Microsoft PowerPoint can now help you practice presentations almost anywhere – no people needed

Microsoft’s presenter trainer, which helps you practice presentations, has been available on the PowerPoint web version for some time, but it’s finally coming to the computer and mobile versions of the app. According to Microsoft, the feature is now available on Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and of course the web.

PowerPoint presenter trainer listens to you as you practice a presentation aloud – it analyzes what you say and can warn you if you speak too fast or slow, with filler words like “um” or “ahh” or just around the words of the slide down (a personal pet of mine). To try it out on PowerPoint for Windows and iOS, it worked shockingly well and did pretty much everything Microsoft says it should. At the end it gives you a little report in which you tell what you need to practice.

Along with the extensive availability, there are also some new ways in which the feature can enhance your presentation: it can look at body language (how close you are to the camera, when you make eye contact or put things in front of your face), and warn you if you repeat words or say wrong. And yes, it still says that you should not swear by your presentation.

PowerPoint for the web (shown here) censors the blasphemy, but the version for Windows is not hilarious.

When I tried it, the feature did not appear in the Mac version of the app, but I was able to use it on iOS. Microsoft was not immediately available for comment on when the feature would appear on the Mac, or whether the voice and video analysis was done on the device or in the cloud for the desktop and mobile versions.

For the sake of privacy, however, it is noteworthy that when I tried it in airplane mode, it told me that I had to connect to the internet to use the coaching feature.

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