Microsoft PowerPoint Can Now Help Practice Presentations Without Human Help

Microsoft's Presenter Coach, which helps you practice presentations, is available in the web version of PowerPoint for a while now. Still, it is finally coming to the desktop and mobile versions of the app. As per Microsoft, now the feature will be available on Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and on the web.

The PowerPoint Presenter Coach listens to you as you practice a presentation out loud; it analyzes what you are saying and can warn you if you are speaking too slow or fast, or using filler words like "um" or "ahh", or just reading the words on the slide (one of the things that annoy the most). Testing it in both PowerPoint for Windows and iOS worked surprisingly well, doing pretty much everything Microsoft says it should. In the end, it gives you a small report, indicating what you need to practice.

Along with the expanded availability, there are some new ways the feature can try to improve your presentation: you can observe body language (how close you are to the camera if you are making eye contact or putting things in front of your face) and warn you if you are repeating words or saying them wrong. It still tells you not to swear on your presentation.

When tested, the feature didn't show up in the Mac version of the app, but I could use it on iOS. Microsoft was not available immediately to comment on when the feature would appear on the Mac or perform the voice and video analytics on the device or in the cloud for the desktop and mobile versions.

However, it's worth noting that when we tested it in airplane mode for those concerned about privacy, it told me that I had to connect to the internet to use the training feature.

March 18, 2021