Microsoft has announced that PowerPoint Live presentations are now generally available in PowerPoint for the web. The feature was first announced as part of the monthly updates for Microsoft 365 in January, but it wasn't available yet at the time.
PowerPoint Live - or Live Presentations - is a new tool in PowerPoint that aims to make it easier for the audience to engage with a presentation at their own pace. The audience can connect to the presentation using a smartphone, tablet, or laptop, and while the presentation will usually be live as the presenter moves along, each audience member can go back to previous slides without impacting the experience for anyone else, letting everyone keep up with the content of the presentation. What's more, each user can enable live captions and subtitles in their preferred language.
The tool will work both in physical settings or remotely. If you're holding a presentation in Teams or another similar tool, you can start sharing your screen and choose the Present Live option. Everyone in the call will be able to see a QR code and link to join the live presentation, following along even from a distance. The audience can also use the tool to leave feedback for the presenter through live reactions, and there's even an optional Microsoft Forms survey at the end for more detailed feedback.
In other PowerPoint news, Microsoft announced today that Presenter Coach is now generally available on Android. The feature was made available to Insiders a few weeks ago, but now anyone should be able to get it. It's available in the standalone PowerPoint app as well as the unified Office app.
