A previous blog post titled “Read or Unread Emails” wrote about some reasons why you might want to mark an email as unread:

• Forgetting to respond unless it’s marked as unread
• Reading an email, but not having time to respond

Or maybe you use unread emails as a reminder of things that you need to do. Regardless of the exact reason, marking emails as unread may be a useful strategy. But, where else could you utilize this strategy?…

Well, the title of this blog post did give it away… but you can also mark Teams messages as unread!

How to Mark Teams Messages as Unread

1. In teams, right-click on the message you want marked as unread
2. Select the option to “Mark as Unread”

Theme on Teams!

Stay tuned for more upcoming blog posts on Teams!

“Snooze” or “snoozing” refers to napping or sleeping. It’s a common phrase to say “I snoozed my alarm this morning” to mean that you pushed that alarm back so you could sleep more. In a set amount of time, that alarm will go off again.

What does “Snoozing Emails” mean?

Snoozing an email would then mean that we are pushing that email back. It’s not time to deal with that email. But, want to be alerted to that email later.

When you snooze an email, it is removed from your inbox (and placed in a “snoozed” folder). At a selected time, the email is moved back into your inbox. You can also go into the snooze folder and move emails back to your inbox if needed.

Why Snooze Emails?

Some examples of why you might want to snooze emails include:

• You are focussed on another task, and don’t want to switch to respond to that email
• You are working with a “zero inbox” (no unread emails), and won’t have time to respond to that email for some time
• The email refers to a project you have already set time aside for
• You have a set time of day where you read and respond to emails

How to Snooze Emails

• Open Outlook
• Select the email you want to snooze
• Either right-click and then select snooze or select snooze from the top ribbon
• Select when you want to be reminded of that email

Enjoy your little nappy-nap email!

Perhaps you caught our previous blog post on Microsoft’s Editor, and love how it’s built right into Office applications such as Word and Outlook. But also perhaps, you were left wishing it was available in more places… that it was available, say, in Edge?

Well, it is!

There is an Editor Browser extension available in the Edge Add-ons store, and it’s free! It works in both Edge and Chrome browsers… though if you’ve been following the blog for awhile now, you’d know that there are plenty of reasons that we suggest Edge over Chrome.

• Tech Tips blog post on PDF Files in Edge
• Tech Tips blog post on Collections in Edge
• Tech Tips blog post on Tab Groups (in Edge)

Download the Editor Browser Extension

Microsoft Editor: Spelling & Grammar Checker – Microsoft Edge Addons

Requirements

Certain features of the Editor extension require you to have a Microsoft account. Though, never fret! Your RRC Polytech academic email is a Microsoft account! When you first open the Editor browser extension, you’ll be prompted to sign in with your Microsoft account (academic email).

Resources

For more information check out this Microsoft Support Article on the Microsoft Editor browser extension.

There is an entire new module in the Read&Write Tutorial in LEARN!

Wait, What is Read&Write?

Read&Write (also known as R&W), is an application available (for free) to all staff and students at Red River College Polytechnic. Features in the application support learners with reading, writing, studying, and more!

Learn more about Read&Write

Wow! What’s in the new Module?

The new module is all about customizations in Read&Write:

• Toolbar Appearance in both the desktop and web extension
• Speech settings such as changing the voice, reading speed, and how Read&Write reads
• Pronunciation and how you can teach Read&Write how to properly pronounce words
• Changing the look of the reading highlights
• Adjusting how you collect the text that you’ve highlighted
• And how you can create profiles in the web extension

So head on over to the Read&Write Tutorial in LEARN and check it out!

Quick Parts is available in Outlook and Word. Quick Parts allows you to create content, and later insert it into multiple documents, quickly. It’s also super easy to use!

Examples of when you might use Quick Parts:

• Contact information
• Directions or location information
• Instructions for an assignment
• Document properties (title, author, etc…)
• Reference information
• Standard responses
• Meeting information

And that’s just to name a few. The point is, that Quick Parts allows you to enter in long strings of text, simply by selecting the saved Quick Part.

How To Create a Quick Part

1. Type the text into Word or Outlook
2. Select the text you want included in the Quick Part by highlighting it
3. In the text group in the insert tab, select Quick Parts
4. click on save selection to Quick Part Gallery
5. Give the Quick Part a descriptive title (recommended) and a description (optional)

Then when you want to insert the Quick Part in another document or email, click on the Quick Part from the text group (in the insert tab).

Resources

• Additional information on Quick Parts
• LinkedIn Learning video on Quick Parts

…and for those wondering “haven’t I read about this before”? Yes. Yes you have. Quick Parts was one of the Fun Features of Microsoft Word highlighted previously on the blog. It’s just so, fun, and, quick, to set up, that we couldn’t help but highlight this amazing, part, of Word and Outlook again. …all puns intended.
Tech Tips Blog Post: Fun Features of Microsoft Word

For our final installment in the “Accessibility in Office Applications” blog series – OneNote!

Accessible Best Practices in OneNote

Now, because OneNote is essentially a digital binder full of Word Documents, Accessible Best Practices in OneNote are pretty much the same as those in Word.

There are however two slight additions:

Headers

If you are adding headers into your OneNote page, ensure you are using the built-in heading styles (as discussed with Word). But with OneNote, you also need to ensure you are uniquely naming your notebooks, sections, and pages!

Audio / Video Files

If you are adding an audio or video file into OneNote (for example: a YouTube video), it’s best to ensure that you are choosing an accessible file from the start. A file that:

• Has subtitles / closed captions
• Has video descriptions
• (Ideally) has ASL-English language interpretation

Learn more about accessible audio and video in OneNote

Accessibility Features of OneNote

The accessibility features of OneNote are the same as those we’ve already outlined in the previous blog posts of this series:

• Learn about dictation in OneNote
• Learn about Immersive Reader in OneNote
• Learn about keyboard shortcuts in OneNote

Previous Blog Posts on OneNote

• Tech Tips Blog Post, “OneNote”
• Tech Tips Blog Post, “Top 8 Tips for OneNote”
• Tech Tips Blog Post, “OneNote Updates!”

Welcome to RRC Polytech’s Inclusion Week 2025!

Inclusion week is a week long celebration, for both staff and students! And this year the planning committee seems to have out done themselves with the amazing sessions being offered! So much so, we needed to make our own blog post to promote it!

Check out the sessions below.

Monday March 3rd

• Immersive Stories, 11am-12pm – Roundhouse Auditorium at Manitou a bi bi Daiigae
• Experiential Learing: Personal Land Acknowledgement Workshop, 12pm-1pm – Praririe Lights at Notre Dame Campus & virtually on Teams
• The Hidden Strength of Introverts, 1pm-2pm – virtually on teams
• Metis Style Beading Class, 2pm-4pm – Prairie Lights at Notre Dame Campus

Tuesday March 4th

• Dimensions of Diversity and Inclusion for Trans People in the World, 11:30am-12:30pm – Roundhouse Auditorium at Manitou a bi bi Daiigae & virtually on Teams
• Gender and Sexual Diversity Inclusion Experiential Booth, 11am-1pm – Atrium at Roblin Centre Exchange District Campus (pre-event) and Roundhouse Auditorium at Manitou a bi bi Daiigae (post event)
• Introduction to Basic American Sign Language (ASL) and Deaf Culture, 1pm-2pm – Prairie Lights at Notre Dame Campus
• Film Screening – Between: Living in the Hyphen, 1pm-2pm – Roundhouse Auditorium at Manitou a bi bi Daiigae

Wednesday March 5th

• Disability Awareness Presentation by Manitoba Possible, 10am-11am – Prairie Lights at Notre Dame Campus
• Accessible Sports with Manitoba Possible (Curling and Boccia), 11am-12pm – North Gym at Notre Dame Campus
• Social Justice Coffee House, 10:30am-11:30am – Roundhouse Auditorium at Manitou a bi bi Daiigae
• Cultural Inclusion Event: Sharing our Heritage!, 11am-1pm – Library Hallway at Notre Dame Campus
• Immersive Stories, 12pm-1pm – Roundhouse Auditorium at Manitou a bi bi Daiigae
• Neurodiversity Working Group, 1pm-2pm – Roundhouse Auditorium at Manitou a bi bi Daiigae
• Cultural Karaoke, 5pm-7pm – Room P107 at Exchange District Campus

Thursday March 6th

• Accessibility and Assistive Technology at Work, 9am-10am – virtually on Teams
• Film Screening – Between: Living in the Hyphen, 1pm-2pm – Prairie Lights at Notre Dame Campus
• Immersive Stories: Indigenous Filipino Psychology, 1:30-2:30pm – Prairie Lights at Notre Dame Campus

Friday March 7th

• Neuroinclusion at Work: Six Principles for Inclusion, 9am-10:30am – virtually on Teams
• Accessibility Information Session and Overview of Panorama for Faculty, 11am-12pm – virtually on Teams
• Games for All, 11:30am-1pm – Library Hallway at Notre Dame Campus
• World Cafe, 12pm-1pm – Prairie Lights at Notre Dame Campus

Sign Up and Learn More!

To sign up for sessions, or check out some of the self-guided resources, head to the Inclusion Week 2025 : RRC Polytech: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion on Campus!

Welcome to Part 3 of our “Accessibility in Office Applications” blog series! This week we’re exploring Accessible Best Practices and Accessibility Features of Microsoft PowerPoint!

Accessible Best Practices in PowerPoint

Remember: these are in addition to the Accessible Best Practices in Office Applications – Part 1 of this blog series!

Headings

In PowerPoint, think of the slide titles as headings. Each slide needs to have a title, and each title needs to be unique!

But, what if a slide truly doesn’t need a title? For example: a slide with the image of a broken bone. Wouldn’t it be redundant to use a title such as “Picture of a Broken Bone”? …maybe. But not to a screen reader! A screen reader reads out slide titles to allow a user to navigate the slides to find information. Without a (unique) slide title, how would a screen reader user know what is on that slide, and if it’s the slide they are looking for?

In the above example, you would give the slide a title, perhaps even “Picture of a Broken Bone”, but you could “hide” that slide title!

Additional information on Slide Titles in PowerPoint

Text

Everything else we’ve talked about in terms of text applies to slides in PowerPoint (font styles, colors, use of italics, all caps, etc…). But there is one additional Accessible Best Practice:

The 6×7 rule! No more than 6 words per line of text, and no more than 7 lines per slide.
Keep information on your slides simple, clear, and concise! They should be bullet points of information, not entire sentences or thoughts.

Oh! and increase that font size! 30pt minimum.

Links

How to present links in PowerPoint is a bit of a controversial topic! We’ve said before that links need to have meaningful text, they need to explain where the link would take someone. But, during the live presentation, how accessible is that (meaningful) link up on a screen?

Here’s what we suggest:

• Use meaningful links in the slides (slides shown during the presentation) – odds are an entire website address is going to break the 6×7 rule
• Include full website addresses (and info on what the link is going to) on reference slides at the end of the presentation
• Share a copy of the presentation with participants, or at the very least, the reference slides with the links

Accessibility Features in PowerPoint

Dictation

Dictate text! That is, speak and have your computer type for you! This works both for text on slides, as well as text in the notes section.

Learn more about Dictation in PowerPoint

Editor

An advanced version of spelling and grammar check that also edits for clarity, conciseness and formality!

Remember, we want to use language that is simple, clear and concise. Editor can help!

Learn what Editor can check for in PowerPoint presentations

Keyboard Shortcuts

Learn about keyboard shortcuts in PowerPoint presentations

Speaker Coach

Speaker Coach is a feature in PowerPoint that lets you practice your presentation, and provides you with feedback for improvement!

Check out this previous Tech Tips blog post on Speaker Coach

Captions and Subtitles

Learn how to enable live captions for your PowerPoint presentations in this previous Tech Tips blog post

For Part 2 of our “Accessibility in Office Applications” blog series. This week we’re exporing Accessble Best Practices and Accessibility Features that are specific to Microsoft Word.

Accessible Best Practices in Word

Remember: these are in addition to the Accessible Best Practices in Office Applications – Part 1 of this blog series!

Headings

Use the heading styles that are built in!

Don’t just adjust the font formatting – this may (and we emphasize) may make it visually look like a header, but it isn’t structurally a header. Screen readers won’t know it’s a header. Your table of contents can’t be automatically made. There is no way to navigate your document.

Use the heading styles that are built in!

It’s also recommended that you have no more than 6 heading levels.

Learn more about using built-in heading styles in Microsoft Word

Links

Hyperlinks should have meaningful text!

Ideally, they should also make sense if read on their own as screen readers or keyboard navigation users can navigate through a list of links.

Don’t be a member of the “click here” club!

It’s also recommended that links have a different color than the rest of your text, and, are underlined. Remember how color can’t be used as the only way to convey information? Without underlining your links, the only way to tell that text is a link, is by color!

When able, we recommend using the hex code #0000FF for links. This is “true blue” or “100% blue”.

Learn more about accessible links and meaningful text in Microsoft Word

Readability

Did you know that Word can evaluate your text based documents for readability? It can! And readability is an often over-looked aspect of ensuring your document is accessible.

When we say “readability” we really mean comprehension. If your document is “hard to read” it is hard to understand.

Word uses the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level rating. We’d recommend to keep your documents at a grade level of 9 or less. If your document scores higher than 9, it might be hard to understand for some folks. Try to go back and edit your work.

For the writer of this blog, the most common reason for higher grade level, is long sentences. Try to keep your sentences under 20 words… Hey guess what?! Word also tells you the average words per sentence in your work!

Learn more about getting your document’s readability statistics

Accessibility Features in Word

Dictation

Dictate text! That is, speak and have your computer type for you!

Learn about Dictation in Microsoft Word

Immersive Reader

Immersive Reader is multiple tools all built into one feature!

• Adjust column width and text spacing
• Change the page (background) color
• Use a reading ruler
• See syllables identified
• Have text read aloud

Learn more about Immersive Reader in Microsoft Word

Editor

Editor is an advanced version of the previous spelling and grammar checker! Use Editor to check for:

• Spelling and Grammar
• Clarity
• Conciseness
• Formality

Remember how we recommend you use simple, clear, and concise language? Editor can help you with that!

Learn more about Editor in Microsoft Word

Keyboard Shortcuts

Learn about keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft Word

Welcome to the start of a blog series exploring accessibility features, and creating accessible content in Office applications!

Why are we focussing on Office Applications? Well, because they’re commonly used in workplaces, by students, and for personal use. But also, because both staff and students have access to Office applications through the College!

Accessible Best Practices Across Office Applications

There are some accessible best practices that are specific to certain applications (which we promise will be explored in future posts).

This blog post is going to outline some of the more commonly used (or missed) Accessible Best Practices that can be applied in a variety of Office Applications!

Tables

• Table headers need to be repeated if the table spans multiple pages
• Use table captions – explain what the data in the table is showing
• Tables need to work (convey the information) on all platforms – phones, computers, tablets

Learn how to create tables following Accessible Best Practices:

• Accessible Tables in Word – Microsoft Support Article
• Accessible Tables in PowerPoint – Microsoft Support Article

Now if you checked these links out, you’d see it’s recommended that you present the data in another way… Perhaps, in a list?…

Lists

• Use actual lists! Don’t just add a – or type 1. – these are not actual lists and will not be read as a list by any screen reading or read aloud technologies
• Use the built in list formatting
  • Ordered – numbers or letters
  • Unordered – symbols like bullet points
• Capitalize the first word of every list item

Learn how to create Accessible Lists in Word – Microsoft Support Article

Text

• Avoid italics
• Avoid ALL CAPS
• Save underline formatting for links
• Consider using a dark grey font color (instead of black)
• Chunk or group information (avoid a “wall of text”)

Learn about Accessible Font Format and Color – Microsoft Support Article.

Language

• Use simple, clear and concise language
  • Don’t use unnecessarily complex words
  • “Get to the point” – say what you mean using as few of words that makes sense
  • Do use words that do not make your meaning confusing… Like that sentence… Use words that make your message clear
• Avoid “ableist” language, or language that assumes someone’s abilities
  • Instead of “I am just going to run over there” use “I am just going over there”
• When using abbreviations, ensure that you define that abbreviation at least once

Color Contrast

Without getting too technical, Accessibility Checkers built into Office applications do a good job at checking for appropriate color contrast, in typed text. Color contrast in images needs to be manually checked with a color contrast checker such as this Colour Contrast Analyser free for download on Windows and Mac.

Side note on color: color should never be used alone to convey a message.

Learn about accessible color contrast of text:

• Accessible Font Colors in Word – Microsoft Support
• Accessible Font Color in PowerPoint – Microsoft Support

Images

• Images must have alternative text (alt. text)
  • Alt. Text needs to be meaningful and describe what the image is/why is is included?
  • Only images that are purely decorative (for example: design elements) may be marked as decorative
  • Keep alt. text under 150 characters (use an image description when needed)
• Use Image Descriptions is alt. text is becoming too long
• Images need to be of good quality (not blurry or pixelated), even when magnified!
• Don’t overuse images

Need help writing alt. text or image descriptions? Use this Image Accessibility Creator Tool by Streamlit as a starting point! You’ll need to verify the output add any necessary context.

Additional Resources

By chance, are you an instructor at the College? If you are, make sure you check out the “Instructors Guide to Accessible Courses” Tutorial in LEARN! If you are not already enrolled, you can self-enroll through the My Learning section in HRIS.