Microsoft is rolling out the public preview of its new 'standout' feature for presenter mode in PowerPoint on a Teams video meeting. 

Standout is part of Microsoft's effort to overhaul the sharing content capabilities on Teams as it shapes the collaboration platform for hybrid work. 

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Microsoft began rolling out various presenter mode preview features for Teams in May. 'Standout' mode shows the presenter's video feed on bottom right corner of the presentation slide. This works for both PowerPoint Presenter View and PowerPoint SlideShow View and will be available for all users on macOS and Windows 10/11 under a public preview on September 24, according to a Microsoft update.  

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"Presenter mode 'standout' allows a PowerPoint presenter to show their video overlaid on the presentation during a Microsoft Teams meeting. This feature enables a more engaging experience by not having the attendee choose between seeing the presenter or the shared PowerPoint content," Microsoft said.

There are two ways to enable standout. A user can join a Teams meeting as a presenter and then open the Teams Share Tray to enable 'standout' within a given PowerPoint deck to be shared. The other option is to open the Teams Share Tray and then select a PowerPoint deck. After the presentation loads, the user can toggle on or off the presenter mode 'standout' button. 

For now, it is a desktop experience. If it's enabled by the presenter, Teams mobile and Teams web attendees just see a flat tone background. Additionally, Teams recording can't capture the standout video. 

On the hybrid front, Microsoft last week announced a bunch of in-person and remote participant meeting features for Teams Rooms that will be released over the next year. It has also stalled its return to the office policy indefinitely due to the delta variant of COVID-19. It was planning to reopen in October.  

Rival video-meeting platform Zoom is also transforming the product into a platform for other developers to create apps for. This week the company announced several enterprise-focussed features, including end-to-end encryption for Zoom Phone users, a smart gallery feature that uses AI to generate unique video feeds of in-room participants, hot-desking workspace maps, and new display and hardware support for conference rooms. 

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