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Get live captions with PowerPoint

Have a transcript or translation appear as you present.

Microsoft PowerPoint

Create Impactful Presentations

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Presentation slides can be great for getting ideas across, but those with difficulty hearing or who speak a different language than the presenter often miss a good amount of information.

PowerPoint, part of Microsoft 365, solves this problem with a powerful feature focused on accessibility and inclusivity: Live Captions and Subtitles. This feature uses artificial intelligence (AI) to transcribe what you speak, putting your words – or a translation of them – on the screen in real time.

PowerPoint can generate real-time subtitles in over 60 languages.

Live Captions & Subtitles are easy to implement. Just click Slide Show in the toolbar, then Subtitle Settings, and select the language you’ll be speaking and the language you want for the subtitles. PowerPoint understands 12 languages and can translate into over 60, including Spanish, Chinese and even Yucatec Maya.

Now just start your presentation, and everything you say appears in real time at the bottom of the screen – in whatever language you’ve chosen.

Captions and translations appear on the screen, like magic, as you speak.

When using Live Captions & Subtitles, make sure your Mac’s microphone is enabled, or use a dedicated presenter headset so you won’t have to worry about staying close to your Mac. (AirPods work too.) You can change the position of subtitles in the Subtitle Settings menu and tweak their appearance in System Caption Preferences > Accessibility > Captions.