This is a known issue with PowerPoint - we have an open issue for it here: https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda/issues/10155

In the meantime, the workaround (aside from enabling editing), is to actually run the presentation (press F5) - NVDA will read the presentation when running.

Kind regards

Quentin.

On Wed, Nov 11, 2020 at 11:44 AM Sascha Cowley via groups.io <sascha.camille=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:

Hi all,
I did a search, but couldn't find anything on list about this, and could just be missing something.
As is probably quite common, my university makes our lecture slides available as Microsoft PowerPoint files. Since these files are downloaded, PowerPoint opens them in protected view. Now, I know how to enable editing, but I can't work out a good way of accessing the slides with protected view enabled. When I cycle through PowerPoint's various areas (with F6 or Shift+F6), I just hear "pane" where I would expect the slide switcher and slide view to be.
The only way I have found to be able to read the slides (apart from starting the slide show) is to navigate to this pane, move the mouse to the navigator and left click. I am then able to interact with the slides as normal, except, of course, I can't change anything.
You may of course ask why I don't just enable editing. Two reasons really. The first, which I'm not really concerned about with these files, is security. The second is that I don't want to modify these files, and protected view is just another mechanism to prevent accidental edits.
If anyone is aware of a better way of interacting with slideshows in protected view, I'd love to hear about it. If not, I might look and see if there is an issue open on this and if not open one myself.

Regards,
Sascha

--

Quentin Christensen
Training and Support Manager

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