The public beta of PowerPoint 2010 will be available next month. I want to preview some of its features for you, because I think you’ll like them.
Note: Features that I see in my version of the beta may have changed.
Video
There are many new video features. Some have been requested by users for years! Here are some of them:
-
Embed videos in PowerPoint 2010
By default, videos are embedded when you insert them (although you can choose to link them). This will reduce instances of videos not playing.
- Just like images and shapes, videos have a Style gallery, so you can add borders, swivel them, and change their shape!
Video style gallery in PowerPoint 2010
- You can easily insert video from YouTube and other video sharing sites. Just provide the Embed code. Well, this didn’t work for me, but it’s a feature, so I’m hoping it’s been fixed.
Inserting video from a sharing site in PowerPoint 2010
- You can add text on top of videos, in the same way you add text on top of any other object. Of course, you can animate the text if you want
- Videos have play controls, so you can easily start, pause, and stop them during a slide show.
Play controls for video in PowerPoint 2010
Conclusion: This will be a very popular new feature.
New Animation Features
The animation controls are now on the ribbon. You can still open a task pane, but it’s a little different. You’ll need it if you add more than one animation to an object and want to see them together or use the Advanced Timeline. I’m still getting used to this. Certain animations that are not on the animation gallery are a little harder to get to and I find myself going back and forth between the ribbon and the task pane.
There’s an animation painter to copy animations from one object to another! Hallelujah!
There are a few new transitions that are pretty classy. And you can specify animation timing to make it as slow or fast as you want.
Save to WMV video
You can save to WMV video format. If you have slide timings and animation, they will be included. (It can take a LONG time.) This feature doesn’t support video.
Online features
You’ll be able to access presentations online using Windows Live.I haven’t tested this much, so I can’t say too much about it. But you can go to skydrive.live.com and test some of them yourself. You can upload a presentation and keep it private or make it public (put it in the Public folder).
There’s also a broadcast feature to show presentations to others (Slide Show tab> Broadcast Slide Show).
For more information on PowerPoint 2010, go to http://blogs.msdn.com/powerpoint/
Thanks for these – they all seem to be potentially very well used features (even the one that doesn’t work! 🙂 ). Let’s hope that users don’t go overboard and ruin their presentations with bad design, using the new features just because they can. (For example, I can think of nothing harder to read than animated text over a video!).
Thanks again…. Simon
Great news for me, my training participants have been having problems with missing videos. Look forward to 2010 edition!
Terima kasih
Ady
Great News for complex presentations that I create! It will save me time and effort that I used to do to accomplish the same goals by using other Add-ins and Software(ISpring, animation Carbonm TMPEG…etc).
But so far there is no solution for embedding MP3 files instead of the Large WAV files from which I suffer!!
I hope in the future they add some of the sound editing features (like those in Audacity or WavePad) to Power Point (Say a Sound editing contextual Tab) to mix music and narration directly from Power point.
Thank you Ellen for the great information.
Great News for complex presentations that I create! It will save me time and effort that I used to do to accomplish the same goals by using other Add-ins and Software(ISpring, animation Carbonm TMPEG…etc).
But so far there is no solution for embedding MP3 files instead of the Large WAV files from which I suffer!!
I hope in the future they add some of the sound editing features (like those in Audacity or WavePad) to Power Point (Say a Sound editing contextual Tab) to mix music and narration directly from Power point.
Thank you Ellen for the great information.
Ellen, thank you for sharing this.
What do you think?
Are the new features downwards compatible with 2007 (or even 2003)?
The most clients I have are using 2003 and more or less 2007.
Regards form The Netherlands,
Sander
Dr. Nabil,
I forgot to mention that 2010 also embeds MP3’s by default, although you can choose to link them.
Sander, Microsoft always makes new features as compatible as possible, but of course, it isn’t always possible. For example, if you insert video, it will play in 2007, but you’ll lose the effects (such as the visual style). This works, if I’m understanding correctly, through a patch for 2007. In 2003, it won’t play if embedded.
I just tried the beta and it is awesome, more and more like keynote!
Like Sander said, i hope 2010 will be fully compatible with 2007!
Time to make even more beautiful presentations with Powerpoint 2010.
Hi, Ellen. Thanks for the summary.
If I’m reading you correctly, video embedded in PowerPoint 2010 will play in PowerPoint 2007 ONLY if users install a patch?
We’re trying to simplify things for a client, and installing a patch won’t help them much.
Michael,
I’m not actually sure, but that’s how Microsoft usually does things. For example, you can download a patch for 2003 that let’s you open 2007 files in 2003. The patches usually come as updates and so most people end up installing them pretty automatically. But remember, you can choose not to embed video in 2010. You might do this for compatibility reasons, as you suggest, or to keep the main file smaller, or to allow for easier updating of the video file.
Ellen
I must say that having spent £50+ on PP2010, I’ve been left feeling short changed. Why is it that mp3s embedded onto PP2010 don’t work on previous versions? Also you can’t use mp3s with action buttons. How can Microsoft justify this? There are considerably more people using mp3 files than wav files so why on earth is Microsoft intent on making using mo3s in powerpoint as difficult as possible.
You can choose not to embed MP3s if you want. Compatibility with prior releases is one reason to do that. You can’t expect Microsoft to require everyone with older versions to update their software to accommodate newer versions. You also can’t use MP3s with transitions (not that I recommend sounds with transitions).
However, you CAN add a sound to an action button by using the button as a trigger. Insert the MP3 sound and move the icon off the slide. Go to the Animation tab> Advanced Animation group> Trigger button and choose On Click Of. Then choose your action button. Then go into Slide Show view and click the Action Button. The MP3 sound will play.