This lesson provides an overview of Microsoft PowerPoint, with a focus on where to find certain tools that you'll need to create accessible slideshows.

Please note that there are different versions of PowerPoint, so some screenshots may not look identical to your version and some steps may be slightly different.

If you are using a version of MS Office that is older than version 2013, we strongly recommend that you upgrade in order to access accessibility features that have been added to newer versions.

NOTE: This module was developed based on Microsoft PowerPoint versions 2016 and before. Since then, Microsoft has released Office 2019 with some new and enhanced accessibility features, but most of the accessibility functionality is the same or similar to that covered in this module.

Core Concepts

"I already know how to use PowerPoint"

The majority of inaccessible PowerPoints are created because the authors are unaware of tools in PowerPoint that can help them format their slide decks. Many of us are self-taught on how to use PowerPoint. As a result we've "learned" how to get our slides to look the way we want while ignoring the functional side of the slides. When we go to copy and paste the contents or edit a section we find ourselves wrestling with odd blank sections and auto-formatting that seems at odds with what we're trying to do.

Creating an accessible PowerPoint slide deck is essentially creating a PowerPoint as Microsoft intended you to do with the tools they provided. Plus, these tools - once you know how to use them correctly - will make for a more efficient work process and will save you more time than you realize. While you may be questioning if you have enough time to learn how to make accessible PowerPoints, the reality is often that you're likely wasting a lot of time manually formatting and overriding Microsoft settings in order to create "pretty" but inaccessible documents that take twice as long to format.

The Ribbon

The Ribbon in PowerPoint refers to the collection of tabs that runs across the top of the program, above the document. The tabs on this ribbon can be customized, so if a particular tab is referenced in the training that you do not have, right click on the ribbon and select Customize Ribbon in order to select which tabs are displayed.

screen shot of MS PowerPoint ribbon on the Home tab.

Tabs

Most of us remain on the Home tab as we design a slide deck. The Home tab contains a variety of useful formatting tools - font settings, spacing, and slide layouts.

The other tabs in PowerPoint can be just as useful as the Home tab. Under the Insert tab, we find the ability to add images, graphs, tables, etc.

The Design tab has tools to change colors in your design which may assist in making it more accessible if contrast is lacking.

The View tab is another valuable tab that is often overlooked. Through this tab we can access slide masters and make changes to the slide deck that are applied to more than one slide.

We encourage you to get comfortable with the various tabs and their associated tools in PowerPoint. If you're ever uncertain as to where something is, if you're on a PC you can use the "Tell me what to do..." search to access the tool you're looking for.

Additional Resources

PowerPoint for Windows Training - This series of videos can help orient you to different features and tools in PowerPoint.
PowerPoint 2013 Training - A series of instructions and videos for those using PowerPoint 2013.
PowerPoint 2016 for Mac Help - A series of instructions and videos for those using PowerPoint 2016 for Mac.
Compare PowerPoint features on different platforms - If you're uncertain if your version of PowerPoint has the feature you need, you can use this website to double check which features are available across the different platforms. Unfortunately, they do not have a section on accessibility features, yet.