PowerPoint gets more AI features and new Presenter Coach rehearsing tool

2 min. read

Published on June 18, 2019

published on June 18, 2019

Readers help support Windows Report. We may get a commission if you buy through our links.

Microsoft has just announced some big updates for PowerPoint Designer, the AI-powered feature that can suggest you design ideas for your slides. More than one billion slides have been created with PowerPoint Designer since launch, the company revealed today, adding that Designer is getting three new features to ease the process of creating compelling slides.

The first addition is Designer for branded templates, which make the AI-powered recommendations much more relevant when using an organization’s template. For PowerPoint users who won’t start with a branded template, the new theme ideas in Designer will also make it easier to kick things off. Lastly, PowerPoint will be leveraging Microsoft Research’s Perspective Engine to add some context to numerical slides. “For example: The size of Afghanistan, which is 652,232 km², is hard to interpret, but adding that it’s “about equal to the size of Texas” makes it easily understandable,” the company explained.

In addition to these Designer updates, the most interesting announcement Microsoft made today is Presenter Coach, a new rehearsing tool that’s coming first to the PowerPoint web app. “This feature allows you to enter rehearsal mode and while speaking you receive on-screen guidance about pacing, inclusive language, use of filler words, and culturally insensitive phrases. It even lets you know when you’re just reading off the slide,” the company explained. This sounds like a great feature to improve your presentation skills, and you can see how it works in the video below.

Presenter Coach will go live in the PowerPoint web app later this summer, and Microsoft didn’t say today if it would also be coming to the desktop apps on Windows and Mac.

Radu Tyrsina

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time). For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an amazing way to play and communicate with others, but he was deeply impressed by the flow of information and how easily you can find anything on the web. Prior to founding Windows Report, this particular curiosity about digital content enabled him to grow a number of sites that helped hundreds of millions reach faster the answer they're looking for.