Microsoft’s New PowerPoint Features Can Transform Your Presentations

Microsoft’s new feature for PowerPoint and Teams will soon give users the opportunity to insert a video feed into their presentations. Here is how the company says it will work.

Firstly this Cameo feature by Microsoft allows users to decide where their faces from a Teams video will appear on live PowerPoint slides. It will also be offering recommendations on where to optimally place the feed, or if there is a need to record the presentation.

Cameo and a number of other hybrid features were announced for Microsoft Teams and Office apps at Ignite in September. Today the much-anticipated Cameo feature is now available for Office Insider but will be made available to the public in the second quarter of 2022, says Microsoft.

Another piece Microsoft is offering in the Cameo features for Teams and PowerPoint is the “recording studio.” With the feature, users can now tell a story using videos. It aims to help with asynchronous meetings and collaborations, a more common scenario in hybrid business arrangements that are being implemented in many companies now. The recording studio is available in PowerPoint already. Also, plans are in motion to integrate cameo and recording studio soon. This is to help create more engaging ‘live’ meeting experiences, whether such presentations are going to be shared live or as a pre-recorded presentation, Microsoft has something for you.

Microsoft explains that users will be able to create their “presentation, decide how and where you appear on your slides with a Cameo, enhance the slides with Designer, and record yourself speaking to any slide(s) with the recording studio. When it’s time to deliver your message, PowerPoint Live enables others to see your recording as part of the presentation.” 

According to Microsoft, by using Cameo with the recording studio to create a presentation, the presenter will still appear and be part of the meeting, something like a “live” view. The combined experience will be available starting the second quarter of 2022.

Additionally, Microsoft says that the “speaker coach” in Teams will be available to the public in the coming months. The speaker coach feature makes use of an AI to guide presenters throughout their presentation to improve message delivery, offering feedback on repetitive language, the use of filler words, the pace of speech, the use of inclusive speech, and so much more.

Over the past few months, Apple, Google and Microsoft have constantly been working on their respective plans for returning to the office. Each of the companies has some form of plans to usher users into the hybrid-work arrangement that the pandemic has taught us, where workers can choose to work from home mostly rather than work from the office all days of each week.