Strata for PowerPoint (add-in)
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Strata for PowerPoint is a task-pane add-in that runs Strata next to the presentation you have open. Ask about the deck, or have Strata change it in place: it adds slides with your deck's own layouts, rewrites and formats text, adds text boxes and tables, and deletes slides, in the open file, where you can see them change.
It is the same pane as Strata for Outlook, Strata for Excel and Strata for Word, with the same sign-in, chat, model menu and history. In PowerPoint it works on the presentation.
#What Strata sees
Each time you send a message, the pane reads a snapshot of the presentation and hands it to Strata with your message:
- the presentation's name, how many slides it has and their size;
- its layouts, by name, so new slides use your template;
- every slide's title, as an outline;
- your selection: the slide you are on, and the shapes or text you have selected;
- the slides themselves, each shape with its text: the whole deck when it is short, otherwise the slides from just before yours.
That is not always the whole presentation. When Strata needs other slides it reads them itself, and in a long deck it can search for a phrase, a figure or a name.
#What Strata can do in the presentation
| Ask for | What happens |
|---|---|
| Reading | Slides by number, each shape with its kind, position, size and text, up to 20 slides at a time |
| Finding | Up to 50 places where a word or phrase appears, with the slide, the shape and the words around it |
| A new slide | After the slide you name (or the one you are on), with one of the deck's layouts, its title and its text filled in |
| Rewriting | A shape's whole text, a phrase (once or everywhere, on one slide or all of them), or your selection; the new words keep the old ones' formatting |
| Adding text | A text box, or a shape with text (a rectangle, an oval, an arrow…), with a fill colour if you want one |
| Formatting | Bold, italic, underline, colour, size, font, alignment, and a shape's fill |
| A table | From the values Strata gives it, its first row the header, in bold |
| Deleting slides | The slides you name |
#Undo
Under an answer that changed the presentation, the pane lists what changed and offers Undo. Undo puts each shape's text back as it was before that answer, with its formatting and each paragraph's alignment and bullet. It removes the slides, shapes and tables the answer added, and puts deleted slides back where they were.
If you have edited text after Strata wrote it, Undo leaves that shape as it is and says so, rather than overwrite your edit.
If your organization's data policy withdraws an answer, the changes that answer made to the presentation are undone with it, without waiting for you to choose Undo.
#Which PowerPoint
PowerPoint for Microsoft 365, PowerPoint on the web, PowerPoint 2024 and PowerPoint for Mac all run it; PowerPoint 2021 and earlier do not. Tables, deleting slides, and placing a new slide anywhere but the end need PowerPoint for Microsoft 365, the web or the Mac. In PowerPoint 2024, a new slide goes at the end of the deck, and Strata tells you so; it does not add tables or delete slides there.
#Installing the add-in
In Strata, open Settings then Apps and choose Set up beside PowerPoint: the setup has the add-in file, the steps for yourself and, for an admin, the steps for the whole organization.
- For yourself: choose Download in that setup (the same file is at
https://app.strata.kronisys.com/outlook/manifest-powerpoint.xml). In PowerPoint, choose Home then Add-ins then More Add-ins (More Settings in PowerPoint on the web), then My Add-ins then Upload My Add-in, pick the file and choose Upload. On the web, an add-in you upload stays in that browser only. If Upload My Add-in is missing or grayed out, your organization has turned it off, and an admin can deploy Strata to you instead. - For your organization: in the Microsoft 365 admin center, choose Settings then Integrated apps then Upload custom apps, then Office Add-in, give the manifest's link, and assign it to the people or groups who should have it. Strata then appears on their Home tab in PowerPoint on Windows, Mac and the web; it can take up to three days to appear.
Once it is installed, Strata is on the Home tab.
#Privacy
The text Strata reads goes to the AI model your organization uses, in the turn that asked for it, like a file you attach to a chat. The pane sends Strata's answer from PowerPoint straight back to the turn that is waiting for it; it is not stored on its own or written to a log. A deleted slide's copy, kept for Undo, stays in the pane and is never sent anywhere. Your organization's retention settings apply to the chat as they do anywhere in Strata.