The folks at Microsoft have released some really cool features for PowerPoint 2016 over the
last few months and by now you've probably heard of Morph but now there are glitter pens,
complete with a ruler for drawing straighter and icons that you can convert to shapes to
recolor and rearrange and cool new 3D models that you can rotate and animate.
But the question that I get asked a lot from my students and viewers is, "Hey, I have PowerPoint
2016, so how come I don't have morph, or glitter pens, or 3D models, and I wish that there
was a simple answer to that question...but there isn't.
It's complicated.
And it's complicated because Microsoft Office 365 subscription models and their Office Insider
plans, they're complicated.
That said, I will try very hard to make this as simple as possible for you.
There are three reasons for why you aren't seeing these features.
And it depends on what features you aren't seeing, either morph, those glitter pens or
those 3D models, or some kind of ribbon tab or task pane, one that isn't really publicized
as much by Microsoft, meaning you try to Google that tab or Task Pane and not much really
comes up about it.
So, first off, if you are not seeing Morph in the Transition area of your Ribbon, chances
are you have the non-subscription version of PowerPoint 2016.
Meaning, you bought a license for that software and you don't have to pay monthly or annually
to renew that license to keep using PowerPoint.
You own that software.
This is that same software model that has been around the longest that people are most
familiar with.
But it is also the reason why a lot of people won't have access to all these new features that
people are talking about.
You only get those new features with that subscription service, with Office 365.
And don't be confused by that name, Office 365.
It's just the name that they've given to their subscription service at Microsoft.
So, if you have the traditional version of PowerPoint 2016, you'll have to wait, just
like you used to wait in the past for the next version of the software to come out,
and upgrade then OR purchase an Office 365 subscription if you don't want to wait.
Now, if you do see Morph in the Transition tab but don't see other newly
advertised features such as 3D models, here on the Insert tab, then you probably do have
a subscription version of PowerPoint or rather Office 365, but you are not a member of the
Office Insider program.
At the time of this recording, 3D models is only available IF you are an Office Insider.
What's that?
Well, an Office Insider is a fancy name they give people who are basically public testers
for all their new new features.
Think of the Office Insider program as a sneak peak program where you get to try out the
newest Office 365 features before they are widely released to everyone who uses Office
365.
Now, in some cases, you might be an Insider and you might be on the Fast Track, but you
might see some Insiders features like 3D Models but not others like glitter pens.
Well, that's because certain Insider features are only available on Windows 10, and if you
are not seeing some features Glitter Pens for example, you are probably running that
version of Office Insider on a different version of Windows.
And I am not even going to attempt to unfold the layers of Office for Mac right now.
I'll just include a link below for you explaining that.
Now the last thing you might see in other people's version of PowerPoint has absolutely
nothing to do with Office 365 or the Insider Program at all but with Store Add-ins or Plug-ins
that come with other software, like with tab here, the Storyboarding tab.
this is actually a really special plug-in that is installed when you install certain
versions of Visual Studio or a separate and free plug-in, the Team Foundation Server Office
Integration 2017 Plug-in.
People who typically use this tool use it to quickly create website or app mock-ups
or storyboards within PowerPoint.
but what is cool about this plug-in, even if you are not a developer is that you can
use this pane to create and save your own custom shapes.
So, like I created a clock made out of a bunch of custom shapes that I painstakingly created
and then I just saved it here.
Now, I can reuse that shape any time I want as many times as I want.
But that's why you might see that Ribbon tab in my videos and not in your own copy of PowerPoint
2016.
I actually have Visual Studio on my computer.
You probably don't.
Well, I really hope that clears up at least some of the confusion surrounding why you
might missing some features in PowerPoint 2016.
Have a question?
Feel free to leave a comment or you can submit your question through the link below.