Mastering PowerPoint Presentations with Microsoft 365 Copilot

PowerPoint

Master your PowerPoint presentations with precision using Microsoft 365 Copilot from Bluwater Technologies. Elevate your slides effortlessly with AI prompts and guidance, enhancing your presentation style and audience engagement. Transform Word documents seamlessly into engaging presentations, ensuring a cohesive and professional look. Utilize Copilot’s AI prompts for structuring documents effectively and streamlining your creation processes. Access training courses and additional resources, perfect presentation outlines efficiently, and customize handouts with Copilot. Elevate your presentations with Copilot’s assistance, making your presentation preparation a seamless experience.

Utilizing Copilot for Theme Selection

When choosing a theme for your presentation, let Copilot assist you in quickly selecting the most suitable option. Copilot’s AI-powered presentation enhancements can help you create beautiful and compelling presentations effortlessly. Start by considering your presentation style and the audience you’re targeting. Copilot can guide you in choosing a professional and creative presentation theme that aligns with your content. Utilizing a corporate template lets you maintain a coherent structure throughout your slides.

To ensure a cohesive presentation, include relevant images that enhance your message and engage your audience. Copilot can provide suggestions for incorporating visuals that complement your content effectively. With Copilot’s assistance, you can create a visually appealing slide deck that resonates with your audience—Trust Copilot to help you craft stunning presentations that leave a lasting impression on your viewers. Remember, a well-chosen theme with relevant images can significantly elevate the impact of your presentation.

Creating Presentations from Word Documents

To efficiently transform Word documents into engaging presentations, leverage Copilot’s AI-powered assistance for seamless content creation.

Creating a presentation from a file is simple with Copilot. Select the Copilot button in the Home tab of PowerPoint, then click ‘Create presentation from file’ and choose the Word document you wish to convert. This process allows for comprehensive presentations incorporating natural language from the original document.

Copilot’s artificial intelligence helps design slides that match your Word file’s content, ensuring a cohesive and professional look. Whether you’re preparing a sales pitch presentation, a concise presentation for a meeting, or a detailed business presentation, Copilot streamlines the creation process.

Remember to edit the presentation as needed, add speaker notes for guidance during the presentation, and review the draft presentation for any necessary adjustments before finalizing your slides.

Copilot is your co-pilot in creating impactful presentations from your Word documents.

Enhancing Copilot Understanding With Word Styles

Enhance Copilot’s comprehension by implementing Word Styles to structure your document effectively for seamless content creation.

When creating your presentation outline, be sure to leverage Word Styles to help Copilot understand the structure of your content.

Start using your organization’s template in Word and include relevant images to provide context.

Remember to use Copilot AI prompts to assist and ensure accuracy as you edit your draft.

Consider using Speaker Coach to improve your voice and tone when editing the draft.

Throughout the presentation preparation process, Copilot can be a valuable assistant, helping you create content, edit drafts, and provide guidance.

Accessing Additional Copilot Resources

Discover a wealth of additional Copilot resources to enhance your PowerPoint presentations effortlessly. Copilot subscription benefits allow you to access valuable training courses that elevate your presentation skills.

Consider exploring the subscription plan to maximize your practical usage of Copilot resources. Dive into the Copilot Lab for hands-on practice and guidance in utilizing Copilot features to their fullest potential.

Engage with the Microsoft Community for insights, tips, and troubleshooting assistance related to Copilot and PowerPoint presentations. Ensure you know the privacy statement to maintain data security while utilizing Copilot tools.

Additionally, explore the various handouts available to prepare your presentation and create engaging content. Leverage the Speaker Coach feature for tips and guidance on improving your presentation delivery.

These additional resources provided by Copilot can significantly enhance your overall presentation experience and help you create impactful slides effortlessly.

Leveraging Copilot for Presentation Outlines

When preparing your presentation outlines, leverage Copilot’s AI prompts to streamline the content creation process efficiently. Here’s how you can make the most of Copilot for your presentation outlines:

Get Started

Use OneNote to create a new page for your presentation outline and start Copilot from the ribbon.

Provide Guidance

Set the role for Copilot in creating content, specify the audience, and run the prompt for a detailed response.

Review and Refine

Add personal touches, use OneNote for research, and edit for voice, tone, and accuracy. Ask Copilot for more content if needed.

Handouts and Slide Deck

Copy the outline for handouts, draft an article in Word using Copilot, and save it to OneDrive. For the slide deck, open PowerPoint, let Copilot create a draft, review and edit it, and practice with Speaker Coach for improvement while utilizing Copilot for assistance.

Customizing Handouts with Copilot

To personalize your handouts effectively, utilize Copilot’s assistance in tailoring content to meet your specific audience’s needs. When creating handouts with Copilot in Microsoft 365 PowerPoint, you can leverage its customization features to enhance the preparation process.

After drafting your presentation decks, use Copilot to assist in crafting informative and visually appealing handouts. Copy the outline of your presentation into Microsoft Word with Copilot’s help to create detailed articles that align with your presentation content efficiently.

During the customization phase, review and edit the article with Copilot’s guidance, adding relevant images to make it more engaging for your audience. Save the handout to OneDrive for easy access and sharing.

Perfecting Slide Decks With Copilot

Enhance your slide decks efficiently by leveraging Copilot’s assistance in drafting and perfecting engaging presentations. When perfecting your slide decks with Copilot, consider the following:

  • Utilize Copilot AI prompts to create content
  • Make use of template integration for a polished presentation
  • Seamlessly integrate content from Word documents
  • Utilize Speaker Coach integration to refine your presentation delivery

Maximizing Microsoft 365 Copilot’s Potential

You’ve unlocked the key to effortless presentation design with Microsoft 365 Copilot AI prompts. Seamlessly choose themes, create presentations from Word documents, and enhance Copilot’s understanding of Word styles.

Access additional resources, leverage Copilot for outlines, customize handouts, and perfect slide decks effortlessly. Elevate your storytelling game and master the art of presentation design with Copilot.

Say goodbye to tedious design work and hello to a world of innovation and creativity. Let Bluwater Technologies and Microsoft 365 Copilot guide you to presentation perfection.

Ready to master PowerPoint presentations effortlessly? Partner with Bluwater Technologies, a WheelHouse IT company and harness the power of Microsoft 365 Copilot’s AI prompts. Elevate your slides with precision and style, transforming your presentations into captivating experiences. Take the next step towards presentation perfection with Bluwater Technologies today!

#WorkingFromHome Solutions with Microsoft Teams

a laptop with the microsoft logo on it

Staying home together can be a challenge when it comes to staying connected and apart. Many small to mid-sized businesses are feeling the anxiety of the #WorkFromHome life, just as many employees struggle to maintain a sense of normalcy and minimal disruption to their departmental teams. Business owners can use technology to ensure processes continue to run smoothly during COVID-19.

Microsoft Teams is the essential remote worker’s suite for empowering companies and keeping colleagues connected.

All-In-One Platform

One of the biggest fears many companies harbor is the loss of productivity during this difficult time. The idea of transitioning an entire company to working remotely on minimal notice is a daunting undertaking. With the looming uncertainty and adjustment to new operating procedures, profit loss seems inevitable. Busy companies can’t afford a day off, let alone an undefined furlough.

Now that we’ve covered the doom and gloom, it’s time to look at the vast opportunities this “new normal” presents. There’s no need for productivity to drop off due to transitioning to a remote office. Remote work has been on the rise with many of the top-growing companies over the past few years. The key to success lies in the right tools.

Microsoft Teams eliminates the learning curve by keeping new technology simple. The user-friendly, all-in-one platform centralizes software, CRM databases, spreadsheets, messaging, and more in a secured Cloud based location. 

The result? Reduced employee downtime.

According to the Forrester Study: The Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Teams, “having resources available online in Teams reduces downtime by 14.6 percent.” This allows for streamlined compliance and security while keeping your business on the upward growth curve.

Collaboration Made Simple with Microsoft Teams

The benefits of a dynamic team are often erroneously linked to a shared, brick-and-mortar office. The reality is that it’s quite common for key executive members to operate on a long-distance basis, with flexible hours and remote work quickly becoming the best way to attract high-quality talent. 

Teams makes collaboration a snap with easy documentation, screen sharing, data exchange, and personable communications. In fact, a recent Forrester Study found that “information workers were able to save 4hrs/wk through improved collaboration and information sharing.” This leaves extra hours to catch up on backlogged projects.

The fast, real-time environment of Teams allows businesses to hold morning meetings, schedule conferences with core clients and investors, and check in anytime, anywhere. If your company is growing fast, there’s no reason to pump the brakes quite yet. Interviews are simple and timely via Teams, allowing multiple executive members to be a part of the process.

Best of all, Teams keeps your company together. The sense of camaraderie between our colleagues has never been more needed. Support your staff during this difficult time by fostering a culture of positivity and teamwork.

Budget Friendly for Reduced Overhead

Maintaining fiscal responsibility is more vital now than ever. There’s no need to invest in high-tech solutions to keep your company running from home. Microsoft offers a range of affordable Office 365 and Microsoft 365 options depending on your company’s needs. Best of all, Microsoft Teams is proud to feature small business solutions. If you aren’t looking to purchase a bundled option, the basic app for Teams is free to download and can host up to 300 members.

In addition, travel costs were greatly reduced, freeing up overhead expenses. The Forrester Study found that “an average of 150 overnight trips [were] replaced with online meetings by year 3 [of implementation].”

We know the current state of #WorkingFromHome has yielded a lot of uncertainty, but in the transition to remote work, innovative, new opportunities are being discovered every day. Your friends at Bluwater Technologies are here to support our business clients now more than ever with on-demand IT services for small businesses.

Contact our experts for more COVID-19 guidance and tips on transitioning your office to a robust remote workforce.

Office 365 vs Office 2019 – Which One is Best for Your Business?

the comparison between office 365 and office 365

When it comes to which product is superior, Microsoft’s traditional Office (2019) suite, or their relatively new Office 365 package, there is no definitive answer. Microsoft offers two options for its customers because it recognizes that a one-size-fits-all philosophy may not necessarily meet the needs of everyone in its very large audience.

In this post, we will outline some of the key features of each suite so each business can decide for itself, which package is better suited for its particular office environment.

Office 365 for Business

Office 365 is a cloud-based version of Microsoft’s suite of office products such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, plus additional business-related apps. Instead of paying a one-time license fee, buyers pay a monthly or annual subscription for use of the product. 

Some key advantages include:

  • Regular updates
  • Increased cloud-based collaboration
  • Use apps on multiple devices
  • Linking (rather than attaching) files to emails
  • Multiple subscription-level options

Microsoft Office 2019

This is Microsoft’s stand-alone version of their Office line of software applications. Buyers make a one-time purchase of the package, which includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook. Microsoft does offer a business version of the product and the one-time fee is good until the end of life of the product (infinite access).

Advantages of the stand-alone package include:

  • Pay only once
  • 60 days of free support
  • Tried and true classic office applications

Generally speaking, Microsoft’s Office 2019 software is a good choice for very small businesses — typically less than 5 employees. As a stand-alone product, there is a fee attached to each copy of the software so if you have 3 machines using Office 2019, you’ll have 3 licenses. For slightly larger companies who use other cloud-based applications, Office 365 may be a better choice. It certainly offers more on-the-go flexibility by allowing the use of the app on multiple devices, as well as multiple subscription options.

If you would like to know more about how to select the right office package for your business, please contact us.

Improve Teamwork and File Collaboration with Microsoft Teams

a group of people standing next to each other

Team projects frequently require regular and sometimes even intensive communication between team members. It is often difficult, however, to find the time and the meeting space to bring everyone together. This is just one of the reasons why Microsoft developed their Microsoft Teams application. Their Teams application provides an easy mechanism for project members to improve file collaboration with each other; all from the convenience of their own desk or even while on the go.

Flexible Communication 

With the Microsoft Teams collaboration hub, members can easily connect with each other for group chats to review important project documents, or they can initiate a private conversation with another team member or an external user. Microsoft Teams offers flexible communication by offering team members the choice to communicate through voice, text, or video channels. Team members can sign in anywhere, anytime, using virtually every device on the market, since Microsoft Teams can be downloaded onto a variety of devices and operating systems, including:

  • Mac
  • Android
  • iPhone
  • Windows
  • Web

File Collaboration Made Easy

Group projects typically require the use of multiple applications, along with a multitude of different file types. Microsoft Teams makes it easy for team members to view, discuss, and edit a variety of different files from applications such as:

  • Excel
  • PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Word
  • Visio 

If team members need to share project documents outside of their group project, Microsoft’s Teams application allows that as well. Of course, there may be times when team members need to bring in files for review from sources other than Microsoft’s line of applications. In that case, project members can make use of their underlying SharePoint library to view non-Office files within the Teams application. 

If you want to increase efficiency and productivity in your group projects, Microsoft can make it happen with their Teams app. Contact us for details.

Tip of the Day: The Power of Free Word Processors

a person typing on a laptop keyboard

Computers are wonderful machines that can be our best friend or our worst enemy. If one wishes to harness the power of that friendly side of computers, it helps a great deal to understand computer word processors. 

In the computer world, if one wants to type a statement, letter, or some other kind of document, a word processor program will typically be used. The most common word processor program in use today is Word which is sold by Microsoft. There are some other options that may be used for typing documents that are free. OpenOffice Writer and LibreOffice Writer are free options.

Issues

The only major obstacle to using these particular free options is that the file extension (.odt) generated by the program when a document is saved might not be readable by the word processor program installed on another computer.

For example, say a document is typed and saved with a .odt file extension. Then, sent to a computer with Microsoft Word installed. Depending on which version of Microsoft Word is being used, Word might not be able to read the document. However, the free options mentioned above both have a function to convert .odt files into .pdf format. Most computers have software installed that can read .pdf file types. If no software is installed to read the .pdf file type, simply download and install a free .pdf reader program.

As implied, there is no exact science to collaborating with word processor programs. However, the benefits are many including saving money. Furthermore, the information herein only skims the surface of what word processors can do. If a business has several employees requiring the use of a word processor but there is no budget for purchasing such software, the free options could serve nicely as an alternative.

Please contact us if consultation is needed with regards to word processor options.