PowerPoint 2007 & 2003 with JAWS and MAGic

This training document teaches you how to create a slide show in PowerPoint® 2007 and 2003 using JAWS® screen reading software. Although it was written for JAWS users, the process also is applicable as a low vision solution for people who use MAGic® screen magnification. MAGic users may be able to use a mouse to point and click, but the keystrokes listed to navigate in PowerPoint can be used by both JAWS and MAGic users. By the end of this training, you will be able to create a PowerPoint presentation and accomplish the following tasks:

Open PowerPoint and Create a Title Slide

To begin, first download the practice files for use with these exercises. They are contained within a ZIP file which you can open and extract to a convenient location on your local hard drive. Included are several pictures of birds in JPG format, a WAV sound file, this HTML document for use when working offline, and a finished sample presentation (Birds of the Wetlands) created by the author.


EXERCISE: Open PowerPoint 2007 or 2003 and create a title slide. When you first open PowerPoint you get a fairly standard title slide that has two placeholders. Press TAB to go to the object level and move between the two placeholders and ESC to get out of the object level. Spend a few minutes exploring the slide and the PowerPoint window.


PowerPoint 2003

The PowerPoint 2003 window has a title bar, a menu bar, various toolbars near the top and bottom of the window, and the status bar. Press F6 to move through the various panes available or SHIFT+F6 to move backward through the panes. You should find something like the following as you press F6 to move around:

The slide area is where most of the work is done, although many people work initially from the outline view as well. The outline and slide thumbnail pane is discussed later in this lesson.

PowerPoint 2007

The PowerPoint 2007 window has a title bar, the ribbon, the same panes as PowerPoint 2003 (task pane, notes pane, thumbnail / outline tabs pane), and a status bar.

PowerPoint 2003 Design Templates

EXERCISE: Explore the design templates available.


  1. With the focus at the slide level (not the object level or the text level) press the APPLICATION Key, the third key to the right of the SPACEBAR on most keyboards. Choose Slide Design from the menu.
  2. Press TAB to move to the section "Apply a design template" and explore these in the task pane using the ARROW Keys. They have backgrounds like ocean, mountaintop, etc. The author finds them to have fairly dark backgrounds and prefers not to use them, but that is a personal choice. If you have a description of one that looks good, feel free to use it.

PowerPoint 2007 Themes

EXERCISE: Explore the themes available.


Themes in PowerPoint 2007 have replaced design templates from the 2003 version. To access PowerPoint themes do the following:

  1. Press ALT followed by G to move to the Design tab of the ribbon.
  2. Press H to move to the themes gallery on the lower ribbon.
  3. Press ARROW Keys to explore them.

There are themes such as apex, aspect, civic, concourse, opulent, paper, solstice, trek, verve, and more. More themes are available online. The author finds them to have fairly dark backgrounds and prefers not to use them, but that is a personal choice. If you have a description of one that looks good, feel free to use it.

Create a Slide with an Image as a Background

Practice files for use with these exercises are located in the Sample Files folder of the class CD. Included are several pictures of birds in JPG format, a WAV sound file, this HTML document for use when working offline, and a finished sample presentation (Birds of the Wetlands) created by the author.


EXERCISE: Add an image to the entire slide as a background. The image used for the background should be a fairly light color if you are using dark text or a dark color if you are using lighter colored text, in order to have people visually see the text you use. Make sure you are in the main slide area and not at the object level.


PowerPoint 2003 - Create a Slide with an Image as a Background

  1. Open the Insert menu (ALT+I)
  2. Choose Picture (P) submenu, then From File (F). The insert picture dialog box opens.
  3. Find the picture you want. In this case let's use BackgroundPictureOwlInTree.jpg. Press ENTER to select it and close the dialog box. The picture now covers the entire slide.
  4. Press TAB to explore the objects again. Notice that JAWS tells you the picture is covered by the title and subtitle placeholders. In other words, they are on top of the picture. Visually the placeholders cannot be seen in this case until you press TAB to move to them.
  5. Press TAB to move to the Title placeholder and press ENTER to go into the object at the edit level. This text is centered, so the cursor is in the middle of the object. Type in a title, such as Birds of the Wetlands.

NOTE: This is a multi-line edit field, so if you press ENTER the cursor is moved to the next line. Text is centered on each line.


  1. Press ESC to get out of edit mode and go back to the object level. The text does not appear. Why? The text needs to be moved to the foreground so it can be seen.

NOTE: If you press TAB before pressing ESC, you will not go to the next object. Why? It inserts a tab stop in the line of text you are typing.


  1. Press the APPLICATION Key, and choose Order (R) submenu. Choose Bring to Front (T), and press ENTER. The text now appears visually.
  2. Press TAB to move to the subtitle placeholder, and press ENTER to go to the edit level. Type in By Your Name and a title for yourself or company name if you would like. Then press ESC to go back to the object level.
  3. Follow steps as previously mentioned to bring the text forward. Press ESC to get out of object level.

PowerPoint 2007 - Create a Slide with an Image as a Background

  1. Press ALT followed by N to move to the Insert tab of the ribbon.
  2. Press P for Picture. The insert picture dialog box opens.
  3. Find the picture you want. In this case let's use BackgroundPictureOwlInTree.jpg. Press ENTER to select it and close the dialog box. The picture now covers the entire slide.
  4. Press TAB to explore the objects again. Notice that JAWS tells you the picture is covered by the title and subtitle placeholders. In other words, they are on top of the picture. Visually the placeholders cannot be seen in this case until you press TAB to move to them.
  5. Press TAB to move to the Title placeholder and press ENTER to go into the object at the edit level. This text is centered, so the cursor is in the middle of the object. Type in a title, such as Birds of the Wetlands.

NOTE: This is a multi-line edit field, so if you press ENTER the cursor is moved to the next line. Text is centered on each line.


  1. Press ESC to get out of edit mode and go back to the object level. The text does not appear. Why? The text needs to be moved to the foreground so it can be seen.

NOTE: If you press TAB before pressing ESC, you will not go to the next object. Why? It inserts a tab stop in the line of text you are typing.


  1. Press the APPLICATION Key, and choose Bring to Front (R), and press ENTER. The text now appears visually.
  2. Press TAB to move to the subtitle placeholder, and press ENTER to go to the edit level. Type in By Your Name and a title for yourself or company name if you would like. Then press ESC to go back to the object level.
  3. Follow steps as previously mentioned to bring the text forward. Press ESC to get out of object level.
  4. In my case, the font color for the subtitle placeholder is a light grey. I want to change it to black so that it will show up better against the grey background of the picture. Press ENTER to go back to the edit level. The entire text of the placeholder is selected, or highlighted.
  5. Press ALT followed by H to go to the Home tab of the ribbon. Then press F C to open the Font Color dialog box.
  6. Press ARROW Keys to find black, and press ENTER to close the color palette dialog box when finished.

Set a Background Color for the Remaining Slides

EXERCISE: Set the background color for the current slide, and apply it to all following slides.


PowerPoint 2003 - Set a Background Color for the Remaining Slides

  1. Press F6 to make sure focus is in the slide area.
  2. Make sure you are at the slide level again (not the object level) and press the APPLICATION Key again.
  3. Choose Background, and the Background dialog box appears with focus in "background fill button menu" that looks like a combo box.
  4. Press DOWN ARROW to open it, and use the ARROW Keys to explore it.
  5. Choose More Colors, and focus moves to the Colors dialog box. We cannot currently read these colors with JAWS. However, press CTRL+TAB to move to the Custom page.
  6. Press TAB to move to the Red, Green, and Blue spinner boxes, and choose a light blue by typing in the following values:
    • Red=128
    • Green=255
    • Blue=255
  7. Press ENTER to close the Colors dialog box, and focus returns to the Background dialog box.
  8. Press TAB to move to the Apply to All button, and activate it with SPACEBAR to close the dialog box.

NOTE: This does not affect slides that have a picture background. The picture is layered above the background color, and the color does not bleed through or affect the slide with the picture.


The first slide is now complete. Save the presentation now, and give it a name before continuing with the lesson.


PowerPoint 2007 - Set a Background Color for the Remaining Slides

EXERCISE: Set the background color for the current slide, and apply it to all following slides.


  1. Press F6 to make sure focus is in the slide area.
  2. Make sure you are at the slide level again (not the object level) and press the APPLICATION Key again.
  3. Choose Format Background..., and the Format Background dialog box appears with focus in the list of choices with Fill selected. The other choice in the list is Picture.
  4. Press TAB to move to the main part of the dialog box. Focus lands on the solid fill radio button, checked.
  5. Press TAB to move to color button, and activate it with the SPACEBAR. A color palette appears.
  6. Use the ARROW Keys to find a color of your liking for the background of the slides. For this example I selected aqua accent 5, lighter 60%.
  7. Press ENTER to choose the color. The color palette closes, and focus returns to the color button in the Format Background dialog box.
  8. Press TAB to move to the Apply to All button, and activate it with the SPACEBAR. This applies the same color as a background to the remaining slides.
  9. Press SHIFT+TAB to move back to the Close button, and activate it with the SPACEBAR.
  10. The first slide is now complete. Save the presentation and give it a name before continuing with the lesson.

NOTE: This does not affect slides that have a picture background. The picture is layered above the background color, and the color does not bleed through or affect the slide with the picture.


Create a Second Slide with Title, Text, and One Content Object Placeholder

EXERCISE: Create a second slide with a title, a text object on the left side of the screen, a picture of a bird on the right side of the screen, and an icon (button) to play the sounds of the bird pictured. Set slide animation effects to fly in bullet points one at a time when SPACEBAR is pressed or the mouse is clicked during your presentation. Create alternate text for both the picture of the bird as well as the icon for the button for playing the sound.


PowerPoint 2003 - Create a Second Slide with Title, Text, and One Content Object Placeholder

  1. Open the Insert menu (ALT+I), and choose New Slide (N or ENTER on the first item in the menu). Focus moves to the Slide Layout task pane, which is a vertical pane on the right side of the screen.
  2. Press DOWN ARROW to explore the choices there. Choose Title, text, and content which has a title placeholder at the top, a text placeholder on the left, and a content placeholder on the right of the screen. The content area is where you will put a photo of a bird for the presentation.
  3. Press ENTER to update the new slide layout in the slide area. The slide that was there originally had a title placeholder and a single text placeholder. The one you selected in the task pane now replaces it.
  4. Press F6 to move through the different areas of the screen until you reach the slide area again.
  5. Press TAB to move to the title placeholder and ENTER to go into edit mode. Type in something like Pileated Woodpecker and then press ESC to go back to the object level.
  6. Press TAB to move to the text placeholder and then ENTER to go into edit mode. As you type, a bullet point is created, and text is left-justified. When you press ENTER, a new bullet point is created below the first one. Type in some different bullet points such as:
    • Scientific Name: Dryocopus pileatus
    • Body
    • Bill Description
    • Other Characteristics
    • Status
    • Reproduction
    • Distribution
    • Habitat
    • Diet
    • And so on
  7. Press ESC when you are finished with the text entry to move back to the object level.

NOTE: If you type too much information to fit in the area allowed, JAWS will tell you as you type each character, so it is pretty easy to tell if you have too much text for the point size and space available. If you run out of room and need to, you can select all the text and change it to a smaller point size. In PowerPoint 2007 either of these keystrokes takes you to the same dialog box: (CTRL+SHIFT+P for point size or CTRL+SHIFT+F for font style).


NOTE: This setting is controlled by the AutoCorrect Option. It is found in the Tools menu (ALT+T), AutoCorrect Options (A), AutoFit body text to placeholder check box. If it is checked, the text will automatically get smaller as you begin to type too much. This can be both good and bad. You might want to know that the text is actually getting smaller so you have an idea of how much room you have. If you uncheck this check box, you can still format the text to a smaller point size yourself if you need more room in the text area.


  1. Press TAB to move to the content placeholder at the object level.
  2. Press ALT+I to open the Insert menu, and choose Picture submenu (P) and From File (F). The Insert Picture dialog box opens.
  3. Choose the picture for the pileated woodpecker, and press ENTER to close the dialog box.
  4. Press the APPLICATION Key, and choose Format Picture from the menu. The Format Picture multi-page dialog box opens.
  5. Press CTRL+TAB to move to the Web tab page. Press TAB to move to the alternative text edit area, and type in something like the following: "A pileated woodpecker clings to the side of a tree covered with moss."
  6. Press TAB to move to the OK button, and activate it with SPACEBAR when finished. The Format Picture dialog box closes and focus returns to the object.

PowerPoint 2007 - Create a Second Slide with Title, Text, and One Content Object Placeholder

  1. Press ALT followed by H to go to the Home tab of the ribbon.
  2. Press I to activate the New Slide button. The Office Theme gallery of slide types opens.
  3. Press ARROW Keys to explore the choices there. Choose Two Content which has a title placeholder at the top, a content placeholder on the left, and a second content placeholder on the right of the screen. The content area on the right side is where you will put a photo of a bird for the presentation.
  4. Press ENTER to add the second slide to the presentation and update the new slide layout in the slide area. The slide that was there originally had a title placeholder and a single text placeholder. The one you selected in the Office Theme gallery now replaces it.
  5. Press F6 to move through the different areas of the screen until you reach the slide area again.
  6. Press TAB to move to the title placeholder and ENTER to go into edit mode. Type in something like Pileated Woodpecker and then press ESC to go back to the object level.
  7. Press TAB to move to the first content object placeholder and then ENTER to go into edit mode. As you type, a bullet point is created, and text is left-justified. When you press ENTER, a new bullet point is created below the first one. Type in some different bullet points such as:
    • Scientific Name: Dryocopus pileatus
    • Body
    • Bill Description
    • Other Characteristics
    • Status
    • Reproduction
    • Distribution
    • Habitat
    • Diet
  8. Press ESC when you are finished with the text entry to move back to the object level.

NOTE: If you type too much information to fit in the area allowed, JAWS will tell you as you type each character, so it is pretty easy to tell if you have too much text for the point size and space available. If you run out of room and need to, you can select all the text and change it to a smaller point size (CTRL+SHIFT+P for point size, CTRL+SHIFT+F for font style).


NOTE: This setting is controlled by the AutoCorrect Option, the AutoFit title text to placeholder check box and the AutoFit body text to placeholder check box. If they are checked, the text will automatically get smaller as you begin to type too much. This can be both good and bad. You might want to know that the text is actually getting smaller so you have an idea of how much room you have. If you uncheck these check boxes, you can still format the text to a smaller point size yourself if you need more room in the text area. To change the PowerPoint 2007 AutoFit Text settings follow the steps below:

1. In PowerPoint 2007...
2. Press ALT+F to open the file menu and choose I for PowerPoint Options.
3. Press DOWN ARROW to move to the Category "Proofing."
4. Press ALT+A to activate the AutoCorrect dialog options button.
5. Press CTRL+TAB to move to the AutoFormat as you type page.
6. Press TAB to move to "Replace as you type."
7. Press DOWN ARROW until you find the check box "AutoFit title text to placeholder" and uncheck it.
8. Press DOWN ARROW until you find the check box "AutoFit body text to placeholder" and uncheck it.
9. Press ENTER to close the AutoCorrect dialog box.
10. Press SHIFT+TAB to move back to the OK button, then SPACEBAR to activate it.
11. Back in PowerPoint, press F6 to make sure you are in the slide area.
12. Press TAB to move to the title or the subtitle placeholder.
13. Press ENTER to go into the text level and begin typing text. At some point the text should overflow the boundaries. JAWS should announce this is happening.


  1. Press TAB to move to the second content object placeholder at the object level.
  2. Press ALT followed by N to move to the Insert tab of the ribbon.
  3. Press P to activate the Picture button. The Insert Picture dialog box opens.
  4. Choose the picture for the pileated woodpecker, and press ENTER to close the dialog box.
  5. Press the APPLICATION Key, and choose Size and Position from the menu. The Size and Position multi-page dialog box opens.
  6. Press CTRL+TAB to move to the Alt Text tab page. Press TAB to move to the alternative text edit area, and type in something like the following: "A pileated woodpecker clings to the side of a tree covered with moss."
  7. Press TAB to move to the Close button, and activate it with SPACEBAR when finished. The Format Picture dialog box closes and focus returns to the object.

Add an Icon to Play a Sound

EXERCISE: Next, add an icon to play a sound.


PowerPoint 2003 - Add an Icon to Play a Sound

  1. Press ESC to return to the slide level from the object level.
  2. Press ALT+I to open the Insert menu, and choose Movies and Sounds (V) submenu and then choose Sound from File (N). The Insert Sound dialog box opens.
  3. Choose PileatedWoodpecker.wav, and press ENTER to close the dialog box. Another dialog box opens asking, "How do you want the sound to start in the slide show?" with several buttons to choose from. At the present time we cannot access the Play Sound icon from the keyboard with JAWS, so the author recommends having the sound play automatically when an event occurs on that slide. That is the default button, so press SPACEBAR on the Automatically button. Later during the presentation, a person using a mouse can still play the sound at any time by clicking on the icon, but this way the sound will play whenever an event on that slide occurs. Focus returns to the slide, and the icon for playing the sound appears in the slide.

NOTE: This particular slide layout works fine for the placement of the icon. It appears between the text on the left and the picture on the right, directly in the center of the screen. JAWS may announce that it overlaps the picture, but visually it does not. That is just the edge of the "object," which is invisible, and the icon itself is in the middle of this invisible area and is not overlapping anything.


  1. Next, add alternate text to the play sound icon. Follow steps listed previously for adding alternate text to a picture. Label the alternate text something like the following: "Button to play the call of a pileated woodpecker"
  2. Save your presentation, and run it in slide show mode by pressing F5.

NOTE: To advance while giving a presentation press the SPACEBAR if you are using a keyboard or press LEFT MOUSE Click. To go backwards using the keyboard press BACKSPACE or scroll the MOUSE WHEEL UP.


PowerPoint 2007 - Add an Icon to Play a Sound

EXERCISE: Next, add an icon to play a sound.


  1. Press ESC to return to the slide level from the object level.
  2. Press ALT followed by N to open the Insert menu, and choose the Sounds button O.
  3. Choose Sound from File (F) from the menu. The Insert Sound dialog box opens.
  4. Choose PileatedWoodpecker.wav, and press ENTER to close the dialog box. Another dialog box opens asking, "How do you want the sound to start in the slide show?" with several buttons to choose from. At the present time we cannot access the Play Sound icon from the keyboard with JAWS, so the author recommends having the sound play automatically when an event occurs on that slide. That is the default button, so press SPACEBAR on the Automatically button. Later during the presentation, a person using a mouse can still play the sound at any time by clicking on the icon, but this way the sound will play whenever an event on that slide occurs. Focus returns to the slide, and the icon for playing the sound appears in the slide.

NOTE: This particular slide layout works fine for the placement of the icon. It appears between the text on the left and the picture on the right, directly in the center of the screen. JAWS may announce that it overlaps the picture, but visually it does not. That is just the edge of the "object," which is invisible, and the icon itself is in the middle of this invisible area and is not overlapping anything.


  1. Next, add alternate text to the play sound icon. Follow steps listed previously for adding alternate text to a picture. Label the alternate text something like the following: "Button to play the call of a pileated woodpecker"
  2. Save your presentation, and run it in slide show mode by pressing F5.

NOTE: To advance while giving a presentation press the SPACEBAR if you are using a keyboard or press LEFT MOUSE Click. To go backwards using the keyboard press BACKSPACE or scroll the MOUSE WHEEL UP.


Use Animation Effects to Fly in Bullet Points

Notice that all the bullet points on the woodpecker slide read without pause. Also notice that the sound of the woodpecker was playing as JAWS was reading the bullet points. Let's fine tune this.

EXERCISE: Use slide animation effects to fly in bullet points one at a time. This gives you time to discuss each bullet point without having to remember them if they are all read at once.


PowerPoint 2003 - Use Animation Effects to Fly in Bullet Points

  1. First, press TAB to select the text object for the bulleted list.
  2. Press ALT+D to open the Slide Show menu, and choose Custom Animation (M). The task pane opens with Custom Animation choices.
  3. Press TAB to move to the Add Effect button, and activate it with the SPACEBAR.
  4. Press DOWN ARROW to move to Entrance submenu (E), and press ENTER to open the submenu.
  5. Press DOWN ARROW to choose Fly In.

NOTE: There are several other options you can choose by pressing TAB to explore the choices here. For example, Start, OnClick is the same as using the SPACEBAR and is the default choice to use. Direction, from bottom is the default, and this can be changed to fly in from the left, right, etc. Also, the Speed at which the items fly in can be changed from very fast, the default, to several other settings.


PowerPoint 2007 - Use Animation Effects to Fly in Bullet Points

  1. First, press TAB to select the text object for the bulleted list.
  2. Press ALT followed by A to move to the Animations tab of the ribbon.
  3. Press C to activate the Custom Animations button. The task pane opens with Custom Animation choices. Focus is on the Add Effect button.
  4. Press SPACEBAR to activate the Add Effect button.
  5. Press DOWN ARROW to move to Entrance submenu (E), and press ENTER to open the submenu.
  6. Press DOWN ARROW to choose Fly In.

NOTE: There are several other options you can choose by pressing TAB to explore the choices here. For example, Start, OnClick is the same as using the SPACEBAR and is the default choice to use. Direction, from bottom is the default, and this can be changed to fly in from the left, right, etc. Also, the Speed at which the items fly in can be changed from very fast, the default, to several other settings.


Rearrange Animation Effects for a More Effective Presentation

PowerPoint has now put numbers for the events in this slide and has automatically placed the sound for the bird call to be played first, followed by the text bullet points.

EXERCISE: Rearrange the animation effects for a more effective presentation. Let's put the sound last to make it work better with JAWS.


PowerPoint 2003 - Rearrange Animation Effects for a More Effective Presentation

  1. Press F6 to move back to the task pane.
  2. Press TAB until you move one time past the Speed combo box. This is a list with the animations in order.
  3. Press UP or DOWN ARROW until you are sure you are on the item you want to move up or down the list, in this case, after previous play pileated woodpecker.wav.
  4. Once this is highlighted press TAB to move to the Move Down button, and activate it by pressing SPACEBAR. Since it was zero in the list and was at the top, the Move Down button is the only one available. After pressing SPACEBAR, that item is moved down below the number 1-9 bullet points (or however many you had, since they were all part of a "group" that is listed together), and the focus now changes to the Move Up button.

PowerPoint 2007 - Rearrange Animation Effects for a More Effective Presentation

PowerPoint has now put numbers for the events in this slide and has automatically placed the sound for the bird call to be played first, followed by the text bullet points.

EXERCISE: Rearrange the animation effects for a more effective presentation. Let's put the sound last to make it work better with JAWS.


  1. Press F6 to move back to the task pane.
  2. Press UP or DOWN ARROW until you are sure you are on the item you want to move up or down the list, in this case, after previous play pileated woodpecker.wav. It should be at the top of the list.
  3. Once this is highlighted press TAB to move to the Move Down button, and activate it by pressing SPACEBAR. Since it was zero in the list and was at the top, the Move Down button is the only one available. After pressing SPACEBAR, that item is moved down below the number 1-9 bullet points (or however many you had, since they were all part of a "group" that is listed together), and the focus now changes to the Move Up button.

Add a Delay to the Playing of a Sound - PowerPoint 2003 and 2007

The sound of the bird call still plays at the same time as JAWS speaks the last bullet point. Let's put a delay to allow both JAWS and the presenter to speak before the sound is played.

EXERCISE: Next, set a delay for playing the sound to allow for a more effective presentation.


  1. Press SHIFT+TAB to move back to the list of events for animation.
  2. Make sure to select the item "After previous play pileated woodpecker.wav," and press ENTER. A Play Sound multi-page dialog box opens.
  3. Press CTRL+TAB to move to the Timing page. Press TAB to move to the Delay combo box. It is set to 0 seconds. In order to give you a few seconds to hear the last bullet point and perhaps talk about it, set this to 3 seconds, just for trial and error. You can change it later to a longer or shorter time if you wish.
  4. Press ENTER to close the Play Sound dialog box.
  5. Save your presentation, and run it again with F5 to see how it works now.

Create a Third Slide with Title, Text, and Two Content Object Placeholders

EXERCISE: Create a third slide with a title object, a text object on the left, and two content objects for pictures on the right. In this slide, do not create a button for sounds. Set the bullets to fly in one at a time from the right instead of from the bottom. Create alternate text for both pictures.


PowerPoint 2003 - Create a Third Slide with Title, Text, and Two Content Object Placeholders

  1. Press ALT+I to open the Insert menu and choose New Slide. Focus moves to the Slide Layout task pane, which is a vertical pane on the right side of the screen.
  2. Press DOWN ARROW to explore choices there.
  3. Choose Title, text, and two content which has a title at the top, text area on left, and two content areas on the right of the screen one above the other, and press ENTER to update the new slide layout in the slide area. The slide that was originally created for slide three had a title placeholder and a single text placeholder.
  4. Press TAB to move to the slide title placeholder.
  5. Press ENTER to go into the edit level. Type something like Eastern Screech Owl.
  6. Press ESC to go back to the object level.
  7. Press TAB to move to the text placeholder, and ENTER to go into the edit level. Type in some text that is appropriate about the two phases of the eastern screech owl, the red and the grey phases.
  8. Insert two pictures in the placeholders to the right. Use the following text for the alternate text: Red phase of the eastern screech owl and Grey phase of the eastern screech owl.

EXERCISE: Using techniques described previously, complete this slide. Choose to fly in the bullet points from the right side instead of the bottom for this example. Save the presentation and then walk through it again with F5. The file names for the two pictures are ScreechOwlGreyPhase.jpg and ScreechOwlRedPhase.jpg.


PowerPoint 2007 - Create a Third Slide with Title, Text, and Two Content Object Placeholders

NOTE: The Office Theme for PowerPoint 2007 does not include a slide with the title and three content placeholders. To create one, do the following:


  1. First, press ALT followed by W to go to the View tab of the ribbon, and then press M to open the Slide Master. The Slide Master is the main slide that stores information about a particular theme and associated slide layouts, including placeholders, fonts, colors, and more. You can think of it as being a template for this particular theme. You can modify one or more of the layouts beneath a slide master. Each layout that is associated with a slide master contains the same theme.
  2. Locate the layout that contains either a blank slide or a slide layout that is close to what you want for editing. I chose the one with a title object and two content objects.
  3. Press the APPLICATION Key on the slide layout you chose. Choose Copy in the menu.
  4. Press the APPLICATION Key on the slide layout again. Choose Paste in the menu. A duplicate of the current slide layout appears. This is the one you will modify.
  5. Press F6 to move to the slide area, followed by TAB to move to the right content object, and then DEL to delete it.
  6. Press ALT followed by M to move to the Slide Master tab of the ribbon, and then press A to activate the Insert Placeholder button. A menu of choices appears.
  7. Choose C to insert a Content placeholder into the slide. Using the mouse, click and drag a rectangle of the size desired for the second content placeholder. I chose a size approximately one half the size of the placeholder that I deleted. Drag and size the content placeholder using the mouse as needed. Then repeat the process to add the third content placeholder. This new slide layout has a title at the top, a content area on left, and two content areas on the right of the screen one above the other.
  8. Press F6 to move back to the thumbnail list of layouts, and press the APPLICATION Key on the slide layout you modified. Choose Rename Layout in the menu. Name it Three Content.
  9. Press CTRL+F4 to close the current presentation, and answer Yes to save the changes.
  10. Press ALT+F followed by the number 1 to reopen the presentation. The slide master is gone, but saved, and the presentation you have created and saved to this point reappears.

You are now ready to continue the steps to finish the exercise for this segment of the lesson.

  1. Press ALT followed by H to move to the Home tab of the ribbon, and choose I to activate the new slide button. The Office Theme gallery opens with your new layout slide added.
  2. Press the ARROW Keys to find the Three Content layout that you created in the prior section, and press ENTER to insert it into the presentation.
  3. Press F6 until you are sure focus is in the slide area.
  4. Press TAB to move to the slide title placeholder.
  5. Press ENTER to go into the edit level. Type something like Eastern Screech Owl.
  6. Press ESC to go back to the object level.
  7. Press TAB to move to the text placeholder, and ENTER to go into the edit level. Type in some text that is appropriate about the two phases of the eastern screech owl, the red and the grey phases.
  8. Insert two pictures in the placeholders to the right. Use the following text for the alternate text: Red phase of the eastern screech owl and Grey phase of the eastern screech owl.

EXERCISE: Using techniques described previously, complete this slide. Choose to fly in the bullet points from the right side instead of the bottom for this example. Save the presentation and then walk through it again with F5. The file names for the two pictures are ScreechOwlGreyPhase.jpg and ScreechOwlRedPhase.jpg. The scientific name of the Eastern Screech Owl is Otus asio.


Create a Fourth Slide for Questions and Answers

EXERCISE: Create a fourth slide. Choose the one that has a single title placeholder and a single text placeholder. Let this be a Questions and Answers slide. This will mark the last slide in your presentation.


Add Speaker's Notes to a Slide

EXERCISE: Add speaker's notes to a slide, and use JAWS to read them during your presentation.


  1. Move to slide three and press F6 to move to the notes pane.
  2. Type the following text: "The top right picture of the red phase of the eastern screech owl was taken by J. A. Spendelow. The bottom right picture of the grey phase of the eastern screech owl was taken by Peter S. Weber." Make sure that you put the pictures in the correct location or change this text to match.
  3. To hear the speaker's notes with JAWS, either during the slide show or in normal view, press CTRL+SHIFT+N.

Check Spelling in the Presentation

EXERCISE: Check the spelling in the presentation.


  1. Press CTRL+HOME in slide view to move to the first slide.
  2. Press F7 to begin the spell check.
  3. Choose ALT+A to add unrecognized words to the dictionary or ALT+I to ignore suggestions for words or phrases.

Slides Thumbnail Tab and Outline Tab

EXERCISE: Learn to use the outline and slides thumbnails pane.


As has been discussed so far, you can review and edit your presentation by moving through each slide individually in the slide view. However, sometimes you may want to make changes to text on different slides, or even change the order of the slides themselves. In those cases, it may be easier and faster to make those changes in the outline or slides thumbnail view.

To move the focus to the outline view, press the function key F6 until you hear JAWS announce, "Slide thumbnails tab or Outline tab," depending on how your computer is set up.

To switch between the Slides thumbnail tab page and the Outline tab page, press CTRL+SHIFT+TAB. Go ahead now and explore the Outline tab page.

NOTE: At the present time the outline view in PowerPoint 2007 does not work with JAWS. It does work in PowerPoint 2003.


Every slide you have created in the current presentation is listed here in the outline view in numerical order with the appropriate slide number prefixing the text on each slide. When you enter into outline view, the cursor will be on the text of the slide that is showing in the slide view. For example, if you have slide number three showing in the slide view, then the cursor in the outline view will be on the text of slide number three. If you were on the first slide, then the cursor will be at the beginning of all the text in the outline view.

Move through the items in outline view with standard Windows® keystrokes such as the ARROW Keys, PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN. You can move to the very top of the outline quickly with CTRL+HOME. As you move the cursor onto the text of a different slide, the relevant slide subsequently appears in the slide view.

You can also read the outline with normal JAWS reading keystrokes. For example, pressing INSERT+DOWN ARROW is the JAWS command to SayAll. JAWS will then read all the text that is listed from wherever the cursor is to the bottom of the outline view.

Outline view offers two different levels to view the information listed. You can either see all the existing text or only the title of each slide. By default, outline view will show all the text. If you have many slides you may want to change this to showing the titles only so that you can move around from slide to slide faster. Pressing the keystroke ALT+SHIFT+A alternatively switches from one view to the other, expanding or collapsing all the slides at once.

Rather than expand and collapse all the slide information, you may only want to do this for random slides. To collapse just one slide to show the title only, make sure the cursor is somewhere in the text of the slide. It does not have to be at the beginning. Press the keystroke ALT+SHIFT+MINUS to hide the text of the selected slide, showing just the title. To expand the text of a single slide again, place the cursor somewhere in the title and press ALT+SHIFT+PLUS.

Text can be edited in outline view in the same way that you would edit text in any word processing application. For example, you can select text with the SHIFT and ARROW Keys and perform standard formatting such as underline or bold, copy and paste, and text can be deleted or inserted.

Moving Slides in Outline View

If you want to change the order of the slides in your presentation, you can do that also in the outline view, simply by cutting and pasting the text there. For example, if you want to move slide number three and make it become slide number two, select all of the text of slide number three and then press CTRL+X to cut the selected text. Move the cursor to the beginning of the text for slide number two, and press CTRL+V to paste the text. The text from slide number three is now shown as slide number two, and the slide that was previously number two has been moved down and automatically renumbered as number three.

Deleting slides in Outline View

Slides can be permanently deleted in outline view by selecting all the text of a slide as described a moment ago and then pressing the DEL key. In PowerPoint 2003 you can also choose ALT+E from the Edit menu followed by D to delete a slide.

NOTE: If you accidentally delete or lose text that you meant to move or copy elsewhere, press the Windows Undo keystroke CTRL+Z to undo the deletion and put the text back where it was taken from.


Moving and Deleting Slides in the Slides Thumbnail View

Moving and deleting slides in the slides thumbnail view is even easier. Just select a slide or group of slides with the keyboard and perform the action you wish. Each "thumbnail" is a small picture representing each slide in the main slide area. In the slides thumbnail view, each thumbnail is on one line by itself, and pressing UP or DOWN ARROW moves from slide to slide. Again, as in outline view, the slide view area updates as you move up or down in the thumbnails pane.

Handouts for the Audience - Export a Presentation to Microsoft Word

To give handouts to the audience, export the presentation in one of several formats to Microsoft® Word.

EXERCISE: Discuss how to export a presentation to Word and create handouts for the audience.


PowerPoint 2003 - Handouts for the Audience - Export a Presentation to Microsoft Word

  1. With the presentation open on the screen, press ALT+F to open the File menu.
  2. Press DOWN ARROW to move to the item Send To (D), and press ENTER to open the sub menu.
  3. Press DOWN ARROW to move to Microsoft Word (W), and press ENTER.

PowerPoint 2007 - Handouts for the Audience - Export a Presentation to Microsoft Word

  1. With the presentation open on the screen, press ALT+F to open the Microsoft Office file menu.
  2. Press U to open the Publish submenu.
  3. Press H to choose Create Handouts in Microsoft Office Word.

A Send to Microsoft Office Word dialog box opens on the screen with several choices for page layout when the presentation is exported to Word. Focus is on the first of five radio buttons in the Page Layout in Microsoft Office Word group of radio buttons. There is also a second group of radio buttons called Add Slides to Microsoft Office Word document.

Page Layout Choices for Exporting Into Microsoft Word

There are five choices in this group of radio buttons. Press UP or DOWN ARROW to move from one radio button to the next.

When you have selected the format you desire, press the TAB key to move on to the next set of radio buttons in this dialog box.

Link the Slides and Notes in PowerPoint to Word

The second group of two radio buttons in this dialog box offers you the choice of pasting the slides as embedded objects or pasting them with links to the PowerPoint presentation itself.

NOTE: These two radio buttons are not available when exporting an outline only.


Once you have made the selections you want in each of these two groups of radio buttons, press the ENTER key to activate the OK button and begin the process of exporting the presentation into Word. After this process is finished, you may print or emboss the document for handouts.

Presenting Your Slide Show

To begin the presentation, press F5. To give the presentation and arrange it so that only you hear JAWS or MAGic, consider using a wireless headset, such as a Bluetooth® headset. You may also want to consider using a wireless mouse to advance or retreat slides during presentations. This gives you freedom from being tethered to a keyboard or wired mouse, and gives you the ability to move around on the stage more freely.

PowerPoint Help in JAWS and Keystrokes for PowerPoint

EXERCISE: Discuss keystrokes and the Help System Topic for PowerPoint that is available for JAWS.


JAWS Screen Sensitive Help

Press INSERT+F1 anywhere at any time with JAWS running to get screen sensitive help. This help opens in the JAWS virtual viewer and can be read with normal reading commands or selected and copied.

JAWS Help Topic for PowerPoint

Press INSERT+F1 twice quickly while JAWS is running in PowerPoint to open the JAWS Help System topic specific to PowerPoint. The JAWS Help System topic contains links for the following:

Hotkey Help

Press INSERT+H to get a list of hotkeys specific to using JAWS and PowerPoint. This list also opens in the JAWS virtual viewer.

Contact Information for Freedom Scientific

Published by Freedom Scientific, Inc.
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Information in this document is subject to change without notice. This learning module is protected under copyright by Freedom Scientific. Please feel free, however, to use this module to create your own training materials to help others learn JAWS. Also feel free to share this training module with your friends and colleagues who might be interested in learning more about JAWS. We ask only that you acknowledge Freedom Scientific as the copyright holder of any of this material you use.

Florida Master Naturalist Program

The photos used in this workshop are used with permission of Dr. Martin Main, PhD, Program Leader, Florida Master Naturalist Program Associate Professor and Wildlife Ecologist at the University of Florida, IFAS, SW Florida Research and Education Center, Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. Visit the Florida Master Naturalist Program home page for information about course offerings, training locations, job and volunteer opportunities, and more.

Copyright © 2010 Freedom Scientific, Inc., all rights reserved.

JAWS® and MAGic® are registered trademarks of Freedom Scientific, Inc., St. Petersburg, Florida and/or other countries.

Microsoft®, Windows®, and PowerPoint® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Last updated 2010-02-03