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Making Resources using Power Point.
You can make voice output resources very easily with Power Point. This can be for many uses such as stories so that pupils can listen and watch, to make basic communication resources or to support learning. It is even possible to make these pages switch accessible (email us for instructions on this aspect:info@candleaac.com)
If you wish you can make a template of pages that can be used over and again by adding buttons to blank pages. This advice will just tell you how to do the basics and you can then set it up as you like.
Setting up a page:
NB You should not copy more than 10% of any commercial publication without first seeking the author's permission. If you are using symbols from a commercial symbol program they must be licensed.
1. Open up a Power Point from Microsoft Office.
2. Put your title on the cover page.
3. Select “insert” from the top of the page and then choose “new slide” from the drop down menu.
4. You can choose what to do here. You can either select a blank from the content layouts on the right or you can work with the default template that appears. I often use the default when I have a book to produce with short lines on each page that can go in the title section leaving the main body to paste or import pictures to. If you make the page blank you will need to use the text box at the bottom of the page every time you want to put words on the page. This is the box with an “A” in the top right hand corner and lines underneath.
5. Using Text Boxes: It is possible to change the text within the box using the formatting toolbar which has things like bold, underline, italics and font size. The formatting toolbar should already be at the top of the page but if not you can access it by choosing “view” at the top and selecting “toolbars” on the drop down and ticking “formatting”.
6. Importing pictures: There are lots of ways to get pictures into a Power Point. You can take digital photographs with a digital camera that can be imported to “my pictures” and then copy and pasted to pages in Power Point. This is useful for recording things that pupils have been doing as a record of achievement. You can also find images freely on Google images and simply copy them and then paste them on the page you want. You copy by right clicking the mouse or using edit at the top of the page. Paste in the same way. You can make changes to pictures by copying them into “Paint”. Once they are in paint you can use all the paint features to adapt the picture. I adapted the little red train in my example by taking a line drawing from Google images and using the paint pot in Paint to fill it in with colour. You can also put any image you like into a Power Point using the “print screen” facility on your key board. The “print screen” key is usually in the top right hand corner of the key board between f12 and “pause” labelled “PrtSc”. Pressing this will capture whatever image is on the screen in front of you. You can then open your power point, right click on the mouse and select “paste”. You can crop the picture to get just the image you want using the “picture” option on the toolbar. The example I have given below has the crop feature circled in red. If this toolbar is not available at the top of your page you get to it by selecting “view” at the top of the page and then “toolbars” on the drop down menu followed by ticking “picture”.
7. Putting in sound: Once you have the pictures just the way you want them you can put sound in. If you want to record it yourself I recommend that you use a good quality microphone as those that are built into most computers aren’t usually of a high enough quality. Select the “insert” button at the top and choose “movies and sounds” from the drop down menu. Then choose “record sound” from the next drop down menu. You select the little red circle to begin to record and the blue square to stop recording. You can even hear it back before you press “OK” to choose it. A picture of a loudspeaker will appear on the page and selecting this (or touching it if you have a touch screen computer) will activate whatever you have recorded. You can change the size of the loud speaker and its position on the page so that it will be accessible for the people you work with. You do this by using the mouse to drag it around the page or to enlarge and/or change its shape.
8. The next thing to do is to make buttons that will enable the touch screen or switch user to activate the page turning by themselves. To do this you select “slide show” from the top and “action buttons” from the drop down menu. The first 2 choices on the second line down of images are a triangle pointing to the left and to the right. These create page turners back or forward respectively. Click on your choice and position them as you wish on the page. They can be enlarged and stretched to suit your needs. I usually put them in the bottom left and right corner of the page as shown on the example. To make sure that the page will only turn when you select the action buttons you need to turn off the mouse click. You do this by selecting “slide show” at the top and choosing “slide transition” from the drop down menu. You then untick the box towards the bottom of the right hand side under the heading “advance slide” which has the words “on mouse click” next to it.
9. You can hyperlink any picture, box or word by right clicking on it and selecting actions. This brings up a Box that will let you link that selection through to any page or to another program.
10. ENJOY! The examples below are a page from a story and examples of pages that can be used for communication.
Get in touch with us at info@candleaac.com for further assistance if required.
Here are some links to some sites where others have been making Power Point resources:
Another great site with more detailed advice on setting up power points is:
Here is Richard Walter's guide on using Power Point to make Talking books:
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