Literacy Ideas for Children with Visual Impairments and Multiple Disabilities

Powerpoint e-books

E-Books are relatively simple to make. On this page I will provide a quick and simple recipe to create electronic books using Microsoft's PowerPoint application. It is included in Microsoft office, it is apresentation tool that can combine graphics, animation, sound effects and speech. Sorry guys, these instructions apply to Mac users only, although if you are a PC user you should be able to follow along without too much difficulty.

Open PowerPoint

Click on the square with one horizntal bar at the top of the page with the rest of the square blank, then OK

Click on the Blank slide (it looks like a plain box with a border), then OK

Under Format, click on Background

Click on More Colors, pick the color you want and then click on Apply

Under Format, click on Font, pick your font style, size and color, then OK

Congratulations, you just made the first page of your book!!!!!

To add more pages, under Insert, click on Duplicate slide for as many slides (or pages) you want to create. If you want to know how many slides you have look at the bottom tool bar (3 of 3 slides)

Get ready to create!!!!

Go to your first slide, this will be your title page, just slide the bar on the left hand side to the top to find a specific slide. Highlight Click to Add Title, and start typing in your story text.

To add graphics: You have two choices, you can use pictures from Microsoft Art Gallary or you can use one of your own files. Under Insert, click on Picture, then click on ClipArt. Find the picture you want and then hit Insert. Resize the picture (hold the mouse on the white squares) to the size you want and place it where you want it ( hold the mouse down and move it.)

Or you can add a graphic or digital picture you downloaded, scanned or created. Under Insert, click on Picture, then click on From file. Find the file you want, and then hit Insert.

You can add sound or you can record your own voice to narrate the story.You must have an external microphone to record sound. Under Insert, click on Movies and Sound. To record a sound click on Record Sound and start talking. To use a sound from the Microsoft Gallary, click on Sound from gallary, to add a sound you downloaded click on Sound from file, find your file, and then click Insert.

To advance to the next slide, click on the downward arrow in the left hand tool bar. Repeat all the same steps until you have finished creating.

To activate your book, Under Slide Show, click on View Show, put the mouse anywhere on the screen, and with one click, advance to the next page.

Congratulations, you have just created a talking book!!!!!!!!!!!

For the adventurous, you can add animation, change the transition between slides and all that jazz. UnderSlide Showplay around with the Preset animation, Custon animation and the Slide Transition feature. One hint for those who want to play with the animation feature, you must highlight the graphic first, otherwise PowerPoint doesn't know what you want to animate.

This web page was created and designed by Deirdre E. Walsh M.S. CCC/SLP, a speech and language pathologist at Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown MA.She has worked with children with visual impairments and multiple disabilties for over twelve years. This site was designed as partial fufillment of her doctoral coursework in Educational Studies, Lesley University, Cambridge MA.