actions, keyboard shortcuts

[robyn.schomburg]

I am making a powerpoint book that a student with a physical disability
will use with an alternate keyboard. To read the text they need to
click on the words an a action plays the text with background sounds. I
need to assign a keyboard shortcut to that action so when they press
that button on the alternate keyboard the sound will play. Is there any
way of doing this? I didn't want the sound to play as soon as they
turned the page because I want them to try to read it themselves first,
then they can hear it being read.


Any suggestions?

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I am making a powerpoint book that a student with a physical disability
will use with an alternate keyboard. To read the text they need to
click on the words an a action plays the text with background sounds. I
need to assign a keyboard shortcut to that action so when they press
that button on the alternate keyboard the sound will play. Is there any
way of doing this? I didn't want the sound to play as soon as they
turned the page because I want them to try to read it themselves first,
then they can hear it being read.

Are there a lot of action keys on each slide or just one?

The visual feedback for this is minimal at best, but if there are shapes with
an action setting on the slide, you can use tab to move a (hard to see)
highlight from one to the next then press Enter to trigger the highlighted one.


================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[rms]

When I tab it just goes to the next page. There is 1 action on each
page.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

When I tab it just goes to the next page. There is 1 action on each
page.

If pressing any key sends it to the next page, you may want to put the presentation
in kiosk mode instead (then only clicks on navigational buttons will move things
along, but you can tab from one of those to the next then press ENTER to simulate a
mouseclick from the keyboard).



================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[rms]

In the kiosk mode only the mouse works. I tried using tab and enter,
but it didn't do anything. I just don't think it is going to work how I
want it to.

Thanks,

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

In the kiosk mode only the mouse works. I tried using tab and enter,
but it didn't do anything. I just don't think it is going to work how I
want it to.

Well rats. You're right. Another little PPT PC vs Mac compatibility issue I wasn't
aware of.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi,

Hope I'm not intruding here. Mind if I jawbone with Steve for a minute?

How about making a userform? A control on the userform or the userform
itself could listen for KeyPress events and act on them accordingly.

Steve, do you think that would work in this situation?

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

Well rats. You're right. Another little PPT PC vs Mac compatibility issue I
wasn't
aware of.

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi,

Hope I'm not intruding here. Mind if I jawbone with Steve for a minute?

How about making a userform? A control on the userform or the userform
itself could listen for KeyPress events and act on them accordingly.

Steve, do you think that would work in this situation?

It might work ...

You have the problem of hiding the form. PPT won't let you make forms smaller
than 100 in either dimension) but maybe off screen (.Left = -100, .Top = -100)
...

And of launching it in the first place, but for that you can put a slide-size
rectangle or other shape on the first slide and tell the user to click anywhere
to start the show. The click launches a macro that takes you to the next slide
and activates the form.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

I think you can make a userform transparent, too. I wonder if our
correspondent wants to try any of these ideas.

-Jim

It might work ...

You have the problem of hiding the form. PPT won't let you make forms smaller
than 100 in either dimension) but maybe off screen (.Left = -100, .Top = -100)
..


And of launching it in the first place, but for that you can put a slide-size
rectangle or other shape on the first slide and tell the user to click
anywhere
to start the show. The click launches a macro that takes you to the next
slide
and activates the form.

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[rms]

Hi,

Thanks for thinking so hard for me on this. If I knew what a userform
was I would try it. Could someone send me someplace that would help me?

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi again Robyn,

Sorry for aside that tuned you out momentarily, but I wanted some assurance
from a renowned expert (Steve) that my idea might work for you before I
suggested it in earnest.

A userform is like a fancy text box of sorts. You can do more with a
userform than with a text box.

One of the things a userform can do is to "listen" for keyboard presses and
then take actions based upon what was pressed. So it seems that is something
that would help you.

However, I am having problems with the vocabulary of your original posting.

What do you mean by "alternate keyboard?" Is it a physical keyboard or a
keyboard that appears on screen? I don't have a clear idea of what you mean
by "alternate keyboard."

By "turn the page" do you mean advance to the next slide?

Here's what I think you are saying:
* Have a slide appear
* Wait for the user to press a certain letter on the keyboard
* Animate some text and play a sound (spoken words perhaps or some sort of
audio confirmation) based upon which key was pressed.
* Then do something else

If you would be kind enough to describe more completely what you would like
to happen I think we can help you accomplish the goal.

There is a book titled "Powerful PowerPoint for Educators: Using Visual
Basic for Application to Make PowerPoint Interactive" by David M. Marcovitz
that I recommend to you.
http://www.loyola.edu/edudept/PowerfulPowerPoint/

David's book is a great primer for educators who want to take full advantage
of PowerPoint's interactivity features.

David's book will get you started. But I think for your proposal you will
likely need to come back here and get help with the specifics. There are a
lot of properties associated with userforms. Everything from their size,
visibility, transparency, and what they do can be specified.

So your homework assignment is to read David's book and to post back with
details about how you envisage the steps to be taken by the the student when
PowerPoint is running.

Thanks.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

Hi,

Thanks for thinking so hard for me on this. If I knew what a userform
was I would try it. Could someone send me someplace that would help me?

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[rms]

Thank you very much Jim, I will look into getting that book.

They keyboard I'm using for this is a membrane keyboard that you can
mimic any key press or mouse movement. The students I'm using it with
cannot use if as a mouse so I need a key combination that I can program
into it that will play a sound (that I have set up as a action) and
another key combination that will just go to the next slide (turn the
page).

What I did was take a book with a CD of the pages being read (like a
book on tape), separated the sounds into pages, scanned each page and
made a computer book. If they could use a mouse they would "turn the
page" by clicking on a button and they would "read" the book by
clicking on the words. I would rather that the sounds did not start as
they turned the page to give them a chance to try to read the words
first, then they can click on them to read. Using this alternate
keyboard the challenge is to make keyboard shortcuts for each thing you
want them to be able to do.

Robyn

Hi again Robyn,

Sorry for aside that tuned you out momentarily, but I wanted some assurance
from a renowned expert (Steve) that my idea might work for you before I
suggested it in earnest.

A userform is like a fancy text box of sorts. You can do more with a
userform than with a text box.

One of the things a userform can do is to "listen" for keyboard presses and
then take actions based upon what was pressed. So it seems that is something
that would help you.

However, I am having problems with the vocabulary of your original posting.

What do you mean by "alternate keyboard?" Is it a physical keyboard or a
keyboard that appears on screen? I don't have a clear idea of what you mean
by "alternate keyboard."

By "turn the page" do you mean advance to the next slide?

Here's what I think you are saying:
* Have a slide appear
* Wait for the user to press a certain letter on the keyboard
* Animate some text and play a sound (spoken words perhaps or some sort of
audio confirmation) based upon which key was pressed.
* Then do something else

If you would be kind enough to describe more completely what you would like
to happen I think we can help you accomplish the goal.

There is a book titled "Powerful PowerPoint for Educators: Using Visual
Basic for Application to Make PowerPoint Interactive" by David M. Marcovitz
that I recommend to you.
http://www.loyola.edu/edudept/PowerfulPowerPoint/

David's book is a great primer for educators who want to take full advantage
of PowerPoint's interactivity features.

David's book will get you started. But I think for your proposal you will
likely need to come back here and get help with the specifics. There are a
lot of properties associated with userforms. Everything from their size,
visibility, transparency, and what they do can be specified.

So your homework assignment is to read David's book and to post back with
details about how you envisage the steps to be taken by the the student when
PowerPoint is running.

Thanks.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

Hi,

Thanks for thinking so hard for me on this. If I knew what a userform
was I would try it. Could someone send me someplace that would help me?

I think you can make a userform transparent, too. I wonder if our
correspondent wants to try any of these ideas.

-Jim


Quoting from "Steve Rindsberg" <[email protected]>, in article
(e-mail address removed), on [DATE:

Hi,

Hope I'm not intruding here. Mind if I jawbone with Steve for a minute?

How about making a userform? A control on the userform or the userform
itself could listen for KeyPress events and act on them accordingly.

Steve, do you think that would work in this situation?

It might work ...

You have the problem of hiding the form. PPT won't let you make forms
smaller
than 100 in either dimension) but maybe off screen (.Left = -100, .Top =
-100)
..


And of launching it in the first place, but for that you can put a
slide-size
rectangle or other shape on the first slide and tell the user to click
anywhere
to start the show. The click launches a macro that takes you to the next
slide
and activates the form.

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[rms]

Hi,

No, it is just like using a regular keyboard.

Robyn

Hi again,

When you use the membrane keyboard do you change any of the mouse or
keyboard settings from OSX default?

-Jim

Thank you very much Jim, I will look into getting that book.

They keyboard I'm using for this is a membrane keyboard that you can
mimic any key press or mouse movement. The students I'm using it with
cannot use if as a mouse so I need a key combination that I can program
into it that will play a sound (that I have set up as a action) and
another key combination that will just go to the next slide (turn the
page).

What I did was take a book with a CD of the pages being read (like a
book on tape), separated the sounds into pages, scanned each page and
made a computer book. If they could use a mouse they would "turn the
page" by clicking on a button and they would "read" the book by
clicking on the words. I would rather that the sounds did not start as
they turned the page to give them a chance to try to read the words
first, then they can click on them to read. Using this alternate
keyboard the challenge is to make keyboard shortcuts for each thing you
want them to be able to do.

Robyn

Hi again Robyn,

Sorry for aside that tuned you out momentarily, but I wanted some assurance
from a renowned expert (Steve) that my idea might work for you before I
suggested it in earnest.

A userform is like a fancy text box of sorts. You can do more with a
userform than with a text box.

One of the things a userform can do is to "listen" for keyboard presses and
then take actions based upon what was pressed. So it seems that is something
that would help you.

However, I am having problems with the vocabulary of your original posting.

What do you mean by "alternate keyboard?" Is it a physical keyboard or a
keyboard that appears on screen? I don't have a clear idea of what you mean
by "alternate keyboard."

By "turn the page" do you mean advance to the next slide?

Here's what I think you are saying:
* Have a slide appear
* Wait for the user to press a certain letter on the keyboard
* Animate some text and play a sound (spoken words perhaps or some sort of
audio confirmation) based upon which key was pressed.
* Then do something else

If you would be kind enough to describe more completely what you would like
to happen I think we can help you accomplish the goal.

There is a book titled "Powerful PowerPoint for Educators: Using Visual
Basic for Application to Make PowerPoint Interactive" by David M. Marcovitz
that I recommend to you.
http://www.loyola.edu/edudept/PowerfulPowerPoint/

David's book is a great primer for educators who want to take full advantage
of PowerPoint's interactivity features.

David's book will get you started. But I think for your proposal you will
likely need to come back here and get help with the specifics. There are a
lot of properties associated with userforms. Everything from their size,
visibility, transparency, and what they do can be specified.

So your homework assignment is to read David's book and to post back with
details about how you envisage the steps to be taken by the the student when
PowerPoint is running.

Thanks.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP


Quoting from "rms" <[email protected]>, in article
(e-mail address removed), on [DATE:

Hi,

Thanks for thinking so hard for me on this. If I knew what a userform
was I would try it. Could someone send me someplace that would help me?


Jim Gordon MVP wrote:
I think you can make a userform transparent, too. I wonder if our
correspondent wants to try any of these ideas.

-Jim


Quoting from "Steve Rindsberg" <[email protected]>, in article
(e-mail address removed), on [DATE:

MVP
wrote:
Hi,

Hope I'm not intruding here. Mind if I jawbone with Steve for a minute?

How about making a userform? A control on the userform or the userform
itself could listen for KeyPress events and act on them accordingly.

Steve, do you think that would work in this situation?

It might work ...

You have the problem of hiding the form. PPT won't let you make forms
smaller
than 100 in either dimension) but maybe off screen (.Left = -100, .Top =
-100)
..


And of launching it in the first place, but for that you can put a
slide-size
rectangle or other shape on the first slide and tell the user to click
anywhere
to start the show. The click launches a macro that takes you to the next
slide
and activates the form.

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info


--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[rms]

Hi,

No, it will take me a while, I have a major construction action going
on in my house. I have no free time to play with it.

Hi,

That's good news. Then PowerPoint should be able to detect the keyboard
presses and take actions that you specify.

Have you had a chance to try any of the VBA examples in the book?

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

Hi again,

When you use the membrane keyboard do you change any of the mouse or
keyboard settings from OSX default?

-Jim

Thank you very much Jim, I will look into getting that book.

They keyboard I'm using for this is a membrane keyboard that you can
mimic any key press or mouse movement. The students I'm using it with
cannot use if as a mouse so I need a key combination that I can program
into it that will play a sound (that I have set up as a action) and
another key combination that will just go to the next slide (turn the
page).

What I did was take a book with a CD of the pages being read (like a
book on tape), separated the sounds into pages, scanned each page and
made a computer book. If they could use a mouse they would "turn the
page" by clicking on a button and they would "read" the book by
clicking on the words. I would rather that the sounds did not start as
they turned the page to give them a chance to try to read the words
first, then they can click on them to read. Using this alternate
keyboard the challenge is to make keyboard shortcuts for each thing you
want them to be able to do.

Robyn

Jim Gordon MVP wrote:
Hi again Robyn,

Sorry for aside that tuned you out momentarily, but I wanted some assurance
from a renowned expert (Steve) that my idea might work for you before I
suggested it in earnest.

A userform is like a fancy text box of sorts. You can do more with a
userform than with a text box.

One of the things a userform can do is to "listen" for keyboard presses and
then take actions based upon what was pressed. So it seems that is something
that would help you.

However, I am having problems with the vocabulary of your original posting.

What do you mean by "alternate keyboard?" Is it a physical keyboard or a
keyboard that appears on screen? I don't have a clear idea of what you mean
by "alternate keyboard."

By "turn the page" do you mean advance to the next slide?

Here's what I think you are saying:
* Have a slide appear
* Wait for the user to press a certain letter on the keyboard
* Animate some text and play a sound (spoken words perhaps or some sort of
audio confirmation) based upon which key was pressed.
* Then do something else

If you would be kind enough to describe more completely what you would like
to happen I think we can help you accomplish the goal.

There is a book titled "Powerful PowerPoint for Educators: Using Visual
Basic for Application to Make PowerPoint Interactive" by David M. Marcovitz
that I recommend to you.
http://www.loyola.edu/edudept/PowerfulPowerPoint/

David's book is a great primer for educators who want to take full advantage
of PowerPoint's interactivity features.

David's book will get you started. But I think for your proposal you will
likely need to come back here and get help with the specifics. There are a
lot of properties associated with userforms. Everything from their size,
visibility, transparency, and what they do can be specified.

So your homework assignment is to read David's book and to post back with
details about how you envisage the steps to be taken by the the student when
PowerPoint is running.

Thanks.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP


Quoting from "rms" <[email protected]>, in article
(e-mail address removed), on [DATE:

Hi,

Thanks for thinking so hard for me on this. If I knew what a userform
was I would try it. Could someone send me someplace that would help me?


Jim Gordon MVP wrote:
I think you can make a userform transparent, too. I wonder if our
correspondent wants to try any of these ideas.

-Jim


Quoting from "Steve Rindsberg" <[email protected]>, in article
(e-mail address removed), on [DATE:

MVP
wrote:
Hi,

Hope I'm not intruding here. Mind if I jawbone with Steve for a minute?

How about making a userform? A control on the userform or the userform
itself could listen for KeyPress events and act on them accordingly.

Steve, do you think that would work in this situation?

It might work ...

You have the problem of hiding the form. PPT won't let you make forms
smaller
than 100 in either dimension) but maybe off screen (.Left = -100, .Top =
-100)
..


And of launching it in the first place, but for that you can put a
slide-size
rectangle or other shape on the first slide and tell the user to click
anywhere
to start the show. The click launches a macro that takes you to the next
slide
and activates the form.

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info


--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[David M. Marcovitz]

Robyn,

I hadn't tuned into this thread earlier (no one told me that my book was
assigned as homework for this class. When you do get a chance to look
at the book, let me know if you have any questions (email me through the
link at the book's Web site). I mostly hang out in the Windows PowerPoint
newsgroup, but all the examples in the book work on Macs as well (I'm
originally a Mac person, and I just got a new iMac at home).

--David

--
David M. Marcovitz
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology
Loyola College in Maryland
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.PowerfulPowerPoint.com/

Hi,

No, it will take me a while, I have a major construction action going
on in my house. I have no free time to play with it.

Hi,

That's good news. Then PowerPoint should be able to detect the
keyboard presses and take actions that you specify.

Have you had a chance to try any of the VBA examples in the book?

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

Hi again,

When you use the membrane keyboard do you change any of the mouse
or keyboard settings from OSX default?

-Jim


Quoting from "rms" <[email protected]>, in article
(e-mail address removed), on [DATE:

Thank you very much Jim, I will look into getting that book.

They keyboard I'm using for this is a membrane keyboard that you
can mimic any key press or mouse movement. The students I'm using
it with cannot use if as a mouse so I need a key combination that
I can program into it that will play a sound (that I have set up
as a action) and another key combination that will just go to the
next slide (turn the page).

What I did was take a book with a CD of the pages being read (like
a book on tape), separated the sounds into pages, scanned each
page and made a computer book. If they could use a mouse they
would "turn the page" by clicking on a button and they would
"read" the book by clicking on the words. I would rather that the
sounds did not start as they turned the page to give them a chance
to try to read the words first, then they can click on them to
read. Using this alternate keyboard the challenge is to make
keyboard shortcuts for each thing you want them to be able to do.

Robyn

Jim Gordon MVP wrote:
Hi again Robyn,

Sorry for aside that tuned you out momentarily, but I wanted some
assurance from a renowned expert (Steve) that my idea might work
for you before I suggested it in earnest.

A userform is like a fancy text box of sorts. You can do more
with a userform than with a text box.

One of the things a userform can do is to "listen" for keyboard
presses and then take actions based upon what was pressed. So it
seems that is something that would help you.

However, I am having problems with the vocabulary of your
original posting.

What do you mean by "alternate keyboard?" Is it a physical
keyboard or a keyboard that appears on screen? I don't have a
clear idea of what you mean by "alternate keyboard."

By "turn the page" do you mean advance to the next slide?

Here's what I think you are saying:
* Have a slide appear
* Wait for the user to press a certain letter on the keyboard
* Animate some text and play a sound (spoken words perhaps or
some sort of audio confirmation) based upon which key was
pressed. * Then do something else

If you would be kind enough to describe more completely what you
would like to happen I think we can help you accomplish the goal.

There is a book titled "Powerful PowerPoint for Educators: Using
Visual Basic for Application to Make PowerPoint Interactive" by
David M. Marcovitz that I recommend to you.
http://www.loyola.edu/edudept/PowerfulPowerPoint/

David's book is a great primer for educators who want to take
full advantage of PowerPoint's interactivity features.

David's book will get you started. But I think for your proposal
you will likely need to come back here and get help with the
specifics. There are a lot of properties associated with
userforms. Everything from their size, visibility, transparency,
and what they do can be specified.

So your homework assignment is to read David's book and to post
back with details about how you envisage the steps to be taken by
the the student when PowerPoint is running.

Thanks.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP


Quoting from "rms" <[email protected]>, in article
(e-mail address removed), on [DATE:

Hi,

Thanks for thinking so hard for me on this. If I knew what a
userform was I would try it. Could someone send me someplace
that would help me?


Jim Gordon MVP wrote:
I think you can make a userform transparent, too. I wonder if
our correspondent wants to try any of these ideas.

-Jim


Quoting from "Steve Rindsberg" <[email protected]>, in
article (e-mail address removed), on [DATE:

Jim Gordon MVP
wrote:
Hi,

Hope I'm not intruding here. Mind if I jawbone with Steve
for a minute?

How about making a userform? A control on the userform or the
userform itself could listen for KeyPress events and act on
them accordingly.

Steve, do you think that would work in this situation?

It might work ...

You have the problem of hiding the form. PPT won't let you
make forms smaller
than 100 in either dimension) but maybe off screen (.Left =
-100, .Top = -100)
..


And of launching it in the first place, but for that you can
put a slide-size
rectangle or other shape on the first slide and tell the user
to click anywhere
to start the show. The click launches a macro that takes you
to the next slide
and activates the form.

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info


--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[rms]

David,

Thanks, I'll do that.

Robyn,

I hadn't tuned into this thread earlier (no one told me that my book was
assigned as homework for this class. When you do get a chance to look
at the book, let me know if you have any questions (email me through the
link at the book's Web site). I mostly hang out in the Windows PowerPoint
newsgroup, but all the examples in the book work on Macs as well (I'm
originally a Mac person, and I just got a new iMac at home).

--David

--
David M. Marcovitz
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology
Loyola College in Maryland
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.PowerfulPowerPoint.com/

Hi,

No, it will take me a while, I have a major construction action going
on in my house. I have no free time to play with it.

Hi,

That's good news. Then PowerPoint should be able to detect the
keyboard presses and take actions that you specify.

Have you had a chance to try any of the VBA examples in the book?

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP


Quoting from "Jim Gordon MVP" <[email protected]>, in
article C1A355DD.141C5%[email protected], on [DATE:

Hi again,

When you use the membrane keyboard do you change any of the mouse
or keyboard settings from OSX default?

-Jim


Quoting from "rms" <[email protected]>, in article
(e-mail address removed), on [DATE:

Thank you very much Jim, I will look into getting that book.

They keyboard I'm using for this is a membrane keyboard that you
can mimic any key press or mouse movement. The students I'm using
it with cannot use if as a mouse so I need a key combination that
I can program into it that will play a sound (that I have set up
as a action) and another key combination that will just go to the
next slide (turn the page).

What I did was take a book with a CD of the pages being read (like
a book on tape), separated the sounds into pages, scanned each
page and made a computer book. If they could use a mouse they
would "turn the page" by clicking on a button and they would
"read" the book by clicking on the words. I would rather that the
sounds did not start as they turned the page to give them a chance
to try to read the words first, then they can click on them to
read. Using this alternate keyboard the challenge is to make
keyboard shortcuts for each thing you want them to be able to do.

Robyn

Jim Gordon MVP wrote:
Hi again Robyn,

Sorry for aside that tuned you out momentarily, but I wanted some
assurance from a renowned expert (Steve) that my idea might work
for you before I suggested it in earnest.

A userform is like a fancy text box of sorts. You can do more
with a userform than with a text box.

One of the things a userform can do is to "listen" for keyboard
presses and then take actions based upon what was pressed. So it
seems that is something that would help you.

However, I am having problems with the vocabulary of your
original posting.

What do you mean by "alternate keyboard?" Is it a physical
keyboard or a keyboard that appears on screen? I don't have a
clear idea of what you mean by "alternate keyboard."

By "turn the page" do you mean advance to the next slide?

Here's what I think you are saying:
* Have a slide appear
* Wait for the user to press a certain letter on the keyboard
* Animate some text and play a sound (spoken words perhaps or
some sort of audio confirmation) based upon which key was
pressed. * Then do something else

If you would be kind enough to describe more completely what you
would like to happen I think we can help you accomplish the goal.

There is a book titled "Powerful PowerPoint for Educators: Using
Visual Basic for Application to Make PowerPoint Interactive" by
David M. Marcovitz that I recommend to you.
http://www.loyola.edu/edudept/PowerfulPowerPoint/

David's book is a great primer for educators who want to take
full advantage of PowerPoint's interactivity features.

David's book will get you started. But I think for your proposal
you will likely need to come back here and get help with the
specifics. There are a lot of properties associated with
userforms. Everything from their size, visibility, transparency,
and what they do can be specified.

So your homework assignment is to read David's book and to post
back with details about how you envisage the steps to be taken by
the the student when PowerPoint is running.

Thanks.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP


Quoting from "rms" <[email protected]>, in article
(e-mail address removed), on [DATE:

Hi,

Thanks for thinking so hard for me on this. If I knew what a
userform was I would try it. Could someone send me someplace
that would help me?


Jim Gordon MVP wrote:
I think you can make a userform transparent, too. I wonder if
our correspondent wants to try any of these ideas.

-Jim


Quoting from "Steve Rindsberg" <[email protected]>, in
article (e-mail address removed), on [DATE:

Jim Gordon MVP
wrote:
Hi,

Hope I'm not intruding here. Mind if I jawbone with Steve
for a minute?

How about making a userform? A control on the userform or the
userform itself could listen for KeyPress events and act on
them accordingly.

Steve, do you think that would work in this situation?

It might work ...

You have the problem of hiding the form. PPT won't let you
make forms smaller
than 100 in either dimension) but maybe off screen (.Left =
-100, .Top = -100)
..


And of launching it in the first place, but for that you can
put a slide-size
rectangle or other shape on the first slide and tell the user
to click anywhere
to start the show. The click launches a macro that takes you
to the next slide
and activates the form.

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info


--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info


--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info