Microsoft Teams is trying to make video calling a little less boring during the pandemic era of remote working with new presenter modes. These allow you to customize how you look when presenting in Teams. Three new modes will be available soon, including a “Reporter” option that allows you to place content over your shoulder as a visual aid, much like a news anchor during a TV segment.
Standout mode lets you float above content as a silhouette on top of a slide. And the third option, side by side, shows your webcam feed alongside the content you’re presenting. Standout will roll out this month, with Reporter and Side-by-Side modes coming soon.
All three modes are part of a larger effort by Microsoft to respond to feedback on how to make meetings more engaging while working remotely. “The way I see it now is that we need to do presentations more like TV shows,” says Nicole Herskowitz, general manager of Microsoft Teams, in an interview with The edge. “We really need to find ways to make these digital experiences more powerful.”
These new modes take advantage of the technology Microsoft is using in its Together mode to remove all of the background behind you on a webcam. Together mode was one of the first big changes to teams designed for pandemic meetings, placing participants side by side in a virtual environment.
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Along with the new presentation modes, Microsoft is also launching PowerPoint Live in Microsoft Teams today. It is designed to make presenting with PowerPoint slides much easier for the presenter and meeting attendees. Presenters will now be able to see notes, slides, and a meeting discussion in one view, and attendees can browse the slides themselves. It’s great if you missed a particular slide and want to go back, and it’s a huge accessibility boost for people with learning disabilities who want to read and learn on their own. pace.