Everyone can now see what the next version of PowerPoint– Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 — will look like. There may be some minor changes and they may be holding back some goodies, but what you see now is a very good idea of what you’ll see later, in my opinion.
You can download the beta here. (Update: The beta is long gone.)
There are lots of changes, but nothing big–at least not if you’re focusing only on PowerPoint itself. Instead, the big new feature applies to all of Office. To enable you to work on any device — computer, tablet, or phone — you’ll be encouraged to create a Windows Live account and log in. (After you do it once, it’s automatic.) You’ll also have obvious access to a SkyDrive account — free online storage — so you can save documents there. In this way, you can pick them up wherever you left off — from another computer or device, anywhere you are.
Also, Office has a Touch mode that will let you touch, swipe, and so on if you’re on a touch-enabled device.
But let’s go through the changes to PowerPoint itself.
The look has changed
Each Office application has its own color. PowerPoint is burnt orange. At least, that’s what I call it. What name would you give this color? You’ll see this color at the bottom, on the active tab, around selected slides in the left-hand panel, when you click the File tab, and more.
The entire PowerPoint window is much more understated.The gray around the slides is lighter. The dividing line between the panes is lighter. The ribbon tab names are uppercase. It looks pretty, but I find it harder to distinguish the edges of panes and other interface items.
Starting a new presentation is different
When you click File> New, you now see images of themes. There’s a default theme, which is 7-1/2 x 10, like in earlier versions, and a “Blank Presentation,” which is 7-1/2 x 13.333. This is a typical widescreen size. The other themes are in the same area, so you don’t need to go to the Design tab as you did previously.
When you choose a theme, you can see how some of the layouts look by clicking the More Images buttons. You also have color variants, so you can quickly customize the theme. Then click Create to start working. Watch the video to see how this new procedure works.
Slide design tools have improved
Equidistant smart guides: PowerPoint 2010 introduced alignment guides (also known as smart guides or whiskers) to line up objects on the screen. PowerPoint 2013 adds guides to help you easily place objects equidistant from each other.
Eyedropper: You can now pick a color with an eyedropper to apply a color. There’s a secret, however. (Thanks, Echo, for reminding me!) Select an object. On the Format tab, choose Shape File or Shape Outline and choose the Eyedropper option. You’ll get a different cursor and can easily pick any color on the slide. The secret is that if you press and hold the left mouse button, you can drag off the slide and select any color on your screen. Now you don’t need to use a separate application.
New Merge Shapes option: PowerPoint 2010 introduced the Union, Combine, Intersect, and Subtract tools to create custom shapes. 2013 makes these tools easier to find, putting them in the Insert Shapes group of the Format tab. It also adds a new tool, Fragment. which breaks up overlapping shapes to their individual sub-shapes. (To create the figure on the right, I moved the resulting shapes apart.)
Insert pictures from the web: Choose Insert> Online Pictures to choose from Office.com’s Clip Art gallery, a Bing image search, Flickr (if you have an account) and your SkyDrive files. Microsoft tries to guide you to choose only Creative Commons licensed photos so that you stay legal. (Note that even Creative Commons images require attribution, so click the provided URL at the lower-left corner to see the source.) I’m leery of this. In the examples I checked, I wasn’t sure that the images were really under the Creative Commons license.
New Format task panes: The Format Shape dialog box has become a task pane, so it’s never on top of your slide. Other formatting dialog boxes (Format Background, Format Picture, etc.) are also task panes.
Video output is MP4: PowerPoint 2010 let you output presentations to WMV video format. It was a great new feature, but now you get MP4 instead. This is welcome, since MP4 is more widely used.
New Page Curl transition: Presenters have wanted a page turn transition for a long time and there finally is a very nice one. Not that you should use it a lot. I try to resist transition effects unless there’s a good reason for one. But if you’re telling a story, Page Curl would fit into your metaphor nicely.
The datasheet is back! Remember the datasheet when you inserted a chart? It was a small spreadsheet that you used for your data. In PowerPoint 2007, that changed and instead you went to a full, though temporary, Excel spreadsheet. People found it difficult to use so Microsoft listened and the datasheet has returned.
New chart styles: The chart styles have been updated based on customer feedback. They are more stylish and subtle; I think you’ll like them. Also, there are Quick Edit buttons that make editing charts easier.
Motion path preview: When you animate with a motion path, after you specify the path, you see a semi-transparent image of the object at its ending location. You can then easily adjust the path so that the object ends up exactly where you want it. Very nice! (Thanks, Bruce, for bringing this one to my attention.)
Collaborate more effectively
Reply Comment: You could add comments before but now, it’s possible to reply to comments to create a conversation.
Sharing: If you save your presentation on SkyDrive, you can share it (like Google Docs). You can:
- Invite people (send them an e-mail with the link)
- Get a view or edit link to put in an e-mail or on a website
- Post to social networks
- E-mail the presentation
- Present online through the Office Presentation Service
- Publish slides to a SharePoint site. (SharePoint is a Microsoft product for storing and sharing content.)
Not all of these features are new, but they are newly put together under the Sharing feature.
Deliver differently
Updated Presenter View: Presenter View has been updated and streamlined. Instead of seeing all the slides at the bottom, you see the next slide at the upper-right corner. (You can read more about Presenter View here.)
Slide Zoom and Pan: You can zoom in on a diagram, chart, or graphic, pan around, and then zoom out. When you zoom out completely, you see a kind of Slide Sorter view, so that you can choose which slide you want to display next. This is quite cool and will especially help people presenting on smaller screens.
Watch a video of this new feature.
What do you think?
Are you going to upgrade? How will saving to the cloud go over in your company? Leave a comment and share your thoughts and opinions!
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I will definitely upgrade, I tried to use the beta, but it ended up crashing my computer so I will wait for the actual release.
I love the new features, particularly the zoom function and the ability to save as an MP4.
I would kill to have a PowerPoint that created HD MP4 files. It would also be nice if it didn’t crash when creating a movie from a file that has an inserted MP4 files. I would love to download the Beta version BUT their Robot Protection widget doesn’t work and will not let me sign up to be a Microsoft whatever. Not surprised that Jean-Luc’s version crashed his computer. Too bad their owner doesn’t have some spare cash to invest on making software without bugs.
Thanks for introducing us to these new features, Ellen. I like most of them, though have little interest in using the cloud. What I definitely don’t like are the paler colors. This makes PowerPoint even more difficult to use by people with low vision. Since Microsoft likes to talk about their accessibility features, I wonder why they thought this would be an improvement.
My company won’t be upgrading due to cost and lost time in training everyone to use the new version, plus compatibility problems with importing slides from presentations made with older versions of PowerPoint.
Things I like: The return of the eyedropper! (never should have removed it); Zoom feature in Slide Show view; making the merging/dividing shapes tools more accessible (I wonder if they will finally gave this feature to Mac users; Microsoft has a very bad reputation with Mac users because they make the interface different and don’t have all the features the Windows version does; they should follow Adobe’s example of seamless integration between the two platforms); starting at the last slide you edited.
What is the Robot Protection widget — or was that tongue in cheek? I didn’t have any problems with my machine crashing and I already had a Windows Live account. I do know of people who had the installation happen VERY slowly, like hours. Mine was a few minutes with the Click to Run feature.
Does anyone know if 2013 allows video backgrounds to play across slides?
thanks!
The slide, zoom, pan and slide sorter feature — could these have been the result of the Microsoft OfficeLab PowerPoint add-in, pptPlex, which is still available for download and works in both PowerPoint 2007 and 2010?
Mp4 support, that’s a winner right there that codec is amazing.
Do you want to place a video on the slide master?
I used your link to download the MS Office 2013 to test the new PowerPoint. I had no problem. I already had a Windows Live ID becuase it was required by my school email. I usually use 2007, but have not used it for long.
I immediatley liked the new view of the software and it impressed me very much. Now when we open PowerPoint it looks like a magaine or website. This is great to actually show people how a presentation can look.
Next, I liked the create photo album. I went to my phots folder and imported them all at once. The were appeared in the presentation in the same order as was in the folder (by name – default camera name). I think a lot of people will want to use this since it is an easy way to send photos and to view them.
I also tried the SkyDrive and will have to play with that more. I find it confusing. I don’t know exactly if when I save it is on my PC or on the SkyDrive or if it will go there later. At one point, I could not do anything else in PowerPoint because it was trying to save to SkyDrive and took longer than convenient. I’ll play with this more for my personal files. I am interested in using SkyDrive for sharing photos with family. Don’t know why but it seems family can never get to my Flickr or Picasaweb. While my company may go to 2013, I doubt they will encourage use of SkyDrive. We have our own secure server. Security is always a problem for businesses.
I may use PowerPoint 2013 for a presentation I’m doing later this month at work.
I really appreciate the help you have provided to all of us.
If a video could be placed on a slide master, that would be great!
Do you know if that is possible in 2013?
Thx
Shawn
Shawn, You can do that in 2010, but the video starts from scratch for each slide. (At least that’s what happened in my tests.) Do you want it to continue? I can’t think of a use for a video on a master either way — seems to distracting, so I’m not sure what you’re looking for.
Hi Ellen,
I do the PP slide presentations for my church. It would be great for the lyrics on different slides to come up, but have the video background just continue, not restart with each slide. I usally use abstract video backgrounds so as not to be distracting, just part of the worship experience.
I know I can animate different text boxes so that all the verses are on the same slide, but that is not ideal (have to open selection pane and deslect different boxes to the the exit and entry animations in the right order… yes I’ve done it, but it’s no fun!)
Thanks,
Shawn
Is there really a big change between the versions? We mostly use Keynote on Mac as Powerpoint has never reached their level for design purposes but I’m anxious to test the new version of PPT. Can PPT 2013 actually accomodate the needs of a powerpoint company like ours? Check us out stinson design
There are many new features, but I think the big one is the emphasis on saving your files online so you can access them anywhere. It’s the future.
Do you know if it is possible to imbed a video from a DVD (create a file with a short segment from a DVD, then use it in PPT)?
You need to “rip” the video from the DVD. Do a search on that. Be sure you can legally use it, though.
A big part of my job is creating presentations, or cleaning up PowerPoint files that a client has already started. With the HD standard being 1280 x 720 pixels at minimum, I can’t understand why Microsoft continually uses such small slide sizes. Their default widescreen size at 7.5 x 13.333 inches (and who measures an onscreen presentation in inches, anyway) translates to just 960 x 540 pixels. I will resize the slides to 17.78″ x 10″, but if the client has already started inserting photos, they are often too small. I was hoping that Microsoft would rectify this issue with their new release, and am very disappointed to find out that this is not the case.
Where can you get a powerpoint tutorial?
I wrote a set of video tutorials on PowerPoint 2013 for Wiley Publishing’s online site at http://www.digitalclassroom.com.