Microsoft Improves Presentations with New PowerPoint Tools

Microsoft has launched two new tools for Office 2016 users for Microsoft PowerPoint. Morph and Designer are the two new features added to Microsoft PowerPoint in the recently announced update by the software and hardware giant.‎

Designer can improve PowerPoint presentations by automatically suggesting interesting and suitable backgrounds and layout options.

Microsoft has now 12,000 layout suggestions in its library.

The expansive library of layouts has been created with help from professional designers.

Designer can analyze a photograph using machine-learning and can offer suitable suggestions.

The features have been rolled on for all Office 365 subscribers.

Microsoft now offers quicker updates for office users. The company has been shifting its focus from permanent license model to monthly subscriptions.

Announcing the features on its official blog, Microsoft said, “PowerPoint Designer and Morph are new intelligent tools that work for you by automating the creation of slides and presentations, helping everyone get more out of Office. With a cloud-powered recommendation engine and smart animation technology, these new PowerPoint capabilities help anyone create polished slides and captivating motion effects with just a few quick steps.”

Shawn Villaron, the head of PowerPoint at Microsoft said, “It had been under discussion for years but hadn't moved much beyond talking about how to streamline the process. But a recent hackathon, in which engineers were encouraged to quickly prototype a product, ended up putting out a project that set the groundwork for Morph.”

Microsoft provided more information about Morph tool, “Morph creates cinematic motion by seamlessly animating between your slides.

"Morph doesn’t just animate regular text or images, it can animate 3-D shapes or be applied at a word or even character level, including text wrapping. Simply duplicate slides you want morphed together, move the objects based on how you want them to animate and click the Morph button under Transitions.”

A report published on Washington Post said, “The Insider option will be open for Office users on all platforms down the line, but Mac users will have to "sit tight" for a bit. Mac users, iOS users and Android users will also have to wait a bit for the new PowerPoint features, which are rolling out first to Windows desktop and mobile.”