PowerPoint Blog

PowerPoint 2013 Comments: Making it easier to collaborate on presentations

PowerPoint Engineering Team — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 01:37:00 GMT

Presentations are a group effort more often than not. Sometimes they are truly collaborative--as in everybody contributes equally. On other occasions, there is one person leading the charge while others review and advise. Either way, the ability to communicate and provide specific feedback in the presentation, within context, can significantly improve the collaboration experience and the quality of the content. Comments are not brand new to PowerPoint--in previous versions you could add a comment...(read more)

Webinar: What you need to know about PowerPoint Slide Masters

Doug Thomas — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:59:00 GMT

It's true that you can create PowerPoint presentations without using Slide Masters or even knowing what they are, but they save so much time and effort that we think you'll be glad to know about them. In this week's webinar, we'll show you how to master the Slide Master--a built-in tool that controls the look of your PowerPoint presentation and keeps it consistent throughout.

See the trailer or click "read more" below to the entire webinar.

What you will learn at Tuesday's webinar:

Stop cutting-and-pasting in PowerPoint
What a Slide Master does...

...(read more)

PowerPoint 2013: Widescreen Presentations

PowerPoint Engineering Team — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 01:52:00 GMT

Widescreen (16:9) is the new default aspect ratio in the new PowerPoint. To make your experience with the new dimensions pleasant, we’ve built a brand new set of themes specifically targeting this aspect ratio, and we’ve improved our conversion code so that you can easily make the switch to widescreen from other aspect ratios.

...(read more)

Webinar: Working with sound in PowerPoint

Doug Thomas — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 15:56:00 GMT

Yes, yes, we know. Sounds in PowerPoint can be cheesy. But let’s have some fun. We’ll show you how to master sound in PowerPoint including inserting effective sounds, play a soundtrack, and time animations to that soundtrack.

What you will learn at Tuesday's webinar

Insert sound effects into a presentation
Insert music as a soundtrack

...(read more)

Embedding Presentations into Your Website with the PowerPoint Web App

PowerPoint Engineering Team — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:54:00 GMT

We’ve upgraded the embedding experience in PowerPoint Web App to make it better than ever. The new experience is fully interactive and all your content plays back right in the embedded object. That means all your animations, transitions – even audio and video! Better yet, any presentations you embedded using the old version have automatically been upgraded to the new experience – no work from you required! In this post we’ll walk through how to embed a presentation in your...(read more)

Your top 10 favorite PowerPoint posts of 2012

Office Team — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:30:00 GMT

In 2012, you were doing more than adding data to slides—you really put PowerPoint to work to create visual representations of your hard work, bright ideas, and personal style. Charts, themes, animations, color-matching, and tips for presenters were just some of your favorite topics for polishing your PowerPoint presentations. Check out the year in review with the top posts.

...(read more)

PowerPoint 2013: Pick up where you left off in your presentation with Resume Reading

PowerPoint Engineering Team — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 20:29:00 GMT

Have you ever reopened a presentation and tried to find that slide you were working on when you last closed it? Well, you are going to love the new Resume Reading feature in PowerPoint.

...(read more)

Lights! Music! Animation! A holiday e-card from a pro

Emily Warn — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 20:32:00 GMT

WARNING: This year's holiday e-card Microsoft MVP Sandra Johnson is mesmerizing. You will not be able to multitask, so take a break and watch this animated, musical, card.

...(read more)

PowerPoint 2013: Shining a spotlight on video and audio

PowerPoint Engineering Team — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 08:59:00 GMT

You want to say something, but your bullet points and graphics aren’t quite cutting it? Sometimes the best way to make your point is with video or audio clips. PowerPoint 2013 has a bunch of improvements that make video and audio easier to include in your presentation. In this blog post, we’ll discuss how we’ve brought multimedia to the PowerPoint Web App, as well as how we’ve made multimedia better in PowerPoint 2013.

...(read more)

PowerPoint 2013: Smarter Guides

PowerPoint Engineering Team — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 21:51:00 GMT

A Tale of Two Guides There are two types of guides in PowerPoint: Smart Guides and Static Guides , and both of them have been improved in the new version of PowerPoint. Smart Guides: Now Even Smarter In case you don’t know what Smart Guides are, they're the dashed lines that appear to help you with alignment as you move shapes around the slide. Here's an example of what they look like in PowerPoint 2010: Not only do they look better in the new version of PowerPoint, they help you in more ways...(read more)