How to make NVDA as efficient as JAWS in Office

1. What version of NVDA are you using? Also is it the installed or portable version?
2. What speech synthesizer do you use with NVDA?
3. What add-ons (if any) are you running with NVDA?
4. What version of Word, Also is it Cloud or onboard?
5. What applications are running in your system tray? You will be surprised at how many background apps can lag out your PC these days.

I use NVDA in book-length documents every day for hours a day without the kind of lag you're talking about. I will say, JAWS is slightly more responsive and reliable than NVDA in Microsoft 365, particularly in comments--that's the only plus JAWS has over NVDA in my book. But it's more about one little bug plus a very, very slight delay. Word has changed a great deal since 2021, so that might be it. One thing you could play with under NVA's advanced settings is whether to use UIA in Microsoft Word Controls (which includes documents). That setting dictates whether to rely on Microsoft's very sluggish accessibility tree or use old-school methods of getting the document text. UIA and NVDA's communication with it have improved markedly since 2021, so it might not work so well in your version.
You could try switching to the Windows OneCore voices, which should be quite a bit more responsive than Acapella or Vocalizer, although the Code Factory version of Eloquence I use is more responsive than One Core.
Also try different documents to make sure that isn't it.

Make sure that this is enabled under advanced settings, though it should be by default. It will make a big difference.

I am using Word from 2026, and the only time I really notice anything like a stutter or percieved lag, is when a document has some weird embedded object that NVDA chokes on like a dry chicken bone.
True story. I also believe I have the same synthesizers that you are using.
...and I have half the RAM as you. 😅

I use the default espeak synthesizer, and my screen reader functions smoothly on my Microsoft Word.

However, I dislike Jaws because it consumes a significant amount of RAM and I disagree with its company policies. In my opinion, Jaws should be free and open-source like NVDA, so that individuals who wish to use it can do so without incurring the cost of $111 to Vispero or Freedom Scientific, whichever you prefer to refer to it as.

If NVDA doesn’t work for you, I recommend trying Microsoft Narrator. It performs equally well and is somewhat better suited for Microsoft applications.

I recommend using Office or Microsoft 365 as they're calling it now. This way, you get all the latest improvements which more than likely include accessibility enhancements.

It looks like the version I have, which according to Google is 2026 Microsoft Word from Microsoft 365. Are you sure you got the 2021 version?

Maybe you got Office 365 in 2021. If you have 365, it will keep updated unless you turn off the auto update feature (if you even can). Of course, it may also depend on your computer and how old it is and/or processor power.

According to the following link, your version, and mine as well, was released on March 18, 2026.

@Maldalain,
Needless to say you are pretty good to go on updated Office software. 🙂

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-current-channel-preview

If the latest build of NVDA is causing issues, it might benefit you to go back to the previous 32bit version of NVDA, which would be 2025.3.3. Anything after this version no longer supports 32bit, which I know will seem weird to want to use 32bit software, but keep in mind that 32bit software is exactly what NVDA has been all of this time... until this year.

So, just some food for thought. 🙂

If you ever want to force a manual check and download of Office updates, perform the following steps.
Press Alt while in any Office program, and then press f to select file.
Next, press the number zero twice quickly, followed by enter to select account. It says you should be able to press Alt, then f, then d, but this doesn't work for me, so they might have changed or more likely broken something.
Tab until you get to the update options button and press enter.
If the option to automatically update is disabled, enable it here, or you can select the option to check for updates in this menu as well.

Optionally, you can also press Alt + F, then ⬆️, ⬆️, and then press Enter to get to the Account screen. This is what I do at least. 🤷

Hi,
A few of you have the Eloquence synthesizer on NVDA. Where did you get it from?
Thanks

According to this page, the SAPI 5 version of Eloquence may still be available (at the time of writing) from A. T. Guys: https://atguys.com/products/eloquence-sapi-voices-for-any-screen-reader