Commenting and Collaborating with PowerPoint Online in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows

The Comments option works well when you are collaborating on a presentation with someone else and you want to give and receive feedback without actually editing the slides themselves. In our commenting series of tutorials we already learnt how to Add, Edit, or Delete Comments within PowerPoint's desktop application - we also explored Commenting within PowerPoint Online (OneDrive). In this tutorial we'll explain how to use commenting and at the same time collaborate between PowerPoint Online and PowerPoint 2013 (desktop application).

This tutorial shows an example of adding and replying comments in PowerPoint Online and PowerPoint 2013 desktop application at the same time. We worked on same presentation on two computers, the presentation was kept opened within PowerPoint Online and the same presentation was kept open within the PowerPoint 2013 desktop application:

1. Open the shared presentation within PowerPoint Online and add a comment. Figure 1, below shows that a comment has been added to the presentation (highlighted in red within Figure 1).
   
   
   Figure 1: Comment added to presentation within PowerPoint Online
2. Now, open the same presentation within the PowerPoint desktop application (we are using PowerPoint 2013). Note that the comment which was added within PowerPoint Online can be seen within the desktop application too, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2.
   
   
   Figure 2: Comment can be seen within the PowerPoint desktop application
   
   
   Note: If more than one person is working on the same presentation, PowerPoint Online and the PowerPoint desktop application both indicate the number of people working. In Figure 3, below within the PowerPoint Online interface you can see that a message appears on the top right of the interface showing two people are editing the presentation (highlighted in red).
   
   
   Figure 3: PowerPoint Online interface
   
   Now, see Figure 4 which shows the PowerPoint 2013 desktop application interface. Here within the Status Bar you can see an icon (highlighted in red within Figure 4) showing two people are working on the presentation. Place your cursor over the icon to bring up a pop-up list highlighted in blue showing names of user working on the presentation.
   
   
   Figure 4: PowerPoint desktop application
   
   Also, within the PowerPoint desktop application, you can access the File | Info menu option to bring up the Backstage view, as shown Figure 5. Here also, you see names of users currently editing the presentation (highlighted in red within Figure 5).
   
   
   Figure 5: Info Backstage view within PowerPoint desktop application
3. In Figure 6, you can see that the second collaborator made the change based on the feedback sent earlier. While making the change, this collaborator also replied to the comment within the PowerPoint desktop application (highlighted in red).
   
   
   Figure 6: Comment replied within the PowerPoint desktop application
4. The change and the reply can also be seen within PowerPoint Online, as shown in Figure 7.
   
   
   Figure 7: Change and reply can be seen within PowerPoint Online
5. Within PowerPoint Online, the first collaborator again replied to the previous comment, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 8.
   
   
   Figure 8: Replied to a comment within PowerPoint Online
6. Now, within the PowerPoint desktop application you may not see the recent changes made from PowerPoint Online. To see the changes made to the presentation and any comment received, click the Updates Available button within the Status Bar, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 9. This button appears to indicate that there has been some update made by the other collaborator / author. When you click this button, the changes get applied.
   
   
   Figure 9: Updates Available button
   
   Alternatively, click the File | Info menu option - here too, you can see the message that says Document Updates Available. To apply these changes, click the Save button as shown highlighted in red within Figure 10, below.
   
   
   Figure 10: Save button
7. Using this process, you can easily collaborate and work on a presentation.