Hands on: Office 2010 Technical Preview

PowerPoint 2010

Finally, Microsoft brings PowerPoint out of the 1980s, with 3D slide transitions that don't look like a cheesy pop video. The new animations tools let you create sophisticated effects simply; although you can still pick entrance, emphasis, motion and exit effects individually there are now dozens of effective animations you can use and customise.

These are particularly effective applied to SmartArt diagrams. And once you have an animation effect you like, you can use the new Animation Painter tool to apply it to other objects, in the same way that you can copy formatting with the Format painter.

TRANSITIONS: The new transitions in PowerPoint 2010 look slick and professional, like the animations

PowerPoint now supports a wide range of video formats, including Flash, so you don't need to worry about installing players on your presentation machine. You can also embed movies from video sharing sites by pasting in the embed code; we couldn't make this work with some embed codes from YouTube. PowerPoint also couldn't preview the YouTube clips but videos from Vimeo, MSN Soapbox and Reuters all embedded without problems.

With videos you insert from a file you can trim the clip inside PowerPoint and adjust the brightness and contrast; you can also recolour it and add a range of effects from frames and borders to an animated reflection of the clip. Again, this doesn't replace video editing software but if you only need a few simple edits then having these tools will save a lot of time.

PowerPoint Live lets you upload your presentation and send a link that opens it in a web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari); that means you can present to anyone online - as you click through the presentation slides they change on everyone's screen.

TWEAK VIDEO:Video editing and effects tools in PowerPoint; change the brightness or contrast, add a live reflection or just put the video in a stylish frame

TRIM IT:Set the start and end points of a video from inside PowerPoint instead of needing separate video editing software; the Backstage menu offers to remove the trimmed frames to save space