Emailing a Microsoft PowerPoint file to your colleagues each time you want to share your changes or have them make their own edits can be time-consuming. In PowerPoint 2010, streamline the collaboration process using the co-author feature, which enables colleagues to open and edit a presentation on more than one computer simultaneously. To use the co-author feature, your company must have SharePoint Foundation 2010 or SkyDrive, collaboration platforms available from Microsoft.
Step 1
Sign up for and enable SharePoint Foundation 2010 or SkyDrive (see Resources) if your organization does not already use one of these services.
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Step 2
Launch PowerPoint 2010 and open the presentation you want to co-author. Refer to the status bar to see the number of others currently editing the presentation. Click on the number to see their names.
Step 3
Click the "View" tab and select "Normal" from the "Presentation Views" group to enable the "Normal" view. Refer to the "Slides" tab in the left pane. The small icon on the slide thumbnail indicates that another person is editing the slide. Click on the icon to see that person's name. If you are the original author of the presentation, the icon will appear on a slide thumbnail whenever someone else makes changes to that slide.
Step 4
Click the "File" tab and select "Info" to see whether the co-author has changed your presentation. Click "Save" next to "Document Updates Available" and then click "Save and Review." A dialog box will open. Click "Review Changes"; the "Merge" tab will appear on the ribbon. You will also see the "Revisions" pane that contains a "Slides" tab, listing the slides edited by the co-author, and a "Details" tab that shows edits made to the current slide.
Step 5
Click the "Merge" tab and use the buttons in the "Resolutions" group to see next and previous edits made by the co-author. Accept or reject those edits. Click "Close Merge View" when finished to automatically upload your changes to the server. PowerPoint cannot upload changes to the server while the "Merge" view is open.
Step 6
Click on "Send a Message" at any time and select either "Send an E-mail Message" or "Send an Instant Message" to communicate with a co-author.
Step 7
Make your own changes to the presentation as you normally would. Click "Save" before closing the presentation to save any edits.
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