Using PowerPoint with Switches

The basic technique is fairly straightforward. PowerPoint slides can have buttons that do things, such as play a sound or a video clip, or jump to another slide. These buttons can be used by pressing a small number of keys. In turn, the keys can be generated by switches. This article, and the PowerPoint slides, show you how this is done.

The download includes some samples that explain how to create a switch accessible file with PowerPoint. There are three PowerPoint files:

PowerPoint with switches - 1.ppt

This describes a basic method for creating action buttons and pictures that can be activated with two key (Tab and Enter). The keystrokes can be generated from switches with our Switch Driver, or with any similar switch-to-keystroke utility. This method is very easy to use, but has some limitations. In particular, the highlighting is not very clear, and it only works with two switches.

PowerPoint with switches - 2.ppt

This describes a more sophisticated method that gives high visibility highlights and can be used with single switch auto scan as well as two switch scanning. It needs a special utility program (PPSwitch) to work.

PowerPoint with switches - 3.ppt

This describes how to use a switch to generate the necessary keystrokes, using Switch Driver for the simple method and PPSwitch for the more sophisticated scanning.

It also shows how to make the presentation more sophisticated by looping continuously, jumping between different presentations, and hiding the action buttons.

PowerPoint download		Notes
	Download	This will download a zipped folder with the PowerPoint samples and the PPSwitch program.

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