Presentations
Accessibility
Presentations is built to be made, read and presented without a mouse and with a screen reader, and its checks keep slides legible for the people in the room.
In the editor
Section titled “In the editor”- Everything from the keyboard. Tab moves between a slide’s elements in reading order; arrows move the selection to the next grid line (Alt for one pixel), Shift+arrows resize it, Enter or F2 edits the focused text box, or opens a picture (its options and alt text), a chart (alt text) or an icon, and Alt+F10 reaches the selected element’s quick bar (Esc goes back). The quick bar and the pills at the slide’s foot move along with the arrow keys, and Esc folds the open drawer of the rail, giving the keyboard back to its tool. In Slides, arrows move between slides, Alt+← / Alt+→ reorder them and Shift+F10 opens a slide’s actions. On the slide, Shift+F10 or the Menu key opens the right-click menu of the focused element, the selection or the slide, and gives the keyboard back to it when it closes; Enter goes into a group and Esc comes back out, each said aloud. Ctrl+K finds every command by its name; Ctrl+/ lists every shortcut. See Make a deck.
- Moves are said aloud. Moving, resizing, inserting and undoing are announced to a screen reader, as on the dashboard canvas, and so is the save state: a refusal at once, progress politely.
- Reading order is yours to set. Layers (on the rail) lists the slide’s elements in reading order, the order a screen reader and Tab follow. Move one with Alt+↑ / Alt+↓.
- Pictures from the keyboard. A picture’s options take the keyboard as the pointer does: the crop’s frame moves with the arrow keys and resizes with Shift+arrows, and is said aloud as it goes; every slider has a box to type its value in. See Edit a picture.
- Alt text. A picture’s alt text is in the selection’s panel’s Format tab, and on its quick bar; a picture without it is a Review finding (L4) whose Add alt text takes it right there. A chart is read by alt text the platform writes from its binding: Revenue by region, Q3 2026: North America $2.01M, EMEA $1.32M. Open a chart (double-click, Enter or F2) to write your own in The chart’s alt text; left empty, it is described from its data for each reader.
While presenting
Section titled “While presenting”- Keys for everything — next, back, first, last, a slide by its number, sources, blank screen, the laser pointer, the pen (D) and live captions (C). See Present.
- Each slide is announced, with its live numbers read with their meaning rather than their glyphs: Revenue, Q3 2026: 4.82 million US dollars, not $4.82M. A figure typed by hand is read as entered by hand.
- Builds are said step by step. On a slide whose charts or lists build, the slide is read as it shows, and each part is said as it comes: Step 2 of 4: EMEA: $1.32M. When your system asks for reduced motion, the parts still come one by one, without movement, and so do slide transitions.
- Live captions show what the presenter says on the room’s screen, heard on the presenting device only. See Live captions.
- Nothing opens on hover. A figure’s source opens on a click or on I, and the sources list is a list a screen reader can read and copy as text.
- The control bar can be reached from the keyboard and never hides while focus is in it. A blanked screen says how to come back.
Checks that keep slides legible
Section titled “Checks that keep slides legible”| Check | Level | What it finds |
|---|---|---|
| L1 | Must fix | A live number that could outgrow its box: size the box for the plausible range, so text never clips |
| L2 | Review | Text that would overflow its frame in an export |
| L3 | Must fix | Slide text below 4.5:1 contrast against its background: The theme’s text colour fixes it in one click |
| L4 | Review | A picture without alt text |
| L5 | Review | Text smaller than 18 px on the 1920 × 1080 frame: use a theme text style |
See the checks reference.