PowerPoint shows might change within the subsequent few months, as Microsoft integrates dwell and pre-recorded video into shows you view and create.
Microsoft’s engineering groups are at all times exhausting at work launching options, and as we speak marks Microsoft’s spring 2022 replace of kinds, on quite a lot of totally different topics. Microsoft introduced a brand new Surface Hub-specific webcam, up to date options to Teams and different productiveness apps, and a few particular enhancements to how Microsoft offers with staff who’re returning to the workplace. For that matter, Microsoft additionally launched a survey noting that many staff aren’t all that eager about returning to work, both preferring to work remotely or as a hybrid of at-home and in-person work.
PowerPoint touches many various lives and careers (even holiday parties) so it’s not stunning that two of crucial bulletins contain it. Specifically, Microsoft is merging PowerPoint Cameo with its Recording Studio operate, so that you’ll have extra methods to ship video as a part of shows. PowerPoint Cameo takes an concept that has appeared in mmhmm and different options: It captures a small dwell feed of you speaking by your slides, and integrates that with the presentation. All Recording Studio does is just add the potential to pre-record that video, so that you’ll have the choice of presenting dwell or pre-recording the video so others can evaluation it on their very own time –as we’ve seen already occur with the flexibility to document Teams calls, for instance.
All actions have penalties although, and Microsoft’s newest Future of Work survey highlights an issue: Working at dwelling (or simply working) has led to a whopping 252 % improve in time spent in Teams conferences since February 2020. Microsoft used its anonymized telemetry inside Microsoft 365 to determine one other alarming pattern: The common workday elevated 46 minutes throughout that point, and time spent working after hours elevated 28 %. On weekends, staff are actually working 14 % extra hours than they used to.
In the survey of 31,000 individuals, Microsoft discovered that 51 % of hybrid staff (splitting work between the house and workplace) plan to go absolutely distant, and 57 % of distant staff wish to return to the workplace part-time as hybrid staff.
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The inevitable query: If Microsoft is now permitting staff to supply video PowerPoint shows that permit for extra asynchronous work after hours, isn’t Microsoft merely contributing to the issue of burnt-out staff? Microsoft doesn’t assume so.
“Our customers are telling us they want to empower people for a world of work that is dynamic and fluid, and the data shows that the shift to asynchronous work is part of the new normal,” a Microsoft consultant mentioned in an announcement. “Monthly use of meeting recordings has doubled since March 2020, allowing people to catch up on meetings at a time that works best for them. As we emerge into this new hybrid reality, we are focused on building experiences that enable everyone to connect and engage from anywhere and at any time. We also recognize that not only are employees on different time zones, but choose to work their own, unique hours, if their jobs give them the flexibility. With that being said, some employees may choose to listen to a meeting instead of attending live, because of their individual scenarios and we want to empower them and give them the flexibility to do so.”
Recording Studio and Cameo don’t present a transcript for workers to evaluation, Microsoft mentioned, however movies will be uploaded to OneDrive for Business, which supplies translation.
Microsoft additionally supplied some timeline updates: Last September, Microsoft’s migration of PowerPoint’s Presentation Coach to Teams (Speaker Coach) will probably be accomplished by the second quarter of 2022. Microsoft can be bettering Whiteboard inside Teams, with new templates, reactions, and collaborative options, additionally within the second quarter of 2022. Finally, Microsoft can be including language interpretation, which permits the presenter to assign human interpreters to varied attendees, with the interpreted audio enjoying at the next quantity.
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Adapting to hybrid work
Microsoft can be asserting new capabilities to deal with hybrid work, one of many themes Microsoft chief government Satya Nadella often promotes. Hybrid work — the pliability in roaming between the workplace and distant work — is as a lot a cultural drawback as it’s a productiveness matter.
Microsoft already gives a program referred to as Microsoft Teams Phone, the place customers can place voice calls from inside the app to landlines, VOIP telephones, and extra. Microsoft is increasing this with a program referred to as Operator Connect Mobile, which does the other: It supplies customers with a single “business line” or telephone quantity for his or her desk telephone and cell phone, permitting somebody to name that quantity and attain you whether or not you’re within the workplace or on a cell gadget. It will even roam between Wi-Fi and mobile as you progress between the 2, Microsoft says.
Companies like Vonage have already provided a single one-number-for-all functionality for years, however Microsoft is now getting on board, too. (To be honest, app-to-app communication like Skype or Messenger already finds you on no matter gadget you might be on.) Technically, Operator Connect Mobile will probably be a program for workers, not customers — however the subtext is that the road between your work and private life can be blurring.
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To make the attendees in conferences really feel extra included, Microsoft is requiring individuals who use Teams Rooms companion units to show off their audio — and, quickly, would require them to show their laptop computer digital camera on even when they’re within the room. The concept, in accordance with Microsoft, is to take distant customers, who’ve their cameras on, and make them equal to the individuals within the room — one attendee, one face. That avoids implying that there’s a set of “in” attendees and a set of “everybody else. Likewise, Microsoft is taking its Surface Hub 2 and inserting the screens from the distant attendees at eye stage, referred to as Front Row. It’s one other technique to make everybody really feel equal.
Microsoft took the same strategy with the launch of its 12-Mpixel Surface Hub 2 Smart Camera, a webcam that may solely work with the Surface Hub 2. We’ve seen extra webcams just like the Dell UltraSharp 4K webcam robotically pan and zoom to middle on its consumer’s face, and Microsoft took the same strategy. Using algorithms that search for attendees, the webcam will slim and sharpen its view to border all of the attendees within the room.
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Microsoft’s Surface Hub 2S Smart Camera is on the market as we speak for $800, Microsoft mentioned.