Since the first version of Microsoft PowerPoint was released more than 30 years ago, it has become one of the best presentation programs both for personal and professional purposes. As an indispensable part of the Microsoft Office suite, PowerPoint still remains the gold standard when it comes to creating and editing slides of any kind.
If you are not happy with the Microsoft software for some reason or another and need a powerful tool to make colorful presentations, you have come to the right place. In this article, you will find some PowerPoint alternatives that will help you to impress your audience with your creativity.
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1. Prezi
One of the most unusual alternatives to Microsoft PowerPoint is Prezi. Released in 2009, this web-based presentation tool has gained significant popularity over the last few years. It is a very good option for those who would like to create unconventional content. Using Prezi, you will not find any classical design features with traditional slides, but a dynamic open canvas that allows you to organize and view your presentation as a single whole.
When you use Prezi for the first time, you will need to go through an initiation phase to learn how to master it because the process is very different from PowerPoint. You will have to change your mindset when designing a presentation. The challenge is to create fluid and relevant content to present your ideas without using too many visual effects and transitions. Prezi is, therefore, less suitable for large presentations, but ideal for making short ones.
However, the application helps you to create clear and straightforward presentations using a huge amount of templates to which you can add as many additional objects as you want. Prezi’s dynamic transitions create the feeling that you are watching not a presentation but a small video where even the most boring topic can become fascinating.
2. Canva
If what you are looking for is a simple but intuitive alternative to PowerPoint and you don’t need any advanced editing features, Canva might be the right choice for you. Like Prezi, it’s a web-based solution that is available via your browser. Canva offers a vast array of images that you can add to your presentations completely free of charge. This is a significant advantage because you don’t need to use Google to search for suitable photos.
Canva is very simple to use since you only have to select the elements you want and drag them to the required location in your presentation. You can add photo effects, text captions and speech bubbles to create vivid slides that will capture the attention of your audience. There is also a complete set of tools that can be used to edit images right within the app interface, such as rotating, cropping, trimming and even the ability to convert from webp to jpg, making it a versatile platform for all your image editing needs.
When is comes to collaborative work, Canva has an impressive set of features. You can invite your teammates, choose their access permissions and collaborate on any device without too complicated registrations. Leave comments, tag other team members, assign tasks and share your feedback — do whatever you need to get your work done quickly in real time.
3. Slides
Although Slides has almost the same name as Google Slides, it has nothing to do with the software by the tech giant. It’s a web-based package of different presentation tools that are available right from your browser. Slides makes it possible to create and share visually engaging slides for free. However, due to its public license, all freely created presentations are publicly accessible, so everyone is able to find them using a search engine.
With Slides, you can create professional presentations with ease thanks to its intuitive user interface. A large variety of built-in elements and templates helps you achieve your purposes more quickly. The emphasis of the software is on the scientific aspect of presentations — you can use a powerful formula editor that allows you to make correct calculations if you need some for your research work.
Online presentations created with Slides are well optimized for mobile devices, so you can work even on the go. It is also possible to export presentations in all common formats and share them with other users to collaborate in real time. You can even leave comments and track context for better collaboration. Creating shared libraries is another useful collaborative feature. You can upload and organize different logos, images or videos in one place, with other users having access to it.
4. SoftMaker Presentations
SoftMaker Presentations is a cross-platform freemium PowerPoint alternative that comes as part of the SoftMaker FreeOffice suite. With the application, you can create slides quickly and organize them into presentations using a wide variety of default design templates and transitions. The program is fully compatible with PPT and PPTX files and lets you create PDF files directly from the user interface.
SoftMaker Presentations allows you to add pictures, drawings and text frames as well as make use of various font effects. The application is not limited to working with static objects. It also makes it possible to insert video clips and sound effects to make your presentations breathtaking.
The software presentations are not open source, so the free version of the software comes with limited functionality. Despite this, it still manages to offer some really useful features, such as PDF export, full support for PowerPoint file formats and much more.
5. ONLYOFFICE Presentation Editor
ONLYOFFICE Presentation Editor is a tool designed for creating and editing slides that forms part of the ONLYOFFICE suite. It’s an open-source office software that is freely distributed under the terms of GNU GPL v3. The solution is cross-platform and is available for Windows, Linux and macOS users.
ONLYOFFICE Presentation Editor provides the highest support for Microsoft PowerPoint formats. It opens and saves PPTX, PPT and ODP files. The programme’s tabbed interface is really simple to use and intuitive. If you are used to working with PowerPoint, you will find it easy to switch to ONLYOFFICE.
The editor has a full set of features to professionally edit presentations of any kind. You can add auto shapes, insert customizable objects as well as apply numerous transitions. The built-in Presenter View allows you to add notes and navigate between the slides with ease. Various third-party plugins (for instance, Google Translate, Telegram, Thesaurus or YouTube) add some extra features to the basic functionality of the editor.
The desktop application can be connected to the cloud, whether it be ONLYOFFICE, Nextcloud, ownCloud or Seafile, to enable real-time collaboration. After successfully connecting the app to the platform of your choice, you will be able to edit presentations with other users in real time.
These are the top 5 presentation tools that will make you forget PowerPoint. However, it would be wrong to claim that these tools are complete replacements because they all have their own advantages and disadvantages. The above-mentioned software will be very useful when you are unable to access PowerPoint or when you are looking for an affordable alternative or just need something new. Do you know any other solutions that are worth mentioning in this list? Don’t hesitate to share your opinion with us by leaving a comment below.
