You can prepare to deliver more effective presentations with Speaker Coach. It helps you practise independently instead of depending on colleagues for feedback. Speaker Coach can offer real-time feedback on your body language (web version only) and speech as you rehearse a presentation while speaking into your mic and camera.
This software measures pace, pitch, your use of filler words like ‘um’ and ‘ah’, informal speech, euphemisms, culturally sensitive terms, overly wordy speaking, and simply reading slides. Each rehearsal is followed up by a report that includes stats and suggestions for improvement.
How to Launch Speaker Coach
Speaker Coach is available for Web, Windows, Android, iOS and MacOS. Currently, Speaker Coach only understands English, and it’s only available when your Office user interface language is English. Microsoft Speech Services powers Speaker Coach, your speech utterances will be sent to Microsoft to provide you with this service.
PowerPoint for Windows
- Open your presentation in PowerPoint for Windows desktop.
- In the Slide Show tab, in the Rehearse group, select Rehearse with Coach. The presentation opens in a full-screen view, similar to Slide Show
- Select Start Rehearsing in the dialog box when you are ready to begin rehearsing. To receive on-screen guidance, check that Show real-time feedback is selected.
- Wait to start speaking until you see Listening… appear in the dialog box
- As you speak, Coach gives on-screen guidance about pacing, inclusive language, use of profanity, filler words, and whether you’re reading the slide text.
- When you’re through, exit full-screen view. Coach opens a Rehearsal Report that summarises what it observed, and offers recommendations. To see the recommendations, select Learn More in the section of the Rehearsal Report that you want more information about.
PowerPoint for the Web
- Open your presentation in PowerPoint for the web.
- Sign in with a Microsoft account (hotmail.com, outlook.com, live.com, msn.com), or an Microsoft 365 work or school account.
- On the Slide Show tab, select Rehearse with Coach. (If you’ve turned off the Simplified Ribbon, you don’t have a Slide Show tab; instead use the View tab to start Speaker Coach.)
- The presentation opens in a full-screen view, similar to Slide Show.
- Select Get Started at the lower right when you are ready to begin rehearsing.
- As you speak, Coach gives on-screen guidance (in the lower-right corner of the window) about pacing, inclusive language, use of profanity, filler words, and whether you’re reading the slide text.
- When you’re through, exit the full-screen view. Coach opens a Rehearsal Report that summarises what it observed, and offers recommendations.
PowerPoint for Android
- Open your presentation in PowerPoint for Android.
- Sign in with a Microsoft account (hotmail.com, outlook.com, live.com, msn.com), or an Microsoft 365 work or school account.
- Tap the more options button Icon for more options in PowerPoint for Android at the top right of the window.
- Select Rehearse with Coach. The presentation opens in a full-screen view, similar to Slide Show.
- Select Start Rehearsing in the dialog box when you are ready to begin rehearsing.
- As you speak, Coach gives on-screen guidance about pacing, inclusive language, use of profanity, filler words, and whether you’re reading the slide text.
- When you’re through, exit the full-screen view. Coach opens a Rehearsal Report that summarises what it observed, and offers recommendations.
PowerPoint for iOS
- Open your presentation in PowerPoint for iOS.
- Tap the More menu, and then tap Rehearse with Coach. The presentation opens in a full-screen view, similar to Slide Show.
- When you’re ready to begin, tap Start Rehearsing.
- Wait to start speaking until you see Start talking and we’ll show feedback here appear on screen.
- As you speak, Coach gives on-screen guidance about pacing, inclusive language, use of profanity, filler words, and whether you’re reading the slide text.
- When you’re through, tap Close. Coach opens a Rehearsal Report that summarises what it observed, and offers recommendations. To see the recommendations, select Learn More in the section of the Rehearsal Report that you want more information about.
- After you review your Rehearsal Report, close the window or tap Rehearse Again to practice the recommendations you’ve received.
PowerPoint for MacOS
- Open your presentation in PowerPoint for MacOS desktop.
- In the Slide Show tab, select Rehearse with Coach. The presentation opens in a full-screen view, similar to Slide Show.
- Select Start Rehearsing in the dialog box when you are ready to begin rehearsing. To receive on-screen guidance, check that Show real-time feedback is selected.
- Wait to start speaking until you see Start talking and we’ll show feedback for your speech here appear in the dialog box.
- As you speak, Coach gives on-screen guidance about pacing, inclusive language, use of profanity, filler words, whether you’re reading the slide text, and more.
- When you’re through, exit full-screen view. Coach opens a Rehearsal Report that summarises what it observed, and offers recommendations. To see the recommendations, select Learn More in the section of the Rehearsal Report that you want more information about.
- After you review your Rehearsal Report, close the window or select Rehearse Again to practice the recommendations you’ve received.
Tips for using Speaker Coach
You need a microphone in your computer that can hear your speech and an internet connection. We recommend that you rehearse in a quiet place with a microphone. After you close the rehearsal report, it disappears. If you want to save a copy of it, you must take a screenshot. Coach works best with one speaker rehearsing. It may not work well if more than one person is rehearsing at a time.
Speaker Coach Makes Recommendations
Speaker Coach gives specific suggestions for how you can improve, the feedback report includes a Learn More link. This Microsoft Support page offers information on the criteria Speaker Coach uses to assess your presentation and provides recommendations for improvement. While some of these might be obvious (like, don’t swear) Speaker Coach also points out more subtle mistakes.
We recommend the following to make your presentation the best it can be:
- Relax and slow yourself down when you’re nervous, take a deep breath.
- Pause if you need a moment to gather your thoughts. Quiet moments don’t adversely affect your presentation.
- Speaker Coach gives you a gentle nudge by suggesting specific replacement terms for certain words.
- It’s all right to repeat shorter bits of text from the slide, just try not to read the entirety of it.
- Speak naturally and vary the pitch of your voice to keep the audience more engaged and focused on your key points.
