How to Design PowerPoint Presentations Which are EASI to

Create While Enhancing Accessible, Clear Communication

Norm & Beth Coombs

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WHAT THIS PRESENTATION WILL

COVER• Using & Customizing Themes

• Creating Tables

• Inserting Slides from a Different PowerPoint

• PowerPoint Accessibility Checker

• Creating Handouts

• Making a Narrated PowerPoint

• Making a WMV Video

WHAT ARE POWERPOINT THEMES?

• Themes are on the design ribbon • Themes control the general look and feel

of all the slides in a presentation• Themes provide consistency and

prevent the user from having to set features repeatedly for each slide

• The user can alter a feature on a single slide if it enhances that content

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AVAILABLE POWERPOINT THEME CHOICES

• The PowerPoint application comes with several predefined themes for the user to select

• The designers focus on designs that are attractive and often did not make accessibility a key consideration

• In selecting a theme, pick something that appeals to you but one which is highly accessible

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SCREENSHOT OF THEME CHOICES

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SELECTING THEMES WITH SANS SERIF FONT

• From the design ribbon, select themes and scan down the list

• Those using Sans Serif font would meet at least one accessibility criterion

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SCREENSHOT OF SOME THEMES USING SANS

SERIF

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TWEAKING YOUR THEME

• So you like a theme but it is not perfect?

• Pull down Colors menu –Choose one

• Pull down Font Menu – Choose one

• Pull down additional theme choices and select ‘SAVE CURRENT THEME’ – make it a title you remember

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SCREENSHOT OF CUSTOMIZING A THEME

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COLOR & THEMES

• While scanning the list of themes, you can see their fonts, their colors and color contrast

• The better the contrast, the better the accessibility

• REMEMBER: Color can be used to identify specific items, but those items should also have another means of identification

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INSERT A TABLE

• Know the # of Columns & Rows you need in advance

• From the insert ribbon, insert the table

• This uses semantic mark-up to store the table details into the slide where assistive technologies and other applications can use them

• In Table Style Options make sure you check Header Row (and 1st Column if applicable)

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INSERTING A TABLE SCREENSHOT

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INSERT A SLIDE OR SLIDES

FROM ANOTHER POWERPOINT• From the Home ribbon under new slides

select Reuse Slides

• Browse to find that PowerPoint

• You should know its name and location

• It helps to know whether you are selecting specific slides or all slides from that PowerPoint

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SCREENSHOT OF REUSING SLIDES

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INSERTING SLIDES INTO YOUR POWERPOINT

• Now highlight which slide or slides you will insert

• Next do you want to keep the look and feel of those slides or have them take the look and feel of your current PowerPoint

• Last click on the item to actually insert those slides and you may need to sort the slides to merge properly

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SHOT OF INSERTING SLIDES

POWERPOINT ACCESSIBILITY CHECKER

Using the PowerPoint Accessibility Tool:

•Go to the ‘file menu’ and select ‘info’

•Next select issues

•Select the “Check Accessibility” option and the document reappears with the task pane showing the inspection Results.

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SCREENSHOT OF POWERPOINT

ACCESSIBILITY

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PP ACCESSIBILITY CHECKER • Select a specific issue to see Additional Info

There are 3 issues that people with disabilities might experience with your document

• Error – Content that makes the document difficult to read and understand

• Warning – Content that makes the document difficult to understand

• Tip – Content that people with disabilities can understand, but could be presented in a different way to improve the user’s experience

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SCREENSHOT OF POWERPOINT

ACCESSIBILITY RESULTS

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COLOR CONTRAST TOOLS

• There are many accessibility tools to evaluate Web page colors such as the Firefox extension, Wave from WebAIM (wave.webaim.org/toolbar/)

• Paciello Group color contrast analyzer

www.paciellogroup.com/resources/contrastanalyser/

• There is a youtube video of this at

(www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAQipsKGpVg)

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SAVING THE PRESENTATION AS A

HANDOUT• A handout of the PowerPoint can help the

audience follow you and jot comments on it

• To make a handout of the PowerPoint, from the File menu, select ‘Save and Send’, select ‘Create Handouts’ and then select ‘Create Handouts’ again to ‘Send to Word’

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SHOT OF THE ‘SAVE AND SEND’ OPTIONS

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SHOT OF THE WORD LAYOUT OPTIONS

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NARRATED POWERPOINT

• The more you know what you are going to say the better

• Use Timings

• Show media controls

• Play Narrations and Media controls should both be checked

• Use timings should NOT be checked

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MORE NARRATION SETTINGS

• Now select ‘Record Slide Show’

• From Slide Show Ribbon, Uncheck timings and animations

• Make sure ‘Play Narrations’ and ‘Show Media Controls’ is selected

• Finally select to start recording

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CREATING NARRATED POWERPOINT

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MAKING THE ACTUAL RECORDING

• Now your first slide will appear and you can begin the narration

• Move to the next slide and continue the presentation

• When you finish the last slide and try to move to the next slide, the recording automatically ends the recording

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SAVING OR NOT SAVING TIMING

• When you save timings, the show will run by itself using the settings created when you made the recording and the person viewing the presentation has no control of it

• When you don’t save the timings, the user controls it which is better for studying purposes

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SAVE AND SEND AS A VIDEO

• Again go to the ‘Save and Send’ options and select ‘Create Video’

• There are a number of possible settings, but I accepted the defaults and selected to save

• It took some time, but it produced a ‘WMV’ video format which could be a good way to put it on the Web

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SCREENSHOT OF SAVING AS VIDEO

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MAJOR ACCESSIBILITY PROBLEMS TO AVOID

When possible avoid• Text boxes• Animations• Transitions• Drawing tools• Hypertext links cannot be activated by a

screen reader

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PPT

• This presentation will be on EASI’s site at:

http://easi.cc/conferences/

• EASI has been disseminating information on Accessible Technology via Online Courses and Webinars for over 20 years.

• Visit us to learn about our Free & Fee-based Webinars at EASI.CC and our membership options to obtain discounts on courses and full access to all Webinars and Archives

• Or Contact Norm at Norm.Coombs@Gmail.com

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