Microsoft's PowerPoint Live makes it easy to share presentations online

What you need to know

  • PowerPoint Live is now generally available.
  • The tool allows people to follow a presentation on the web and browse through slides within the presentation.
  • People can rate and comment on a presentation to provide feedback to presenters.

Microsoft just rolled out PowerPoint to live to general users. The tool allows people to share presentations with the web and enhances the presenting experience with several features, such as live captions and instant translation. Presenters can share a presentation with people QR code or link or start a presentation within Microsoft Teams. The feature was first announced in January and is now generally available. Microsoft breaks down the tool in a new blog post

Once someone joins a live presentation, they can follow along and watch the presentation and browse through other slides to make sure they've caught all of the information. There's a button to jump back to the current slide so people don't get lost.

During presentations, people can see live subtitles in their preferred language. PowerPoint Live uses AI to instantly translate spoken words into subtitles in supported languages. People can choose to have subtitles in the same language as the one being spoken to help with hearing disabilities or to make it easier to follow a presentation when you can't use speakers or headphones.

Following a presentation, people can rate and comment on a presentation by filling out an optional survey powered by Microsoft Forms. Feedback is also possible during presentations in the form of Live Reactions.

Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott brings nearly a decade of experience covering Microsoft and Windows news to Windows Central. He joined our team in 2017 as an app reviewer and now heads up our day-to-day news coverage. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com.