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How I Entry PowerPoints With Microsoft Sway


As a scholar with low imaginative and prescient, I generally have bother studying the PowerPoint slides that my instructors publish on the course web site or share with me so I can comply with together with class. Issues like small font sizes and multi-column layouts are nice for presenting a number of info on a single slide, however could be tough to learn for college kids with print disabilities or make it difficult to find vital gadgets like hyperlinks or reminders/directions for an task.

To make PowerPoints simpler to learn on a pc or pill, I began changing PowerPoint slides with the Microsoft Sway internet software into single-column textual content layouts that characteristic bigger font sizes, choices for viewing photos in a bigger show, and even choices for embedding Sways into my notes. Listed here are my suggestions for make PowerPoints simpler to learn with Microsoft Sway that I personally use as a scholar with low imaginative and prescient.

What’s Microsoft Sway?

Microsoft Sway is a free internet software for creating one-page paperwork, displays, newsletters, and easy webpages that incorporate multimedia content material (textual content, photos, sounds, file attachments, and extra). Customers can entry Sway content material instantly from the net browser with no downloads wanted and customise the looks of textual content, with choices for downloading Sway content material for offline studying as effectively. Whereas no Microsoft account is required to view a Sway (except viewing restrictions are enabled by the creator), customers are required to log in with a Microsoft account to create and save their very own Sways. Further premium options for Sway are additionally out there for Microsoft 365 subscribers.

I’ve used Sway in a number of contexts through the years from creating components sheets to displays to convention handouts, and each Sway I’ve created for college has earned a minimum of a 100%!

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The challenges with studying PowerPoints as a low imaginative and prescient scholar

Even when I’m sitting within the entrance row, I usually battle to learn PowerPoints on the board as a result of they usually have inconsistent font sizes throughout slides or incorporate multi-column layouts which have a number of traces of textual content beginning and ending elsewhere. To make it simpler to see, I usually obtain copies of PowerPoint displays to observe by myself system, however the inconsistent font sizes nonetheless stay and it may be difficult to zoom in on textual content whereas I’m additionally making an attempt to take notes throughout a lecture or for an task. If the slide background has a ton of colours or patterns, it takes me longer to seek out the textual content or info I’m on the lookout for as effectively.

PowerPoint isn’t a universally inaccessible platform or file format for me, and there are a lot of PowerPoints I can learn that incorporate bigger font sizes or much less textual content on a single slide. Nonetheless, most of the displays in my school and graduate college lessons include smaller font sizes and make it tougher to comply with together with info visually, or I run into points making an attempt to enlarge photos or charts in a measurement that’s snug to learn.

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My answer: Convert PowerPoint to Sway

As a substitute of counting on slides that require horizontal scrolling or that solely show one part at a time, I want utilizing vertical scrolling, constant font sizes for all content material, and having info on a easy background. These are all qualities that Microsoft Sway possesses, so I began changing my class PowerPoints to Sway paperwork so I may enlarge textual content extra simply, take notes from a web page, and comply with together with class discussions with out making an attempt to guess what’s on the board. Sway provides an automated file add/conversion device that converts PowerPoint recordsdata to Sway that customers can then edit or modify for their very own wants.

To transform an current PowerPoint to Microsoft Sway doc:

  1. Open Microsoft Sway (sway.cloud.microsoft) and log in
  2. Create a brand new Sway and provides it a title
  3. Choose Insert Content material (plus icon) and choose Add
  4. Choose PowerPoint file (.ppt, .pptx) from file browser
  5. When the file is completed loading, a immediate will seem that claims “Import content material out of your doc to reuse it in Sway, or embed your doc in order that it may be considered inside your Sway in its unique construction and format.”
  6. Choose Import
  7. Pictures, textual content, headings, bulleted lists, and different content material will robotically seem within the Sway doc

I’ve had blended outcomes with movies and sound recordings being added to Sway paperwork from PowerPoint since Sway requires these kind of content material to be embedded from a web-based supply, and a few desk constructions may be lacking (although the textual content is in any other case intact). I nonetheless confer with the unique PowerPoint for these kind of content material, however learn from the Sway every time potential.

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Customizing look of transformed PowerPoint in Sway

After importing a PowerPoint file to Microsoft Sway, I scroll by the doc and take away non-essential content material like background graphics or inner hyperlinks that don’t have an effect on how I entry the data in Sway; this may be previewed within the Design tab. I additionally repair bulleted lists if wanted, referring to the unique PowerPoint to see how info is structured.

To customise the looks of Sway, I choose the Types button to allow the next choices:

  • Vertical scrolling
  • Model 4 for content material, which options coloured bars throughout Heading 1 content material and no background graphics (the coloured highlighting serves as a visible landmark that helps me preserve observe of what I’m studying)
  • Refined animation emphasis
  • Massive textual content measurement
  • Arial Nova font for headings and physique

Whereas there is no such thing as a choice to set a hard and fast font measurement for Sway (e.g. 36 pt font), customers can export Sway paperwork as a Phrase or PDF with out further background graphics, and modify the font measurement of the Phrase doc both inside Phrase or by opening Immersive Reader/Learn Mode. This can be simpler than studying a PowerPoint exported to Phrase because the background graphics are eliminated and the font sizes are usually bigger.

Show Sway with a single-column structure

The overwhelming majority of Sway content material makes use of a single-column structure, although some photos with a textual content field instantly beneath will present the textual content and picture side-by-side, or present two photos side-by-side if they’re proven with equal emphasis. A simple strategy to repair that is to set the next or decrease degree of emphasis for the content material by deciding on the merchandise within the Storyline tab and deciding on the specified emphasis/measurement for the merchandise— there are three measurement choices out there with corresponding sq. icons. I take advantage of this for enlarging photos in order that they take up more room on the display screen.

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Viewing Sway with Accessibility View

Another choice for viewing Sway content material is to allow Accessibility View, which exhibits the Sway in a excessive distinction design with full keyboard performance and display screen reader entry to all content material. This may be accessed by opening the Extra menu (three dots icon) and deciding on Accessibility View.

Earlier than opening the Sway in Accessibility View, I strongly advocate verifying that alt textual content is current for all photos, which shall be acknowledged by display screen readers to offer details about what’s in a picture. I personally encountered blended outcomes with alt textual content from PowerPoint being imported into Sway— generally it imported with none points, different instances it was lacking and I must copy it from the unique PowerPoint.

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How I learn PowerPoints with Sway

As soon as my PowerPoint is transformed to a Sway, I can comply with together with the category presentation because the headings and textual content are precisely the identical. Since Sway is displayed in an internet browser, I’ve the liberty to open up different functions or hyperlinks in a brand new tab as an alternative of navigating away from the PowerPoint, or I can copy/paste textual content into notes if wanted. I discovered this particularly helpful in a category the place the professor would usually share hyperlinks to different web sites that college students had been anticipated to go to or open in a brand new tab throughout class, as I may simply find the hyperlinks I wanted and open them within the background.

Once I take notes with Microsoft OneNote, I can add a Sway hyperlink to my pocket book or embed the Sway so I can learn content material with out having to go away the OneNote app. That is useful when I’m taking notes for a venture, as I can have Sway opened on one show and OneNote on the opposite, with the choice to make use of instruments like Ctrl-F to go looking by textual content or choose a picture to enlarge it additional (one thing I can’t do with PowerPoint).

One other technique for taking notes with Microsoft Sway is to export the Sway as a Phrase doc and edit the doc to incorporate further notes, feedback, or highlighting. Alternatively, college students can sideload the doc into one other notetaking software or studying device to entry info.

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Extra concepts for making PowerPoints simpler to learn for college kids with low imaginative and prescient

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