ECDL Module 6: Presentation

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Jaws and Windows Keystrokes and Keyboard Shortcuts for ECDL Module 6: Presentation using Powerpoint 

This presentation module covers all the skills and Windows keyboard shortcuts and Jaws keystrokes you will need to successfully complete the module.   When the tutorial was written my student was using Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft Powerpoint and Jaws 7.0, I constructed the HOWTO using a laptop set to use Jaws laptop shortcuts.  The majority of the keyboard shortcuts are Microsoft Office shortcuts so users of other screenreaders will not be disadvantaged.  To access this tutorial follow the numbered instructions below.

1. Open a presentation and save in an alternative file format such as .rtf Rich Text Format.

Access file menu with “Alt” key and then down arrow to “Save As”, do “Alt + Y” to access “Save as file type”, list box, use down arrow to select “Outline/RTF”. Do “shift + tab” to go to “Filename”, type new filename and hit “Enter”.

2. Apply a design template from a floppy disk or CDROM.

Access the “Design” menu with “Alt + S”, now tab round until you reach “Browse” and hit “Enter”, Use “Alt + I” to access the drive list, select by using up and down arrow keys. Now tab to “List View” and then select the filename required or folder by using the up and down arrow keys or if you know it the first letter of the filename followed by “Enter”. Once the file is selected you can tab to the “Apply” button or simply hit “Enter”.
 

3. Insert an image in the top right or left hand corner of all slides.

Sometimes you will be asked to insert an image onto a single slide in which case these instructions will work, however if you want it on all slides the first step is to view the master slide.
View the master slide by accessing the View menu with “Alt + V”, then down arrow to “Master”, hit “Enter” then “Slide Master” and hit “Enter”.
You are now ready to insert the image. Access the Insert menu with “Alt + I” then down arrow to “Picture”, hit “Enter” then select “From File”, hit “Enter”. Access the “Look in” list box with “Alt + I” and "tab" to “List view”, use the up and down arrow keys to select the required image file or folder that contains it and hit “Enter”.
Hopefully the image will be inserted, usually slap bang in the middle of your slide. We now have to move the picture by accessing the “Format picture” menu. Do this by hitting the “Right mouse button” key, generally this is found a couple of keys to the right of the spacebar, the one with the pointer on top of a list box icon on it. 

Use the up and down arrows to select “Format Picture”, if this menu does not appear, come out of Powerpoint and then go back again using “Alt + Tab” done twice. You will have to tab furiously to get back to “Picture”, but once there you should be able to access the “Format Picture” menu with right mouse button key. Do “Control + Tab” to get to the “Position” page parameters and then “Tab” until you reach “Vertical” spin box, you will notice that on your way you have encountered “from left edge” list box, this means that positions are generally given from the top left edge of the slide. A slide is roughly 18cm wide by 15 cm high, consequently if you require the top left edge set “Horizontal” to 1cm and “Vertical” to 1cm. If you require top right edge set “Horizontal” to 17cm and “Vertical” to 1 cm. Jaws users can get further feedback by doing “Ctrl+ Shift + D” which will give you exact feedback on the position of the graphic. Once you have finished editing the picture be sure to un-select it by hitting “escape”. If you have been editing the master slide go back to the other slides by accessing the “View” menu with “Alt + V” and down arrow to “Normal” followed by “Enter”.

4. Change the font type of the title slide.

If your title is on the first slide, go there by hitting “Page Up”. or down until you get to the correct slide, make sure you are in “Slide pane” by hitting “F6” until your screenreader responds “Slide pane”.
Now hit “tab” and go to “Title placeholder”, modify the Font by hitting the “right mouse button” key, and use the up and down arrow keys to select “Font” and hit “Enter”, change the font by using the down arrow key, if you wish to adjust the style hit "tab" and use the up and down arrow keys to select your required style. If you need to adjust the size of the font, "tab" again until you reach size and either type the value or use the up and down arrow keys.  Hit "Enter" when you are done.

5. Italicise the font on the title slide.

Select the text box to be altered using the “tab” key, and then simply hit “Ctrl + I” to change the style to Italic. Jaws users can check using the font info keystroke, “Insert + F” which will echo all the information about fonts and sizes.
 

6. Resize an image to a specific size.

Go to the slide that contains the image. Select the image using the tab key (you may have some difficulty locating the picture as screenreaders may not specifically mention pictures but object placeholders, try to listen to the differences between objects to work out which object is the picture to be edited and once arrived at, hit the “Right mouse button” key, access the “Format Picture” menu with the up and down arrow keys and hit “Enter”. Now do “Ctrl + Tab” to access the “Size” parameters page and tab round to the “Height” and “Width” spin boxes, setting them to the required size either using the up and down arrows or typing the value, finally hit “Enter”. Then un-select the image with the “escape” key.

7. Flip an image horizontally.

Go to the slide that contains the image. Select the image using the tab key (you may have some difficulty locating the picture as screenreaders may not specifically mention pictures but “object placeholders”, try to listen to the differences between objects to work out which object is the picture to be edited and once arrived at, access the “Draw” menu with “Alt + R” then down arrow to “Rotate or Flip”, hit “Enter”, then down arrow to “Flip Horizontal” and hit “Enter”. Finally un-select the image with the "escape" key.

8. Without moving objects, bring part of an object forward so that it is in front of another object.

Go to the slide which contains the objects and select the object to be moved with the “tab” key. Hit the right mouse button key and select “Order” and hit “Enter”, then down arrow to “Bring to front” and hit “Enter”. Finally un-select the image with the "escape" key.

9. Copy an image from one slide to the same position on another.

Go to the slide containing the image, locate it with the “tab” key, depending on the setup, the screenreader may not echo “Picture” but “Object Placeholder”. If the picture has been labelled then its name will be echoed by the screenreader. Once the picture is selected, use the keystroke “Ctrl + C” to copy the image, then move to the slide where the image is to go and drop it into place with the command “Ctrl + V”. An aid to remembering this is that the letter V is pointed like the end of a tube of glue.
 

10. Amend an organisation chart.

This method of dealing with an organistaion chart was submitted by Jim Wright.  I had been wrestling with the problem for some considerable time and found it just about impossible.   However I have followed Jim's instructions and found them very helpful.

This is from ECDL module 6 powerpoint version 4 practice tests.  In version 4 test 1 there is an organisation chart  made up with 3 boxes.  The first box contains the text, Mary Fisher Managing Director.  Below this box there are two more boxes  both on the same level which I will call boxes 2 & 3.  In box 2 is the text Patrick Maule Technical Director and in box 3 is the text Gregory Hill Finance Director.

The task is to create a new box immediately below Patrick Maule Technical Director.  This new box is to contain the text John Knight so that John Knight becomes a subordinate to Patrick Maule.  I hope the above sets out the scene clearly and so here is my mouseless method.  

10.1 Powerpoint How to add an extra box to organisation chart

You should be in slide view and the org chart slide should be on the screen.  Tab to embedded object and press enter.  It will say Mary Fisher.  Press escape.  It will say Mary Fisher Managing Director.  Now arrow down once and it will say Patrick Maule Technical Director.  Press control C to copy this box.  Now you have to return to the beginning so press Alt & F & C followed by spacebar to save changes.  Now start again by tabbing to embedded object and press enter.  It will say Mary Fisher Managing Director and it will be highlighted on the screen.  Arrow down once to Patrick Maule Technical Director and the highlight will pass to this box.  Now arrow down once and you should note that jaws remains silent here.  Although jaws is silent just continue and paste with control & V.  This creates another box below Patrick Maule Technical Director.

Arrow down once and the highlight will pass to this new box which will also say Patrick Maule Technical Director.  You now need to edit this box to put in the new text as follows.  You can overtype so just type in John Knight.  Now arrow down once and this will highlight Technical Director and you will be at the end of the word Director  and by pressing backspace once the words Technical Director will be deleted.  Press escape and you will hear the name John Knight, and press escape a second time to remove the highlight  Finally press Alt & F for file and C to close followed by spacebar to save changes.

Now comes the real excitement because if everything has gone to plan a sighted person should be able to tell you that an extra box has appeared with the words John Knight in it.  And all this without using the mouse.

If you need to move boxes around in an existing chart this can be done by cutting and pasting and partially following some of the above steps.

11. Add some text below an organisation chart.

We can do this! Go to the slide that contains the chart. Access the “Insert” menu with “Alt + I” and down arrow to “Text Box”. You now have to do a left mouseclick to drop the textbox onto the page, Jaws laptop users can do “Capslock + 8” which is the laptop shortcut for a left mouseclick.
Now enter the text that is required and then hit the “Escape” key to move back to the object level, if your screenreader does not echo “Object Level”, you may have to hit “tab” again to go back to the text box to move it and change the font.
Jaws users can check the font with the keystroke “Insert + F”, as it is a sub heading you need to change the text size to something like 14 point. Do this by hitting the "right mouse button" key and down arrow to “Font”, then tab to “Size” and either type “14” or use the up and down arrow keys to select “14”, followed by “Enter”. Jaws users should confirm changes by doing “Insert + F” to echo the font settings. We now need to move the text box under the organisation chart, to do this relatively easily we have to get the text box within the area of the organisation chart, do this by tapping the down arrow a couple of times so the screenreader echoes “Object Level”, move the box to the correct position by hitting the “Right mouse button” key and selecting “Format text box” with the up and down arrow keys and hitting “Enter”, do “Ctrl + tab” to go to the “Position” page. Set the horizontal alignment to about 9cm and vertical to about 12cm. Windows is actually helpful at this point as it will tell you what vertical value to use if you go beyond the edge of the charted area, simply type in the value it tells you if it is less than 12cm. When you have altered the vertical and horizontal alignment, hit “Enter”.
Remember to hit the “Escape” key after making your changes. Now might be a good point to do “Ctrl + S” to save any changes you have made to the file.

12. Amend or create a bulleted list.

Go to the slide which contains the list to be bulleted. If you need to create a list, then tab around to see if there is a suitable text box present, otherwise you will have to insert one.
Hit “tab” until you reach the text box that contains the items to be bulleted, hit the “Right mouse button” key and use up or down arrows to go to “Bullets and numbering”, followed by “Enter”, now use the "right mouse button" to select the type of bullets required and hit “Enter”. Remember to hit “Escape” once you have made your changes.

13. Change the line spacing before and after a list item.

Go to the text box using the “Tab” key and then hit the “Right mouse button” key and use up or down arrow to select “Edit Text” followed by “Enter”. Now access the “Format” menu with “Alt +O” and down arrow to “Line spacing” followed by “Enter”. Now tab through the boxes until you get to “paragraph before”, type in your required value, and then tab to “paragraph after” followed by “Enter”. Remember to hit “Escape” after making your changes.

14. Centre align sub-title text on a particular slide.

Go to the slide which contains the text to be aligned, and “tab” to the sub-title text box. Centre the text with the windows shortcut “Ctrl + E”, alternatively you can do this with the “Right mouse button” key, select “Edit Text”, hit “Enter”, access the “Format” menu with “Alt + O”, then down arrow to “Alignment” hit “Enter” and set the required alignment using the up and down arrow keys. Followed by “Enter”.
 

15. Find and change a particular section of text.

Go to the required slide using the page up and down keys. Do the windows shortcut “Ctrl + F” to bring up the “Find” dialogue box, and type in the text that you need to find followed by “Enter”, now “tab” to “Close” and hit “Enter”. Windows will have highlighted the text that you searched for, change it to what is required by typing in the new required text followed by “Escape”. DO NOT hit “Enter” after typing your text as you will create a new line. Do “Ctrl+S” to save your changes.
 

16. Change the font of a textbox to UPPERCASE.

Go to the required slide using the page up and down keys. Select the text box using the “tab” key then do the windows keystroke “Shift + F3”, this cycles text between UPPERCASE, lowercase and words with capitals at the start. If you have a Braille line you can easily check your changes, otherwise you may be better doing the following; once the text box is selected hit the “Right mouse button” key and up or down arrow to “Edit Text” and hit “Enter”. Now access the “Format” menu with “Alt + O” and down arrow to “Change case” and hit “Enter”, select the required format using the up and down arrow keys and then hit “Enter”. Remember to hit “Escape” after making your changes.

17. Insert a new slide with a title.

Go to the slide before the point in the presentation where you require the new slide to be inserted using the “Page Up” or “Page Down” keys. Do the Powerpoint shortcut “Ctrl+M” to make a new slide, then access the slide layout menu using the “right mouse button” key and up or down arrow to “Slide Layout”, now use the up and down arrows to select the required slide layout, for a titled slide select “Title Only” and hit “Enter”.
Swap back to the slide view pane by hitting “F6” until your screenreader echoes “Slide view pane”. Now hit “tab” until you get to “Title placeholder” and type in your required text followed by “Escape”. Remember hitting “Enter” will add a new line. Do “Ctrl + S” to save your changes.
 

18. Create a table on the new slide and enter the given data.

Access the “Insert” menu with “Alt+I” and then down arrow to “Table” and hit “Enter”. Enter the number of columns required and then “tab” to “number of rows” and type in the required value followed by “Enter”. Your screenreader should now tell you that you are in row 1, column 1. Enter the required data and hit the “tab” key, this should put you column 2, row 1. Enter all the data required but when you get to the last cell in the table do not hit “tab” after you have entered your data as it will add another row to the table. Once you have finished entering the data, hit “Escape” followed by “Ctrl+S” to save your changes.

19. Apply a transition effect to a slide.

Go to the slide that requires the transition and ensure you are in slide view pane by hitting the “F6” key until your screenreader echoes “Slide view pane”. Hit the “right mouse button” key and use up or down arrow key to select “Slide Transition” and hit “Enter”, now use the up and down arrow keys to select the transition effect you require and hit “Enter”. Now hit “F6” to go back into “slide view pane”.

20. Add an image to a particular place in a slide.

Access the Insert menu with “Alt + I” and then down arrow to “Picture” followed by “Enter” and then down arrow to “From File” followed by “Enter”. If you need to select a particular directory do “Alt+I” and then use up and down arrows or if you know the first letter of the directory name hit that. To access the list of files and subdirectories, tab to “List view” and then use the arrow keys or first letters to select the required filename followed by “Enter”. The picture should now insert itself on your slide. We now need to move it to the correct position, do this by hitting the “Right mouse button” key and up or down arrows to “Format picture” followed by “Enter”. Now do “Ctrl+Tab” to go to the “Position” page, adjust your horizontal and vertical value so that the picture is placed in the correct position. Remember that as a guide the slide is approximately 18cm wide by 15 cm high if measured from the top left edge. Jaws users can use the keystroke “Ctrl+Shift+D” to gain an idea of the image's position. Do press “Escape” when you have finished making changes.

21. Create a chart from given data.

Go to the slide where the chart is to be inserted. Access the “Insert” menu with “Alt+I” and down arrow to “Chart” then hit “Enter”. After this point I was unable to make anything speak or change the type of chart which was very frustrating;
If you fare better than me please let me know how you did it. However you can overcome this in a somewhat roundabout way by opening Excel entering the data in that, then using the chart wizard to create a chart, before pasting it back into Powerpoint.
If you wish to do this follow the next few steps, start by deleting any trace of the chart on the slide by selecting it and pressing the “Delete” key, you may have to hit it a couple of times to make it go completely. You are now ready to import your chart.
First hit the “Windows” key and Jaws will respond “Start Menu”, now hit “P” for programs and then keep tapping “M” for Microsoft until you get to Microsoft Excel. Now hit the “Enter” key and Microsoft Excel will open, giving a new document upon which you can enter data.
Enter the required data for the chart and then to find the region that your data occupies do the Jaws shortcut “Ctrl + Shift + 8” and Jaws will return a cell reference something like “D3”, this means that data is contained in the region from “A1 to D3”.
Go to “A1” using the windows shortcut “Ctrl + Home” and then select the data cells using “Shift+Arrow keys”. Once the data cells are selected, we can start the chart by doing “Alt + I” to get to the “Insert” menu, go down to “Chart” and hit “Enter”. A chart wizard will open, the first “List Box” that you will come to is “Chart Type”, when you tab again you will be in the “Chart Sub-Type” box, use the “down arrow” to go to the type of chart you require and hit “Enter”.
You will now come to “Step 2” of the chart wizard where it will give you the data regions to be included in the chart, you should not have to alter anything here so simply hit “Enter” again.

You are now in “Step 3” of the chart wizard where you can alter things like the title and legends.
On the “Titles” page, “tab” to “Chart Title” and if required you can enter a chart title, I am going to assume you don't need one so do “Ctrl + tab” to get to “Legends” page and tab to the “show legend” check box, here you can check or un-check it using the “spacebar” followed by “Enter”.
 
You are now on to “Step 4” where you can choose to place your chart either on the same sheet or a new one. The default is to place the chart as an object onto the same sheet as your data so simply hit “Enter”.
 
Your chart is probably already selected ready for you to cut and paste it. However if you need to select the chart you can do so by doing “Ctrl + G” to access the “Go To” menu. Tab round to the “Special” button, hit “Enter” and then use the “down arrow” to go to “Objects” and hit “Enter”, the chart is now selected. Cut the chart with “Ctrl + X”.

To go back to Powerpoint hold down the “Alt” key and tap “Tab” until you reach Powerpoint, then and only then release the “Tab” key. You should be back to the slide which requires the chart so now paste your chart into Powerpoint using the command “Ctrl + V”.
 

22. Change the colour of one of the lines within the chart to a specific colour.

Aaarrrghhh. Again this led to a lot of teeth gnashing and bad language. I am currently investigating ways to do this.

23. On a specified slide add a note to the presenter.

Go to the slide using the “Page up” or “Page down” keys. Now hit the “F6” key to swap panes so that the screenreader echoes “Notes page pane”. Type in the text required then go back to slide view pane using the “F6” key.

24. Change the line thickness of an arrow on a slide.

Go to the slide using the “Page up” or “Page down” keys. Use the “tab” to select the arrow and then hit the “Right mouse button” and down arrow to “Format Autoshape” and hit “Enter”. The Format autoshape dialogue box will now open, do “Ctrl + tab” to change to the “Colours and Lines” page and then tab around until you reach “Weight” spin box, use the up and down arrow keys to set your required value, followed by “Enter”, remember to hit “Escape” once you have made your changes.

25. Insert a manual date into the footer of all slides.

Access the “Insert” menu with “Alt+I” and down arrow to “Header and Footer”, followed by “Enter”. Ensuring that you are on the “Slide” page hit “tab” around until you reach “Footer” and type in the date, now “tab” to “Apply to All” followed by “Enter”.
 

26. Amend the style and colour of bullets on a slide.

Go to the slide containing the bullets and select it using the “tab” key. Now hit the “Right mouse button” key and down arrow to “Bullets and Numbering”, followed by “Enter”. The bullets and numbering dialogue box will open, use the “Right” arrow key to go through the bullet styles that are available, when you reach the correct style, hit “tab” to go “Colour” button and down arrow to “More Colours”, the “Colours” dialogue box will open, do “Ctrl+tab” to go to “Colours” that you can alter with numbers.

You can select using the tab key a value for red, green and blue, by setting two of these to 0 and one of the others to somewhere between 1 and 255 you can change the colour of the bullets reasonably accurately, followed by “Enter” and then “Enter” again to go back to the bulleted list.

27. Hide a slide.

Go to the slide to be hidden using the “Page Up” or “Page Down” keys. Access the menubar with the “Alt” key and then use the “Right” arrow to access the “Slideshow” menu. Now down arrow to “Hide Slide” and hit “Enter”.

28. Change the orientation of the slides to Portrait.

Do “Alt” to access the “File” menu and then down arrow to “Page Setup”, followed by “Enter”, now “tab” round until you reach “Orientation” and “Slides”, now use the up and down arrow keys to change the orientation followed by “Enter”.

29. Zoom the presentation to a particular value and save it.

Access the “View” menu with “Alt+V” and down arrow to “Zoom” followed by “Enter”, now “tab” to “Percentage” spin box and either type the value or use up and down arrows to change it, followed by “Enter”. Save the presentation with “Ctrl+S”.

30. Print the presentation with a specified number of slides per page.

Do “Alt” to access the “File” menu and then down arrow to “Print”, followed by “Enter”. “Tab” to “Print What” list box and choose “Handouts” from the drop down list using the “Up and Down” arrow keys. Next “tab” to “Handouts” and set the number of slides per page using the up and down arrow keys. Finally hit “Enter”.