Part 2
More Information on making Powerpoint presentations
Combining page animation and transition effects
Making a "press now" single switch presentation
This is a sequential single access cause and effect slideshow. It alternates between a switch slide and a reward slide. The switch slide has the same "press now" switch sound the reward slides have different sounds. The reward slides in the example are Clipart graphics but you can obviously replace the graphics and the sounds with your own choices.
Create two types of page;
the 'press now' pages and the 'reward' pages
press now page and the reward page
The press now pages
Click on the Custom animation effects button in the SlideShow menu.
Animate the words 'press now' with a sound by setting the Entry animation and sound in the Effects tab.
Click on the timing tab and set the text 'press' to animate automatically after 1 second. Choose a switch pressing sound to accompany the animation. This is a short 'press now' reminder sound, it can be a gentle sound or it can be your recorded voice "press now".
Each graphic reward page has a page transition set to automatic after 3 seconds with a sound set.
The slideshow shows the press now pages with the picture of the switch on a blank background a short switch sound is played. After the switch is pressed the 'reward page' is shown with as much sound and animation as you want.
The reward page is shown for a set period (3 seconds here) but its length will obviously depends on your pupils- some people take a long time to shift their attention from the physical act of switching to watch the screen, however if the reward time is too long I've found that pupils can lose the cause and effect concept.
The time for a reward sequence is generally not alterable in most cause and effect software but I have found it crucial in practical use with our pupils.
The page then does a random transition page turn to the next 'press now' page which replays the short switch sound.
You can alter the animation settings in the custom animation submenu. You can animate pictures, text, and letters and you can get some interesting effects but it is definitely a try it and see type exercise. You can add video clips and sounds to any object separately and then set the timing sequences. Unfortunately with Powerpoint 97 you cannot include animated gifs from the Web.
Example of a simple talking book
These pages were constructed by a group of 17-year-old pupils as an accessible book for the youngest pupils in the school.
The book was made in different formats; as multimedia, with symbols, with text and as a tactile book.
It has the same page turning pointer in the top right hand, which is linked to the next slide and to the story sounds.
A simple press of the switch reads the story and turns the page.
There can be additional sounds on the page, which can be explored by pupils who can move a mouse, or using a touchscreen.
Positional accuracy
Any object in Powerpoint can be set to be activated when the mouse cursor moves over it. Students who have difficulty in clicking the mouse buttons or who are learning to control the mouse pointer accurately can benefit from using the 'Mouse Over' facility in Powerpoint.
Using the Mouse Over is especially useful in developing programs for pupils who are using head controlled pointing devices. The position of the cursor on the screen is controlled by head movements . They may not be able to easily use a switch to act as a mouse button.
An animation, a page turned, or a sound effect can be activated by moving the mouse cursor over an area or object.
To set the 'Mouse Over' select an object by clicking on it Go to Slide Show menu Click on Action settings:
set the 'Mouse Over' controls:
Here when the mouse cursor is over the object a sound is played, the area is highlighted and the page is turned.
Using these controls you can make some very powerful pointer controlled multimedia shows. It is especially good when used in conjunction with a big cursor utility.
There does not, however, seem to be a way of setting the dwell time (the time that the pointer has to be over a hotspot before it is activated) in Powerpoint.
when the mouse cursor is over the coloured shapes the effects are activated
To make a presentation using timed switch accuracy
Learning that you have to act at a certain time can be a very difficult skill for our pupils to master.
You can use the computer with Powerpoint to create programs that will reinforce and help develop these timing skills.
How to make a timed presentation
Set the pages to turn automatically at a certain time (with a short 'page turning' sound) in the slide transition control.
Set an object or graphic to have a separate animated effect from the Custom Animation control.
If the object is clicked on within the time set then the animation occurs otherwise the page turns and the timed object is lost. Embed the active objects in a series of pages with automatic page turns.
graphic and example insert here
this works but its very complicated:
3 animation techniques:
Slide transition
Custom animation
Action settings
Slide transition only effects page turning
Custom animation only allows entry animation
Action settings will not allow animation on object
You can:
devide them into show slides and reward slides
first pages of slideshow: set up show
slides from 1 to end of show slides (here 3)
custom animation on slide 2 box out timing animate automatically box out
action settings hyperlink to 4 (reward file).
Slide 4 custom animation fly from right with crash sound
Action settings hyperlink to show slide 3
How to develop a press/don't press presentation.
One of the common difficulties our pupils have in developing timing skills is in waiting and not switching. This is a very important part of developing accurate switch control (especially for scanning access). We have a couple of commercial switch program, which asks them to press their switch or not to press their switch for cause and effect, but we wanted to create more similar programs.
To create a switch/don't switch presentation using Powerpoint:
Create two kinds of pages:
'Press' and 'Don't Press' pages colour them differently and put a Yes or a No symbol on the appropriate pages.
In the Slideshow menu select an Action button set a page turning in the top right corner on every page.
In the Slide transition control link the Press pages to the next page on mouse presses.
Link the Not press pages ONLY to a suitable short sound ("no" type noise) on the 'Don't Press' pages,
set the Page transitions in the Not Press pages to turn to the next page after a time (I've found that 8,or 10 seconds is usually the best to show that nothing is going to happen).
Press and don't press pages:
The Action settings are set up like this:
turn page don't turn page
You can further add auditory prompts ("press/don't press") in the appropriate page transition sounds.
Making a Powerpoint jukebox
Powerpoint can control music CD from its active hotspots. You can set the track and the time that Powerpoint will play off music CD thus you can create a Powerpoint controlled jukebox or music program.
In the Insert menu
Movies and Sounds
Play CD Audio Track
This allows you to connect short lengths of any music CD to a hotspot, area or picture on the screen which can then be accessed through the mouse or mouse extension switches.
Part 3
Access to Powerpoint slideshow
Powerpoint slideshows are controlled by a number of key presses including a mouse press, the arrow keys, space and return. Additionally It has a number of keyboard controls (in common with other windows software) to operate various aspects of the program.
Left click, space, right, down arrow, enter, or page down all advances to the next slide.
(Press F1 when a slideshow is running to show a summary of the keyboard controls)
Switch activation of Powerpoint presentations and multimedia
The easiest way to control simple page turning presentations from exterior switches is probably through the mouse buttons using mouse extension switches (Semerc mouser, Tash mousemover or similar).
Using a mouse extension switch a switch user has only a single input to the computer, so they are limited to single sequential page turning presentations with a single activation.
Powerpoint, in common with other multimedia, can operate through hyperlinks or hotspots accessed by positional mouse clicks. Positional mouse clicks are where the user moves the mouse to a specific part of the screen and then clicks the mouse button (i.e. standard mouse operation to a Windows environment).
Most of our pupils cannot control a mouse to move the arrow and activate more than one hotspot/hyperlink per page due to either physical or cognitive difficulties.
To control a range of hotspots in a multimedia presentation you require a utility either to add switch scanning to hotspots or directly to link switches to hotspots.
Windows switch from the Advisory centre allows a scanning control of hotspots and you can also add scanning facilities with Clickit (from Intellitools/Inclusive technology).
This allows you to control the hotspots by either one or two switch scanning.
We have found that direct activation of hotspots (rather than scanning) is often more successful in allowing pupils with complex learning difficulties to access computer multimedia.
You need a utility which will link a switch directly to a hotspot on the screen.
Clickit allows direct activation of hotspots by the keyboard, overlay board or switches.
Clickit allows designated hotspots to be set up and directly controlled from different keys/switches and when used in combination with Powerpoint you have a very powerful fully switch/overlay board accessible multimedia program. In conjunction with Clickit the Intellikeys board can be set up easily to activate a number of hotspots.
You could set up a Powerpoint presentation with a number of active hotspots and then use Clickit to make those hotspots accessible to the Keyboard. It is a simple matter to set up any overlay board to send the necessary keystrokes directly to activate the active hotspots. Additionally you can use the two switch inputs on the intellikeys board. The only other keyboard/switch interface at the moment is the Don Johnson keyboard switch interface box.
However the DJswitch interface which can send keyboard commands from switches unfortunately will not work with Powerpoint 97 due to a Powerpoint/Microsoft feature. When a page is shown in Powerpoint the scroll lock key on the keyboard is activated. The scroll lock key is one of the control keys in the DJswitch box which controls which key equivalents the switch sends. The key presses that Powerpoint responds to are the very ones that are turned off by the scroll lock activation in the DJ switch interface. This no longer happens in Powerpoint 2000.
There are some new keyboard interfaces coming onto the market soon and overlay boards will all operate as a keyboard switch connection.
Future planning
To enable Powerpoint further to be an accessible multimedia program it needs:
A built in keyboard interface so that the keyboard can directly control hyperlinks set up from program.
Closer links with Internet explorer (all the Web based slideshow on the school web site are also made in Powerpoint which allows more interaction but they require considerable adapting and editing to make them work).
The ability to run all extensions as per Internet explorer (animated gifs/shockwave etc).
The same access utilities as I.E. (zoom, alt text for images, user control of fonts etc) and the ability to scan through links as (I.E.) using space and return.
To be easily configurable for each user and save personal controls so that the program can be loaded with different individuals settings.
Of these probably the most important is to enable direct control via keyboard - linking hypertext links or hotspots to specific keyboard control
If you can control via the keyboard then individuals who cannot control a mouse and pointer can directly access the program. Overlay boards and switches can then be set up to directly control PowerPoint.