Microsoft has found a way to put more energy into PowerPoints

Better background layouts and easier animation process among new features

Microsoft has made a pledge to move faster these days, and last week it announced that it’s adding two new features to PowerPoint — and creating a way to let Microsoft fans get early access to even more new features down the line.

The two new features are called Morph and Designer, and both are aimed at making PowerPoint presentations less ugly and less boring.

Designer will automatically look at any photo you upload into PowerPoint for a background and suggest several snazzy layout options, based on the template you’ve selected and the photo itself. Microsoft came up with those suggestions by consulting actual designers, who created the library of 12,000 layout suggestions.

Designer also uses machine-learning to analyze the photo you’ve selected to pick the right suggested layouts. So, for example, if you’re using a graph, the program will recognize that and try not to offer layouts that obscure key parts of that image.

The other feature is Morph — a streamlined way to drop animations into PowerPoint presentations. Microsoft employee Chris Maloney said that many PowerPoint users, particularly teachers, often want to put animations into their projects to keep their audience’s attention, but they are intimidated by the way it’s currently done in the program.

With Morph, users can simply adjust the shape or layout of their image on a new slide, and PowerPoint will automatically link those slides together to create the animation.

“At the end of the day, these are individual slides. You’re just moving the shapes around,” he said. “As long as you know how to use shapes, you’ll be able to make these and tell stories.”

Making the animation process easier has been one of PowerPoint’s most-requested features, said Shawn Villaron, the head of PowerPoint at Microsoft. It had been under discussion for years but hadn’t moved much beyond talking about how to streamline the process. But at a recent hackathon, engineers were en- couraged to quickly prototype a product and put out a project that set the groundwork for Morph.

Villaron credits a new companywide emphasis on fast updates and growth for finally getting this idea into the program. The pace is supposed to reflect the priorities of chief executive Satya Nadella, who’s aiming to modernize Microsoft and pull it into a mindset that reflects the fast-moving nature of a mobile- and cloud-based world.

“This is indicative of the new Microsoft” and Nadella’s leadership, Villaron said.