Last month, Microsoft announced that a new virtual laser pointer annotation tool is coming to PowerPoint Live presentations in Teams. Twitter user Selena Caamano spotted yesterday that annotation support is now rolling out in the desktop version of Teams.
The app will now enable presenters to use a virtual laser pointer to highlight or annotate specific parts of a slide during PowerPoint Live presentations. These tools help presenters to emphasize important points or engage with their audience by drawing their attention to specific sections within the PowerPoint slides.
The new annotation toolbar currently comes with four important tools, including Laser Pointer, pen, highlighter, and eraser.
- Laser Pointer — The laser pointer tool lets presenters point to the slides’ contents and ink on them. However, these annotations disappear once the mouse button is released.
- Pen — The pen tool provides an option to ink on a particular slide in the presentation. Users can also customize it by choosing the pen thickness and color from the color palette.
- Highlighter — The highlighter tool is used to highlight specific content on the slide.
- Eraser — The eraser tool can be used to delete inking on the slide.
It is important to note that the annotation toolbar will only be available for active presenters in a Teams meeting, which can help to avoid potential disruptions. Moreover, participants need to join the meeting with the Microsoft Teams desktop client to see annotations made by the presenter. These changes will not be saved in the PowerPoint file.
Overall, this new PowerPoint Live annotation experience has been designed to make virtual presentations much more interactive and engaging for participants. As of today, the feature is only supported on the Microsoft Teams Windows and macOS desktop apps as well as on the web, but it is not yet available on mobile devices.
