In the latest chapter of features that should have shipped ages ago, Microsoft is working on a way to let users highlight text in PowerPoint on iOS devices. This has been a highly requested feature for quite some time. Microsoft’s Ekta Dwivedy outlined the new option in a recent post (opens in new tab). Users will be able to highlight any text within a PowerPoint presentation when using an iOS device.
“We received many requests for this capability in PowerPoint for iPhones and iPads, and it’s finally here! Now you can highlight any text in a text box, table, or shape on your PowerPoint slides,” said Dwivedy. “You can also undo any highlighting that others have added (something not previously possible in iOS).”
The latter feature mentioned in the post likely should have come out a while ago as well, but it’s always good to gain options.
In case you’ve never highlighted text before, Microsoft outlines the steps to do so:
- On your iPhone, simply select the text you want to highlight and tap on the Highlight button in the toolbar above the keyboard (next to the font color option). You can also select the highlight color of your choice!
- On your iPad, just tap the Highlight option on the ribbon under the Home tab; you can also select a highlight color in the pop-up menu.
The new highlighting options are available for Office Insiders running version 2.63 (Build 22062602) or later. Note that Insider features are released gradually, so you may not be able to use the new highlighting tools just yet, even if you’re on the latest build of PowerPoint.
To test Insider builds of PowerPoint and the other Office apps on iOS, you have to sign up through TestFlight. Unfortunately, the beta for PowerPoint is full. You can check Microsoft’s Office Insider app page (opens in new tab) to see which ones have openings.
