Microsoft has announced a new feature that allows users to present their slides directly from PowerPoint for Windows at a Teams meeting. The feature was first announced at Spring Ignite 2021 last month, and the update is now rolling out in preview to Office Insiders in the beta channel (Build 13926.20000 and later).
With PowerPoint Live in Teams, users will now be able to present their PowerPoint presentations with just one click. The new tool is designed to make virtual presentations much easier and more intuitive for the presenter and meeting participants. It will allow presenters to see notes, slides, and a meeting discussion in one view.
The feature also allows meeting participants to customize their own experience by interacting with shared slides and other content in a more flexible way. It is a significant improvement for people with learning disabilities and will help them read and learn at their own pace.
To try this feature, presenters must join a meeting or call from the Microsoft Teams desktop app. After that, open the presentation in PowerPoint for Windows to present it in a Teams meeting. There are two access points for presenters to initiate a Teams session. They can either click on the “Show in Teams” button in the upper right corner of the screen or head to the “Start Slideshow” tab, then select the Show in Teams option.
As of this writing, PowerPoint Live functionality is currently limited to Office Insiders on Windows. Microsoft has noted that it is available to people with an active Office 365 E5 / A5, Office 365 E3 / A3, or Microsoft 365 for Government subscription. Microsoft 365’s roadmap suggests that the company also plans to launch this feature for web users next month, although its release date is subject to change.
