Many people dread the thought of giving a presentation, whether it’s in person or over video conferencing. They aren’t comfortable with public speaking, worry about too many “umms,” or are afraid their delivery won’t “close the deal” or accomplish the desired outcome.
But presentations are a normal part of business. You may be giving an informal sales presentation to executives, a webinar for lead generation, or an important presentation for a large potential customer.
No matter what type of presentation you may have on your plate, you can improve your delivery skills with a handy tool inside PowerPoint called Presenter Coach.
Presenter Coach is one of the many AI-powered features inside Microsoft 365. It’s designed to give you a virtual coach to guide you through your PPT presentation delivery to help you improve your skills.
Some of the benefits of using Presenter Coach include:
- Get data-driven insights on your presentation
- Practice as many times as you like
- Learn new things about presentation best practices
- Get better as you practice and follow the tips
Many businesses use IT consulting to help them with various parts of their business workflows. Presenter Coach is like your own personal public speaking consultant tucked inside your computer.
How Does PowerPoint Presenter Coach Work?
You access Presenter Coach from inside PowerPoint. You’ll first open your presentation and then go to the Slide Show menu and click Rehearse with Coach from the options.
You’ll see the option when you click Rehearse with Coach to turn on body language feedback. When you do this, your webcam will be used to gauge things like your distance from the screen and eye contact with the audience.
Click to Start Rehearsing and choose whether or not you want real-time feedback along with your Rehearsal Report that comes when you’ve finished rehearsing.
Next, wait until you see a “Listening…” prompt, and then begin giving your presentation.
Real-Time Feedback
If you’ve checked to show real-time feedback, you’ll see that in a small window. For example, if you’re using too many filler words like “umm,” Presenter Coach will tell you so you can adjust accordingly.
Getting feedback in real-time lets you know right when you do something that can be improved upon so you’re not trying to think back to what part in a presentation a specific recommendation may have been targeted.
At the end of your presentation, you’ll be provided with a Rehearsal Report that includes a summary of feedback about your presentation delivery.
Your Presenter Coach Rehearsal Report
You’ll get several important insights in the Rehearsal Report that you can use to improve upon your delivery and learn more about what makes a good oral presentation.
How Is Your Presentation Pacing?
You’ll get a grade on your presentation pacing that lets you know if you were going too slow or too fast. Going too slow can cause your audience to get bored and feel like you’re wasting their time. Going too fast can cause your point to get lost because people miss something important.
The pacing score will come in words per minute.
PowerPoint Presenter Coach Rehearsal Report
Are You Using Too Many Filler Words?
If you say “you know” or “umm” too much, Presenter Coach will let you know. It won’t only tell you that you’re using too many fillers, it will tell you exactly which words those are so you can be aware of them and try to avoid them.
How Original Is Your Presentation?
Originality looks at how much you’re sticking to the text on the slides or saying things in your own words. When giving a PPT presentation, the slide text is meant to be a guide, but it’s best to put things in your own words and add more context to each slide.
If you’re reciting the text from your slides and not much else, it will result in a low originality score.
How Is Your Body Language?
A new feature that Presenter Coach recently added is the ability to give feedback on three areas of body language using your webcam.
It will let you know:
- Whether you’re making enough eye contact with the audience
- If your distance from the camera is too close, too far, or just right
- If the audience has a clear view of your face
Are You Repeating Yourself?
If you’ve used the word “awesome” one too many times in your presentation, Presenter Coach will let you know. It listens for repetitive language and will give you a heads up on the terms you may be using a few too many times, so you can look for synonyms for some of the iterations.
How Is Your Pronunciation?
No one wants to be known as the person in their company that mispronounced “nomenclature” or any other word. If Presenter Coach detects that you might have mispronounced a word, it will let you know and provide a recording of the correct pronunciation so you can adjust your presentation delivery accordingly and come off perfectly polished.
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