In our main overview of Leasey version 11.5, we introduced the Summer 2026 update as one of the most wide-ranging Leasey releases for some time. That post gave the broad tour: Leasey Media Centre, LeaseyNotes, LeaseyCuts, Leasey Database, LeaseySocial and many other redesigned or brand new areas.
But there is so much in Leasey 11.5 that a single overview cannot possibly do justice to every feature. So we are now beginning a new series of blog posts, each one focusing on a specific part of the update in much greater depth. This is the first of those posts.
We begin with LeaseyWord.
LeaseyWord was not included in the original overview post, not because it is a small feature, but for the opposite reason. It deserves special attention. It is a new writing and document reading environment with a great deal of careful design behind it, particularly for people using JAWS and Braille displays.
At first glance, LeaseyWord could be described as a word processor. That is true, but it does not tell the whole story. LeaseyWord is also a document reader, a searchable text environment, a PDF interpretation tool, a Markdown and HTML previewing tool, a place to review extracted document content, a spell checking environment, a backup-aware editor and a focused workspace for people who want predictable keyboard access.
It is not trying to be Microsoft Word. It is not trying to reproduce every visual formatting function found in a full office suite. It is designed for a different purpose: fast, reliable, accessible writing and reading, with strong JAWS feedback and careful attention to Braille.
That distinction matters.
LeaseyWord is intended to give you a dependable place to write, read, search and work with documents. You can create documents from scratch. You can open existing documents. You can search for text, replace text, bookmark passages, move between multiple open documents, spell check your work, count words, restore previous document versions and work with a wide range of file formats.
When LeaseyWord opens a document, the aim is to present the text in a standard Windows edit field. This is very important for accessibility. A standard edit field is familiar to JAWS users, works well with cursor movement, supports ordinary text selection and gives Braille displays a reliable control to interact with.
Where possible, documents are rendered as plain text in that edit field. That means the content becomes easier to read, search, copy, edit and save. Rather than trapping you inside a complex document view, LeaseyWord tries to turn the material into something practical.
This is why LeaseyWord should not be thought of as a traditional book reader. When it opens and interprets documents, it renders the text in a format which can be edited if necessary. That is a different philosophy. The goal is not merely to display a file. The goal is to make the words usable.
That can be useful in many situations. You may want to read a PDF invoice and copy the payment reference. You may want to open a Markdown file and edit it. You may want to search a long document for a particular phrase. You may want to take text from a Word document and save it as plain text. You may want to open an HTML file and check its structure. You may want to place bookmarks in an extracted PDF. LeaseyWord is built for those kinds of everyday tasks.
LeaseyWord contains considerable functionality, but it deliberately does not include every visual formatting feature associated with a full word processor. In this version, tasks such as emboldening, underlining and changing fonts are not available, and they will not be part of the official Leasey 11.5 release.
That may sound surprising until you consider the purpose of the application. Adding those features would require a change in the main control area of LeaseyWord, and that change may not be appropriate for users of Braille. There are applications available where Braille output is not as good as it should be, and we do not want LeaseyWord to fall into that category.
LeaseyWord is therefore not about visual decoration. It is about producing and working with text efficiently. It gives priority to speech, Braille, document structure, searching, saving, restoring and predictable keyboard control.
This makes it very suitable for writing notes, articles, scripts, instructions, source files, web content, plain text documents, Markdown documents and other material where the content matters more than visual styling.
LeaseyWord is launched by pressing the Leasey Key followed by Windows+W.
It opens with a blank document. The main editing area is a standard Windows edit field. You can type, read and edit text in the same kind of environment JAWS users already understand.
The window title contains the current document name. If the document has unsaved changes, an asterisk is shown after the document name. For example, a modified document might be shown as:
test.txt * - Leasey Word
This means the standard JAWS command Insert+T can tell you which document is active and whether it has been modified. That small detail is very useful. You do not need to search around the screen to find out whether you are working on the right file or whether changes are waiting to be saved.
The status bar also provides useful information. It shows the current line number, column number, word count and whether the document is saved or modified. If the current document contains real page markers, such as an extracted PDF, it can also show the current page.
The Menu Bar gives access to every option in the application, so users who prefer menus can work that way. But many functions also have direct shortcut keys for speed.
LeaseyWord can have more than one document open at the same time.
There are no visible document tabs for normal use. This is intentional. Repeated tab announcements can be distracting with JAWS, especially when the user is trying to concentrate on writing or reading. Instead, LeaseyWord uses keyboard commands to move between open documents.
Control+F6 moves to the next open document. Control+Tab does the same. Control+Shift+F6 moves to the previous open document, and Control+Shift+Tab can also be used.
When you move between documents, JAWS announces the document name. This gives you the benefit of multiple open files without creating a visually tabbed interface which may add unnecessary speech clutter.
Closing the current document is done with Control+F4 or Control+W. If the document has unsaved changes, LeaseyWord asks whether you want to save it, with Yes as the default button. Pressing Alt+F4 exits LeaseyWord. When exiting, LeaseyWord checks each open document for unsaved changes and asks about them as needed.
One interesting design decision is that LeaseyWord does not automatically reopen the previous set of documents on the next launch. In many text editors, reopening previous files can be useful, but it can also become confusing. LeaseyWord starts cleanly, which many users may prefer.
Control+N creates a new blank document. JAWS announces that a new document has been created.
Control+O opens a document using the standard Windows Open dialog. LeaseyWord can open a wide range of formats, including EPUB books, HTML documents, Markdown documents, Microsoft Word documents, PDF documents, PowerPoint presentations, RTF documents, plain text and many common text-based files such as log files, cue sheets, INI files, JAWS keymap files, JSON files, PHP files and XML documents.
The supported list is broad:
EPUB.
HTML, HTM and XHTML.
Markdown, including MD, Markdown, MDX, MDown, MDWN, MKD, MKDN, MKDown and RONN.
Microsoft Word documents, including DOC, DOCX and DOCM.
PDF.
PowerPoint, including PPTX and PPTM.
RTF.
Plain text, LOG, CUE, INI, JKM, JSON and PHP.
XML.
For editable text-based formats such as plain text, log files, cue sheets, INI files, JAWS keymap files, JSON, PHP, Markdown and HTML, Control+S can save back to the same file.
For formats such as PDF, EPUB, Word, PowerPoint and RTF, Control+S opens Save As. This is important because the original source document should not be overwritten by extracted plain text. LeaseyWord protects the original file and asks you where to save the rendered or edited result.
Control+Shift+S opens Save As directly. The Save dialog supports Text document, Markdown, HTML and All files.
Again, the point is practicality. LeaseyWord lets you work with content from many formats while reducing the risk of accidentally damaging the source document.
PDF handling is one of the most important parts of LeaseyWord.
PDF documents can be wonderful when they are properly structured, but many are not. Some have poor reading order. Some are visually laid out in columns without proper accessibility structure. Some contain scanned images rather than real text. Some are forms, invoices, purchase orders or reports where the visual layout makes sense to a sighted reader but becomes awkward when read linearly.
LeaseyWord gives you three possible ways to work with PDF documents.
First, when you open a PDF, LeaseyWord tries to present it in the best reading order it can using local extraction. It chooses the cleaner of two local PDF text extraction methods for each page. This can improve documents where one extraction method produces one word per line, misses first letters or confuses columns.
This first step is local. It is designed to give you a readable version of the PDF without needing to send the document anywhere.
Second, if the locally extracted PDF is readable but still awkward, the Tools menu contains Enhanced PDF detection. This sends the PDF to an enhanced PDF text detection service and opens the result as a new unsaved document. It can be especially useful for invoices, purchase orders, forms and other PDFs where layout makes the local reading order difficult.
LeaseyWord gives spoken progress messages. It can announce that enhanced PDF detection has started, give progress while working, and announce whether the process has completed or failed.
Third, if the PDF still cannot be understood, or if it contains scanned image text, you can use Improve Reading Order with ChatGPT from the Tools menu. As a simple guide this should be used for PDFs of about 40 pages or less.
For scanned-image PDFs, this can be very valuable. If no readable text is found in a PDF, LeaseyWord can tell you so and ask whether you want to send the PDF to ChatGPT to try to render it as accessible plain text. If ChatGPT succeeds, the rendered text opens as a new unsaved document in the LeaseyWord editor with a suggested file name. Pressing Control+S on that result opens Save As, so the original PDF is not overwritten.
If a PDF is password protected, LeaseyWord asks for the password. The password is used only to open the document and is not saved.
If a PDF contains embedded bookmarks, LeaseyWord adds those entries to the normal Bookmarks Manager for that document. The Bookmarks Manager is described below. That means PDF structure, where present, becomes part of the same accessible bookmark system used elsewhere in LeaseyWord.
Before sending a PDF to ChatGPT, LeaseyWord checks the real PDF page count. If the PDF is too large to send in one piece, JAWS reports the page count and the document is not sent. That is a sensible safeguard and avoids setting expectations which cannot be met.
Improve Reading Order with ChatGPT is not only for scanned PDFs.
Sometimes a document contains readable text but still does not make sense when presented linearly. A common example is a document laid out in a tabular way where the author has not created a proper accessible table. Instead, the author may have pressed the Tab key repeatedly to make visual columns. A sighted person may be able to understand the page by looking at it, but the extracted text may be confusing.
For normal text-based documents of this kind, LeaseyWord can send the current document text to ChatGPT and ask for a clearer accessible plain text rendering.
For PDF documents and older DOC documents, LeaseyWord can send the original document file so that text boxes, scanned content and awkward layout can be analysed more directly. Older DOC files can be particularly difficult if the text is contained in text boxes. If LeaseyWord cannot read an older DOC file locally, it can offer to send the document to ChatGPT to try to render it as accessible plain text.
PowerPoint documents can also be handled. LeaseyWord will usually do a good job giving access to slide content and speaker notes, but if necessary it can send the original presentation file to ChatGPT so that slide content and notes can be analysed more directly.
This command is not for asking questions about the document. It is only intended to improve reading order and make extracted document text easier to use with JAWS.
LeaseyWord asks you to confirm before sending the text. Yes is the default button. While ChatGPT is working, LeaseyWord speaks a short progress message about every 20 seconds. When complete, the result opens as a new unsaved document with a suggested file name, and saving opens Save As so the original source is preserved.
LeaseyWord is also very useful for people who write web content or Markdown.
If you are writing HTML, you can preview it as a rendered document. Open the File menu and choose View as HTML. LeaseyWord creates a temporary HTML preview and opens it in the default browser. This is intended for checking how headings, links, lists, tables and other HTML elements may be presented.
This is extremely useful if you are writing a web page, a blog post or documentation. You can write in the accessible edit field, then preview the rendered result in a browser.
Markdown documents are edited as plain text. This keeps writing and reviewing Markdown efficient with JAWS and Braille. Markdown is often ideal for structured writing because headings, lists and links are represented as text, but it is still helpful to inspect the rendered version.
LeaseyWord can use the Markdown Converter component to create rendered output. You can preview Markdown as HTML, export Markdown as HTML or export Markdown as Word.
Preview Markdown as HTML creates a temporary HTML preview and opens it in the default browser. Export Markdown as HTML lets you choose a save location and creates the HTML file. Export Markdown as Word creates a Word document from the Markdown.
This gives Markdown writers a complete workflow: write in a simple accessible text environment, preview the structure, and export when ready.
LeaseyWord includes a Recent Files list from the File menu.
By default, it keeps the last ten recent files. If you want more or fewer, open Options with Control+Comma and change the Number of recent files setting. The value can be set from 5 to 50.
If there are no recent files, JAWS tells you so. This is a small thing, but it avoids the uncertainty of opening a list and wondering whether nothing happened.
Search is a core part of LeaseyWord.
Control+F opens Find. Type the text to find and press Enter. If the text is found, LeaseyWord selects it in the document edit field and speaks the line containing the match.
For example, it might say:
Found on line 12: Restore Leasey Settings to the Standard Location.
This is much more helpful than a simple "found" message. You immediately hear the context and can decide whether this is the occurrence you wanted.
Control+Shift+F searches backwards using the same Find dialog. F3 moves to the next occurrence and Shift+F3 moves to the previous occurrence. Each time, the matching text is selected and JAWS speaks the line containing the match.
Control+H opens Replace. You type the text to find, move to Replace with, type the replacement text and press Enter or activate Replace All. LeaseyWord announces how many occurrences were replaced. If the text is not found, JAWS tells you.
For writing, editing, reviewing long notes or checking extracted documents, these functions are essential.
LeaseyWord includes several useful editing commands.
Control+Delete deletes the next word. Control+Backspace deletes the previous word. After the word is deleted, LeaseyWord announces the newly focused word. If there is no word to announce, it says blank. The deletion is placed into the normal edit control undo history, so Control+Z can undo it.
Changing case is also supported. If text is selected, the change applies to the selection. If no text is selected, the whole document is changed. Control+U applies upper case, Control+L applies lower case and Control+T applies title case. LeaseyWord announces what happened, such as "Upper case applied to selection" or "Title case applied to document."
These are the kinds of commands which make an editor feel efficient. They are not flashy, but they save time.
LeaseyWord includes spell checking with F7.
It uses the LeaseySpell spelling component. The Spell Check dialog contains the misspelled word, context, suggestions list, replacement edit field, Change, Change All, Ignore, Ignore All, Add, Finish and Cancel.
When a misspelled word is found, JAWS announces the word and spells it. For example:
Misspelled word receive, r e c e i v e
Move through suggestions with Up and Down Arrow. When a suggestion is selected, LeaseyWord speaks the letters of that suggestion after a short delay. Press Enter on a suggestion to change to it. Press Delete to ignore the current word. Press Control+R to read the sentence containing the current misspelled word. Press Escape to cancel spell checking.
If no spelling errors are found, a standard message says that no spelling errors were found.
The result is a consistent spell checking experience inside LeaseyWord, designed for speech and keyboard use.
Control+Shift+W reports the number of words, characters and paragraphs in the current document.
For example:
Document has 245 words, 1320 characters, 6 paragraphs.
For documents which contain real page markers, such as locally extracted PDF files, LeaseyWord can report and move by page. Pressing Page Up or Page Down moves to the previous or next page marker. JAWS announces the page number. If the document does not contain real page markers, JAWS says that page information is not available.
Control+G opens Go To Page. Type the page number and press Enter. If the current document contains page markers, LeaseyWord moves to that page. This is especially useful when working with PDFs which have been extracted into page order.
Bookmarks are a major part of LeaseyWord.
Move to the position in the document you want to mark and press Control+B. Type a bookmark name and press Enter. JAWS confirms that the bookmark has been set.
Bookmarks are not just raw cursor positions. LeaseyWord stores the bookmark position, the line number and nearby text around the bookmark. This helps the bookmark follow the intended text if other text is inserted above it later.
To move to a bookmark, press Control+Shift+G. The Bookmarks dialog opens. Move through the bookmarks with Up and Down Arrow and press Enter on the one you want. JAWS announces the bookmark name.
If the original position no longer contains the expected text, LeaseyWord searches for the stored nearby text. If it finds that text, it moves to the new position and updates the bookmark. If the text cannot be found, LeaseyWord falls back to the saved line number and announces that the position is approximate.
This is a strong design. It recognises that documents change. A bookmark set on page one should not become useless just because three paragraphs were inserted above it.
Bookmarks can also be deleted from the Bookmarks dialog. Select the bookmark and press Delete.
LeaseyWord also supports LeaseyPoints. As usual, press the Leasey key followed by Control+1 through to Control+0 to set LeaseyPoints 1 through to 10, and press the Leasey key followed by 1 through to 0 to return to them.
However, named LeaseyWord bookmarks are often preferable because the name tells you what the bookmark represents. You are less likely to forget what "Bookmark Chapter 3" means than what LeaseyPoint 4 was meant to mark.
LeaseySelect is available in LeaseyWord. Press the Leasey key followed by Comma to mark the start of a selection, and the Leasey key followed by full-stop or period to mark the end.
Control+Shift+I is Where Am I. In the main editor, LeaseyWord gives a short description of the current document position, such as line number, column number, word count and whether the document has been modified. If the document contains page markers, Where Am I also includes the current page.
Where Am I also works in LeaseyWord dialogs where practical. For example, it can give basic information in Find, Find and Replace, Spell Check, Bookmarks, Document Backups, Options and Leasey Command Centre.
This is another example of the Leasey design principle: the user should be able to ask for context without having to explore the entire window.
LeaseyWord includes a Command Centre, opened with Control+Shift+C.
This is a searchable list of LeaseyWord commands. When the dialog opens, focus is in the Command edit field. Type part of a command name, such as find, save, spell, bookmark or options. Then press Tab to move to the Matching commands list. Use Up and Down Arrow to review the commands and press Enter to carry out the selected command.
Each command in the list includes the command name and its shortcut key where one exists.
This is very helpful because LeaseyWord has many commands. You do not have to remember all of them at once. If you know roughly what you want to do, you can search for it.
Where Am I also works in Command Centre. Control+Shift+I reports whether you are in the Command edit field or the Matching commands list and gives the number of matching commands.
Document backups are one of the most reassuring features in LeaseyWord.
LeaseyWord keeps backups for individual saved documents. When a saved document is saved again, LeaseyWord backs up the previous saved version before overwriting it.
To restore a document backup, open the document, open the File menu and choose Restore Document Backup. A list of backups for the current document is displayed by date and time. Move through the list and press Enter on the backup you want.
LeaseyWord asks you to confirm the restore, with Yes as the default button. Before restoring the selected backup, LeaseyWord backs up the current editor text. If the restore succeeds, JAWS announces that the document backup has been restored.
The restored text is marked as modified. Press Control+S to save it.
This gives you a route back if you save changes and later realise you need an earlier version. For anyone writing long documents, editing instructions, working on scripts, or cleaning up extracted text, this is extremely valuable.
Options are opened with Control+Comma.
Options include restoring the last cursor position when opening documents, the number of recent files, the default document save folder, the LeaseyWord data location, Browse, Restore to Location Default and Register File Explorer entries.
If Restore last cursor position is checked, LeaseyWord returns to the last known cursor position when opening a document.
The default document save folder is used when Save As opens for a new or unsaved document. You can type or browse to the folder. If quotation marks are included, LeaseyWord removes them. If the folder does not exist, LeaseyWord tries to create it when Options is saved. If the document already has a file location, Save As starts in that document's own folder.
Changing the LeaseyWord data location follows the same protocol as other Leasey applications, using the Data Manager with the Leasey key followed by Control+Shift+B.
File Explorer integration is also available. Options contains Register File Explorer entries. When activated, this registers LeaseyWord with Windows so supported documents can be opened from File Explorer using LeaseyWord. It adds LeaseyWord to Windows Open With choices and adds an Open with LeaseyWord entry for supported document types.
This is important because it allows LeaseyWord to become part of the normal Windows workflow. You do not always have to open LeaseyWord first and then browse to the document. You can find a supported document in File Explorer and open it with LeaseyWord.
LeaseyWord can currently open and render many formats as plain text:
EPUB.
HTML, HTM and XHTML.
Markdown formats.
DOC, DOCX and DOCM.
PDF.
PPTX and PPTM.
RTF.
TXT and LOG.
CUE, INI, JKM, JSON and PHP.
XML.
RTF support is basic. If Microsoft Word is available, LeaseyWord asks Word to read the RTF document. Otherwise it uses a simple fallback which may not preserve all formatting.
Older binary PowerPoint files, PPT, are not yet supported.
It is also important to remember that LeaseyWord renders documents as text. That is the point. It is intended to give access to content and make that content editable where appropriate. It is not a visual desktop publishing tool and it is not trying to preserve complex visual layout.
LeaseyWord matters because it fills a very practical gap.
Many blind computer users have several different tools for writing, reading documents, opening PDFs, checking spelling, previewing HTML, working with Markdown, extracting text from Word files, searching long documents and saving plain text. Some tools do one job well. Some are accessible but heavy. Some are powerful but noisy. Some work with speech but are less comfortable with Braille. Some expose too much visual structure and too little usable text.
LeaseyWord brings many of those daily tasks into one environment designed from the start for Leasey users.
It gives you a clean editor. It opens many formats. It protects original source documents. It offers local PDF extraction, enhanced PDF detection and ChatGPT-assisted reading order improvement where appropriate. It supports HTML preview and Markdown export. It includes search, replace, bookmarks, spell checking, word count, page movement, document backups, recent files and a command centre.
Just as importantly, it does these things with attention to JAWS output, Braille behaviour and keyboard predictability.
LeaseyWord is not trying to be everything. That is one of its strengths. It is trying to be a fast, dependable, accessible writing and document-reading tool which understands what blind users actually need when working with text.
This is why it deserves to begin our in-depth series.
Leasey 11.5 is scheduled for release in July 2026. In future posts, we will continue looking closely at the major new and redesigned features in this Summer update.