When you open up PowerPoint it will automatically
go to the first slide. This will open in slide view and this
will be spoken out by NVDA. In the first slide, if you tab, you
will hear the following: Subtitle placeholder and Centre Title
placeholder.
If you press the Enter key on either of these
options, an editable box will come up. Here, type in your text.
When finished, press the Escape key, then tab to the next item
and repeat the process (as in the first option given). Make sure
after you have typed in your text to press the Escape key. Next,
if you use the Tab key you will hear what is written in each
section. You may also wish to add other items such as links,
pictures or sounds etcetera to your presentation.
When you have finished creating your first slide,
in most cases you will want to add extra slides to the
presentation. To add another slide as you go use the New Slide
(Ctrl + M) shortcut. When a new slide is added you will hear
NVDA say slide 2 slide view.
This time when you use the Tab key you will hear
NVDA say Title placeholder and Object placeholder. Repeat the
steps as were done in slide one.
You will notice as you add extra slides NVDA will
say the number of the slide.
As you create your presentation the more slides you
add you will hear the number of the slides go from number one to
the number where you have finished your last slide (for example
slide 20).
You can use the page up key to take you back
through your presentation until you arrive back at slide one. If
you use the page down key, you can go forwards through the
presentation back to your last slide (for example slide 20). You
might hear NVDA also say slide show complete.
To quickly get back to your first slide you can use
the Home key. This will take you to the very first slide you
created and you should hear the contents of the slide read out.
To quickly get to the very last slide of your
presentation you can use the End key. You should hear the name
of the very last slide read out and its contents.
If you go back to your very first slide, then start
pushing the F6 key, you will hear NVDA say the following: slide
one slide view. Press the F6 key again and you will hear NVDA
say status bar, ribbon tab home. Press the F6 key again and you
will hear NVDA say slide one notes page multiline. Press the F6
key again and you will hear NVDA say thumbnail one of however
many slides you have created. Press the F6 key again and you
will be back to where you started.
If you would like to add a note to your
presentation (on the slide that you are on), when you hear NVDA
say slide notes page - type your note in here.
When you hear NVDA say thumb nails number one of
whatever is your last slide, you can use your down and up arrow
keys to go between each slide.
To start your slide show, press the F5 key. This
will start your PowerPoint presentation at the beginning of the
PowerPoint you have created.
You can then either use the Enter key or the
Spacebar to go to the next slide (from start to finish) of your
PowerPoint. NVDA will read the slides from top to bottom. You
will hear when your slide show is finished with NVDA saying
PowerPoint complete at the end of the slide show.
The PowerPoint presentation can also be automated,
so it changes slides at set intervals between slides. You may
have to play around with the timing so the slide is not quicker
than NVDA reading out the slide. To have a set interval between
each slide that is the same use Alt + the letter K, then the
letter I. When you hear the following read out this is the time
between each slide 00:00.00. You can use the up and down arrow
keys to adjust the time between each slide. These will all be set to
the same length of time you specified (for example 10 seconds)
before it goes to the next slide.
Whenever you insert pictures, graphs, etcetera into
your PowerPoint presentation, please also add Alt text to the
graphics in the slide at the same time. This way, when the
screen reader comes to the picture, it will read out the Alt
text in the graphic. This helps a blind or visually impaired
student know what that picture/graphic is about. Alt text refers
to alternate text.
To insert a picture into your slide show (on the
current slide), press the Alt key + the letter N. Next, press
the letter P, then the Enter key. A dialogue box will come up.
You can tab and shift tab around it to locate your photo. In
this area it will ask you what type of photo you want to insert
(as in the format of the photo) and give you the option to find
it on your computer or portable media. When you have located
your picture, press the Enter key on it and that picture will be
inserted into the slide show.
Next, use the application key and you will be given
a selection of menus to arrow through. Arrow to the format
picture menu, then press the Enter key. When the next screen
comes up, you will be given quite a few options and might hear
NVDA say Picture Corrections List. You will need to locate the
Alt text menu. This might be a matter of arrowing right or left
to get to the tab. You can also tab through the different
sections there under the different menus.
Under the Alt text section, when you first tab, it
will give you the option to give the picture a title. Enter in
whatever you want to in this section (for example Dog playing in
the snow). The next time you tab, it will let you put in a
description about the photo (for example our house all covered
in snow with the dog playing in the snow and children chucking
snow balls at each other). Next, tab down to the close button
then press the Enter key. Now, the Alt text is inserted into the
photo you put into the PowerPoint presentation.
You will hear content placeholder when the
alternative text in the picture is read out.
If you would like to switch between the slide and
any accompanying notes (if any) you can use the following
shortcut. Press Control + Shift + S to switch back and forth
between the slide and its accompanying notes.
You must be watching your slide show to do this on
each slide.
When you are putting together your slide show
presentation, there are a couple of ways you can get to the
notes section. One is to use the F6 key until you hear NVDA say
notes page. Here, enter in your notes, then use the F6 key to
cycle you back to slide view.
The second way is to use a shortcut. The shortcut
key to get to this section quickly is Alt + R, then C. Now, type in your
comment, and make sure the comment lines up with the slide.
When you are in slide view you can arrow down and
up this section to each slide you have created. Locate the slide
you want to edit then tab once until you hear NVDA say Centre
Title placeholder. Next press the Enter key then an editable
dialogue box will come up with whatever you had written in this
section before. Make your changes, and press the Escape key. Now
it will be updated with the new information you have edited or
replaced.
Tab once more until you hear NVDA say Subtitle
placeholder, then press the Enter key. Make your changes then
press the Escape key and the new information will be updated.
From time to time you might want to put a hyperlink
into your PowerPoint presentation (that might point to a
resource on the internet).
To add a hyperlink into your presentation, work out
where in the text you would like the hyperlink to be. For
example, to visit the NVAccess website please go to and put your hyper link in
here.
When you have found the right spot for the
hyperlink to go on your slide, press the application key on your
keyboard. When a context menu comes up, arrow until you hear
NVDA say the menu that says hyperlink, then press the Enter key.
It will ask you to put in the hyperlink address for example http://www.nvaccess.org Once done, tab to the ok button. Then press the
Enter key. Now, your hyperlink will be in the slide where you
put it.
The shortcut key to insert a hyperlink is Alt + N,
then I. This will give you a whole heap of extra options such as
(under the Hyperlink section)... Create a link to a Web page, a
picture, an e-mail address, or a program.
It is a matter of tabbing through the sections
given and adding the parts that you would like to put into your
Power Point presentation.
To insert a table into your slide, locate where you
want it in your slide to be shown.
Next, press the Alt key + the letter N, then the
letter T for table and press the Enter key. This is the shortcut
key to insert a table into your slide.
You will now be given some options which you can
tab through. There are plenty of options to choose from (going
from 1x1 Table onwards). You can also use the Shift/Tab key to
go back through the options given. If any of the other options
suit you, press the Enter key on it.
Find the size of the table you want to put into the
slide show then press the Enter key. Your table will now be
inserted into your slide.
Make sure you have the report tables check box
checked under the document formatting section in NVDA;
otherwise, you will have no idea of where you are in the table.
To do this, use the NVDA key + the Ctrl key + the letter D to
quickly get to the document formatting dialogue section within
NVDA.
There may be times when you want to put in a
certain sized table (for example a 3 column by 2 row table).
To do a customized sized table (when you first go
into the screen where it gives you a whole lot of options), you
will hear NVDA say 1 times 1 table. Shift/tab a couple of times
until you hear NVDA say insert table, then press the Enter key.
Here you will be able to enter a custom number for your column
and a custom number for your rows. Next, tab down to the ok
button then press the Enter key, and your new table will be
inserted into the PowerPoint slide.
If for any reason you are unsure where NVDA is
focused, you can use the NVDA key + the Tab key so NVDA speaks
the focused position.
You can now tab through the table you have inserted
and enter your information into it.
The applications key can be used while in the table
to give you other options. These include options such as: insert
rows both above and below or insert columns both to the left or
right; delete rows and delete columns; merge cells; split cells
and select table.
After you have finished inserting information into
your table, press the Escape key. You will need to go back to
slide view and then play your PowerPoint presentation. You will
now hear stuff read out to you from your table. Make sure you
note (when entering information into your table) where each tab
will take you.
If you would like to know more about how to create
an accessible PowerPoint presentation, you may find the
following link from Microsoft useful https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Creating-accessible-PowerPoint-presentations-6f7772b2-2f33-4bd2-8ca7-dae3b2b3ef25