Microsoft Edge Webview2 – Does It Matter to PowerPoint?
Further blurring the boundary between native, and web-app development – enter Microsoft Webview2
As more and more apps become cloud-based there is a near seamless transition between desktop and mobile devices. Microsoft has been hard at work on this transition, and the coding challenges it presents for developers. Enter Edge Webview2, which is only one component of Microsoft’s much larger Project Reunion. Project Reunion is an initiative to modernize and evolve Windows Application and Webapp development with a new set of unified tools and API’s.
So, what does webview2 do? Simply put, it allows you to add web content, HTML, CSS, Javascipt, etc. into your native applications. Native apps for each OS; Windows, Mac, IOS, Android, etc., each have differing coding languages and requirements. But Webview2 allows developers to use consolidated language base, coding for the web, and have a native application use that code – on any platform. It is easy to see why Microsoft would want to enable simplifying things in this way now that the O365 suite has essentially become a set of hybrid apps (they run on desktop, but require internet access for components of their functionality – or the same app can run, with almost 100% features, as a web app).
On the obvious side, why is there a “2” in the name? Because there is already a “Webview.” The question is, how is Webview2 different from Webview? Webview2 is Chromium based (vs. a more proprietary Windows based language). Chromium is an industry-standard for code and development. The part that made the “new” Microsoft Edge web browser new, is that it is now based on Chromium (basically Microsoft stopped its proprietary code language development and used the industry standard and open source Chromium language). Microsoft does make it clear that Webview2 does not mean Microsoft Edge needs to be installed. But Microsoft Edge is what renders all Webview2 content, so even if it is not installed as a web browser, it is running behind the scenes, albeit with a little more stealth, running anything utilizing Webview2. For software development with the goal of developing both native and webapps, and native apps that are cross platform, Webview2 makes that effort far less daunting.
So why the timing of this blog post now? Because Microsoft started pushing out the runtime to Windows PC’s starting April 1st and it has now been released for general availability. So Webview2 is now open to all developers. If you want to get into more of the technical documentation, look at the Overview and Roadmap for detailed information.
For PowerPoint, we don’t have a list of any features that are specifically Webview2 coded. I imagine many of the new features, those that are available in PowerPoint for Web, but not the desktop version are leveraging this new coding option. It will definitely make it easier for the Microsoft team in maintaining functionality and feature set parity across platforms without having to develop everything from the ground up, two, three or five times. Stay tuned, because even if we do not directly see Webview2, no matter what platform we are using PowerPoint on, we certainly will be using features that are leveraging the features Webview2 enables.
Josh @ TLC
Talk to Your Slides!
With everyone working remote, I have found myself using more dictation and voice command options than I was in our design studio (where everyone could overhear, and be distracted by, my “conversations” with my computer). Microsoft Office, and specifically PowerPoint, has a really good voice-to-text tool called “Dictate”. It is super easy to use, and I find it almost perfect on converting me talking to my slide to text on the slide.
Of note: in the demo video I am using the Windows desktop version of PowerPoint. The same feature is on Mac and PowerPoint for web.
Troy @ TLC
Conversation with David Blatner of CreativePro Week
Episode 125 of The Presentation Podcast released this week. Listen to a great conversation with David Blatner, the force behind the CreativePro Week conference. We talk specifically about the 20+ sessions dedicated to presentation design. Labelled “The Essential HOW-TO Conference for Creative Pros” and it happens May 17-21, 2021.
Oh, and I am presenting a session on Friday, 5/21/21 “What’s New with Remote/Virtual Presentations”. I am looking forward to it!
Troy @ TLC
Time for a Restart!
2020 became a major restart.
We restarted TLC Creative Services with a new offering: virtual corporate events on a secure, scalable, and highly visual customizable platform. With the loss of nearly 100% of live events, we had time and a team of talented people to focus on the VXP Meeting Platform. And, we continued to provide presentation design, template development, and graphic design services (though like most of the world, at a reduced volume of requests).
2021 is time to restart The PowerPoint Blog!
Here, The PowerPoint Blog, went on an unofficial hiatus. More things to focus on than time allowed. Business development, platform development, and client requests came first. The PowerPoint Podcast came next and many other TLC Creative projects went on hold – including our time here.
Ideas
This is not to say my list of presentation examples, PowerPoint tutorials, and resources stopped. The list of blog topics has continued to grow for literally a year and it is now overflowing! The TLC Creative team is still busy (thankfully!), and The Presentation Podcast is going strong (with topic planned into 2022). The VXP meeting platform is less in a development stage and is now a stable functioning offering. All of these things make May 2021 the time to restart The PowerPoint Blog.
Welcome!
If you are new here, welcome! and search the archives. There are 1,ooo’s of blog posts (seriously, there are a lot, spanning back to 2006!) with lots of great how-to tutorials, examples of presentation design, and reviews of presentation design resources.
If you are a long time visitor, welcome back! Sorry for the pause, but the world gone crazy with a global Pandemic forced reshuffled priorities. Now we are focused here, on The PowerPoint Blog once again 🙂
your friend,
Troy Chollar
Win a Pass to the Present to Succeed Conference!
Listen to episode 122 of The Presentation Podcast for details on our give away of 5 passes to the Present to Succeed Conference! Present to Succeed is a virtual conference, April 14-16, 2021 with a line up of fantastic presenters. You have until Friday, March 12 to enter (and you can enter as often as you’d like!). Winners announced March 16 on episode 123.
https://thepresentationpodcast.com/podcast/121/
Massive Glitch Resolved (now the next step)
Welcome back!! (sort of)
As you can see, The PowerPoint Blog has experienced a major glitch and went offline for awhile. The good news is, we have regained access to the blog. The better news is, we discovered the issue (malicious code injected into the WordPress database). The ironic news is, as we have ramped up our virtual meeting platform and are setting up new websites literally daily, we have not had time to look at our own websites and social media! Now that we have access, and a backup, of The PowerPoint Blog, I am reviewing new WordPress blog themes and will be updating the entire site and its catalog of posts to something new, modern, and stable. Then it is time to get into the backlog of PowerPoint and presentation posts that I have been accumulating!
Troy @ TLC
New Episode! The Presentation Podcast
A new episode of The Presentation Podcast is available today! Troy, Nolan, and Sandy do a deep dive into PowerPoint’s Backstage talking about what features, options and functionality is there, as well as tips, tricks and discovering new things there they did not know about!
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify and Soundcloud – or search The Presentation Podcast for “The PowerPoint Backstage Experience” or go directly to the episode page here: https://thepresentationpodcast.com/podcast/110