PowerPoint

During a Teams meeting, multiple presenters can run and share control of the same PowerPoint presentation! This can be a very handy feature especially when multiple people are presenting the same deck. There are some guidelines to be aware of, so let’s get started. 

There are three ways to open a PowerPoint presentation from Teams: Open in Teams, Open in Browser, and Open in Desktop App. For this post, we’re focusing solely on using the “Open in Teams” option (this also works in “Open in Desktop” but controlling the presentation could be tricky).

Opening the presentation in Teams keeps the presentation within the Teams app, making it easier to manage control when multiple presenters are involved and is the best choice when different team members are presenting different sections of a PowerPoint deck. One person runs the slides, and each presenter can take control when it’s their turn to speak, ensuring a smoother flow without having to share and unshare.  

Here’s how to do it: 

1. Schedule the Meeting: Go to your Teams calendar and create a new meeting (either by clicking the day/time you want within the calendar or simply clicking the new event button in the upper right-hand corner of your calendar tab) and invite all participants. Note: you can also do this through your Outlook calendar, but for our demonstration here we’re going to stay within the Teams environment. 

2. Add Co-Organizers: 

• Open the meeting options in Teams 

• Click on Meeting Options > Roles 

• Add co-organizers using the dropdown menu 

• Note: You cannot add a participant as a co-organizer until after they have accepted the meeting invite 

3. Choose who can present: 

• Go to Meeting Options > Roles 

• Choose who can present – options include Everyone, People in my org and guests, Specific people, and Only organizers and co-organizers 

• If selecting Specific People, add the names of the presenters 

• Note: during our testing, we ran into some snags when selecting and trying to add Specific People. We found “Only organizers and co-organizers” worked well consistently. 

4. Allow Control Sharing: 

• Open the Teams admin center by navigating to https://admin.teams.microsoft.com/ (you need to be an admin of the Team to check this setting) 

• Expand Meetings and select Meeting Policies. 

• In most cases, click Global (Org-wide default), and scroll down to Content Sharing, then toggle Participants can give or request control to On.  

During the Meeting: 

1. Share your Screen with the presentation open in show mode.
Note: the “Present in Teams” option for sharing does not allow you to pass control of a presentation during a meeting (hoping Microsoft will add this feature). 

2. Make Someone a Presenter: 

• Open the participant list by selecting People in the meeting controls. 

• Hover over a participant’s name and click More Options > Make a Presenter. 

3. Share or Request Control: 

• When a presenter is already sharing, they can click Give Control to pass control to another participant. 

• Attendees can also click Request Control to ask for control of the presentation.  

Once attendees (or co-organizers) have control of the presentation, everyone will see a small bubble with the presenter’s Teams profile photo or initials next to the cursor. 

To advance the slides (or go back) the presenter simply needs to click on the right or left side of the slide in their Teams meeting window or use the right and left arrow keys or space bar. 

Important Notes: 

• In recurring meetings, changes to Meeting Options will apply to all future occurrences. 

• Updates made to roles during a meeting only apply to that specific meeting instance. 

• If a participant exits and rejoins, they will retain their assigned role unless it’s changed. 

• By default, meeting participants can give control of their shared screen to another participant. 

We believe the setup outlined here will help ensure your presentation runs smoothly, whether you’re the only one presenting or sharing control with others. Following these steps makes it easy to manage multiple presenters and maintain flow throughout the meeting. Have a great meeting! 

-The TLC Creative team 

Want to make your PowerPoint videos stand out and grab some extra attention? Videos do not need to be limited to the standard rectangle. Imagine a video playing inside a circle, a star, a speech bubble, or even a custom shape! It really adds a creative touch that feels way more immersive.  

Typically, all videos are inserted onto a slide as a rectangle.

Videos can be cropped, resized, and positioned anywhere on the slide – all using native PowerPoint features. Videos can also have styling effects applied; drop shadow, outline, recolored, etc. – also all using native PowerPoint features. 

Change the Shape 

Now for the fun part. Change the rectangle into something else. Native to PowerPoint is the ability to change to any of the shapes in the Shape Library; circle, triangle, parallelogram, 3D cube – pick whatever you like! Select the video > go to Video Format > open the Video Shape selection > pick a shape!  

All of the PowerPoint shapes work flawlessly, automatically masking a video to that shape. So don’t hold back! Video shapes, just like the rectangle, can be customized with a border or effect. How about an oval video? 

Or how about a thought bubble (using PowerPoint’s preset thought bubble shape)? 

TIP: use the CROP tool to resize and reposition the video within the new shape. 

Add a Video to a Custom Shape 

The basic PowerPoint shapes are nice, but what about a complex shape with multiple parts or a logo? With the use of the Merge Shapes tool and a vector graphic as the custom shape, virtually anything is possible. For example, let’s make a video play inside this shape. 

• First, add the video to the slide (Insert > Video) 

• Add then add the custom vector art to the slide.
  • NOTE: This must be a vector art file (eg. .SVG)
  • TIP: If the Merge Shapes step below does not work, select the shape(s), copy, delete (yes, it’s okay to delete), then “Paste Special” and select “SVG”

• Resize and move both the shape and the video to the desired placement. Keep the vector art on top of the video.

• Select the video first, then hold Shift and select the shape (the order you select the shapes is critical to this working). 

• Go to Merge Shapes > Intersect. 

Now your video takes the shape of whatever you picked. Use the Crop tool to adjust the size and position of the video as needed. 

And that’s it! It’s a great effect, all done within PowerPoint, and can definitely level up your slide and impress the audience! 

-Mike, and the TLC Creative design team 

Presentations are meant to communicate ideas clearly and effectively, but too often, slides are cluttered with redundant elements that distract and hide the information to be conveyed. And as we look at charts this month, we find that they are often full of unneeded visual distraction. But this is a specialty scenario where the slide content with multiple charts creates opportunity to simplify the visual elements.

Three Charts: Three Legends

In this presentation, many slides had multiple charts, and each one included its own legend. At first glance, this might seem harmless—after all, each chart needs a legend, right? But in reality, this redundancy forces your audience to process the same information multiple times, making it harder to focus on what actually matters: the data trends and insights.

Our design goal is to remove adds unnecessary visual clutter and enable to audience to process the slide and quickly identify the message. The layout is good. All the charts visually align, accurately display the same Y axis metric, have the same color coding ̶ and have the same legend.

Three Charts: A Unified Legend

Because the legend is identical, instead of repeating it three times, we streamlined the slide by using just one legend beneath all three charts. This simple adjustment immediately reduces the visual clutter and makes it easier for the audience to focus on the data.

We are happy with this “1 Legend To Rule Them All” update. Which was similarly done on many other slides in this presentation. The cognitive load is reduced, and the message comes across quicker and clearer.

Why This Works

• Improves Readability – A cleaner layout allows the audience to process information faster.
• Reduces Redundancy – Eliminates unnecessary repetition, keeping attention on the data.
• Enhances Aesthetics – A well-organized slide looks more professional and engaging.
• Guides the Audience – With less distraction, viewers can focus on what’s important.
• Small Tweaks, Big Impact
• Great slide design isn’t about adding more—it’s about removing what doesn’t serve the message. By centralizing your legend, you create a more effective and visually appealing slide that helps your audience focus on what truly matters: the insights behind your data.

The TLC Creative presentation design team always takes a step back and asks: Are there unnecessary repeating elements? A little decluttering can go a long way in making a slideshow presentation more impactful.

– Christie on the TLC Creative design team