Episode 1: The obligatory “what we’re all about” posting Hello, welcome to the PowerPoint and the Office Art team blog. A different kind of blog, written by several members of the team, about the work we are doing to make better software for you. This blog was created to talk directly to you specifically about that work. We’re taking a slightly different approach from most blogs by sharing the space; it’s not about a single person’s viewpoint, it’s a team blog. We think this will give you a variety...

Broadcast Slideshow, a powerful new feature in PowerPoint 2010, enables you to deliver your presentation from a remote location on the web. And to help you understand how to deliver your presentations using Broadcast Slideshow, we created PowerPoint Radio.  

With PowerPoint Radio, you can watch live slideshows created by others, or broadcast your own, all for free. It only takes a few clicks to share slides -- your audience doesn't even need PowerPoint to watch.

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All About PowerPoint’s New Picture Presentation feature. It is not unusual to hear the criticism that Microsoft employees just design features for themselves. It’s not true; we spend an incredible amount of time seeking out feedback and concerns, then analyzing it, and finally figuring out the best mix of features to satisfy specific customer scenarios. The design decisions around features we do, the performance we target, and workflows we define all require a ton of customer-based investigation...

Smart Guides make it easy to design presentations that look professional. Believe it or not, they help you align shapes without any clicks. Read how.

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On Friday, April 16, 2010, we shipped the final build of PowerPoint 2010 to manufacturing. We also shipped SharePoint 2010, with support for the new PowerPoint Web App. Read more about the RTM milestone in this post from Office Corporate Vice President Takeshi Numoto , and about the SharePoint release from SharePoint Server Vice President, Jeff Teper Top 10 benefits of PowerPoint 2010: 1 Bring more energy and visual impact to your presentations. Save time and money by applying sophisticated photo...

We see a lot of questions about how to wrap text around a picture or a shape in PowerPoint. And it isn't easy (though we do have articles for PowerPoint 2010 and PowerPoint 2007 that discuss admittedly complicated workarounds to achieve the wrapping effect).

Since it's hard and awkward to do, we see more comments from people who are unhappy about it than from people who say they find it helpful.

But PowerPoint works best when it has less text. A few keywords. Not enough to wrap. This is an issue that we here at the PowerPoint Blog feel passionately about.

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You wouldn’t wear your workout clothes to a job interview, unless of course you were applying as a personal trainer or professional athlete. When you make PowerPoint slides, you are probably trying to sell a product, make a point, or pass a class. It’s not so different from a job interview - you want to look your best. Well guess what? We want to help you look your best.

When you open the new PowerPoint, you’ll see a start page with your recently opened presentations next to a gallery of new themes. In the Customer Preview, we’ve included eight newly designed themes, and the release version will have many more.

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One of the best ways to build a professional-looking presentation is to use a consistent color scheme. Making sure various elements on your slide are the same color ties them together and creates visual unity for your content. With the new PowerPoint 2013, we’ve introduced a handy feature called the Eyedropper that makes matching color a cinch. Plus, not only can you match colors within your presentation but between formats, such as a website and your slides.

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In PowerPoint 2010, you can remove a background from a picture to accent or highlight the subject of the picture or to remove distracting detail. This post shows you how to do that by using Remove Background button, cropping an image, and more.

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Part of our work in PowerPoint 2010 makes the process of adding and editing images easier. Many of your pictures come from your camera or the internet. Another common source is your computer screen. Taking a screenshot and pasting it into the application can be tedious, because in most cases you really only want to show a portion of the screen. For Office 2010, we decided do something about it. Introducing the Insert Screenshot tool. With just a couple clicks, you can insert a picture of any window...