The fear of public speaking is very real which is compounded when you have to make a presentation, whether it be for school or for work. However, the good news is that Microsoft wants to help you with that and the company has recently revealed a new feature for PowerPoint called the Presenter Coach.
As the name suggests, this is a digital assistant that will help coach users through their presentations. This is done by listening to you practice your presentation through your computer’s microphone. As it listens to your presentation, it will then be able to provide users with tips on how to pace their speech and words, and also to remind them not to stutter or to use word fillers.
It also reminds users to be more inclusive with their words, such as by using terms like “police officer” instead of “policeman”. It can also point out when you might be using words that are deemed to be culturally insensitive, which we have all probably been guilty of doing at some point, although usually unknowingly or without malicious intent.
It is a pretty nifty tool and if you’re someone who struggles to make a compelling presentation, then perhaps this could be a tool to check out, although you will need to own a copy of PowerPoint if you’d like to use it.