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Create a Project report

With Project, you can create and customize striking graphical reports of whatever project data you want, without having to rely on any other software. As you work on the project, the reports change to reflect the latest info — no manual updates required! See a list of all reports and how you can use them.

Click the Report tab.

In the View Reports group, click the type of report you want and then pick a specific report.

For example, to open the Project Overview report, click Report > Dashboards > Project Overview .

The Project Overview report combines graphs and tables to show where each phase of the project stands, upcoming milestones, and tasks that are past their due dates.

Project provides dozens of reports you can use right away, but you don’t have to let that limit your choices. You can customize the content and the look of any of the reports, or build a new one from scratch.

Work with your report

Change the data in a report, change how a report looks, make your own report, share a report, make a new report available for future projects, more ways to report project info.

You can choose the data that Project shows in any part of a report.

Click the table or chart you want to change.

Use the Field list pane on the right of the screen to pick fields to show and filter information.

In the Project Overview report, you could change the % Complete chart to show critical subtasks instead of top-level summary tasks:

Click anywhere in the % Complete chart.

In the Field List pane, go to the Filter box and pick Critical .

In the Outline Level box, pick Level 2 . For this example, this is the first level of the outline that has subtasks instead of summary tasks.

The chart changes as you make your selections.

With Project, you control the look of your reports, from no-nonsense black and white to explosions of colors and effects.

Tip:  You can make a report part of a split view so you can see the report change in real time as you work on project data. To learn more, see Split a view .

Click anywhere in the report and then click Report Tools Design to see the options for changing the look of the whole report. From this tab, you can change the font, color, or theme of the whole report. You can also add new images (including photos), shapes, charts, or tables here.

When you click individual elements (charts, tables, and so on) of a report, new tabs appear at the top of the screen with options for formatting that part.

Drawing Tools Format tab. Format shapes and text boxes .

Picture Tools Format tab. Add effects to pictures .

Table Tools Design and Table Tools Layout tabs. Configure and tweak tables, like you would in other Office programs .

Chart Tools Design and Chart Tools Format tabs. Configure and tweak charts.

Say you decide that the % Complete chart in the Project Overview report needs a facelift.

Click anywhere in the % Complete chart, and then click Chart Tools Design .

Pick a new style from the Chart Styles group. This style removes the lines and adds shadows to the columns.

Give the chart some depth. Click Chart Tools Design > Change Chart Type .

Click Column > 3-D Stacked Column .

Add a background color. Click Chart Tools Format > Shape Fill , and pick a new color.

Change the bar colors. Click the bars to select them, then click Chart Tools Format > Shape Fill , and pick a new color.

Move the numbers off the bars. Click the numbers to select them, and then drag them upward.

Just a few clicks make a big difference. And we only scratched the surface of the formatting options.

Click Report > New Report .

Pick one of the four options, and then click Select .

Give your report a name and start adding information to it.

Blank     Creates a blank canvas. Use the Report Tools Design tab to add charts, tables, text, and images.

Chart     Project creates a chart comparing Actual Work, Remaining Work, and Work by default. Use the Field List pane to pick different fields to compare, and use the controls to change the color and format of the chart.

Table     Use the Field List pane to choose what fields to display in the table (Name, Start, Finish, and % Complete appear by default). The Outline level box lets you select how many levels in the project outline the table should show. You can change the look of the table on the Table Tools Design and Table Tools Layout tabs.

Comparison     Sets two charts side-by-side. The charts have the same data at first. Click one chart and pick the data you want in the Field List pane to begin differentiating them.

Any of the charts you create from scratch are fully customizable. You can add and delete elements and change the data to meet your needs.

Click anywhere in the report.

Click Report Tools Design > Copy Report .

Paste the report into any program that displays graphics.

Tip:  You might need to resize and line up the report when you paste it into its new home.

You can also print the report to share it the old-fashioned way.

Use the Organizer to copy a new report into the global template for use in future projects.

See a list of all reports and how you can use them.

Compare actual work against your estimates with burndown reports .

Create a timeline of key tasks and milestones.

Set the status date for project reporting.

Project for the web offers two main options for reporting: Excel and Power BI Desktop. Excel reporting comes with Microsoft 365, while Power BI Desktop is licensed separately.

When managing a project in Project for the web, export your project to Excel allows you to:

Create reports and visuals

Send a file containing project details to external stakeholders

Archive copies of your project data for audit and compliance

Print copies of your project

Here's how to export your project:

Go to project.microsoft.com and open the project you want to export to Excel.

In the top right corner, select the three dots ( ... ), then select Export to Excel .

When you see the message " All done! We've exported [your project name]. " at the bottom of the screen, you can look for your new Excel file where you store your downloads.

When you open the Excel file containing your project, you'll see a worksheet named "Project tasks" that contains a summary of project-wide information at the top, including its name, project manager, and the start and finish dates, duration, and percent complete for the whole project. You'll also see what date it was exported. Under that, you'll see a table of all the information for your project.

More about Excel Report options

Import and analyze data

Create a PivotTable to analyze worksheet data

Ideas in Excel

Power BI Desktop

To get started,  connect to Project for the web data through Power BI Desktop , then open the Project Power BI template  and explore the reports it includes. 

Important:  You'll need a Power BI subscription (and a Project subscription in many cases) to use this reporting tool. See the following section for details.

To use Power BI reports on Project for the web data, you need to be a licensed user of Power BI Desktop or Power BI Pro. See Power BI Pricing for more information.

To build or customize Power BI reports on Project for the web data, you'll also need Project Plan 3 (formerly Project Online Professional) or Project Plan 5 (formerly Project Online Premium).

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25 Tools for Creating and Delivering Amazing Presentations

Updated: August 10, 2022

Published: November 10, 2020

If you're in business, you need to know how to create captivating presentations. Whether you're trying to convince your boss to support a new campaign, talking with a prospect to close a deal, or building a new piece of marketing collateral, you need to know how craft a presentation that won't put people to sleep.

The best (and easiest) way to do that? Use the right tools to create and deliver your presentation.

If you're not sure which tools to use, look no further than this blog post. We’ve compiled our list of the top presentation tools for sales and marketing professionals. They’re listed below, in no particular order. But first ...

Why You Should Use Business Presentation Templates

10 Free PowerPoint Templates

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• Creative templates.
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• Professional templates.

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Best Presentation Tools

Canva makes design easy -- even for marketers and salespeople who feel like they're design-challenged. The platform gives you a bunch of presentation templates to use right away, and it's very easy to customize them to your organization and presentation objective. Plus, a variety of apps that integrate with Google Drive, Instagram, and YouTube, to name a few.

Pricing : Free; Pro, $12.95/month for up to five people; Enterprise, $30/month per person

Often, being different is what attracts prospects, and Powtoon can help you do that in your presentations. Powtoon’s animation software lets you easily create videos with props, characters, and more -- which can help you differentiate your company when talking with prospects.

Pricing : Pro, $19/month; Pro+ $49/month; Agency, $89/month

3. PowerPoint

For years, PowerPoint has been the standard in presentation software, but it hasn’t remained static. PowerPoint is full of features to make sales and marketing presentations dynamic and engaging. ( Here are just a few ways you can do that .)

Pricing : Business Basic, $5/user/month; Business Standard, $12.50/user/month; Business Premium, $20/user/month

4. Slidesgo

Slidesgo is your creative companion in the world of presentation design. This website specializes in crafting visually stunning Google Slides and PowerPoint templates that breathe life into your ideas, making them shine on any screen. With a wide variety of templates ranging from business and marketing to medicine and education, Slidesgo empowers presenters of all backgrounds to engage, educate, and inspire their audiences.

Pricing: Free plan, $0; Premium, $4.99; Education, $2.99

A PowerPoint add-in, Oomfo helps sales and marketing pros create those oh-so-important interactive charts for presentations. Specialized charts, live charts from multiple files, data from cloud applications, interactive options, one-click conversions -- it’s all possible, and more, with Oomfo.

Pricing: Free

Apple’s Keynote allows users to work between their Mac and iOS devices, as well as with people who use Microsoft PowerPoint. With easy-to-use visual tools, drag and drop functionality, interactive charts, and more, Keynote is a popular choice among sales and marketing professionals.

Pricing : Free

7. SlideModel

SlideModel contains thousands of ready-made and 100% editable presentation templates to help any presenter save time creating engaging and aesthetically pleasing presentations. Their collection of presentation templates covers a variety of business purposes and even gets updated periodically to add new business and education templates. You can find a collection of visually appealing slides on the site including dashboards, creative infographics, editable Maps, funnels, timelines, mindmaps, and presentation slides depending on the need of your presentation. Their slides templates are easy to edit and are compatible with PowerPoint and Google Slides.

Pricing :  Free plan, $0; One-Day Access, $24.50; Annual Unlimited, $199.90/year

8. Beautiful.ai

Create beautiful slides, pitches, and proposals without a team of designers. AI applies design rules in real time, and a library of free photos and icons are at your fingertips.

Pricing : Basic, $0; Pro, $12/month; Team, $38/user/month

9. Haiku Deck

Available for the web or iPad, Haiku Deck has become a favorite of sales and marketing pros. With Haiku Deck, professionals can quickly create presentations that can be "easily projected, shared, posted, embedded on a website or blog, or viewed on any web-enabled device." Though it's another tool that helps you create presentations from scratch, its ease-of-use sets it apart from the rest.

Pricing : Pro, $9.99 - $19.99/month; Premium, $29.99/month

Vyond is an online animation software that allows you to create animated videos for marketing campaigns, sales enablement, or even human resources. Use their library of customizable templates or create your own from scratch.

Pricing : Essential, $229/year; Premium, $649/year; Professional, $999/user/year; Enterprise, contact for pricing

11. Storydoc

With templates for all the most popular business use cases, Storydoc is an interactive presentation maker built to help sales teams and marketing professionals engage more prospects and boost conversion rates. 

You can create amazing and engaging decks where you can embed video and social media content to tell your story the right way. Then, integrate your CRM into Storydoc decks, as well as calendars, sign-up forms, and other solutions that will make your presentation. Additionally, you have access to Storydoc's tracking analytics which shows who viewed your presentation and which components they interacted with the most. 

Pricing :  Free trial 14 days); Starter Plan, $40/month

Busy sales and marketing pros choose emaze because it makes creating amazing presentations quick and easy. The options abound with emaze: Choose a professionally designed template and then create a slideshow, video presentation , or 3D presentation.

Pricing : Business Plan, contact for pricing; Executive Plan, $40/month; Pro Plan, $13/month

13. Camtasia

TechSmith’s Camtasia is an amazing tool that helps you create professional videos. You can record screen movements, import HD video from another source, customize and edit the video, and then share the completed video presentation on practically any device. 

Pricing : Individual, $249.99/user/year; Business $249.99/user/year; Education, $169.99/user/year; Government and Non-Profit, $223.99/user/year

14. SlideShare

SlideShare is a popular choice for sales and marketing professionals looking for a way to share their content publicly. Because it already has a built-in audience, you can easily distribute your presentation out to lots of people -- and those people can embed your SlideShares on websites and blogs, or share them on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

15. SlideDog

Sometimes, sales and marketing professionals need to be able to move between presentation tools, but it’s not always possible because of their technical limitations. SlideDog is the solution, as it enables users to switch between PowerPoint, Prezi, PDF, web pages and others.

Pricing : Free; Pro, $99/year; Pro Event, $49 for one-time payment

16. Presentation Assistant

Presentation Assistant lives up to its name: It assists professionals by enabling them to annotate, zoom, and more during a presentation. Sales and marketing professionals can clarify and emphasize points more clearly to their audience with Presentation Assistant.

Pricing : Presentation Pointer, $29.95; Presentation Screen Master, $29.95

17. authorSTREAM

Sales and marketing pros choose authorSTREAM to make their presentations dynamic and engaging. authorSTREAM allows users to share their PowerPoint presentations publicly or privately, broadcast them, convert them to video, communicate and collaborate about them, and more.

Pricing: Free or paid plans start at $4.20/month

18. Zentation

With Zentation, salespeople and marketers combine video and slides into a simulated live experience. Presentations created with Zentation become webinars, webcasts, and virtual events for prospects and customers -- all great collateral for marketing and sales.

Pricing : Free; Premium, $10 - $45/month; White-Label, contact for pricing

Sales and marketing professionals love Prezi because it is cloud-based. Prezi makes creating, editing, and presenting from your browser, desktop, iPad, or iPhone possible anywhere, any time.

Pricing : Standard, $5/month; Plus, $15/month; Premium, $59/month

20. Brainshark

Sales reps and marketers often choose Brainshark, a cloud-based presentation tool, because it allows them to create and deliver presentations live or on-demand (even using their iPad or iPhone), use on-demand video content, polls, or surveys for increased engagement, and embed presentations in websites and blogs.

Pricing : Contact for pricing

Vcasmo is a unique presentation tool -- it's a multimedia solution that enables users to synchronize a video and slideshow, side by side. Sales and marketing pros love Vcasmo because it supports playback in three forms: browser, mobile, and iPad. 

Pricing : Free; Standard, $10.99/month; Professional, $16.99/month

22. ViewletBuilder

ViewletBuilder is a different presentation tool; it captures critical screen updates and cursor position changes so sales and marketing pros can create presentations detailing how their product or sites work. With a plethora of features, ViewletBuilder allows for editing and enhancing and includes a variety of publishing and sharing options, too.

Pricing : Pro, $399; Enterprise, $599

23. Zoho Show

Zoho Show is a top pick for sales and marketing pros because it lives online, making it possible to create, access, present, and more from anywhere, any time. The simple, intuitive interface and collaboration features are just two of its beloved benefits.

24. AhaSlides

Pricing : Free; Essential, $4.95/month; Pro, $15.95/month; Annual, Monthly & One-time plans available.

Visme is an all-in-one content creation platform with a vast library of professionally designed presentation templates, each tailored to your industry and specific proposal needs. Its beginner-friendly design platform allows you to drag and drop elements into place, use dynamic fields to update all your content in one place instantaneously and integrate your tools like Hubspot or Salesforce, and more to personalize each presentation.

Pricing: Free, Starter: $12.25/month, billed yearly, Pro: $30/month, billed yearly, Visme for Teams & Enterprises.

What are you waiting for? Pick a tool and start creating. Your prospects are waiting.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in October 2014 and has been updated for freshness and comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

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Get Microsoft Project 2021 Pro or Visio 2021 for just $25: Last chance

Get Microsoft Project 2021 Pro or Visio 2021 on sale right now. 

Project management is a central component of any successful business. While ensuring you have the best personnel overseeing operations as possible is in your best interest, so is securing a verified and capable software that can streamline as many operations as possible to maximize efficiency and productivity .

An example of such software is Microsoft Visio 2021 Pro or Microsoft Project 2021 Pro . These productivity-enhancing suites could be invaluable for any professional with a PC or Windows device, and they're now on sale for only $25. This deal expires Wednesday.

Microsoft Visio 2021 Professional for Windows

Microsoft's Visio is a project management tool with excellent diagramming tools, including flowcharts, organizational charts, brainstorming, and network diagrams. Visio's online content ecosystem features over 250,000 shapes to choose from when diagramming, and it can generate org charts from Excel, Microsoft Entra ID, and Exchange. 

Meanwhile, Microsoft Project comes with a variety of helpful features and capabilities. Its pre-built templates will help guide your project management from the outset of a campaign to ensure it's well organized and attends to every area that needs attention. It can sync with Project Online and Project Server for easier collaboration and sharing with team members.

Among Project Professional's most attractive features is its support of timesheet submission and tracking for both project and non-project work. It can also run what-if scenarios to help determine whether or not task assignments are constructed in an ideal way.

It can even generate visual representations of complex schedules with different timelines built in, which can help your team maintain a holistic view of its operations and overall direction. It also supports long-term service channels or LTSC and comes compatible with Office LTSC and Office 2021.

Both lifetime licenses to Microsoft's comprehensive project management tools are one-time downloads suitable for a single Windows device. Upon purchase, users will gain instant access and free customer support. 

Tackle professional projects more efficiently with help from Microsoft's top-rated suites.

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AI presentation maker

When lack of inspiration or time constraints are something you’re worried about, it’s a good idea to seek help. Slidesgo comes to the rescue with its latest functionality—the AI presentation maker! With a few clicks, you’ll have wonderful slideshows that suit your own needs . And it’s totally free!

Generate presentations in minutes

We humans make the world move, but we need to sleep, rest and so on. What if there were someone available 24/7 for you? It’s time to get out of your comfort zone and ask the AI presentation maker to give you a hand. The possibilities are endless : you choose the topic, the tone and the style, and the AI will do the rest. Now we’re talking!

Customize your AI-generated presentation online

Alright, your robotic pal has generated a presentation for you. But, for the time being, AIs can’t read minds, so it’s likely that you’ll want to modify the slides. Please do! We didn’t forget about those time constraints you’re facing, so thanks to the editing tools provided by one of our sister projects —shoutouts to Wepik — you can make changes on the fly without resorting to other programs or software. Add text, choose your own colors, rearrange elements, it’s up to you! Oh, and since we are a big family, you’ll be able to access many resources from big names, that is, Freepik and Flaticon . That means having a lot of images and icons at your disposal!

How does it work?

Think of your topic.

First things first, you’ll be talking about something in particular, right? A business meeting, a new medical breakthrough, the weather, your favorite songs, a basketball game, a pink elephant you saw last Sunday—you name it. Just type it out and let the AI know what the topic is.

Choose your preferred style and tone

They say that variety is the spice of life. That’s why we let you choose between different design styles, including doodle, simple, abstract, geometric, and elegant . What about the tone? Several of them: fun, creative, casual, professional, and formal. Each one will give you something unique, so which way of impressing your audience will it be this time? Mix and match!

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You’ve got freshly generated slides. Oh, you wish they were in a different color? That text box would look better if it were placed on the right side? Run the online editor and use the tools to have the slides exactly your way.

Download the final result for free

Yes, just as envisioned those slides deserve to be on your storage device at once! You can export the presentation in .pdf format and download it for free . Can’t wait to show it to your best friend because you think they will love it? Generate a shareable link!

What is an AI-generated presentation?

It’s exactly “what it says on the cover”. AIs, or artificial intelligences, are in constant evolution, and they are now able to generate presentations in a short time, based on inputs from the user. This technology allows you to get a satisfactory presentation much faster by doing a big chunk of the work.

Can I customize the presentation generated by the AI?

Of course! That’s the point! Slidesgo is all for customization since day one, so you’ll be able to make any changes to presentations generated by the AI. We humans are irreplaceable, after all! Thanks to the online editor, you can do whatever modifications you may need, without having to install any software. Colors, text, images, icons, placement, the final decision concerning all of the elements is up to you.

Can I add my own images?

Absolutely. That’s a basic function, and we made sure to have it available. Would it make sense to have a portfolio template generated by an AI without a single picture of your own work? In any case, we also offer the possibility of asking the AI to generate images for you via prompts. Additionally, you can also check out the integrated gallery of images from Freepik and use them. If making an impression is your goal, you’ll have an easy time!

Is this new functionality free? As in “free of charge”? Do you mean it?

Yes, it is, and we mean it. We even asked our buddies at Wepik, who are the ones hosting this AI presentation maker, and they told us “yup, it’s on the house”.

Are there more presentation designs available?

From time to time, we’ll be adding more designs. The cool thing is that you’ll have at your disposal a lot of content from Freepik and Flaticon when using the AI presentation maker. Oh, and just as a reminder, if you feel like you want to do things yourself and don’t want to rely on an AI, you’re on Slidesgo, the leading website when it comes to presentation templates. We have thousands of them, and counting!.

How can I download my presentation?

The easiest way is to click on “Download” to get your presentation in .pdf format. But there are other options! You can click on “Present” to enter the presenter view and start presenting right away! There’s also the “Share” option, which gives you a shareable link. This way, any friend, relative, colleague—anyone, really—will be able to access your presentation in a moment.

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Score Lifetime Access to Microsoft Project 2021 for Only $25

If you’re stuck on finding the right project management tool for your team, give Microsoft Project a try. A lifetime license is now just $25.

Having solid project management software can help keep all aspects of your team organized and running efficiently. While there are a lot of software options out there, the one from Microsoft is a great choice. It's also budget-friendly, especially with this deal from StackSocial that knocks the 2021 version down to just $25  from its original $250, a 90% savings. Keep in mind this offer is available to new users only.

This app can streamline project management to make it much simpler to keep up with all the nuts and bolts of your plan. It includes plenty of great features, including prebuilt templates, a way to run what-if scenarios, complex schedules with built-in multiple timelines, helpful resource assignment technology, automated scheduling tools, built-in reports and much more. Plus, it can sync with Project Online and Project Server and it supports Long-Term Servicing Channel and is compatible with Office LTSC and Office 2021, with support available through Oct. 13, 2026 .

If you're looking to buy Project Professional 2021 outright, rather than subscribing to a monthly plan, it will run you an impressive $1,130 from Microsoft directly. You can also get a  one-month free trial through Microsoft. This StackSocial deal essentially saves you over a thousand dollars on the one-time fee and skips those recurring subscription fees other options require. 

It's worth noting that only new customers can take advantage of this deal. And once you make your purchase, you'll only be able to install the app on a single computer for use at home or work, so you'll have to decide which PC you want to access this program through. Because you won't be able to download this app on multiple devices, if your computer dies, you may lose access to Project Professional 2021 and be unable to transfer it to another computer. 

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Get Microsoft Project 2021 Pro or Visio 2021 for just $25: Last chance

P roject management is a central component of any successful business. While ensuring you have the best personnel overseeing operations as possible is in your best interest, so is securing a verified and capable software that can streamline as many operations as possible to maximize efficiency and productivity .

An example of such software is Microsoft Visio 2021 Pro or Microsoft Project 2021 Pro . These productivity-enhancing suites could be invaluable for any professional with a PC or Windows device, and they're now on sale for only $25. This deal expires Wednesday.

Microsoft's Visio is a project management tool with excellent diagramming tools, including flowcharts, organizational charts, brainstorming, and network diagrams. Visio's online content ecosystem features over 250,000 shapes to choose from when diagramming, and it can generate org charts from Excel, Microsoft Entra ID, and Exchange. 

Meanwhile, Microsoft Project comes with a variety of helpful features and capabilities. Its pre-built templates will help guide your project management from the outset of a campaign to ensure it's well organized and attends to every area that needs attention. It can sync with Project Online and Project Server for easier collaboration and sharing with team members.

Among Project Professional's most attractive features is its support of timesheet submission and tracking for both project and non-project work. It can also run what-if scenarios to help determine whether or not task assignments are constructed in an ideal way.

It can even generate visual representations of complex schedules with different timelines built in, which can help your team maintain a holistic view of its operations and overall direction. It also supports long-term service channels or LTSC and comes compatible with Office LTSC and Office 2021.

Both lifetime licenses to Microsoft's comprehensive project management tools are one-time downloads suitable for a single Windows device. Upon purchase, users will gain instant access and free customer support. 

Tackle professional projects more efficiently with help from Microsoft's top-rated suites.

Get Microsoft Project 2021 Professional for PC or Microsoft Visio 2021 Professional for Windows on sale for just $25. (You can also get Microsoft 365 at a discount right now, too.) 

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Presentations > How to use AI to help improve your presentations

How to use AI to help improve your presentations

Creating and giving a presentation isn’t always easy, especially if you want to deliver a dynamite lecture. However, by harnessing the power of AI tools, you can elevate your presentations and leave a lasting impression on your audience. See how AI can provide valuable insights and enhancements to make your presentations stand out.

How AI can create structure in your presentation

No matter the subject, every great presentation has a narrative. You begin by introducing yourself and why you’re the best person to present this subject. Then, you mention the general outline and key topics before diving into the details: problems, potential solutions, and calls to action. Finally, you end with a conclusion that wraps up your topics and brings your presentation full circle.

Sometimes, this structure can be hard to define. Asking AI to create an outline for a presentation can be a great time-saving shortcut. If you’re starting with a complex research paper or passage, you can directly copy and paste it into the AI chat window, then ask to summarize it. AI can also extract key points for headings, which can create your outline for slide titles.

Use AI to design visually attractive presentations

You don’t need to be a graphic designer to create presentations that are both striking and easy to follow. With AI tools integrated into Microsoft PowerPoint , you can design slides that consider factors like readable fonts, compatible color schemes, the informational hierarchy , and information spacing that won’t overwhelm the audience with too much to see on each slide.

AI image creators can also translate your text into custom visuals: not only can this bring your slides to life, but it can also save you time from searching through image libraries, stock photos, or visual sources from the Internet.

Tell your story with captivating presentations

Powerpoint empowers you to develop well-designed content across all your devices

AI tools that transcribe recordings into presentations

While the visual presentation is one aspect of your project, your speech and delivery are vital. The key to this is practice. Rehearsing your presentation out loud, and especially multiple times before you go onstage, can aid in balancing when to present new points, ensure smooth transitions between slides, time your overall presentation, and help you refine your text so you can sound clearer.

AI can help! Advanced tools can transcribe your spoken words, both in real-time and through prerecorded clips on your computer or mobile device. This not only assists in creating accurate speaker notes but also provides an opportunity to learn how you sound, allowing you to refine and improve your delivery. In PowerPoint, speaker notes are hidden from the audience during a live presentation, and AI integration can generate live notes from the sound of your voice—which makes it easy to practice and familiarize yourself with your content.

AI tools that can summarize, design, and transcribe your presentations can make it easier to engage with your audience confidently. See more presentation tips to enhance your points, such as how to craft a compelling story or how to overcome public speaking anxiety .

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InfoQ Homepage News Microsoft Azure Introduces Retina: a Cloud Native Container Networking Observability Platform

Microsoft Azure Introduces Retina: a Cloud Native Container Networking Observability Platform

Apr 04, 2024 2 min read

Steef-Jan Wiggers

The Microsoft Azure Container Networking team recently announced an open-source project named Retina . This cloud-native container networking observability platform allows DevOps engineers and administrators to visualize, debug, and analyze workload traffic across diverse environments.

Retina collects customizable telemetry that can be sent to various storage solutions, including Prometheus , Azure Monitor , and other providers, and displayed through different offerings such as Grafana , Azure Log Analytics , and other platforms. It is not tied to Azure directly; users can run Retina in any Kubernetes instance, on-premises, or in AWS, Azure, or GCP.

Retina utilizes extended Berkeley Packet Filters (eBPF), like the Falco security tool , and enables kernel-level code execution on the host OS without impacting application containers. This approach eliminates the need for container agents or code libraries for monitoring, allowing a single eBPF probe to oversee all nodes on a host, whether cloud-based or physical hardware.

Furthermore, Retina supports Linux and Windows environments without being limited by specific Container Network Interfaces (CNIs), operating systems, or data planes. It is equipped to scale efficiently while using minimal resources on clusters.

Architecture Overview of Retina (Source: Microsoft DevOps Blog )

To get started with Retina, users should clone the Retina GitHub repository and install it using the provided Helm charts. For data logging, Prometheus might need to be configured. A Linux-hosted Kubernetes environment is necessary for CLI access , with the CLI integrating seamlessly into kubectl for ease of use with other Kubernetes tools. Network captures can also be configured and executed via YAML custom resource definitions.

Deepak Bansal, corporate vice-president and technical fellow, Microsoft Azure, and Chandan Aggarwal, partner group engineering manager, Microsoft Azure, write:

Many enterprises are multi-cloud and want solutions that work well not just on Microsoft Azure, but on other clouds as well as on-premises. Retina is open-source and multi-cloud from day one. By open-sourcing Retina, we aim to share our knowledge and vision for Kubernetes networking observability with the broader cloud-native ecosystem. Our hope is that Retina will evolve and grow through collaboration with other developers and organizations who share similar experiences and goals in this field.

Yet, there are more offerings as a respondent on a Hacker News thread about Retina stated:

Red Hat has a similar eBPF based tool (Disclaimer: i work on it) - the cool thing imho with retina or redhat netobserv or pixie is they aren't tied to a specific CNI. Now one of the problems that arises is potential conflicts and lack of collaboration between eBPF based tools, as there are more and more. Something called bpfman aims to address this aspect.

With another person responding:

You can also check out DeepFlow , where we implemented distributed tracing for microservices using eBPF, which of course also includes observability of K8s networks.

More details about Retina are available on the documentation website .

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NIGHTMARE SUPPLY CHAIN ATTACK SCENARIO —

What we know about the xz utils backdoor that almost infected the world, malicious updates made to a ubiquitous tool were a few weeks away from going mainstream..

Dan Goodin - Apr 1, 2024 6:55 am UTC

On Friday, a lone Microsoft developer rocked the world when he revealed a backdoor had been intentionally planted in xz Utils, an open source data compression utility available on almost all installations of Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. The person or people behind this project likely spent years on it. They were likely very close to seeing the backdoor update merged into Debian and Red Hat, the two biggest distributions of Linux, when an eagle-eyed software developer spotted something fishy.

Further Reading

Researchers have spent the weekend gathering clues. Here's what we know so far.

What is xz Utils?

xz Utils is nearly ubiquitous in Linux. It provides lossless data compression on virtually all Unix-like operating systems, including Linux. xz Utils provides critical functions for compressing and decompressing data during all kinds of operations. xz Utils also supports the legacy .lzma format, making this component even more crucial.

What happened?

Andres Freund, a developer and engineer working on Microsoft’s PostgreSQL offerings, was recently troubleshooting performance problems a Debian system was experiencing with SSH, the most widely used protocol for remotely logging in to devices over the Internet. Specifically, SSH logins were consuming too many CPU cycles and were generating errors with valgrind , a utility for monitoring computer memory.

Through sheer luck and Freund’s careful eye, he eventually discovered the problems were the result of updates that had been made to xz Utils. On Friday, Freund took to the Open Source Security List to disclose the updates were the result of someone intentionally planting a backdoor in the compression software.

It's hard to overstate the complexity of the social engineering and the inner workings of the backdoor. Thomas Roccia, a researcher at Microsoft, published a graphic on Mastodon that helps visualize the sprawling extent of the nearly successful endeavor to spread a backdoor with a reach that would have dwarfed the SolarWinds event from 2020.

What does the backdoor do?

Malicious code added to xz Utils versions 5.6.0 and 5.6.1 modified the way the software functions. The backdoor manipulated sshd, the executable file used to make remote SSH connections. Anyone in possession of a predetermined encryption key could stash any code of their choice in an SSH login certificate, upload it, and execute it on the backdoored device. No one has actually seen code uploaded, so it's not known what code the attacker planned to run. In theory, the code could allow for just about anything, including stealing encryption keys or installing malware.

Wait, how can a compression utility manipulate a process as security sensitive as SSH?

Any library can tamper with the inner workings of any executable it is linked against. Often, the developer of the executable will establish a link to a library that's needed for it to work properly. OpenSSH, the most popular sshd implementation, doesn’t link the liblzma library, but Debian and many other Linux distributions add a patch to link sshd to systemd , a program that loads a variety of services during the system bootup. Systemd, in turn, links to liblzma, and this allows xz Utils to exert control over sshd.

How did this backdoor come to be?

It would appear that this backdoor was years in the making. In 2021, someone with the username JiaT75 made their first known commit to an open source project. In retrospect, the change to the libarchive project is suspicious, because it replaced the safe_fprint funcion with a variant that has long been recognized as less secure. No one noticed at the time.

The following year, JiaT75 submitted a patch over the xz Utils mailing list, and, almost immediately, a never-before-seen participant named Jigar Kumar joined the discussion and argued that Lasse Collin, the longtime maintainer of xz Utils, hadn’t been updating the software often or fast enough. Kumar, with the support of Dennis Ens and several other people who had never had a presence on the list, pressured Collin to bring on an additional developer to maintain the project.

In January 2023, JiaT75 made their first commit to xz Utils. In the months following, JiaT75, who used the name Jia Tan, became increasingly involved in xz Utils affairs. For instance, Tan replaced Collins' contact information with their own on oss-fuzz, a project that scans open source software for vulnerabilities that can be exploited. Tan also requested that oss-fuzz disable the ifunc function during testing, a change that prevented it from detecting the malicious changes Tan would soon make to xz Utils.

In February of this year, Tan issued commits for versions 5.6.0 and 5.6.1 of xz Utils. The updates implemented the backdoor. In the following weeks, Tan or others appealed to developers of Ubuntu, Red Hat, and Debian to merge the updates into their OSes. Eventually, one of the two updates made its way into the following releases, according to security firm Tenable:

There’s more about Tan and the timeline here .

reader comments

Promoted comments.

It should be noted that the attack only works because Debian and Redhat added functionality to sshd that is not present in it as distributed by its developers. The extra functionality adds systemd interaction, which requires libsystemd which requires liblzma, a component of the (compromised) xz package. One should be wary of distributions adding functionality. Often it increases the attack surface, not only because of the modifications/additions themselves, but also by adding dependencies.

So a prime reason this became potentially exploitable is libsystemd in OpenSSH. Need I say more.

The prime reason is a very well funded and capable attacker looked for a way in. if not xz or systemd then they would have attacked via the next candidate weak point.

"This developer persona has touched dozens of other pieces of open-source software in the past few years.". Well, I guess the Opensource community have some codes to review. Maybe the xz incident is only the tips of the iceberg.

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The Script Lab Office add-in is now Microsoft owned and is no longer an open sourced app

John Callaham Neowin @JCalNEO · Apr 3, 2024 14:16 EDT with 3 comments

A while ago, the Microsoft Garage division, which lets company employees develop new apps and services on their own free time, released Script Lab . This was an add-in for Office developers that allowed them to "create, run, and share JavaScript code snippets in Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint." It was also designed as an open source software project that let anyone contribute to its development.

The Script Lab add-in has proven to be a popular one for Office developers. However, Microsoft has now decided to officially take over its future development. In a blog post today , the company said it now owns the add-in and will continue to develop and maintain it.

The bad news for many developers is that this change means Script Lab will no longer be an open source project. At a result, the add-in's GitHub repository will be archived.

The blog post stated:

We understand that some of you may be disappointed by these changes, and we appreciate your feedback and support. We believe that these changes will ultimately benefit the Script Lab community and provide a better experience for everyone.

The new version of Script Lab will lack one thing related to its previous open source version. It will no longer have its GitHub gist sharing features. Microsoft says this was removed "to better protect our users and their data". The new version will still let developer copy their code snippets to the clipboard and share the code with other developers, but from now on the scripts will have to be manually imported.

For the time being, Microsoft will continue to host the older Script Labs version, in order for developers to export their code snippets as GitHub gists. They can also recover any snippets from the older add-in version that did not automatically transfer to the new version. Microsoft plans to officially end support for the older open sources version on June 3.

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Microsoft And OpenAI Plan $100B AI-Centric Data Center: Report

Microsoft and OpenAI are building a massive $100 billion data center and supercomputer to take their artificial intelligence capabilities to the next level.

The world’s most expensive data center project is underway as AI juggernauts Microsoft and OpenAI are building a supercomputer facility to take AI to the next level for a price tag of over $100 billion.

The goal is to build a data center campus in five phases that can enable the most powerful AI offerings and models for the future, including a next-level AI supercomputer—dubbed Stargate—that is set to be operational in 2028. The Information was first to report on the news.

“We are always planning for the next generation of infrastructure innovations needed to continue pushing the frontier of AI capability,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement.

[Related: Microsoft Moves More Leaders Around After Suleyman AI CEO Hiring ]

Microsoft And OpenAI’s $100 Billion Data Center

The AI-centric data center will handle more advanced computing tasks compared with traditional hyperscale data centers and will reportedly house millions of specialized server chips to enable OpenAI’s artificial intelligence capabilities.

The location of the planned data center project is unknown at this time but will be built in the U.S. Microsoft, as well as its largest AI competitors like AWS and Google, are all pouring billions into building new data centers that power their technology and expand customer footprints.

AI chips that would power such a data center and supercomputer are pricey. For example, Nvidia’s latest Blackwell B200 AI chips will be priced between $30,000 and $40,000.

The data center project and Stargate supercomputer will be designed to work with chipsets from different microprocessor suppliers, including AMD as well as in-house server chips from Microsoft , according to the report.

“We’ve moved from talking about AI to applying AI at scale,” said Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella during his company’s second-quarter Fiscal Year 2024 earnings report earlier this year. “By infusing AI across every layer of our tech stack, we’re winning new customers and helping drive new benefits and productivity gains across every sector.”

Microsoft is reportedly looking at alternative power sources, including nuclear energy, to power its supercomputing abilities.

Microsoft Will Fund $100 Billion Project; Use Nvidia And Others For Chips

Microsoft is reportedly responsible for financing the project. The software giant has already committed more than $13 billion to OpenAI over the years.

Reports indicate the Stargate project could cost over 100 times to operate compared with a typical large data center with an investment price tag of over $100 billion.

Both companies will work on the project across five phases, with Stargate as the fifth phase.

OpenAI and Microsoft are currently working on the third phase of the five-phase plan with the two companies now working on procuring the AI chipsets that they need. In addition, Microsoft and OpenAI are working on a smaller AI supercomputer project for its fourth phase that could launch in 2026.

The timeline for this U.S.-based data center to go online looks to be in 2028 and the project will be expanded through 2030.

Microsoft generated $62 billion in revenue during its second fiscal quarter, an increase of 18 percent year over year.