Keeping Up With Microsoft: Microsoft Designer

Got a great idea for a graphic?

Let Microsoft Designer take your idea and turn it into reality.

Not long ago, 2022 Microsoft announced a new productivity/creativity tool that uses your ideas plus AI to create new content.

In short, Microsoft Designer requires three things: YOU, an IDEA and AI.

Have we seen this before?

If you’ve worked with PowerPoint, you’ll recall the first time you tried PowerPoint Designer.

The Designer in PowerPoint would examine your slide and suggest layouts and icons based on the slide content.

So, what is Microsoft Designer?

Microsoft Designer is like PowerPoint Designer — supersized and superpowered! Designer is Microsoft’s answer to Canva, a popular design app with 100 million users and a $40 billion market value.

In Microsoft Designer, you provide suggestions like PowerPoint, but you get a richer return.

For example:

• An astronaut, ancient Roman painting
• An underwater castle as a still from Subnautica
• A grumpy koala wearing a robe, holding a goblet
• A party as a clay sculpture

Microsoft Designer combines AI, Machine Learning and the power of the cloud to help users build innovative content.

If Instagram and TikTok are evidence of a “creator economy,” Microsoft Designer is your new easel.

According to Microsoft, nearly 20 million US consumers create and monetize their content online. User-generated content now accounts for 39 percent of weekly media hours consumed.

Are you a consumer, or are you a creator?

In effect, everything begins with an idea, but this new tool developed by Microsoft and to be included in Microsoft 365 will help turn your idea into reality.

Bridging the gap

What is holding back your creativity today?

1. It’s hard to know where to start.
2. It takes time.
3. It’s not easy to create something that looks great.
4. Today’s tools are too fragmented and too expensive.

So, Microsoft Designer is a graphic design app that helps users build things like:

1. Social media content
2. Invitations
3. Digital postcards
4. Graphics

How does it work?

Microsoft Designer is powered by AI technology, including DALL·E 2 by OpenAI.

DALL·E 2 is an AI system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language. (This AI image generator tool is from the Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI.)

With Designer, you do not begin with a template; you begin with an idea. When you describe your idea, Designer creates something based on it.

The private preview experience

Here are the steps to a creation:

1. Click New Design.
2. Add text.
3. Add your own images.
4. Select “Generate an image from a description.”
5. Choose from custom design suggestions.
6. Save your design.

Once completed, you can share your creation with others by publishing it online or downloading it.

How much does it cost?

For now, with your invitation, Designer is free to use. The AI tool, DALL·E 2, is also completely free.

The app will be free to use when it emerges out of preview but will have exclusive features for Microsoft 365 subscribers.

How do I get started?

Microsoft is accepting registrations for early access to a web preview of Microsoft Designer via https://designer.microsoft.com/.

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Phil Wiest is an expert software trainer, computer analyst and database consultant who knows both the intricacies of computer systems and the ways today’s professionals need to use these essential business tools. Using his experience in Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Office, as well as Windows® and the Internet, Phil uses a special mix of tactful guidance and distilled observation so his audiences learn and retain the critical keystrokes, application combinations and creative processes that save time and simplify computer use.

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