Tweet PowerPoint 2010 and 2013: What's added and what got removed?

Microsoft has added some new features to PowerPoint 2013 and has discontinued some of the existing features or functionality.

What new features, functionality has been added in PowerPoint 2013?

Eye dropper: Eyedropper the color picker tool helps you copy the shape color and apply to any other shape.


PowerPoint to MP4: PowerPoint 2013 allows you to convert PowerPoint presentations in MP4 video format.

Search and insert images and videos from within PowerPoint: PowerPoint 2013 has inbuilt image and video search engine which lets you search images from Bing, Flickr and videos from Bing and YouTube.

Theme family and variants: PowerPoint 2013 has more themes and flexibility to choose and edit variants.

Presenter View: Changes to presenter view like automatic selection of monitor, jump to slides and zoom in.

Share and publish online

Head here for more details on these and other features added to PowerPoint 2013.

What has been removed or changed in PowerPoint 2013 from earlier versions?

PowerPoint viewer: PowerPoint viewer is a small free exe that lets you view presentations created in PowerPoint 97 and later versions without the need of licensed version of PowerPoint. This has been in use to view PowerPoint presentations on machines that doesn't have purchased versions of MS PowerPoint software.

Now question arises how to view PowerPoint presentations created in 2013 without PowerPoint viewer if you don't have licensed copy of PowerPoint 2013? If you are not worried about animations and media, use Google docs or Slideshare, Scribd. If you are worried about animations and media too, try authorSTREAM or Microsoft web apps.

Save PPT as HTML:  This feature existed so that people can save a PPT as HTML and use that HTML on web to show case the presentation. This feature became obsolete with online presentation sharing websites like Slideshare and authorSTREAM providing embeds that could play your presentations on blogs, website and even on Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.

Media formats: Video (WMV) and Audio (WMA) formats have been default video and audio formats for PowerPoint till 2010. Now default media formats are H.264 for video and AAC for audio.

Equation Editor: Equation Editor the formula editor that that allows you to insert math and science equations in a slide is no longer available in 2013.

Microsoft Clip Organizer:  The Clip Organizer feature has been replaced by the Insert Media dialog box.  Insert Media feature lets you search and insert content from the Office.com Clip Art collection and other online sources, such as Bing Image/Video search, Flickr, and your SkyDrive or Facebook page.

Tweet PowerPoint 2013 's color picker tool: Eyedropper

If you use MS- Word or MS- PowerPoint frequently, you must have used Format painter which helps you maintain consistency of color, font and size of text throughout the document or presentation. Consistency no doubt is the key to a good presentation. Though format painter was a great tool, yet maintaining consistency of animation effects across slides was still a challenge until Microsoft introduced Animation Painter in  PowerPoint 2010.

In PowerPoint 2013 Microsoft has something for shapes known as Eyedropper. Eyedropper the color picker tool helps you copy the shape color and apply to any other shape. You can pick and apply any color visible on your screen (be it text, shape or from a window other than PowerPoint) to a shape.

Steps to pick and apply color to a shape

1. Select the shape you want to apply color.  Click on Drawing tools> Format on ribbon (Alternatively you can double click the shape to bring Format menu).
2. Click on "Shape Fill" Drop down under Format menu
3. Select "Eyedropper"
4. Move the color picker (mouse cursor /square box) on the shape/picture and click when desired color appears

Steps to pick and apply color from outside PowerPoint or from a text

In case you want to pick and apply color to a shape from a website, picture or any other software running on your desktop, follow these steps:

1. Select the shape you want to apply color.  Click on Drawing tools> Format on ribbon (Alternatively you can double click the shape to bring Format menu).
2. Click on "Shape Fill" Drop down under Format menu
3. Select "Eyedropper"
4. Click the left mouse button and move it to the website, picture or any other software from which you want to pick and apply the color. Clicking left button would let the color picker move anywhere outside on your desktop.
5. Release the left button when the color picker (square box) is on the desired color

Tweet Learn PowerPoint 2013: Free training videos from Microsoft

Every new software or software upgrade comes with new features and UI changes which you might find difficult to figure out easily. Microsoft's PowerPoint 2013 set to release later this year would also require some learning effort to fully utilize the potential of new features and functionality.

Though basic things and features are still the same as they were in PowerPoint 2007 and 2010, yet PowerPoint 2013 has lot of new features, UI changes and close integration with web.

Following tutorials from Microsoft explain various features and functionality and unveil the potential of  PowerPoint 2013.

1) Switch from 2003 to 2013

2) First look- Ribbon and commands

3) How things are organized- Menu, mini toolbar, Print preview

5) Save, publish and share

Microsoft has created these tutorials to help you easily switch to PowerPoint 2013. Tutorial in the form of a presentation can also be downloaded from Microsoft's website.

Note: These videos were extracted from the training presentation available on MS website to share with blog readers.

Tweet PowerPoint 2013: A new generation product

Microsoft is going to release PowerPoint 2013 (Office 2013) by the end of 2012. This version of PowerPoint promises to bring lot more engagement, cloud power and rich feature set.  With integrated search and insert capabilities for images and media, PowerPoint 2013 is going to make lives of PowerPoint creators lot easy.  Loaded with wide variety of  16:9 themes, cool design and rich set of features it is certainly going to delight you.

PowerPoint 2013 is closely integrated with Sky Drive and Office 365 (Microsoft's online subscription based Office). Presentations can be saved on Sky Drive in a jiffy and accessed anywhere anytime. Here are some of the features worth talking from presentation creation prospective:

Convert PowerPoint presentations to MP4
PowerPoint 2013 lets you convert PowerPoint presentations in WMV and MP4 formats. The default option for video conversion in PowerPoint 2013 is MPEG-4 (MP4).

Search and insert images and videos from within PowerPoint
PowerPoint 2013 has inbuilt image and video search engine which lets you search images from Bing, Flickr and videos from Bing and YouTube.  This was the most sought out feature since presenters have to look for relevant images and videos for their presentations and they had to go out of PowerPoint  software to a browser to search for same.

Now one would be able to search and insert relevant images, videos from within PowerPoint. It seems that Microsoft is inspired by the search and insert capabilities of authorSTREAM Desktop- a free add-in for PowerPoint. PowerPoint 2013’s image search from Bing, Flickr and video search on Bing & YouTube are two features which are a part of authorSTREAM Desktop for quite sometime.

Default presentations size 
Instead of standard and traditional 4:3 aspect ratio, PowerPoint 2013 comes with default presentation size to be in 16:9 (wide view).

Sharing and access rights
Unless you want to share it publicly, you need not to upload the presentations to SlideShare or authorSTREAM to share it with others. With PowerPoint 2013, share presentations with anyone by sending them unique link generated via Sky Drive from within PowerPoint. PowerPoint 2013 also lets  you to set view and editing permissions.

Comments
Commenting is  definitely a new thing to MS PowerPoint.  Now users would be able to comment on the presentations. This will not only bring engagement but also speed up the feedback process via comments and replies.

Present online
Similar to PowerPoint 2010's Broadcast Slideshow, 2013 has Present online. Present online lets you conduct synchronized slideshows with remote audience wherein as a presenter you control the advancement of animation and slides.

Publish online
PowerPoint 2013 allows you to save the presentations online on Sky Drive or Office 365 if you have subscribed to.

In today's internet world dominated by social media and networks, PowerPoint 2013 is undoubtedly a product of  new generation with options of commenting, sharing, broadcasting and  inbuilt tools to help you create awesome presentations.