Microsoft PowerPoint is undoubtedly the most commonly used presentation software all over the world. However, it is not the only presentation tool available on the market. This Techspirited article tries to explore a few good alternatives for Microsoft PowerPoint.
PowerPoint was originally called ‘Presenter’ and was first developed by Forethought, Inc. for Mac operating system. Later, the company was acquired by Microsoft in the year 1987.
Since the time it was launched, ‘Microsoft PowerPoint’ has become synonymous to ‘slide presentations’ for both personal and professional purposes. However, with the advent of cloud computing, things are changing, and people are trying to explore a wide range of alternatives on the internet.
The advantage of using these applications is that, they not only offer features similar to Microsoft PowerPoint, but also provide access to your presentations from anywhere around the world. Although there are many such alternatives to look for, we have enlisted 10 good options.
This is a free web-based office suite from Google. It enables you to create or import presentations (including Microsoft PowerPoint), and then access, edit, and share them from anywhere, anytime. Using this service, you can create presentations on the fly if you do not have a local presentation tool on your device. However, you will need an active Google account and access to the internet. You can also collaborate with your coworkers by sharing and editing the presentations simultaneously. Thus, Google Drive, with its basic presentation features and powerful web technology, becomes an ideal substitute for Microsoft PowerPoint.
Website: Google Drive Presentation
Prezi has a unique feature of creating dynamic presentations. Instead of using static slides, it makes use of flash player to give an animated flow to your visual information. In simple words, it offers a giant virtual canvas, where you gather all your data in various formats (text, images, videos, etc.), decide the order in which these data objects appear during the presentation along with certain properties such as zoom in, zoom out, etc., and then display the whole picture through animation.
A 30-day free trial web service is available with a storage capability of 100 MB. Windows, Mac, and Linux users having paid Prezi accounts can use the Desktop software version, while iPad users can make use of the Prezi app.
Website: Prezi
This is another web-based presentation alternative, which is also present as an app for iPad users. It is the most easy-to-use presentation tools of all since it offers default options for creating slides using a feature similar to a wizard. Haiku Deck is not rich in features like PowerPoint; however, its simple user interface which helps create large presentations with few mouse clicks, gives it an edge above the rest.
Website: Haiku Deck
Emaze is another user-friendly alternative for Microsoft PowerPoint. This free, cloud-based service is browser-independent and allows real-time automated translation (transformation of information in a user’s preferred language) of your presentation. It is also equipped with some “3D” templates to provide beautiful visual effects.
Website: Emaze
Slides is another cloud-based service which helps you create and share your presentations online. It works on any device since it uses HTML 5 web technology. You can even sync your work to Dropbox so that you can access the latest copy of your presentation offline from any device, provided you have Dropbox installed on that device.
Website: Slides
This is a free application which offers two user-friendly interfaces to the user (classic and ribbon). It offers a wide range of templates, colors, slide effects, and animation effects. It has an inbuilt PDF conversion mechanism that helps easy conversion of presentation files into PDF format.
Website: Presentation Free 2013
PowToon contains a variety of animated characters, attributes, and cool transitions which can be dragged and dropped into a slide to create interesting presentations. These slide shows can also be turned into animated videos (e.g. marketing videos, company demos, etc.) at the click of a button, and can also be exported to Youtube.
Website: PowToon
This is the only presentation software for Android that displays your presentation as it appears on your PC, i.e., it does not alter the content, formatting, sound, animations, and slide transitions of your PowerPoint files when you display them on your Andriod-based smartphone or tablet.
Website: SoftMaker Presentations Mobile
Zoho Show is an online presentation tool that helps you create, edit, and access your presentation anywhere, from any device. Thus, it is a very good option for business people working in collaboration in different parts of the world.
Website: Zoho Show
This is a good open source alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint, which has a built-in feature to create Flash versions of your presentations. Also, your presentations can be saved in a variety of formats including PDF (for printing or emailing), HTML (for posting on a Web site), and PowerPoint (for presenting).
Website: Open Office Impress
- SlideDog
- Keynote
- Slide Bureau
- MediaShout
- Preseria
- Camtasia
- KnowledgeVision
- Projeqt
- Kineticast
- VisualBee
- GoAnimate
- Slidesnack
- Articulate Presenter
- Slideshark
The aforementioned alternatives are a few good options for you to choose from, depending on your needs. So, pick your favorite one from this list and start building creative presentations.