editing large documents and must constantly switch between Word and Firefox...

Comment 5 by elliott94 (in reply to comment 4) on 2015-09-18 14:04
Replying to jteh:

Yes, the decision as to whether to report the mode is global. The idea is that if you were previously in focus mode, you should know that you're switching to browse mode (even for a different document), since you might have forgotten what mode you left that document in. Imagine filling a form in focus mode, switching to a browse mode document and then switching back to the form. It's important for you to know that you're in focus mode, since otherwise, you might try to use browse mode commands. You should find taht this behaviour is consistent between both Word and web browsers.

This makes sense, but isn't consistent with the behaviour that I'm experiencing. If I simply open a Word document and never switch to Browse Mode but switch to an open Firefox window, the state of which mode I'm in isn't reported - this is the case no matter which mode is currently active in Firefox. This only occurs if I switch to Browse Mode in Word at least once.

Replying to bhavyashah:

Hi,

Eliot,

Although I cannot provide a solid solution for your requirement, a possible work around would be to disable sounds indicating focus and browse mode and enabling speech feedback instead, at least when you are editing large documents and must constantly switch between Word and Firefox...

Hi, thank you for the suggestion. Whilst this would work as a shortterm solution, I'd prefer not having to do this; in addition, I don't think an option exists to allow you to have any other prompt other than sound for this setting, unless Braille/speech feedback is given if the audio option is disabled. That said, it could simply be the case that I'm not understanding why feedback is returned in this particular situation.

Comment 6 by jteh on 2015-09-18 20:49
Oh. That's because when you first open Word, browse mode actually isn't engaged at all, which means there's no focus mode. We "lazily" engage browse mode only once the user needs it. Still, I can see why this would be confusing, so we might at least need to fake focus mode or something.

Labelling this p4, as though the behaviour is a bit inconsistent and might be confusing, it does not impact the user experience in a major or disruptive way.

@elliott94 can you still reproduce it? Actually it only ocurs if you have two applications open which both support browse mode and focus mode. If one of them is in focus mode and the other one in browse mode, then you will get these sounds while switching the windows. But if both are in browse mode or focus mode, no sound is played. I am testing with NVDA Alpha 16691,10590C87 on Windows 10 with MS Word 2016 and Firefox 64.0.2.

Actually, I should have read the whole discussion before commenting. :) the issue is still occuring.