The Daily Struggles: Microsoft Teams with PowerPoint Frustrations
Microsoft Teams has become an industry leader in the world of remote work communication and collaboration. It is inevitable that some of you used Teams today!
Of course, our focus is presentations, and PowerPoint. When it comes to opening PowerPoint files, Microsoft Teams can be surprisingly touchy. There is open in Teams, open in PowerPoint for web, and open in PowerPoint desktop. Just clicking the presentation file name opens it directly inside Teams – and you have thought that same as us, why is this harder than it should be?
We polled the TLC Creative design team and this is our current list of complaints (we are really not negative, so we look at this as constructive input to the Microsoft Dev teams).
Teams presenting bandwidth is amazing
Let’s start this list with one benefit presenting with Teams PowerPoint has that Desktop PowerPoint cannot compete with (see, we really are a super positive group of people at TLC Creative!). Microsoft has done amazing work in optimizing PowerPoint presenting by up to 90% less bandwidth vs. screenshare of the slides! This is when presenting a Teams based file, through Microsoft Teams vs. screen sharing the presentation. See this Microsoft video (now 5 years old, so this is not a new technology improvement – May 16, 202o Post).
Multitasking is Tough
First, Teams in its current form, is horrible as multitasking. You’re viewing a presentation inside Teams and want to send a Teams chat to your co-worker to clarify a stat on a slide – and guess what – you can’t! We have to first close the presentation, then switch to Chat, and after getting the answer, go back to the Team, find the presentation file, and click to open it again – ugh! Teams just doesn’t handle multitasking well (yet)!
Teams Presenter View Has Limitations (vs. Desktop Presenter View)
The Teams version of Presenter View has some great improvements we hope to see integrated into the desktop app. But, it also is on our bad list. It is a web-based app, so it can, and does, change often. It does not align with the desktop version on all of its functionality, which is confusing. And it is run inside of Teams, which is just a different environment from the Desktop Presenter View (and for us the desktop version is the standard). Last, edits made to a presentation DO NOT update if the presentation is being presented in Teams – this is a huge issue for us, and our absolute love of co-authoring and making live edits to presentations (yes, even while they are being presented).
Custom Fonts Vanish
As we’ve mentioned in a previous blog posts [LINK], custom fonts need to be installed on the computer. The Teams app only recognizes web-based fonts (eg. Microsoft cloud fonts). So any custom font, even if installed on that computer, is not going to display when the presentation is presented through the Teams Presenter View. Best to stick with classic desktop PowerPoint Presenter View!
Embedded Videos Lose Styling
Here’s another topic we’ve talked about before (October 19, 2017 post). We leverage a lot of video in presentations. And PowerPoint’s ability to stylize, crop and customize videos is fantastic – until you play a stylized video in Teams Presenter View. Cropped video disappears and the full rectangle is displayed. Drop-shadows, rounded corners, and duo-tone color effects are also stripped out and not displayed when presenting in Teams Presenter View. If you added a custom styling, there’s a good chance it’ll disappear when the file is opened in Teams PowerPoint.
No Quick Access Toolbar (QAT), and different toolbars
When editing slides, there is no Quick Access Toolbar (aka QAT) in Teams PowerPoint (or PowerPoint for the web). And Teams PowerPoint (and PowerPoint for the web) have their own unique organization of the toolbars, tabs and menus. So many extra clicks to get things done!
Editing Is Slower
Editing presentations in Teams is simplified. There is different toolbar organization, lack of QAT, lack of plugins, and different interface in many areas. This translates to a slower, less efficient editing process.
The Best Way to Avoid These Issues
Our recommendation, instead of opening presentations with Teams PowerPoint, always use the “Open in Desktop” option! This ensures:
- Full functionality of the desktop PowerPoint app
- So many fewer formatting issues
- The most common Presenter View experience
- Fewer font and video display issues (hey we recognize this is PowerPoint, and the desktop version is not perfect)
Final Thoughts
While Teams is a powerful tool, opening PowerPoint files with Teams PowerPoint comes with more issues than benefits. To avoid frustration, always open PowerPoint files in the full function desktop app. It makes everything smoother and more reliable!
– Troy & the TLC Creative Team