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Creating a Basic PowerPoint Presentation Step by Step

A basic, step by step approach to creating Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations using JAWS for the blind and visually impaired.

Creating a Basic PowerPoint Presentation Step by Step using JAWS:

This step by step guide for creating a PowerPoint presentation is an actual recreation of narrations by a few of my blind students who described the process to me after we had worked for several weeks on creating presentations.

  1. Open PowerPoint
  2. Use the F-12 key to save as
  3. Use F6 and Shift F6 (reverse direction) to quickly cycle through windows to window  “slide thumbnails”
  4. Arrow up and down to hear the set of slides, to add new slides press Control M (the defaults should be first slide Title, subsequent slides Title and Content, all slides should be titled for easy identification)
  5. Once desired slide is located with the arrow keys, press F6 until screenreader announces “To select an object, press tab. Slide area.” Then tab to locate objects (textboxes, etc. for editing)
  6. To add audio from previously saved files (either downloaded music and effects or personal recordings) press ALTto get to the menu bar, followed by N for insert then O for audio, then F enter where the file must be located for placement into the slide. Tab until the “look in” box is located then use the up and down arrows to find a folder, then tab to the shell folder view and use the up and down arrows to locate the desired file.
  7. The audio file will be placed in the current slide, to have audio play automatically, the audio file must be activated (selected) using the process described above to locate (f6, TAB) the file then ALT-JN-U and arrow down to “start automatically”.
  8. To play the slideshow, press F5.
  9. My students have been able to locate images by name on the internet and place them in the files using the same process as inserting audio except the last step is P (for Picture), thus ALT-N-P.

The above process has been used in my classes many times and students have been able to work independently to create presentations on a variety of subjects. After practice, one of the few (only?) things blind students may need help with is placing pictures on the slides.

Thanks to my students who helped me create this step by step guide, they remembered the lessons better than I did.   

Collage of using JAWS to create a basic powerpoint presentation
 

By George Thompson

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