Windows 10: Morph in PowerPoint now available to Office Insiders

Brink · Mar 27, 2019

This is a story about how customer feedback led directly to improvements to the popular Morph transition, providing even more control for users to be able to create complex animations using Morph. These improvements were the result of a great partnership with customers that started at Presentation Summit, came to life during a mini hackathon project, were refined with the help of our MVPs, and are now available for Insiders.

Customer Obsession at the Presentation Summit

PowerPoint learned about the user need for more control while connecting with customers at the Presentation Summit, an annual conference for presentation professionals. During Presentation Summit, Jona, an EM on the PowerPoint team, attended a session about using PowerPoint Morph transitions. During the session, the presenter demoed some cool ways to use Morph in PowerPoint presentations, but often had to say, “but here is the workaround you have to do to get this to work,” or “it doesn’t work exactly how you’d like, but we don’t have control over what morphs where.”

Jona realized this was an opportunity for improvement and met with the presenter and several other attendees after the session to see how we could address the issues brought up in the session. With their feedback in hand, Jona emailed the PowerPoint team back home, and they got to work on a quick prototype. The next day, the group at Presentation Summit reconvened and were given a demo of the prototype changes. Everyone loved what they saw and wanted to see the changes rolled into future versions of PowerPoint!

Moving Fast with a Hackathon

Back at Microsoft, several PowerPoint engineers took advantage of an upcoming company hackathon to take the prototype and the feedback from the customers at Presentation Summit, and fully flesh out the improvements to Morph. They also saw an opportunity to improve table and SmartArt morphing while they were at it!

Table morphing improvements

*Smile button and let us know!
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Source: The Power of Feedback: Morph in PowerPoint Office Insider Blog

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Brink · Mar 27, 2019

Office Insider v1903 fast build 11406.20002 - February 14

What’s new

PowerPoint

Morph Transition Enhancements – Morph by Name
Specify the shapes you want to morph.

Getting Started

Morph By Name:

To get Morph to treat two objects as the same object, the user can rename the shapes using the Selection Pane.

The name must be prefaced with “!!” (two exclamation points) for Morph to use it to override our default matching behavior, e.g. “!!Name”

Users can continue to rename shapes with any name that doesn’t start with “!!” without worrying that it will change the way Morph works

Scenarios to Try

Morph By Name :

Insert a Shape in a slide, let’s say Rectangle

Create a new slide

Insert a different shape in the 2nd slide, let’s say Triangle

Open SelectionPane, rename the Rectangle in slide 1 to “!!shape”, and rename the Triangle in slide 2 to “!!shape”

Apply Morph on the 2nd slide

Morph Transition Enhancements – SmartArt

SmartArt morph with smoother transitions

Getting Started

Use Morph the same way you would with SmartArt

Scenarios to Try

Insert a SmartArt in a slide

Duplicate the Slide

Resize/Change/Move the SmartArt on the duplicated slide

Apply Morph on the duplicated slide

Morph Transition Enhancements – Tables

Tables morph with smoother transitions

Getting Started
Use Morph the same way you would with tables

Scenarios to Try

Table Morph Enhancement:

Insert a Table in a slide

Duplicate the slide

Resize/Change/Move the Table on the duplicated slide

Apply Morph on the duplicated slide

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

Seamlessly Switch Between Accounts

The new Me Control shows all of your work and personal accounts in one place, and puts you in control of switching between them. The Me Control (“account manager”) makes it clear how you’re logged in, and now you can toggle between work and personal accounts without having to sign out first or deal with complex dialogs.

Getting Started

Click your name in the top right corner of the app

Scenarios to Try:

Switch between accounts

Add a new account [Note: you may want to first go to File | Account | Connected Services and remove any personal services connected to work accounts or vice versa]

Sign out from an account

Notable Fixes

Word

We fixed an issue with context preview for tables & images

Excel

We fixed an issue where text in autofilter Search field is white in Black theme

We fixed a consent UI issue with New Office Add-in

PowerPoint

We fixed an issue with automatically extending display when presenting SlideShows on laptops or tablets.

Outlook

We fixed an issue with the Send to OneNote button display

Access

Various performance and stability fixes

Project

Various performance and stability fixes

Across Apps

We fixed an issue where in the PL locale, saving files with these characters in the name would fail (Word, Excel & PowerPoint)

Click to expand...

Source: Office for Windows (Insider): New Build Announcement (Version 1903) Office Insider Blog

See also:

Office for Windows - Insider Fast Release Notes - February 15th, 2019 - Microsoft Community

Update history for Office Insider for Windows desktop - Office Support

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Brink · Mar 27, 2019

Digital ruler now available in Insider Fast builds of PowerPoint 2016

Hi Insiders!

My name is Emily, and I’m a PM on the Office Graphics Team.

I’m here to tell you about the new digital ruler in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows desktop, which is available today in Office insider Fast builds. (To turn it on, click Draw > Ruler.)

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We created this feature for those of you who use digital ink to illustrate ideas or use shapes to build visuals! Several users have seen the Ruler in the Windows Ink Workspace and requested it in Office.

If you’re using a touch device, you can use your pen or finger to draw lines and align objects against the ruler, which functions as a straight edge. (In the future, we’ll make it so you can use the ruler with a mouse, too.)

Scenarios To Try

Move the ruler around

One finger moves it up-down, left-right

Two fingers to move and rotate the angle

Three fingers to move and rotate it by 5° at a time

Draw straight lines quickly with a pen or highlighter

Create new illustrations by using the Segment Eraser on intersecting ink lines

Snap shapes against the ruler

Shapes will snap directly to their edges

Icons, pictures, text boxes, and more will snap to their bounding box

Slide objects along the ruler until you’re happy with their placement

Known Issues

The Ruler does not exist for builds below Windows 10 RS1 RTM ("Windows 10 Anniversary Update") (Build 14393)

When you move your content away from the edges of the canvas, the background may shift away from ruler

Tick marks are not to scale in inches or centimeters

How to Send Us Feedback

To get in touch, do any of the following:

Respond to this post or tweet at @OfficeInsider.

On the PowerPoint UserVoice site, make a suggestion that others can upvote.

Inside PowerPoint, click File > Feedback.

Thanks,

The Office Graphics Team
Click to expand...

Source: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...8-496b3ce45644

Brink · Mar 27, 2019

@mentions for comments in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint available

Hello! My name is Apurv, and I’m a Program Manager in Microsoft Office.

What’s New

We recently added the capability to @mention your collaborators in comments in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. @mentions makes it easier for you to notify your peers, pull them into a document, and work together wherever you need their attention.

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How it Works

To get started, simply make a comment and type @ in a file saved on SharePoint or OneDrive for Business. You’ll see a drop-down list of contacts that updates as you type more characters. Pick a name and finish writing your comment. To be more casual, feel free to delete everything except the person's first name in the @mention. To include more people, type @ again and mention someone else.

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint will automatically send an email notification to whoever you tag with a link to the specific comment. This link will open in the Online version of the apps or directly in the iOS/Android app. If someone gets mentioned more than once, we’ll batch the emails together.

Learn More

Requirements & Known Limitations

You must be using Office 365.

The file must be saved in SharePoint or OneDrive for Business.

Tenants with conditional access will not be able to create @mentions. Please contact your IT Administrator for more information.

If you’re using the desktop version of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint (i.e. on Windows or Mac), you have to have configured and signed in to your Office 365 email account.

@mentions does not work with guest or external accounts (you cannot @mention such accounts nor can such accounts @mention in files outside of their tenant). You can still share with them directly.

Available to all Insiders

Windows build 1812 (11126.20266) or later

Mac build 16.20 (18120801) or later

iOS build 2.20 (18120200) or later

Android build 16.0.11328.20008 or later

Available to all O365 users in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Online

Feedback

We're eager to hear your feedback! You can leave comments on this post or submit feedback in Word/Excel/PowerPoint:

On Windows go to File > Feedback

On Mac go to Help > Feedback

On iOS/Android go to Settings > Send Feedback

For Office Online go to Help Improve Office

Click to expand...

Source:

@mentions for comments in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint available to Insiders Fast Office Insider Blog

mentions for comments in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint available to iOS - Microsoft Community

mentions for comments in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint available to Android - Microsoft Community

mentions for comments in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint available to Mac - Microsoft Community

mentions for comments in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint available to Windows - Microsoft Community

Windows 10: Morph in PowerPoint now available to Office Insiders

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