Microsoft Teams users can now test PowerPoint Presenter View to keep their meetings on track

Microsoft Teams is now testing a new feature that will make virtual communication more engaging and impactful than ever before. This week, Linus Cansby, a Microsoft MVP, spotted that the company has rolled out the PowerPoint Presenter View for Teams meetings in preview.

For those unfamiliar, Microsoft Teams already supports a built-in presentation mode but with certain limitations. Currently, presenters can’t enable the PowerPoint View to change the way slides are presented to other participants in a meeting. It makes it impossible for them to see their notes and move between slides out of order, but this should change soon.

With the new addition, presenters will be able to view the current slide, the slide notes, and a thumbnail strip of all the slides during ongoing meetings. For starters, this should enable them to discuss the meeting notes as needed and move back and forth between slides to provide a quick recap. This change will help presenters to keep their meetings on track.

To get started, you need to opt into the public preview program for Microsoft Teams. To use this feature, users need to click the Share icon available besides the Leave button in the meeting window. Then select a recent PowerPoint file from the Teams Share Tray or browse for a local/OneDrive file to automatically open the Presenter View.

It is important to note that only the presenter needs to enable the new meeting experience in the Teams desktop app Settings to use Presenter View, and it only works in multi-window meetings. While the new functionality is currently available in public preview, it will start rolling out to the general public later this month.