Description: This is a brief description of notable differences between PowerPoint 2013 and previous versions.

Templates:

Opening PowerPoint now gives a number of options for templates, themes or opening a previously created PowerPoint presentation, including the traditional blank presentation.

Presenter View:

The new Presenter View allows there to be one display for the audience and another for the presenter. The audience will only see the slide the presenter wants them to see with options to zoom in on specific parts (e.g. charts, diagrams, etc.). Meanwhile, the presenter can see notes and select which slide to go to next instead of being stuck with the order they were placed in. If the screens are switched (i.e. the presenter sees the audience view) then they are easily switched.

Online Meetings:

PowerPoint now has a number of options for hosting a meeting online including offering a website link to send to others and Lync meeting with audio and instant messaging.

Other Tools and Features:

New tools allow the creator to use different themes, change color pallets, line up objects, create motion paths more easily, match colors with the new eyedropper tool, and merge separate objects into one single object.

In addition to all of this for objects and pictures, PowerPoint has expanded its available audio and video support. It is also now available for an expanding number of touch devices to create and view presentations and can save files to the cloud with Microsoft's SkyDrive. All of these can be used alongside the comments pane that allows for multiple people to work on a presentation together, respond to each other's comments, and more efficiently create their presentations.