What to expect in PowerPoint 2010! Part 1

Get ready for a few surprises. Microsoft PowerPoint team set some pretty high goals and I think they may have achieved a good number of them. We’ve waited for features that are available in other applications and should have been available in PowerPoint for SO long. Just to name a few, having groupings of slide that you can collapse, z-index for videos, advanced filters for images and video, embedded video… On top of this, PowerPoint finally added new transitions! How long has it been with the same set of transitions?

Here is a link to the PPT and Office Art blog. This is where you can go to discuss PowerPoint (any version) at length with Microsoft professionals. A lot of the information gathered in this list was found in the MSDN PowerPoint blog above.

So let’s get started, here's a list of new features and tools in PowerPoint.

The top 10 biggest improvements to PowerPoint 2010!

1. Sections: These let you add sections to your presentations. Basically grouping slides like chapters, you can name them, collapse them, move them around, etc. This works similar to the groupings in Adobe Photoshop. When you are working on a larger PowerPoint presentation and you have sections that you need to keep together, you can group each section and name them, then collapse it down for easier editing.

2. New Themes: There are a bunch of new themes pre-installed from Microsoft, which also means we have a bunch of new color sets, font sets and effects sets to choose from on the Design tab. Also available with PowerPoint 2010 is a new launch of office Live to browse free templates and graphics.

3. New Transitions: New transitions!!! Reveal, Flash, Ripple, Honeycomb, Glitter, Vortex, Shred, Switch, Flip, Gallery, Cube, Doors, Box, Pan, Ferris Wheel, Conveyor, Rotate, Window, Orbit, Fly Through. We have been watching the same transition effects since 1997. This has been a LONG time coming. I hope we don’t have to wait more than a decade each time we want new transitions.

4. Old Transitions Improved: Even the old transitions look much better than they used to: Cut, Fade, Push, Wipe, Split, Random Bars, Shape, Uncover, Cover, Dissolve, Checkerboard, Blinds, Clock (Wheel).

5. Transition Duration: We can now control transition duration by inputting a specific number of seconds duration – we’re no longer limited to slow, medium and fast. This may not seem that important but to those of us who often add voice narration or music to a presentation, this means so much more control.

6. Video Respects Z-Order: This means video doesn’t always play on top anymore! You can put anything you want on top of the video now – callouts, arrows, thought bubbles, slide content, whatever. This (coupled with Trigger to Bookmark) is perfect for captions. This is great for having an animated background. Microsoft recognizes how important video has become and has dramatically enhanced video playback in PowerPoint. Lots of video improvements but this one is pretty big.

7. Insert Video from Online Site: Easily insert videos from web sites such as YouTube. For training presentations or product demonstrations, you can keep your audience in PowerPoint. Instead of adding a hyperlink in your presentation to ‘click here for video’, you can load the video right into the slide. You don’t have to worry about a web browser and the clunky visual transition as the web page loads while your audience starts to lose interest. They stay focused and in your presentation the whole time. (Note: this video is not embedded in the PowerPoint file. You must have an Internet connection during the presentation. Also, if the video is deleted from the web site, it will no longer work in PowerPoint.)

8. Animation Painter: We can apply animations from one object to another using the Animation Painter tool. (It works like the Format Painter, but for animations.) You don’t have to draw every animation for each item you want to animate. This can save hours or days of design time when building a long presentation!

9. Animation Effect Enhancements: When you add an animation and then double-click it in the Animation Pane to access more Effect Options, well, these Effect Options are now more granular. We can now specify timings for a smooth start, smooth end and a bounce end on a Motion Path or a Fly In animation, for example.

10. Save Unsaved Documents: PowerPoint 2010 now saves your files even if you close the file without saving it. Manage Versions lets you recover these. Don’t be fooled – this is not a substitute for properly saving your files! BUT it might just save your butt…

That’s just the start.

Part 2: 55 New features in PowerPoint10 worth discussing.