Use Google Slides with a screen reader

You can edit presentations on your computer with the use of a screen reader.

Before you start

First, make sure that you're familiar with the steps and techniques in Use Google editors with a screen reader.

Use Slides as a web application.
To open the menu bar:
- For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Alt + f.
- For MacOS: Press Control + Option + f.
To move around your presentation, use the Accessibility menu:
- For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Alt + a.
- For MacOS: Press Control + Option + a.
To open a list of shortcuts in your presentation:
- For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Ctrl + Slash.
- For MacOS: Press Command + Slash.
- If you prefer a web page, open keyboard shortcuts for Google Slides.
To find a menu option:
- For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Alt + Slash.
- For MacOS: Press Option + Slash.
- After you press the shortcut, type part of the name to find items that match with the down arrow.

Topics

This article is divided into sections with headings. Use the links below to jump to a specific section of the article.

Add, delete and organise slides

Learn about slides interface and navigation

There are four main areas in Slides:

Canvas
Filmstrip
Speaker notes
Top area

Learn about slide canvas

A slide consists of one or more elements. An element can be a text box, an image, table or even a chart from Sheets. You can access these elements on the canvas.

To focus on a canvas:

For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + c.
For MacOS: Press Command + Option + Shift + c.
When the focus is on the filmstrip, press Tab.
To move focus to each of the layout or container elements on the slide, press Tab.
To edit an element and insert content, press Enter.
To return focus to the layout element or container, press Escape.

Tip: When you press the Tab key, it moves through all layout or container elements in the order read by your screen reader and then returns to the start.

Learn about filmstrip

A list of thumbnail images of all of the slides in the presentation is called a filmstrip.

To focus on filmstrip:

For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + f.
For MacOS: Press Command + Option + Shift + f.
To navigate the list, press the up or down arrow.

Learn about speaker notes

A presentation doesn't display speaker notes, but they are available to the presenter. They are often what someone says when they present a slide.

To focus on speaker notes:

For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + s.
For MacOS: Press Command + Option + Shift + s.

Learn about top area

The top area consists of the menus, toolbar and other top-level options. Use these tools to implement actions on the presentation, a slide or elements within a slide.

To browse the menus:

Open the File menu.
- For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Alt + f.
- For MacOS: Press Control + Option + f.
To explore other menus, which include the following, press the right arrow.
- Edit
- View
- Insert
- Format
- Slide
- Arrange
- Tools
- Extensions
- Help
- Accessibility

To get help:

Open the Help menu and select Help.
To move past 'Popular help resources' to the 'Search Help' edit field, press Tab.
Type your search, such as 'image'.
Press Enter.
- The help opens in a dialogue where you can read or navigate to other topics.
To return to the presentation, press Escape.

Tip: To read the non-focusable web content in the help dialogue, use your screen reader's 'virtual' or 'review' mode. Toggle back when you return to the presentation.

From the menus, you can move to two other sets of controls:

Top-level buttons: These buttons are for presentation-level actions, such as renaming, starring, sharing or moving the presentation to a different folder. From the menus, press Shift + Tab.
Toolbar: The toolbar has options for edit and format, such as colours and borders. From the menus, press Tab.

Tip: If the application menu shortcuts don't work, and there are no buttons and menus at the top, toggle them on with the shortcut: Ctrl + Shift + f.

Learn how to read slides

There are two methods: filmstrip and canvas.

To read slides with filmstrip:

Move focus to filmstrip.
- For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + f.
- For MacOS: Press Command + Option + Shift + f.
To navigate through the filmstrip, press the up or down arrow. If Braille mode is:
- Disabled: The entire content of the slide is presented.
- Enabled: Only the slide number, title and layout are presented.

To read slides with canvas:

Move focus to the canvas with tab from filmstrip or:
- For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + c.
- For MacOS: Press Command + Option + Shift + c.
To go through the slide elements, press Tab.
To move to the next slide, press Page down.

Learn how to read HTML view

You can display your presentation as a single, scrollable page that you can navigate like a normal webpage:

To search the menus:
- For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Alt + Slash.
- For MacOS: Press Option + Slash.
Type 'html'.
To reach the 'HTML view' menu option, press the down arrow.
- You can take note of the shortcut for future use.
To open in the same tab, press Enter.
- You can also copy the browser URL to share this view with others.
To return and edit your presentation, use the browser's back action.

Tips:

To land on each slide, navigate by landmark or region.
- Speaker notes are in the following landmark.
To read each element on the slide, navigate by item.
- Images are displayed, but aren't available to screen readers.

Learn how to read speaker notes

As an editable text area, normal editing navigation and feedback can be used to read them. For example, to read the lines, use the up and down arrow keys.

To focus on speaker notes:

For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + s.
For MacOS: Press Command + Option + Shift + s.

Add, delete and organise slides

There are multiple options to add slides to your presentation.

Add a blank slide

Move focus to the filmstrip.
Move focus to the slide before the position of the new slide.
Press Enter or:
- For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Ctrl + m.
- For MacOS: Press Command + m.
The new slide has the same layout as the previous slide.

Tip: To change the layout, open the Slide menu after you insert a slide, then select Apply layout.

Duplicate a slide

Move focus to the filmstrip.
Move focus to the slide that you want to duplicate.
For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Ctrl + d.
- For MacOS: Press Command + d.
The new slide has the same layout as the previous slide.

Use clipboard to cut, copy and paste slides

Move focus to the filmstrip.
Move focus to the slide that you want to cut or copy.
- Optional: To select more than one slide, press and hold Shift then arrows.
To cut or copy:
- For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Ctrl + x or Ctrl + c.
- For MacOS: Press Command + x or Command + c.
Move focus to the location of the new slides.
To paste the cut or slide that you copy after the focus slide:
- For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Ctrl + v.
- For MacOS: Press Command + v.

Import slides from another presentation

Move focus to the filmstrip.
- Move focus to the location where you want to insert slides.
Open the File menu.
Select Import slides.
- This opens a Google Drive dialogue to select a presentation.
- On the presentation that you want to import, press Enter.
On the 'Import slides' dialogue, to select all slides, press Tab to the 'Select all slides' button.
- Press Tab to the list of slides.
  - To navigate the list, use the arrow keys.
- To toggle selection in each slide, press Enter.
- At the end of the list to choose additional options, press Tab.
- Optional: To import content into slides using the current theme, untick 'Keep original theme'.
To insert the selected slides into your presentation, press Tab to the 'Import slides' button Enter.

Delete slides

Move focus to the filmstrip.
Move focus to the slide that you want to delete.
Optional: To select more than one slide, press and hold Shift then arrows.
Press Delete.

Skip a slide

You can skip a slide when you present a presentation. The slide won't be deleted and if you share your presentation with others, people can find the skipped slides.

Move focus to the filmstrip.
Move focus to the slide that you want to skip.
Open the context menu by pressing Shift + F10.
Press the down arrow to the 'Skip slide' menu item.
Press Enter.
- Tip: When you skip the slide, this option changes to 'Unskip slide'.

Add slide numbers

You can number your slides in a presentation:

Open the Insert menu.
Select Slide numbers.
To apply, press Enter.

Tip: If you don't want your title slide to be numbered, before you apply, tick 'Skip title slides'.

To number only certain slides:

Move focus to the filmstrip.
Select the slide or slides that you want numbered.
Open the Insert menu.
Select Slide numbers.
Tab to the 'Apply to selected' button and press Enter.

Change the layout of a slide

Formats for individual slides in your presentation, such as 'Title and body' or 'Title and two columns' are known as slide layouts. When you move through the filmstrip view, you'll hear layout information about each slide in the presentation.

In the filmstrip, select the slide where you want to change the layout.
Open the Slide menu.
Select Apply layout.
To hear the layout options, press the right arrow.
- You'll hear 'Selected' for the current slide's layout.
- You'll hear 'Not selected' for the other layout options.
To select a layout option for the current slide, press Enter.

Change the reading order of a slide

When you add elements to a slide, the tab order follows the order that they're placed, and your screen reader reads them in the same order. Even if the content doesn't visually overlap, each element stays on top of the previous ones. To change the reading order, move the element in the stack.

Move focus to the element that you want to move.
Open the Arrange menu.
Only the available options show up. For example, with focus on the first element in the tab order, only front and forward are available.
Select Order, and then:
- Bring to front.
- Bring forward.
- Send backward.
- Send to back.

Tip: Your screen reader should announce the keyboard shortcuts for each menu option and the effect when you use the shortcut. Your screen reader is silent when you press a shortcut that has no effect on the order.

Change the order of slides

Go to the filmstrip.
To find the slide that you want to move, press the up or down arrow.
To select multiple slides to move, press and hold Shift then arrows.
To move the selected slides up or down:
- For Windows or ChromeOS: Press and hold Ctrl + up or down arrow.
- For MacOS: Press and hold Command + up or down arrow.

Tip: To change the order of slides in the filmstrip, you can use clipboard cut and paste.

Editing and formatting basics

In your presentation, you can add or change content and format.

Add a text box, image, table or chart

Go to the slide where you want to add a:
- Text box
- Image
- Table
- Chart
Open the Insert menu.
Choose the menu item that you want.
To make your selection, press Enter.

Add a numbered or bulleted list

You can add and customise bulleted or numbered lists.

Add a list

Move focus to the slide where you want to add a list.
Move focus to the text element that should contain the list.
- For a numbered list:
  - For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Ctrl + Shift + 7.
  - For MacOS: Press Command + Shift + 7.
- For a bulleted list:
  - For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Ctrl + Shift + 8.
  - For MacOS: Press Command + Shift + 8.
Optional:
- To edit or add content before the list:
  1. Press Enter.
  2. Move the cursor to the position of the list.
- To start a list inside a list, press Tab.
  - The new list is indented.
- To go back to the main list, press Enter twice.

Change list type and colour

Change list type

Move focus to the element that contains a list in the canvas.
To edit the element and move the cursor to the number or bullet, press Enter.
Open the Format menu.
Select Bullets and numbering.
Choose a new bullet type:
- List options: To make a custom bullet, select More bullets.
- Numbered list.
- Bulleted list.

Change list colour

Move focus to the element that contains a list in the canvas.
To search the menus.
- For Windows or ChromeOS: Press Alt + Slash.
- For MacOS: Press Option + Slash.
Type the name of a colour, like 'red'.
In the available options, press the down arrow.
- Fill colour: Sets the colour of the container background.
- Border colour: Sets the colour of the border of the container.
- Text colour: Sets the text colour of the list in the container.
- Highlight colour: Sets the background colour of the text in the container.