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Key concepts - Authoring Power Virtual Agents bots in Teams

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Select the version of Power Virtual Agents you're using here:

When you create bots with Power Virtual Agents, you author and edit topics.

Topics are discrete conversation paths that, when used together within a single bot, allow for users to have a conversation with a bot that feels natural and flows appropriately.

Prerequisites

Accessibility

The bot authoring canvas is built for accessibility in accordance with Microsoft Accessibility Guidelines, and supports standard navigational patterns. For complex scenarios, users who author content with keyboard navigation can use the following routing anchors.

In some instances, these shortcuts may be overwritten by Microsoft Teams shortcuts.

Routing anchors

Press enter or space on a route anchor to go into editing mode for that route. Once in the editing mode, you can tab to other node anchors. Once the anchor is selected, you can:

  • Press Delete to delete the route, and make the target node of the route an orphan node if this route is the only route leading to that node.
  • Press Escape to take the user out of tab mode and resume normal tabbing.
  • Press Enter or Space on a different node to reconnect the route to the new node (same source node, new target node).
  • Press Tab to take you to the next available location to drop this route.

At any time, pressing these hotkeys on a route anchor will read out the properties of the route:

  • Alt + Shift + A will read out the source node.
  • Alt + Shift + B will read out the target node.

Note

If you are using a screen reader, note that the navigation menu entry labeled Settings might not get read as "Collapsed", but it is an expandable control which can be selected and expanded.

In this section

Topic Description
Create and delete bots Create and delete bots.
Use lesson topics Use a series of prebuilt topics that guide you through authoring topics - from simple to advanced.
Create and edit topics Create and edit topics..
Use system fallback topic Use a system fallback topic for when your bot can't find an answer.
Manage topics Copy, edit, and manage which topics should be available in your bot.
Test your bot Test your bot directly within the Power Virtual Agents app as you make changes.
Supported languages Choose from a number of languages when you create your bot.