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Microsoft PowerPoint vs Other Presentation Tools: Which is Right for You?

In today’s digital age, presentations have become an integral part of business communication. Whether it’s a sales pitch, a training session, or a conference talk, having the right tools to create and deliver impactful presentations is crucial. One of the most popular presentation software options is Microsoft PowerPoint. However, there are also other presentation tools available in the market that offer similar features and functionalities. In this article, we will compare Microsoft PowerPoint with other presentation tools to help you determine which one is right for you.

Features and Functionality

When it comes to features and functionality, Microsoft PowerPoint sets the benchmark for presentation software. It offers a wide range of design templates, animations, transitions, and multimedia integration options. With PowerPoint’s intuitive interface, users can easily create professional-looking slideshows without any prior design experience.

On the other hand, there are alternative presentation tools like Google Slides and Apple Keynote that offer similar features with their own unique advantages. Google Slides allows real-time collaboration among multiple users and seamless integration with other Google apps such as Docs and Sheets. Apple Keynote provides stunning visual effects and smooth animation capabilities that are unmatched by any other software.

Compatibility and Accessibility

Microsoft PowerPoint has long been the industry standard for creating presentations, making it highly compatible with various operating systems including Windows and Mac OS. It also offers mobile versions for iOS and Android devices, ensuring accessibility on-the-go.

In comparison, Google Slides is entirely web-based which means you can access your presentations from any device with an internet connection. This cloud-based approach makes it easy to collaborate with team members remotely without worrying about compatibility issues or version control.

Apple Keynote is exclusively available for Mac OS devices but offers seamless integration across Apple’s ecosystem including iPhones and iPads. If you’re already using Apple products in your workflow, Keynote might be the ideal choice for you.

Pricing and Affordability

Microsoft PowerPoint is part of the Microsoft Office Suite, which means it comes bundled with other productivity tools like Word, Excel, and Outlook. You can purchase a standalone license or subscribe to Microsoft 365 for a monthly or annual fee. While this provides access to all Microsoft Office applications, it might be more expensive if you only need presentation software.

Google Slides, on the other hand, is completely free for personal use and offers affordable pricing plans for businesses through Google Workspace. Apple Keynote is free for all Mac users and comes pre-installed on new Apple devices.

User Experience and Learning Curve

Microsoft PowerPoint has been around for decades, making it widely known and used by professionals across different industries. Its user-friendly interface and extensive online resources make it relatively easy to learn and master. However, some advanced features may require additional training or experience.

Google Slides has a similar user interface to PowerPoint, which makes it easy to adapt if you’re already familiar with PowerPoint. It also offers helpful collaboration tools that enhance the overall user experience.

Apple Keynote provides a seamless experience within the Apple ecosystem with its intuitive design and user-friendly interface. If you’re already accustomed to using Apple products, Keynote will feel natural from the start.

When choosing between Microsoft PowerPoint and other presentation tools like Google Slides or Apple Keynote, consider your specific needs in terms of features, compatibility, pricing, and user experience. If you value extensive design options and compatibility across multiple platforms, Microsoft PowerPoint might be the right choice for you. On the other hand, if collaboration features or affordability are your priorities, Google Slides or Apple Keynote might better suit your needs. Ultimately, it’s important to choose a presentation tool that aligns with your goals and helps you deliver engaging presentations that captivate your audience.

This text was generated using a large language model, and select text has been reviewed and moderated for purposes such as readability.

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what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

Art of Presentations

11 Advantages of Using Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations!

By: Author Shrot Katewa

11 Advantages of Using Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations!

If you suddenly find yourself in a position where you have to present information to other people, you might wonder what software is the best to use to deliver a professional presentation. There are different options to choose from and you just don’t know what to use.

The biggest advantage of using PowerPoint is that PPT files are the most commonly used and widely accepted file formats. PowerPoint is easy to use, cost-effective and boasts a huge online community for support. You also get access to thousands of templates to make your presentation look good.

But, there are several other advantages of using Microsoft PowerPoint for your presentations too. In this article, I’ll some of the most effective benefits of using Microsoft PowerPoint for presentation design!

Note – If you are on the fence but interested in getting PowerPoint, check out this limited-time deal to get Office 365 1-year subscription for the lowest price on Amazon!

1.   Most Widely Accepted File Format

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

Microsoft PowerPoint is a widely accepted file format where slides are used to convey information. It is a standard component of the Microsoft Office Suite and is compatible with Google Slides, Keynote, and other open-source presentation software.

According to some research results regarding the popularity and use of presentation software, it is estimated that PowerPoint is currently installed on more than a billion computers worldwide ! It is believed that there might be about 30 million PowerPoint presentations created every day.

The advantage of using such a popular and widely used software program is that it is most probably a familiar program for the person you share a presentation with.

2.   Wide Variety of File Export Options

A great advantage offered by PowerPoint is that you can export the whole presentation, or parts of it, in a variety of formats. PowerPoint presentations can also be made available on many different devices, and you can always control what content you want to display.

As you don’t have to send a presentation necessarily in .ppt or .pptx format, the receiver doesn’t require PowerPoint or PowerPoint Viewer to open the presentation.

You can export in PDF format and your layout and design will not be altered. The presentation’s slides can also be saved and exported in .png or .jpg format.

If needed, a presentation can also be exported to a video and saved in Mp4 format. If gifs form part of your presentation, they can be saved and exported as Animated GIFs . 

You always have the print option to export your presentation or parts of the presentation to Word. When you’ve exported it to Word the content can be edited before printing it.

Whichever way of exporting you decide on, you can export the presentation either as a whole or only some of the slides.  And it can be sent as an attachment with an email or you can use the Cloud to facilitate the saving and exporting processes of the presentation.

3.   Provides huge Flexibility in Design & Creativity

PowerPoint provides huge flexibility in design and creativity. You can, for instance, use its visual hierarchy features when you create your slides. With this feature, you assure that the right elements and content catch the eye.

Other features include the merging of shapes, the creation of layers, and the creative use of color. You also get an eyedropper tool in PowerPoint that allows you to use any color from your screen in your presentation!

With the Design Ideas feature , you can create the content of a slide and PowerPoint will offer you a variety of design choices to make it better.

The design features PowerPoint offers can in many aspects be compared to advanced design software solutions like Adobe InDesign. You don’t need separate software to design your slides – PowerPoint provides you with built-in features.

4.   Allows you to Use Creative Templates

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

The designs of your presentations are what catch the eye and help you to convey your message to your audience. PowerPoint’s creative templates spare you the time of designing your own templates.

However, if you are a good designer yourself, PowerPoint allows you to create your own templates if you want to.

Note – Check out some of the most popular PowerPoint templates on the internet!

When using PowerPoint’s creative templates feature, it automatically generates design ideas to choose from. You get virtually unlimited options because this feature matches the content you are creating to professionally designed layouts in the background.

This template creation feature is a great advantage for users without any design background. It lets you design presentations that look professional even if you don’t have a design background.

5.   Functionality to Use Both Online and Offline

PowerPoint offers you the option to work either online or offline. When you’re using PowerPoint online you can create and share basic presentations directly in your browser. 

But it must be remembered that web-based PowerPoint doesn’t have all the features that you’ll have access to with desktop PowerPoint.  For “normal” presentations the online web version is good enough and you can present your slide show from anywhere where you have internet access.

To utilize all the features of PowerPoint you have to install the software on your desktop device.

PowerPoint offers you the freedom to work online or offline whichever mode suits you the best for a specific presentation. Many PowerPoint users work with both modes – depending on what they are creating and for what purpose.

6.   Allows easy Collaboration and Sharing with other Team Members

PowerPoint is an ideal tool to share and collaborate with team members when you are creating a presentation as a team. You have various options.

You can independently create a presentation and then send it to team members for comments or editing. Or you can work simultaneously on the same presentation with others via web-based PowerPoint or by saving your desktop-created presentation in the Cloud.

7.   Option to Add a vast Variety of Multimedia

PowerPoint provides you with tools to make any presentation more interesting by using multi-media. When using PowerPoint you can in the same presentation have

  • text with the option to install additional fonts ,
  • videos and video snippets,
  • background music,
  • a narrator’s voice explaining the visual material on the screen,
  • graphics to illustrate tendencies,
  • tables to compare information, and more.

And you don’t need separate tools to create interesting presentations – everything is built-in into PowerPoint. You can either just add the various types of files to the presentation or you can add the formats as such into the presentation.   

8.   Suitable for Beginners and Advanced Users alike

The versatility of PowerPoint ensures that on the one hand, presentation creators with advanced design skills are not disappointed with the design tools and possibilities offered by PowerPoint and on the other hand, beginners and people without any designing background can create professional-looking presentations.

 This is one of the most important advantages of PowerPoint – anyone can use it successfully.

9.   Cost is relatively Inexpensive

PowerPoint is normally part of the Microsoft Office package and is included in the Microsoft Office one-off price or subscription. But if you are not a Microsoft Office user, you can purchase PowerPoint from the Microsoft Store at a reasonable price of about $160.

Note – Check out this limited-time deal to get Office 365 1-year subscription for as little as about $60 on Amazon!

Once you’ve purchased PowerPoint you can use it without extra charges to create presentations and to present them for non-commercial purposes. However, there are licensing and relatively small annual fees involved if you use the PowerPoint presentations commercially. 

10. Suitable for Teaching

A PowerPoint presentation in the class is an effective way to reinforce content that has to be retained.

With features like the possibility to record your voice to accompany the PowerPoint slides, it is also easy to convert the presentations that have been used in the class into videos to post online. The students can then review the work done in the class at home.  T

his method works effectively for academic lessons and training sessions.

PowerPoint presentations online can also sometimes be the only way to teach and train students. During the Covid pandemic, for instance, classes are sometimes not possible and online sessions are the only way to keep on teaching.

A large percentage of these online sessions have started as PowerPoint presentations.  

11. Huge Online Community and Microsoft Support for Troubleshooting Issues

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

Microsoft offers 24/7 support for PowerPoint users and there are literally hundreds of articles online available on how to troubleshoot issues. The huge online community of PowerPoint users is also actively involved on websites like Quora to help fellow users to get solutions for their issues.

Credit to benzoix (on Freepik) for the featured image of this article (further edited)

PresentationSkills.me

17 Advantages And Disadvantages Of PowerPoint

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

PowerPoint is a versatile and user-friendly multimedia presentation program compatible with most devices. It lets you make and share limitless presentations with ease. However, it comes with a fair share of disadvantages, like the complex features and tools, issues with performance on less powerful computers, and its price.

1. Available for All Major Operating Systems

2. abundant features, 3. widely accepted, 4. lots of themes and templates, 5. versatile interface, 6. relatively easy to use, 7. support various formats, 8. smooth integration with other office programs, 9. support add-in, 10. compare documents, 11. relatively easy to collaborate, 12. available mobile version, 13. password protection, 14. lack of innovation, 15. a bit complex to learn, 16. some performance issues on weak systems, 17. it’s relatively expensive, advantages and disadvantages of powerpoint – at a glance.

  • PowerPoint is available on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android , and the web.
  • PowerPoint has a rich set of features , including templates and themes.
  • Even for beginners, PowerPoint is relatively easy to use .
  • PowerPoint enables customization through a wide range of add-ins .
  • PowerPoint simplifies collaboration with others by allowing easy sharing and editing of presentations.
  • PowerPoint has limited innovation over its three-decade history, potentially making presentations feel dated.
  • Learning to use PowerPoint’s features and tools can be complex for some users.
  • PowerPoint may have performance issues on less powerful computers.
  • Compared to alternatives, PowerPoint can be relatively pricey if purchased outright.

Advantages Of PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is an excellent tool for presentations and more. Here are some of its key advantages:

PowerPoint is available for both Windows and macOS , as well as for mobile devices running iOS and Android. This makes it a convenient tool for creating presentations, regardless of what type of device you are using. You can also use PowerPoint for the Web in a web browser, making it even more accessible. Not a lot of presentation software offers such flexibility.

PowerPoint is the most feature-rich presentation software out there. It has everything you need to create a professional-looking presentation, including built-in templates, themes, and much more. Other presentation software simply cannot compete with PowerPoint in this regard.

PowerPoint is the most widely used presentation software, and it’s the industry standard tool for preparing presentations. People are generally familiar with how PowerPoint works, which makes it easy to use when giving presentations. It is also the most compatible presentation software , meaning that it can be opened and viewed on just about any device.

PowerPoint comes with a variety of built-in themes and templates that you can use to make your presentation look more professional. If you’re not a design expert, these templates can be a lifesaver. With just a few clicks, you can make your presentation look great without spending hours on design.

The interface of PowerPoint is also quite versatile. You can easily access all the needed features by using the toolbar options. Its interface is also customizable , so you can change it to suit your needs better.

PowerPoint is relatively easy to use , even if you’ve never used it before. Of course, it takes some time to learn all the features and how to use them effectively. However, you should be able to start creating basic presentations without much trouble.

You can open and edit presentations saved in various formats with PowerPoint. Some of the supported formats include pptx, ppt, gif, mp4, jpeg , and more. This is a convenient feature if you need to import or export presentations in variable programs. Other presentation software supports only a limited number of formats.

PowerPoint also integrates smoothly with other Microsoft Office programs, such as Word and Excel. This makes it easy to create presentations that include data from other Office programs. Moreover, PowerPoint files are supported by most online storage services, such as Google Drive and Dropbox, for seamless sharing.

PowerPoint also supports add-ins , which are small programs that add additional features to the software. There are a large number of add-ins available for PowerPoint that you can use to customize your presentations further.

The Review feature in PowerPoint allows you to compare two presentations side-by-side . This is a handy feature if you need to spot the differences between two versions of a presentation. It’s especially useful when you want to review the changes to your presentation made by someone else.

PowerPoint makes it relatively easy to collaborate with others on a presentation. You can easily share your presentation with others and allow them to view it or make changes by sharing a link. This is a convenient feature if you are working on a team project.

PowerPoint is also available in a mobile version , which allows you to create and edit presentations on the go. You can download the PowerPoint app for free from the App Store or Google Play to use on iOS or Android devices. This is a handy feature if you need to make last-minute changes to your presentation.

One of the features of the PowerPoint software that most users find useful is the password protection feature. This allows you to set a password for your presentation so that only those who know the password can open and view it. Most other presentation software does not include this component.

Disadvantages of PowerPoint

Now that we’ve looked at the advantages of PowerPoint, let’s take a look at some of its disadvantages:

It’s been around three decades since PowerPoint was first released, and in that time, it hasn’t seen a whole lot of innovation. This lack of innovation can make it feel dated compared to some of the newer presentation software options on the market. Some users find PowerPoint slides boring, as there is not much scope to create creative or interactive presentations.

The features and tools of PowerPoint can be a bit complex to learn , especially if you’ve never used the software before. It can take some time to get a grasp on how to use all the features effectively. And if you want to create more complex presentations, it may take even longer.

PowerPoint can also have some performance issues, especially on weak systems. The software can be a bit resource-intensive, so it may run slowly on older computers . Additionally, large or complex presentations may take longer to load and may not run as smoothly as you’d like.

If you want to purchase PowerPoint outright, it’s relatively expensive compared to some of the other presentation software options on the market. Google Slides offers many of the same features as PowerPoint, but it’s free to use.

PowerPoint is a widely used presentation software that is available for all major operating systems. It offers a large number of features and is widely accepted.  However, it can be a bit complex to learn and is relatively expensive. Despite these disadvantages, PowerPoint is still a popular choice for creating presentations.

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what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

What Are The Benefits of Microsoft PowerPoint? (A Comprehensive Guide)

Microsoft PowerPoint is one of the most popular presentation programs available today, and for good reason.

This comprehensive guide will explore the many advantages of using Microsoft PowerPoint, from creating professional-looking presentations to easily sharing and collaborating with other users.

With its accessible templates and tools, PowerPoint makes it easy to create interactive presentations that will wow any audience.

Read on to discover all the benefits of this powerful software.

Table of Contents

Short Answer

Microsoft PowerPoint is a powerful presentation software that can be used to create engaging presentations for any purpose.

The main benefits of PowerPoint include its ability to help users create visually appealing slides, add animations and transitions to enhance the presentation, and use multimedia elements to bring the presentation to life.

Additionally, PowerPoint can help users organize their thoughts and ideas in an effective way, as well as make it easier to collaborate with others in a shared workspace.

What is Microsoft PowerPoint?

Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation software program developed by Microsoft that allows users to create dynamic, visually stimulating presentations.

It is a powerful tool that can be used for a variety of purposes, from creating slideshows to multimedia presentations.

PowerPoint is an incredibly versatile program.

It offers users access to an extensive library of templates and tools, allowing them to create high-quality presentations quickly and efficiently.

It also offers features such as transitions, animations, and custom shapes to help users create engaging and interactive presentations.

Additionally, PowerPoint presentations can be shared and accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, allowing users to collaborate on projects and share ideas with colleagues.

PowerPoint is an easy-to-use program, making it accessible to users of any skill level.

It has a user-friendly interface and clear instructions, allowing even novice users to create professional-looking presentations in no time.

As a result, PowerPoint has become a popular choice for businesses, schools, and other organizations.

Benefits of Using Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is an extremely powerful and versatile presentation software developed by Microsoft that can be used for a variety of purposes.

It is a great tool for creating dynamic presentations that can engage audiences and make a lasting impression.

PowerPoint is also easy to use, providing users with access to an extensive library of templates and tools that can help them create high-quality presentations quickly and efficiently.

With its powerful features and ease of use, PowerPoint is an essential tool for businesses and schools worldwide.

One of the main benefits of using Microsoft PowerPoint is its ability to provide a professional-looking presentation.

With PowerPoint, users can easily create slides that look polished and professional.

The software also offers users access to an extensive library of templates and tools that can help them create high-quality presentations quickly and efficiently.

Additionally, PowerPoint provides users with the ability to easily add images, videos, and other media to their presentations, making them even more engaging and interactive.

Another benefit of using Microsoft PowerPoint is its ease of use.

PowerPoint is designed to be user-friendly, and is very intuitive to use.

Even for those who are new to the software, it is easy to learn the basics and get started creating amazing presentations.

Additionally, PowerPoint offers users access to an extensive library of templates and tools that can help them create high-quality presentations quickly and efficiently.

Finally, Microsoft PowerPoint is great for creating interactive presentations that engage audiences.

With PowerPoint, users can easily add animations, transitions, and other interactive elements to their presentations.

This makes presentations more dynamic and engaging, and can even help to capture the audience’s attention and keep them engaged throughout the entire presentation.

In conclusion, Microsoft PowerPoint is an incredibly powerful and versatile presentation software that can be used for a variety of purposes.

It provides users with the ability to create professional-looking presentations that can engage audiences and make a lasting impression.

PowerPoint is also easy to use, and offers users access to an extensive library of templates and tools that can help them create high-quality presentations quickly and efficiently.

With its powerful features and ease of use, Microsoft PowerPoint continues to be an essential tool for businesses and schools worldwide.

Professional-Looking Presentations

Microsoft PowerPoint is a powerful presentation software that can give businesses and schools access to a professional-looking presentation with ease.

With its vast selection of templates and tools, users can easily create high-quality presentations in no time.

PowerPoint also offers a wide variety of creative options to choose from.

From basic template designs to more sophisticated customizable designs, PowerPoint has a template for any type of presentation.

With the ability to easily add images, text, audio, and video to a presentation, PowerPoint can create an engaging and professional-looking presentation in a matter of minutes.

Additionally, PowerPoint allows users to share and collaborate on presentations from anywhere with an internet connection.

By providing a collaborative environment, PowerPoint makes it easy for teams to work together and create a well-rounded presentation.

Ease of Use

When it comes to ease of use, Microsoft PowerPoint stands out from the crowd.

With its intuitive user interface and drag-and-drop features, creating a presentation is a breeze.

Even first-time users can quickly get up to speed with PowerPoints simple layout and design tools.

PowerPoint also allows users to easily add images, videos, and audio files to their presentations with a few clicks of the mouse.

Furthermore, users can make changes to their presentations quickly and easily, ensuring that their presentations always look their best.

Thanks to its ease of use, PowerPoint is a great choice for both novice and experienced users, making it the ideal presentation software for any project.

Creating Interactive Presentations

Microsoft PowerPoint is a great tool for creating engaging and interactive presentations.

With its wide range of features and tools, PowerPoint makes it easy to create dynamic presentations that will capture and keep your audiences attention.

PowerPoint has a variety of tools that can be used to create interactive presentations.

For example, users can add animations, transitions, and sound effects to their slides to create a more engaging experience for their audience.

PowerPoint also allows users to embed videos, images, and other media into their presentations, adding a visual element to the presentation that can capture the audiences attention.

PowerPoint also makes it easy to add interactivity to a presentation.

Users can create quizzes, polls, and other interactive elements that can be used to engage their audience and get them involved in the presentation.

PowerPoint also allows users to create clickable links that can be used to direct the audience to additional content related to the presentation.

The combination of these features makes Microsoft PowerPoint an invaluable tool for creating interactive presentations.

With its powerful features and easy-to-use tools, PowerPoint makes it easy to create presentations that will keep your audience engaged and entertained.

Accessible Templates and Tools

Microsoft PowerPoint is a powerful presentation software developed by Microsoft which offers users access to an extensive library of templates and tools that can help them create high-quality presentations quickly and efficiently.

These templates and tools are designed to make the process of creating presentations easier and more efficient, which can be a great asset for businesses and schools.

One of the main benefits of Microsoft PowerPoint is the wide range of templates available.

From professional-looking slides to fun and creative designs, there are dozens of templates to choose from, making it easy to create an attractive presentation that captures the attention of an audience.

Additionally, users can customize and edit templates to fit their needs, allowing them to create unique and eye-catching presentations.

The tools available in Microsoft PowerPoint are also a big benefit.

With features like text formatting, animation, and media insertion, users can easily create dynamic presentations that engage their audiences.

Additionally, users can also add images, videos, and audio to their presentations, allowing them to add a unique and personal touch.

With this wide range of tools, users can create professional-looking presentations quickly and easily.

Overall, Microsoft PowerPoint offers users access to an extensive library of templates and tools that can help them create high-quality presentations quickly and efficiently.

With the wide range of templates available, users can create attractive presentations that capture the attention of an audience.

Additionally, the tools available in Microsoft PowerPoint make it easy to create dynamic presentations that engage audiences and add a unique and personal touch.

Sharing and Collaboration

Microsoft PowerPoint is an invaluable tool for businesses and schools, offering users the ability to easily share and collaborate on presentations with colleagues and peers.

With PowerPoint, users can access their presentations from any device with an internet connection, allowing them to collaborate and share ideas with colleagues wherever they are.

This makes it easier to work together on projects, ensuring that everyone has access to the latest version of a presentation.

PowerPoint also provides users with an extensive library of templates and tools to help them create high-quality presentations quickly and efficiently.

This makes it easier for teams to work together on projects, as they can use the same template and customize it with their own content.

Additionally, PowerPoint allows users to set up live presentations and share them with others, allowing them to collaborate in real-time.

This makes it easier to work together on projects, as everyone can see the same slides and add their own input.

Overall, Microsoft PowerPoint is an invaluable tool for businesses and schools, offering users the ability to easily share and collaborate on presentations with colleagues and peers.

Final Thoughts

Microsoft PowerPoint is an essential tool for businesses and schools worldwide and offers a wide range of benefits to users.

Its ability to provide professional-looking presentations, its ease of use, and its ability to create interactive presentations that engage audiences make it a powerful tool for any organization.

With its extensive library of templates and tools, users can create high-quality presentations quickly and efficiently.

PowerPoint presentations can also be shared and accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, allowing users to collaborate on projects and share ideas with colleagues.

Now that you know the benefits of Microsoft PowerPoint, why not take advantage of its power and create your own dynamic presentation today?

James Wilson

James Wilson has extensive knowledge in the information technology industry.His second love, besides dealing with computers, is smart home technology. He is continually updating information to better comprehend this problem and has a deep understanding of the apartment’s support system.

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Presentation Geeks

What Are The Benefits of PowerPoint When Choosing A Presentation Platform

Table of contents.

PowerPoint is the most popular software for building presentations. It can be found as a part of Microsoft’s Office Suite and is often used for personal, business, and educational purposes . It would be fair to say that PowerPoint has dominated the presentation landscape for decades.

89% Of people still use PowerPoint presentations over competitor services. Presentation Panda

But why is this the case? As pres entation experts for over a decade , why is most of the work we do, done in Microsoft PowerPoint over Prezi, Google Slides, Canva and others? Read on as we explore, from first-hand experience, the reasons PowerPoint is our go-to platform.

So, What Are The Benefits Of PowerPoint Presentations?

1) it's a highly collaborative solution.

PowerPoint is super collaborative. Gone are the days when you have to huddle around one computer, one person working on your slides at a time. PowerPoint allows multiple people to access, edit and comment on a presentation, at the same time, on the same slides! All your team needs it access to the file and you’re golden.

2) Design Flexibility To Wow Audiences

You have full control over the appearance of your presentation design. PowerPoint offers the freedom and flexibility to create dynamic, engaging slides that capture your audiences attention. Feel free to take a look at some of the PowerPoint design ideas we suggest.

Missing that visual kick your PowerPoint desperately needs? Check out our PowerPoint presentation design portfolio.

3) You Can Work From Virtually Anywhere

The past couple of years have changed the working dynamic of many industries. Hybrid models are the new norm and with that, there is a demand for digital tools that have versatility. PowerPoint can be saved to the cloud and accessed from wherever you are. As long as you have a user license, you can work on your presentation virtually anywhere.

4) Export PowerPoint Slides In Different Formats

You aren’t limited to just .pptx. PowerPoint presentations can be exported in various formats. Looking to save space, export it as a .pdf and send it through email. Want to send individual slides? gif, .tif, .png or .jpg, among others have you covered. You can even export videos within PowerPoints as mp4 or windows media player. What we’re saying here is that there’s flexibility for all situations with PowerPoint Presentations.

5) Compatibility With Other Microsoft Office Programs

Considering they are all part of the same suite, you’re able to quickly and easily enrich your presentation with tables from word and charts from excel. We can create templates for you that can easily be modified for presentations to come.

6) It's Accessible For All Users And Purposes

Companies typically have the Microsoft office suite already loaded and licensed on their computers, so you’re already half way there. In addition, educational facilities acquire office so students and teachers can connect quickly and easily.

In addition, you’ll be able to be inclusive of a wider audience with presentation accessibility features . You can create presentations that capture your audience’s focus by catering to those who may have visual, hearing or any other impairments.

7) PPT Presentations Save Time

Hiring professional PowerPoint design services can save time. All one has to do is brief the agency with basic content, and the custom presentation is designed to good effect.

This frees up time for company personnel to focus on other tasks at hand. The design agency will take care of visuals, smooth animations, relevant charts, custom fonts, and color schemes.

Delivering World Class Presentation Design

The drawbacks of using a powerpoint presentation, technological issues are always a factor.

You can plan and rehearse your pitch as much as you want, if your HDMI, VGA or any other input device craps out, you’re in trouble. In addition, you’ll want to make sure the system you are planning to present on has access to the fonts and files within the deck. This can be said of all presentation platforms, but it’s important to note.

Presenters Rely Too Much On Their Slides

Presenters can have a tendency to lean on their slides a little too much. It doesn’t matter if you have a presentation that leaves a greater visual impact if you don’t know what you’re presenting! The ease of use builds confidence and a false sense of security. The story is what ultimately captivates your audience, the visual and audio cues are to bring the story to life.

Customization Can Be A Curse

Having a wealth of options at your disposal is disorientating and can often lead you astray. You start to dilute the point of the presentation in trying to get too creative. You start to ask:

  • What Fonts Should I Use?
  • I've seen so many image heavy presentations, is mine image heavy?
  • Does This Slide Need A Video? Should It Be Interactive?

White male thinking about the benefits of powerpoint

We know you want to dazzle your audience and give them information, but leave a little mystery for the delivery. Also, we recommend hiring a presentation design professional , it really does take this headache away.

So, What Are Our Final Thoughts On The Benefits of PowerPoint?

If we were building a presentation for you, we would recommend PowerPoint. It’s ease of use, flexibility and compatibility make it our presentation software of choice, every time. It’s viewed in the industry as the evergreen presentation leader and Microsoft PowerPoint has established itself a synonym for presentation software.

That being said, other presentation platforms shouldn’t be overlooked. Canva and Google slides are gaining traction. Either way, we are experts in all presentation platforms and create outstanding presentations, everytime!

Are You In Need Of A Custom Presentation? We Can Help

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What Are Benefits of PowerPoint? A Comprehensive Guide

PowerPoint, a presentation software developed by Microsoft, offers a multitude of benefits for individuals and businesses alike. By following this quick overview, you’ll gain an understanding of how to utilize PowerPoint effectively and what to expect from its range of functionalities.

After completing the action of learning PowerPoint, you will be able to create visually appealing presentations that can enhance communication, engage audiences, and support your points with visual aids. You’ll also be able to customize your slides to reflect your brand or personal style.

Introduction

PowerPoint has become synonymous with presentations. Whether in a classroom, a boardroom, or at a conference, PowerPoint slides are the go-to for anyone needing to present information in a structured, engaging manner. So, why is this software so widely used and important?

For starters, PowerPoint allows users to compile and organize their thoughts in a way that’s visually appealing and easy to follow. It caters to various learning styles – from those who benefit from auditory explanations to visual learners who need graphs, charts, and images to understand a concept fully.

Not only is PowerPoint an excellent tool for education and business, but it’s also accessible. With a relatively low learning curve, almost anyone can pick it up and start crafting presentations. Its relevance spans across different sectors and age groups, making it a universally valuable skill to learn.

The step by step tutorial section will include PowerPoint in the title.

This section will guide you through the basic steps of creating a PowerPoint presentation from scratch.

Step 1: Open PowerPoint and select a theme.

Choose a theme that aligns with the purpose of your presentation.

Selecting a theme is the first step in creating a PowerPoint presentation. Microsoft offers a wide variety of built-in themes that you can choose from, each with its own unique design, color scheme, and font style. This ensures consistency and visual appeal throughout your presentation. You can also create a custom theme if you have specific branding or design requirements.

Step 2: Add new slides and content.

Create and populate your slides with text, images, and other media.

After selecting your theme, the next step is to add new slides. You can insert text boxes to add titles, bullet points, and detailed content. PowerPoint also allows you to include images, videos, and other multimedia elements to enrich your presentation and make it more engaging for your audience.

Step 3: Customize your slides.

Adjust the layout, colors, and fonts to suit your needs.

Customizing your slides is where you can really make your presentation stand out. You can move elements around, change the background color, and select fonts that reflect the tone of your message. PowerPoint provides tools for aligning objects, editing images, and applying various artistic effects to your content.

Step 4: Include transitions and animations.

Add visual effects to your slides and elements to make your presentation dynamic.

Transitions and animations can help your presentation flow smoothly from one slide to the next or emphasize important points. PowerPoint offers a range of effect options, from subtle fades to more elaborate movements. However, it’s important to use these judiciously to avoid distracting from the content itself.

Step 5: Rehearse and present.

Practice your presentation and prepare for the live show.

The final step is to rehearse your presentation using PowerPoint’s rehearsal features. You can time your slides, add speaker notes, and even record your presentation to review it later. When you’re ready, you can present live from your computer, or share your presentation with others through various platforms.

Additional Information

When using PowerPoint, one major tip is to focus on your message and use the software to enhance it, not overshadow it. Remember, your slides are there to support you, not the other way around. You should also consider the accessibility of your content—use high-contrast colors and large fonts to ensure everyone in your audience can easily read your slides.

Furthermore, bear in mind that PowerPoint presentations are not just for live audiences. They can be converted into video formats, shared online, or even printed as handouts, making your content versatile and reusable.

  • Open PowerPoint and select a theme.
  • Add new slides and content.
  • Customize your slides.
  • Include transitions and animations.
  • Rehearse and present.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is powerpoint mainly used for.

PowerPoint is primarily used for creating and delivering presentations for educational, business, and personal purposes.

Can PowerPoint presentations be shared online?

Yes, PowerPoint presentations can be shared online through email, cloud services, or by converting them into video formats.

Is PowerPoint suitable for professional use?

Absolutely, PowerPoint is widely used in professional settings for meetings, conferences, and other business-related events.

Can you collaborate with others on a PowerPoint presentation?

Yes, PowerPoint offers collaborative features allowing multiple users to work on a presentation simultaneously.

Are there alternatives to PowerPoint?

There are several alternatives to PowerPoint, including Google Slides and Apple Keynote, each with their own unique features.

In conclusion, PowerPoint is a powerful tool that offers numerous benefits for creating and delivering presentations. Its ability to enhance visual impact, promote structure, and increase audience engagement makes it an essential skill for anyone looking to present information effectively.

While there are some drawbacks to be aware of, such as the potential for technical issues and the learning curve involved, the pros of using PowerPoint far outweigh the cons. With practice and creativity, PowerPoint can become an indispensable part of your communication toolkit.

Matthew Burleigh Solve Your Tech

Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read over 50 million times.

After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.

His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.

Read his full bio here.

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Using PowerPoint for Presentations

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using PowerPoint for Presentations

If you want to make visually captivating and professional-looking presentations, understanding PowerPoint and the benefits of PowerPoint is vital for you. Microsoft PowerPoint is a popular presentation tool used by students and professionals daily. 

Using PowerPoint has made communicating complex ideas and data easier and more engaging, thanks to its user-friendly interface and customizable presentation templates . While there are many benefits of powerpoint, it also has some drawbacks. This article examines what PowerPoint presentations offer and what they don’t. If you are still determining whether it is the right tool for your next presentation, we will help you decide.

What is Microsoft PowerPoint and How Does It Help Create Presentations?

Microsoft PowerPoint is a part of the Microsoft Office Suite developed by Microsoft Corporation. It is a widely used tool for making slideshows or presentations, including images, video, text, animation, and other multimedia elements. Users can use PowerPoint to effectively present their ideas and data to a broad audience in a simple and easy-to-understand manner.  It also helps in creating presentations real quick! So, let us see how it helps with the same: 

  • Visual Appeal : Visual appeal is one of the main benefits of PowerPoint. Incorporating PowerPoint graphics , images, and multimedia elements facilitates the creation of visually appealing and engaging presentations in PowerPoint.
  • Customization : One of the many benefits of PowerPoint presentations is the freedom to customize the template. It offers various customizable templates with different designs, tools, and effects that help the users or presenters to tailor their slides or presentations to the subject matter and audience.
  • Multimedia Integration : To improve the quality and impact of the presentation, users can integrate multimedia elements in PowerPoint, like high-quality videos, audio, animations., etc.
  • Audience Engagement : PowerPoint provides various tools and features, such as interactive polls and quizzes, to engage the audience and promote participation during the presentation.
  • Accessibility : Accessibility is one of the advantages of PowerPoint that allows users to create presentations accessible to a broad audience, including those with hearing or visual impairments, through features such as closed captions and alternative text descriptions.

What Are The Top 10 Benefits Of Using PowerPoint For Presentation?

The benefits of using PowerPoint are not limited only to efficiently conveying ideas in a meeting, college or school presentations. Apart from students and business professionals, people in the creative field also use PowerPoint to create mood boards or to ideate any creative project. So, if you are wondering what are the benefits of using Microsoft PowerPoint then keep on reading: 

Offers Excellent Data Visualization

  • Great Audience Engagement 

Create Visually Stunning Slides Quickly

Multiple interactive features, gives accessibility to different features, has various designs, and you can even create yours, highly collaborative tool.

  • PowerPoint Presentations Can Be Saved In Various Platforms
  • Helps To Communicate With The Audience Professionally

Offers Consistency To Each Slide

Great audience interaction.

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

PowerPoint Presentation Can Be Saved In Various Formats

Helps communicate with the audience professionally.

Now that we have discussed the advantages of Microsoft PowerPoint, let us jump onto seeing some of its disadvantages.

What Are The Disadvantages Of Using PowerPoint For Presentation?

Apart from the various benefits of Microsoft PowerPoint, it also has some disadvantages. Let us see some of the drawbacks of using PowerPoint for presentations: 

  • Over-Reliance on Slides

Information Overload

  • Files are not saved automatically
  • Lack of originality
  • Most features usually remain unexplored

Over Reliance on Slides

Files are not saved automatically, lack of originality, most features usually remain unexplored, when should i use powerpoint to create presentations.

Due to the diverse benefits of Microsoft PowerPoint, there are various instances when a user can use PowerPoint for Presentations. For example, when a user wants to present complex information or wants to include visual aids to support the information or wants to present to an audience that is not physically present or intends to propose an idea in a business meeting or conference. Here is a table showing how different professionals can use PowerPoint: 

Final Thoughts

Presenting visually appealing and engaging presentations can be achieved with PowerPoint. In addition to offering a wide range of design tools and features, it offers several communication tools that help presenters effectively communicate their ideas to a wide audience. 

However, apart from the benefits of a PowerPoint presentation, it’s imperative to remember that it also has disadvantages. The disadvantages include the potential for information overload, lack of originality, and the risk of disengaging the audience if not used appropriately. 

When choosing PowerPoint for a presentation, the decision should be based on the presentation’s goals and needs. In addition, the audience and the presenter should have their preferences taken into consideration.

Can I rely solely on PowerPoint to deliver an effective presentation?

How can i avoid information overload in my powerpoint presentation, can i use powerpoint presentations for remote presentations or online meetings, is it necessary to use templates for my powerpoint presentations, how can i ensure my powerpoint presentations are accessible to all audiences.

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5 reasons why PowerPoint is so popular

PowerPoint still the most popular presentation software tool

Microsoft PowerPoint logo

29 million over 16s in the UK have, at some stage, created a presentation. Whether it was on the topic of class divides in George Orwell’s Animal Farm that they read at school, a complex client pitch at a leading law firm or anything in between. This accounts for more than half of the UK population. So it’s no surprise that there’s high demand for good quality presentation software and training.

And the most popular presentation tool of all is… you guessed it - PowerPoint. Acuity Training’s recent survey found that 37% of Brits have used PowerPoint at some stage, making it by far the most popular presentation software package available.

But what are the benefits of Microsoft PowerPoint? Why is it so popular? And will it soon be replaced by the likes of Google Slides, Microsoft Sway, Visme and Keynote? Let’s get into it.

Ben Richardson is the owner and director of Acuity Training.

Compatibility

One of the biggest reasons why PowerPoint became and has remained so popular over the years is thanks to its seamless compatibility with a vast array of devices and operating systems . PowerPoint presentations can be created, accessed and edited on both Windows and Apple products. They can also be easily shared and on various devices and platforms without losing their formatting or functionality. Users can transfer their presentations to smartphones , tablets , and even web browsers , enabling them to deliver their presentations anytime, anywhere.

Ease of use

PowerPoint's user-friendly interface makes it exceptionally easy to use, catering to both technical and non-technical users alike. The software's intuitive design and features give users the freedom to craft professional-looking presentations effortlessly. One of PowerPoint's standout characteristics is its drag-and-drop functionality. Users can simply select elements such as text boxes, images, shapes, and multimedia files and easily position them on slides with a simple click and drag. This eliminates the need for complex coding or advanced technical skills, allowing users to focus on content creation rather than technical intricacies. Its pre-designed layouts and templates do all of the hard work for you, allowing you to create professional looking decks with ease.

Visual messaging capabilities

Gone are the days of stuffed slides filled with bullet pointed lists or large chunks of text. When used well, PowerPoint’s SmartArt graphics are your best friend when it comes to creating appealing diagrams and flowcharts to make content that’s slick and easy to understand. While the built-in spell check and grammar correction features help with readability and cohesion. Research has consistently found that the human brain processes and understands visual information more efficiently and effectively compared to text alone, so PowerPoint’s visual capabilities are likely to play a significant role in enhancing retention of information in presentations.

Collaboration

PowerPoint's real-time co-authoring feature has transformed the way teams collaborate when making presentations. It allows multiple users to work on the same presentation simultaneously, regardless of their physical location. Users can add comments, make edit suggestions, and chat with one another on the slides themselves, making teamwork and collaboration a breeze. This is now more important than ever, with so many remote and hybrid workers needing to work together on projects with as little distribution as possible.

Professional spheres

In today’s professional landscape, PowerPoint experience and/or qualifications tend to be a prerequisite in a multitude of industries. From marketing to finance, education to healthcare, and beyond, proficiency in the software allows you to quickly and easily use any new company’s existing templates and layouts and to work effectively within their teams, whilst also adhering to brand guidelines.

There’s little question as to why PowerPoint is the most popular presentation software in the UK. And its position as one of the best presentation software tools is very well-deserved. Other presentation tools such as Google Slides and Visme have gained traction in recent years, and do have growing user bases. But time and time again, PowerPoint remains the go-to for so many of us, and it’s no surprise given its rich set of features, user-friendly interface, and reputable presence across many industries.

PowerPoint’s latest features

So what’s new in PowerPoint? Here are some of my favorite new features.

Power BI Features 

In March this year, Microsoft launched a new PowerPoint add-in that enables seamless integration with Power BI reports. With this update, users can effortlessly incorporate individual visuals into their reports, leveraging the Smart Insights tool to enhance the informational value of presentations. This has reportedly had a major impact on productivity amongst users, helping them to make their presentations more informative and engaging in far less time.

Agenda Wizard

One of PowerPoint’s latest features is Agenda Wizard. This allows you to quickly and easily generate agendas or numbered content table slides, as well as synchronizing any updates and changes to these with just the click of a button. You can also save these format layouts to reuse in the future, or choose from a range of pre-existing options.

What’s in store for the future of PowerPoint?

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it's planning on bringing AI to PowerPoint via a new "Copilot" feature. This should enable users to use natural language to instruct PowerPoint to create full presentations on a topic of their choosing. They’ve said this feature will even be able to use other documents as a reference for information and inspiration, much like tools such as ChatGPT and AI art generators.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there have been some initial concerns about the role of AI in content creation. But Microsoft has emphasised that the Copilot feature has been specifically designed to collaborate with users, as opposed to replacing them. It’ll be fascinating to see how these features continue to complement our communication and content creation efforts going forward into 2024 and beyond, and to discover just what the future holds for presentation software tools as we know them.

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Ben Richardson is the owner and director of Acuity Training, which provides corporate IT application (Microsoft, Adobe, AutoCAD) training across the UK both online and in person.

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What are the advantages and disadvatages of PowerPoint

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PowerPoint is one of the most popular software for presentations. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite and can be used for personal, business, and educational purposes. Most known for its templates and easiness of use, PowerPoint had conquered the presentations game. 

From beginners to professional speakers, this software allows you to build your own presentations using text, images, video, audios, tables of data. There are a variety of animations and transitions that can help in delivering the presentation the way you want. 

We’ve been working for five years in Presentation Design, and most of our work is done using PowerPoint.

Even though I’ve been using it over the past 5 years, I’m learning something new every once in a while. I’m always looking to improve my process, do things differently or executing the wrong command. Some mistakes are good too, eh? I feel like PowerPoint is a tool which is overlooked by many people in the design industry. When I switch to other software, I’m thinking <<oh, I could have done this a lot faster in PowerPoint>>. I like order and precision. Through PowerPoint’s  grid and guides features, I’m able to satisfy these cravings of mine and create consistent and neat presentations.

Bogdan, Visual Hackers Designer

Advantages of PowerPoint

1. It can be used virtually anywhere

Put your presentation on a USB flash drive or in any cloud storage app and you will have your PowerPoint presentation at hand anytime. It is also included in standard professional settings, so with your user license, you can access your presentation from anywhere.

2. It is a collaborative solution

Work from home is now a normal thing to do. Tools that provide solutions for working together with your team even if you are in different locations are in high demand. PowerPoint adapted to this situation and with its online cloud storage, you can now work on presentations at the same time, or work on the same presentation without sending it to each other. 

3. You can choose to create your own design or use existing ones

PowerPoint offers you full control over your slides’ appearances. You have the freedom to customize your presentation with your own design. As it is easy to modify and play with the elements given by this software, you can create the perfect presentation for yourself. 

There are also templates already integrated into the software for visually appealing presentations and for those who want a quick and nice design. Furthermore, PowerPoint will give you design ideas with the images and elements you chose to have on slides.

If you customize the slides you have the Master Slide, it will help you set the fonts, images (logos), and other preferences for all the slides. The master slide is the top slide in the thumbnail pane on the left side of the window.

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

4. Multiple uses 

An adaptable and perceptive tool is how our founder described PowerPoint in a previous article. That is because this software is not only for presentations (even though it is most known for them), but also for other types of materials, such as flyers, marketing materials, gifs, videos, or CVs. We do PowerPoint infographics, our social media posts, and presentations for clients. 

89% of people use PowerPoint to create presentations.

Read more about how you can use PowerPoint:

PowerPoint is more than just a presentation tool

5. Export in different formats

With PowerPoint, you can export your materials in other formats than .pptx. We talked previously about all the types of materials you can create in this software and for them, it offers alternatives of saving you work. 

Presentations can be saved also in .pdf, this will reduce their size, videos can be exported as mp4 and for gifs, there is the specific option to save them as Animated gifs. Of course, there is also the option of saving a slide as .png or .jpg.

6. It facilitates an effective way of communication with the audience

Most of the time, PowerPoint is used for presenting to a larger audience (a few things have changed in 2020, but a zoom presentation looks just as good), as it is easier to be projected. Choose your communication style, do you want to rely more on images, text, or videos, all of them can be easily integrated into PowerPoint.

65% of the population are visual learners

7. You can insert multimedia formats

Visuals are the key in PowerPoint. Images and videos help you explain your idea better and in an engaging way in any presentation. There are some basic sounds that you can use or insert your own audio for the desired effect. 

Play with all the functionalities of this tool and use it to its maximum. 

8. Extremely efficient tool

Once you get familiar with the software, there are all kinds of features that you can use to become an expert in PowerPoint. We can even name 84 shortcuts that will change the way you use it and will also save you a lot of time.

Learn for yourself:

84 PowerPoint Shortcuts To Improve Your Presentation Game

9. It is accessible for all categories of users

Most of the time employees/staff have already the Microsoft license on their work computers, with PowerPoint included. Also, universities acquire the suite so students and teachers cand use reach out and use them.

Disadvantages of PowerPoint

1. High risk of technical issues

It can happen anytime, there are a lot of variables that intervene when you are about to use PowerPoint for presenting. Your computer can stop working, get an update right before you start, or lose power in the middle of the presentation. There is always the connectivity issue, do you use HDMI, VGA or do you have an adaptor. PowerPoint also has some specifics ada[ted for your computer, like fonts or videos, and if you don’t embed them or you don’t put them in a folder with the presentation they won’t work on somebody else’s computer.

2. Overuse of information 

After you accommodate with the software it becomes very easy to get lost in all the options you have. How much text is too much? Are there enough images? What font to use? How many fonts to use? By adding a lot of things you will lose sight of the purpose of the presentation. 

We know that there is a lot of important information you want to transmit, but leave some mystery for the delivery part. 

3. Predisposal to death by PowerPoint

PowerPoint presentations are very common in conferences, business meetings and universities, therefore your audience has seen quite a lot of presentations before yours. You need to catch your audience’s attention from the beginning with your presentation looks or with your way of presenting, otherwise, they will get bored and won’t listen to you present.  Make sure you put enough time into preparing your PowerPoint material, a good presentation with a fine speech will hit the target. 

Avoid templates as much as possible if you want to impress, or work on them and add your unique style to them. 

4. Presenters rely too much on slides 

Sometimes when you are too focused on preparing the slides you may forget to actually prepare to deliver the presentation and you will end up reading from the slides. The audience wants to hear more from the speaker than what is presented on the slides, otherwise they could have looked over the presentation themselves.

5. Overuse of presentations 

There are situations when you get so used to the tool that you will start making a presentation for everything. Every report or status will become easier to do in PowerPoint for you, but it won’t be that fun for your colleagues and will cost you time. 

We recommend using Powerpoint for all kinds of materials, not just presentations. This tool can give you freedom in design and also help you with predefined elements. 

If you want to make a presentation yourself, invest time, look for tutorials or just reach out to an agency to help you create the right presentation. 

Here’s When You Really Need A Presentation Design Specialist

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Prezi vs PowerPoint – Which Is Better?

Prezi and PowerPoint are two popular tools for creating presentations and slides .

A Hungarian-based company, Prezi has unique features that differentiate it from Microsoft PowerPoint. Launched in 2009, it came much later than PowerPoint but has since gained a lot of popularity as a PowerPoint alternative.

Microsoft PowerPoint, on the other hand, was released back in 1987. As of now, it is probably the most well-known and most widely used presentation creation software.

Today, I will be comparing MIcrosoft PowerPoint and Prezi and explaining the similarities and differences between the two.

It will help you to pick the better of the two if you’re looking for a presentation tool for your needs.

Prezi vs PowerPoint: The Basics

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

Prezi set out to be different from Microsoft PowerPoint and most of the other presentation software tools that use a linear approach. In fact, it doesn’t use slides at all.

Instead, Prezi relies on visual effects, particularly the zoom feature, to allow you to present information.

Instead of showing your viewers one slide after another, you can zoom into specific sections of the canvas to reveal additional information.

On the one hand, this approach has several benefits. For example, when using linear presentations that are of any significant length, it can be easy to get lost when trying to fast-forward or rewind and find a specific slide.

Using a single canvas with sections that you can zoom into makes that a lot less likely to happen.

Furthermore, many people will appreciate the uniqueness of this kind of presentation style. Everyone is used to Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, so Prezi presentations could offer a breath of fresh air.

In one study , Prezi was found to be more engaging, effective, and persuasive than Microsoft PowerPoint. That could have to do with several things, such as Prezi allowing you to create more visually-engaging creations and its greater focus on storytelling.

Nevertheless, all of the extra visual effects can sometimes be quite distracting. Jumping from one part of the screen to another can make people feel disoriented and dizzy.

At a certain point, all of those extra effects are just extra noise. Instead of helping the viewer focus, they serve as a distraction from the actual information being presented.

In Microsoft PowerPoint, the linear approach forces you to present your ideas in slides that follow a sensible order.

Thus, while Prezi’s non-linear approach definitely has its advantages, it’s important not to overdo it.

Another thing: Prezi requires a bit more of a learning curve. Microsoft PowerPoint, on the other hand, is very intuitive and easy to figure out.

Not only can Prezi be difficult to figure out, but navigating a Prezi slide can be difficult if you are not used to it.

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

PowerPoint is designed to create linear presentations.

Most people will be familiar with the linear nature of PowerPoint presentations. It’s simple and allows you to present ideas in a clear and straightforward manner, with each slide presenting a new idea, quote, fact, or explanation, and with each slide building upon the information presented in the previous one.

Overall, a PowerPoint presentation is not only easy to create but easy to follow from the viewer’s perspective.

You can add as many slides as you need to, and you can delete slides as necessary.

Explore : Best Open-source Canva Alternatives

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

Microsoft PowerPoint has been trying to compete with Prezi. To that end, it has introduced its own zoom feature, which allows you to zoom into specific sections of a slide and reveal additional details and information.

With summary zoom, you can see all of the pieces of your presentation and skip between one part of your presentation to another without any limitations, in any order.

Overall, though, the zoom feature is not as developed in PowerPoint as it is in Prezi.

PowerPoint vs Prezi: Offline vs Online

Prezi is a completely online software. The presentations are designed to be created and stored in the cloud.

You will get shareable links that you can give to your viewers so they can view your presentation online. Whenever you want, you can revoke access to those links.

Prezi does have an offline desktop app, but you have to upgrade to a more expensive plan to use it. That means that creating presentations can be tough if you have a slow internet connection.

Not only that, but you can’t download your presentations and present them offline either, unless you upgrade to the more expensive plan. Your viewers must have good internet as well for them to view your presentations without any lags.

That’s a significant downside of using Prezi.

PowerPoint, on the other hand, was originally designed to be used offline. However, you can now use PowerPoint online with Microsoft Office for the web, formerly known as Microsoft 365.

Using Microsoft Office for the web, you can not only create presentations online but share them online as well. You can also collaborate with other people while creating your presentations.

You can download Microsoft PowerPoint presentations for offline viewing, but the viewer will need software that they can use to open the file. If they don’t have Microsoft PowerPoint, there are alternatives – for example, they can convert the file into a Google Slides presentation and view it in Google Docs.

Also Read : Best Apps Like Canva For Android

Prezi vs PowerPoint: Animations, Images, & Visual Effects

Prezi is amazing for adding visual effects to your presentations and slides. In fact, users can enjoy a massive library of over 500,000 images and 80,000 icons.

Not only that, but Prezi offers in-app image editing tools , so you don’t have to edit your images in a third-party app.

However, these premium images are not available to free users; you must be a paying user to access them.

There are also many visual animations you can add to your presentations, all of which can be found in the animations sidebar. Available animations include, but are not limited to:

  • Fade in and fade out, whether for single items or multiple items
  • Zooming into a specific area of the screen
  • Zoom out to give viewers a clearer view of the big picture

Note that you can arrange these animations so they appear in a specific order during your presentation, sort of like how different slides will appear in a specific order in a single PowerPoint presentation.

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

PowerPoint also gives you access to a wide range of visual effects and animations , including”

  • Fade (an item – text or image – gradually fades into view)
  • Fly in (an item flies in from the bottom or side of the screen)
  • Split (two halves of an image or text come from each side to form one)
  • Wipe (the item is wiped into place from a specific direction)
  • Zoom (the item zooms in)
  • Blinds (the item comes into view from behind window blinds)
  • Grow/shrink (the item grows then shrinks to a specific size)

The reverse is usually also possible. For example, the reverse of the fly in is the fly out.

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

There are many other visual effects available as well. For a full list of the different effects and what they do, see here .

As an aside, that list applies to Microsoft PowerPoint for the web. The desktop application has additional animations and visual effects not available in the online software.

Not only that, but PowerPoint also has a stock library of licensed photos that you can insert into your presentations. You can also search the web for creative commons pictures .

PowerPoint vs Prezi: Creating Videos

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

Prezi has a new tool called Prezi Video, which allows you to create short, highly-engaging videos instead of presentations. You can share these videos so viewers can watch them on demand, whether you’re creating an:

  • Instructional video
  • Virtual event
  • Advertising video
  • Sales pitch
  • Or anything else

Microsoft PowerPoint isn’t a video creation software, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make videos with it. You can turn any PowerPoint presentation into a video, downloading it as a video file so users can watch it on any device or turning it into a special PowerPoint slideshow that runs on its own in the PowerPoint app.

By default, the video will spend five seconds on each slide before moving onto the next one, but you can always change that. You can also record voice narrations and laser point movements in your video, and it will include any animations and transitions you have added to your presentation.

To learn more about turning a presentation into a video, see here .

Overall, though, when it comes to creating videos, Prezi wins.

Prezi vs PowerPoint: Creating Charts & Graphs

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

Prezi has a tool called Prezi Design that allows you to create beautiful charts and graphs for data visualization, including:

  • Infographics

You can animate your bar charts with visual effects, add video covers or animated GIFs, and use filters and colors.

However, Prezi Design goes beyond graphs and charts and allows you to create other content, such as:

  • Marketing posters
  • Social media posts
  • Email headers

You can download the files in different formats or publish them online, granting access with a share link.

Overall, Prezi Design is an awesome tool that can even replace existing design tools such as Canva. You can see examples of designs created in Prezi Design in the gallery .

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

It’s also possible to create charts and graphs in PowerPoint and insert them into your presentations. However, the charts and graphs are a bit more basic looking, and if you have a large amount of data, you should create them in Excel and then copy it into PowerPoint.

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

Different chart types include:

The charts are customizable; you can edit the colors, data labels, axis titles, and more.

Technically, you can also make posters and other types of visual media in PowerPoint, but it loses out to Prezi Design as a design tool. Prezi Design is simply more advanced and intuitive when it comes to designing posters, banners , etc.

PowerPoint vs Prezi: Live Presentations Over Zoom

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

One of the major advantages of Prezi is that it makes it easy to present presentations when working remotely or for distance learning.

Prezi Video integrates not only with Zoom but with other video conference tools commonly used for remote working and distance learning. Those include Google Meet, Microsoft Teams , GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, and Webex.

You can present your presentation, along with its visual effects, while still showing yourself on the screen in the foreground. Your viewers can follow along and even engage in real time using emojis, on-screen text, and GIFs.

Many people don’t realize it, but you can run PowerPoint presentations over video, in real time, in Microsoft Teams. As a presenter, you can engage with your audience over chat, see raised hands, answer questions, and more.

You can control how your camera appears in the presentation and use tools, such as the laser pointer, highlighter, and eraser, to clarify various things to viewers.

Despite both PowerPoint and Microsoft Teams being owned by Microsoft, you’re not limited to Microsoft Teams. For example, you can also use it in Zoom .

You can not only share a PowerPoint presentation in Zoom, but you can even allow viewers to browse through the slides on their end without it affecting you or others.

Prezi vs PowerPoint: Templates

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

Prezi has a decent selection of presentation and video templates for businesses, teachers, students, and others.

You can even import PowerPoint templates, and Prezi will convert them into Prezi templates.

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

PowerPoint wins when it comes to templates. The truth is that the templates offered in PowerPoint itself are nothing to be amazed at.

They’re sometimes outdated, and there aren’t as many available as you may like. They work for simple presentations, but if you want to be unique, you’ll need to look elsewhere.

Fortunately, though, due to the popularity of Microsoft PowerPoint, there are thousands upon thousands of templates available on third-party sites, both free and paid ones.

Also Read : Canva vs Piktochart

PowerPoint vs Prezi: Other Things to Consider

Prezi has a “wow factor,” which PowerPoint, being around for so long, does not. While you can get creative in PowerPoint and add all types of visual effects, images , videos, and even animations, most people will be familiar with the general format, making your presentation a bit more boring.

There is a sense of doom that many people experience when they have to attend a class or go to a meeting and see yet another PowerPoint presentation. Your attendees, employees, or students might be dreading showing up.

On the other hand, Prezi is exciting, new, and fun. Most of all, Prezi lets you tell a story, skipping from one section of your presentation to another based on your story flow.

With its varied visual effects, Prezi can be quite engaging. On the other hand, its unique style can also be its downfall.

For people used to seeing PowerPoint presentations, a Prezi presentation might be interesting at first, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed and confused. Many people report getting confused and even dizzy from the constant zooming in and out and jumping from one thing to another.

If you aren’t smart in how you create your Prezi presentation, it’s easy to overdo it. Be careful not to focus too much on the show aspect at the expense of presenting data in a clear manner.

Creating a PowerPoint presentation is often a lot easier than working with Prezi. You might find yourself getting frustrated trying to create a presentation in Prezi that flows and is actually easy to follow.

After all, if it isn’t broken, why fix it?

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

One of the major advantages of Prezi over PowerPoint is that it is free to use, albeit with significant limitations.

Using the free Basic plan, you can create up to five visual projects. It gives you access to all three tools, though: Prezi Video, Prezi Present, and Prezi Design.

Here are some of the limitations you will face:

  • Videos are limited to 15 minutes
  • You can’t download videos, design projects , or presentations
  • You can’t run presentations in live video conferences
  • Images from the image library are not available
  • Videos have a watermark

Premium Plans are available as well. Here are some further details:

  • Standard : At just $7/month, this plan gives you access to premium images, the background remover, the PowerPoint converter, and more. Videos are still limited to 15 minutes and have a watermark, and you still can’t present presentations offline.
  • Plus : At $12/month, this plan gives you most of Prezi’s premium features, except a few. You can download videos, run presentations offline, remove watermarks, add voiceovers to presentations, create videos with no watermark and no time limit, and more.
  • Premium : For $16/month, you will get access to premium features such as callouts, SQL connectors, and presentation analytics. Premium subscribers also get phone support.

The good news, though, is that Prezi is not only cheap, but it’s even cheaper for education. Students and educators with a valid school email address can sign up for the EDU Plus plan for just $3/month, which is equivalent to the regular Plus plan, which typically costs $12/month.

The EDU Pro plan, which is similar to the regular Premium plan, costs just $4/month.

Prezi is also available for brands with teams of at least 10 members. You’ll have to discuss pricing with Prezi directly for that.

A free trial for premium plans is available as well. See updated pricing and compare different plans on the pricing page .

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

You have two options when it comes to Microsoft PowerPoint. The first is buying the downloadable software – that’s the traditional way.

For just $159.99, you can get lifetime access to PowerPoint on a Mac or Windows (Windows 10 or 11). That might sound expensive, but remember, it’s a one-time fee, which means in the long run, it could be cheaper than Prezi.

You can see updated pricing for the downloadable software here .

However, you can also get PowerPoint as part of Microsoft Office for the web (also known as Office 365) for a monthly or yearly subscription.

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

It costs $6.99/month or $69.99/year. While you must renew your subscription each month or year, it gives you access to all Microsoft Office products in the cloud, including:

  • Microsoft Teams
  • Microsoft Defender antivirus

It also gives you 1 TB of online storage and the ability to use Office on up to five devices, including Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows devices.

However, that’s only for one person. Office Family (for up to six people) costs $99.99/year.

See updated pricing for Office 365 here .

While Prezi offers dirt-cheap plans for education, Microsoft went the extra step and offers Office 365 to students, schools, and educators for free !

Pros & Cons

  • Free option available
  • Unique format provides a breath of fresh air
  • Non-linear format allows for more flexibility
  • Better for storytelling
  • Design posters, banners, graphs, charts , etc.
  • Create videos
  • Host presentations with live video
  • Need to upgrade to use offline
  • Can get confusing and disorienting
  • Not as many templates available

PowerPoint Pros

  • Easy to use
  • Plenty of templates available
  • Plenty of integrations from third-party apps

PowerPoint Cons

  • Overused; many people are tired of it
  • Not as great for charts and graphs
  • Less visually stimulating

Similarities & Differences

Microsoft PowerPoint remains the superior tool. While Prezi might be unique and different, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel.

For a small fee, you can get Microsoft PowerPoint online, on multiple devices, and you can even get it for free if you have a valid school email address.

With the added zoom feature and wide range of animations, you can create visually-appealing and engaging presentations without losing out on the ability to create simple, linear presentations.

what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

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5 Advantages of Using PowerPoint and Google Slides for Your Presentations

5 Advantages of Using PowerPoint and Google Slides for Your Presentations | Quick Tips & Tutorial for your presentations

Every free template that we design at Slidesgo can be used in Google Slides and PowerPoint. This allows you to choose your preferred software for presenting or customizing the template . Have you ever wondered what the advantages of each software are? Keep reading to find out! 

5 advantages of using PowerPoint

5 advantages of using google slides, powerpoint vs google slides.

As one of the applications of Microsoft Office, PowerPoint is used to create and work on professional presentations. These are its main features: 

  • Easy to use : PowerPoint is quite intuitive and its interface is similar to that of other Microsoft Office programs. If you’re used to working with Word or Excel, then familiarizing yourself with PowerPoint won’t be a problem.
  • Multiple customization options: Thanks to its image editing capabilities, you don’t need to resort to graphics editors. You can trim pictures, add filters and effects to them, adjust their brightness, contrast, saturation and transparency without having to close your presentation at all.
  • Compatible with different formats: PowerPoint allows you to import and export different file formats, such as .pdf documents, .mp4 videos and many image formats, including .gif, .tif, .png or .jpg, among others.
  • Compatible with other Microsoft Office programs: Since they belong to the same office suite, you’ll be able to enrich your presentation with charts from Excel spreadsheets or tables from Word documents.
  • Versatility: PowerPoint is the most used tool and the one almost everybody knows when it comes to presentations. It is popular in education and the business sector, for example.

There’s only one main requirement regarding the use of PowerPoint: you’ll need to have Microsoft Office installed on your computer. 

Remember, if you have any doubts on how to use PowerPoint, we have a section called Slidesgo School where you’ll find quick tutorials that explain this and many other functionalities.   

You’ll find this presentation program within G Suite or your Google Drive account panel. To access Google Slides, you just need a device connected to the internet (you can even install the app on that device, granting you offline access). These are the main advantages of this program: 

  • Easy to access: Having your presentation stored in the cloud allows you to access it anytime. You no longer need to carry an external device with your file.
  • Encourages teamwork : As with other G Suite applications, multiple people can see and/or edit the document simultaneously.
  • Compatible with other Google applications: Since they belong to the same company, Google Slides supports charts from Google Sheets, pictures from Google Photos and even multimedia content from YouTube.
  • Instant auto-saving: Your presentation is stored in the cloud, which means Google Slides automatically saves every time you change something. You can be 100% sure your work won’t be lost.
  • Free : You just need a Gmail account to start using Google Slides. Creating an account is free and it merely takes a couple of minutes.

In our Slidesgo School section, you’ll find tutorials on how to use Google Slides, just in case you have any doubts about this presentation program.   

To summarize, here’s a comparison table where you can have a look at the differences between PowerPoint and Google Slides:

Advantages of Using PowerPoint and Google Slides

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what are the advantages of powerpoint over other presentation tools

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Presentation

Exploring the 'Advantages and Disadvantages of Presentation,' this blog explores how presentations can effectively communicate ideas yet sometimes hinder creativity. It discusses the ease of conveying complex information visually and the potential for engaging audiences but also considers the challenges of over-reliance on visuals and potential misinterpretation.

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Table of Contents  

1) What is a Presentation: A brief introduction 

2) Advantages of Presentations 

3) Disadvantages of Presentations 

4) How to make a successful Presentation? 

5) Conclusion 

What is a Presentation: A brief introduction  

A Presentation refers to a method of conveying information, ideas, or data to an audience using visual aids and spoken words. It is a formal or informal communication tool used in various settings, such as business meetings, educational environments, conferences, or public speaking engagements. 

During a Presentation, the presenter uses visual elements like slides, charts, graphs, images, and multimedia to support and enhance their spoken content. The goal of a Presentation is to engage the audience, effectively communicate the message, and leave a lasting impact on the listeners. You can ace your presentation skill by understanding various presentation skills interview questions and answers . It will expand your horizon to elevate your skills. 

Presentation Skills can be used to cover a wide variety of Presentations, from business proposals and academic research to sales pitches and motivational speeches.The success of a Presentation depends on the presenter's ability to organize the content coherently, engage the audience, and deliver the information in a clear and compelling manner, showcasing strong principles of presentation skills. Therefore, it is essential to understand the elements of presentation .

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Advantages of Presentations  

Advantages of Presentation

Effective communication  

One of the primary advantages of Presentations is their ability to facilitate effective communication. Whether you're addressing a small group of colleagues or a large audience at a conference, Presentations help you to convey your message clearly and succinctly. By structuring your content and using visuals, you can ensure that your key points are highlighted and easily understood by the audience. 

Visual appeal  

"Seeing is believing," and Presentations capitalise on this aspect of human psychology. The use of visuals, such as charts, graphs, images, and videos, enhances the overall appeal of the content. These visual aids not only make the information more engaging but also help reinforce the main ideas, making the Presentation more memorable for the audience. 

Engaging the audience  

Captivating your audience's attention is crucial for effective communication. Presentations provide ample opportunities to engage your listeners through various means. By incorporating storytelling, anecdotes, and real-life examples, you can nurture an emotional connection with your audience. Additionally, interactive elements like polls, quizzes, and group activities keep the audience actively involved throughout the Presentation. 

Simplifying complex information  

Complex ideas and data can often be overwhelming, making it challenging to convey them effectively. However, Presentations excel in simplifying intricate information. By breaking down complex concepts into digestible and interconnected slides, you can present the information in a logical sequence, ensuring that the audience grasps the content more easily. 

Persuasive impact  

Presentations are powerful tools for persuasion and influence. Whether you're convincing potential clients to invest in your product, advocating for a particular cause, or delivering a motivational speech, a well-crafted Presentation can sway the audience's opinions and inspire action. The combination of visual and verbal elements enables you to make a compelling case for your ideas, leaving a lasting impact on the listeners. 

Versatility in delivery methods  

Another advantage of Presentations lies in their flexibility and versatility in terms of delivery methods. Gone are the days when Presentations were limited to in-person meetings. Today, technology allows presenters to reach a wider audience through various platforms, including webinars, online videos, and virtual conferences. This adaptability makes Presentations an ideal choice for modern communication needs. 

Enhanced understanding and retention  

When information is presented in a visually appealing and structured manner, it aids in better understanding and retention. Human brains process visuals faster and more effectively than plain text, making Presentations an ideal medium for conveying complex concepts. The combination of visual elements and spoken words create a multi-sensory experience, leading to increased information retention among the audience. 

Professionalism and credibility  

In professional settings, well-designed Presentations lend an air of credibility and professionalism to the presenter and the topic being discussed. A thoughtfully crafted Presentation shows that the presenter has put effort into preparing and organising the content, which in turn enhances the audience's trust and receptiveness to the information presented. 

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Disadvantages of Presentations  

Disadvantages of Presentation

Time-consuming  

Creating a compelling Presentation can be a time-consuming process. From researching and gathering relevant information to designing visually appealing slides, a significant amount of effort goes into ensuring that the content is well-structured and impactful. This time investment can be challenging, especially when presenters have tight schedules or are faced with last-minute Presentation requests. 

Technical glitches  

Presentations heavily rely on technology, and technical glitches can quickly turn a well-prepared Presentation into a frustrating experience. Projectors may malfunction, slides might not load correctly, or audiovisual components may fail to work as expected. Dealing with such technical issues during a Presentation can disrupt the flow and distract both the presenter and the audience. 

Overdependence on technology  

In some cases, presenters may become overly reliant on the visuals and technology, neglecting the importance of direct engagement with the audience. Overloaded slides with excessive text can make presenters read directly from the slides, undermining the personal connection and interaction with the listeners. This overdependence on technology can lead to a lack of spontaneity and authenticity during the Presentation. 

Lack of interactivity  

Traditional Presentations, particularly those delivered in large auditoriums, may lack interactivity and real-time feedback. In comparison, modern Presentation formats can incorporate interactive elements; not all Presentations provide opportunities for audience participation or discussions. This one-sided communication can lead to reduced engagement and limited opportunities for clarifying doubts or addressing queries. 

Public speaking anxiety  

For many individuals, public speaking can be a nerve-wracking experience. Presenting in front of an audience, especially in formal settings, can trigger anxiety and stage fright. This anxiety may affect the presenter's delivery and confidence, impacting the overall effectiveness of the Presentation. Overcoming public speaking anxiety requires practice, self-assurance, and effective stress management techniques. 

Not suitable for all topics  

While Presentations are an excellent medium for conveying certain types of information, they may not be suitable for all topics. Some subjects require in-depth discussions, hands-on demonstrations, or interactive workshops, which may not align well with the traditional slide-based Presentation format. Choosing the appropriate communication method for specific topics is crucial to ensure effective knowledge transfer and engagement. 

Accessibility concerns  

In a diverse audience, some individuals may face challenges in accessing and comprehending Presentation materials. For instance, people with visual impairments may find it difficult to interpret visual elements, while those with hearing impairments may struggle to follow the spoken content without proper captions or transcripts. Addressing accessibility concerns is vital to ensure inclusivity and equal participation for all attendees. 

Information overload  

Presentations that bombard the audience with excessive information on each slide can lead to information overload. When the audience is overwhelmed with data, they may struggle to absorb and retain the key points. Presenters should strike a balance between providing adequate information and keeping the content concise and focused. 

How to make a successful Presentation?  

Now that we know the Advantages and Disadvantages of Presentations, we will provide you with some tips on how to make a successful Presentation. 

1) Know your audience: Understand your audience's needs and interests to tailor your content accordingly. 

2) Start with a strong opening: Begin with an attention-grabbing introduction to captivate the audience from the start of presentation .

3) Organise your content logically: Structure your Presentation in a clear and coherent manner with a beginning, middle, and end. 

4) Limit text on slides: Keep slides simple and avoid overcrowding with excessive text; use bullet points and keywords. 

5) Use visuals effectively: Incorporate high-quality images, graphs, and charts to enhance understanding and engagement. 

6) Practice, practice, practice: Rehearse your Presentation multiple times to improve your delivery and confidence. 

7) Be enthusiastic and confident: Show passion for your topic and maintain good eye contact to build trust with the audience. 

8) Tell stories and use examples: Include relevant anecdotes and case studies to make your points more relatable and memorable. 

9) Keep it interactive: Encourage audience participation through questions, polls, or discussions to keep them engaged. 

10) Manage time wisely: Respect the allotted time for your Presentation and pace your delivery accordingly. 

11) End with a strong conclusion: Summarise your key points and leave the audience with a clear takeaway or call to action. 

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Conclusion  

All in all, Presentations have altered the way we communicate and share information. While they offer numerous advantages, such as effective communication, visual appeal, and persuasive impact, they also come with their share of disadvantages, including technical challenges and public speaking anxiety. By understanding the advantages and disadvantages of presentations and employing best practices, we can Improve Presesntation Skills , create engaging and impactful presentations that leave a lasting impression on the audience.

Want to master the art of impactful Presentations? Explore our Presentation Skills Courses and elevate your communication prowess!  

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The best presentation software in 2024

These powerpoint alternatives go beyond the basics..

Hero image with logos of the best presentation software

The latest presentation apps have made it easier than ever to format slides and create professional-looking slideshows without giving off a "this is a template" vibe. Even standard PowerPoint alternatives have updated key features to make it easier than ever to collaborate and create presentations quickly, so you can spend more time prepping for your actual presentation.

If, like me, you've used Google Slides unquestioningly for years, it's a whole new world out there. The newest crop of online presentation tools go way beyond the classic slideshow experience, with new features to keep your audience's attention, streamline the creation process with AI, and turn slide decks into videos and interactive conversations.

I've been testing these apps for the past few years, and this time, I spent several days tinkering with 25 of the top presentation software solutions out there to bring you the best of the best.

The best presentation software

Beautiful.ai for AI-powered design

Prezi for non-linear, conversational presentations

Powtoon for video presentations

Pitch for collaborating with your team on presentations

Gamma for conversational AI features

Mentimeter for audience engagement

Tome for generative AI features

What makes the best presentation app?

How we evaluate and test apps.

Our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. Unless explicitly stated, we spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site—we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog .

When looking for the best presentation apps, I wanted utility players. After all, slideshows are used for just about everything, from pitch decks and product launches to class lectures and church sermons. With that in mind, here's what I was looking for:

Pre-built templates. The best presentation tools should have attractive, professional-looking templates to build presentations in a hurry.

Sharing and collaboration options. Whether you plan to share your webinar slides later, or you just want to collaborate with a coworker on a presentation, it should be easy to share files and collaborate in real-time.

Flexibility and customization options. Templates are great, but top presentation apps should enable you to customize just about everything—giving you the flexibility to build exactly what you need.

Affordability. Creating compelling presentations is important, but you shouldn't have to bust your budget to make it happen. With capable free tools on the market, affordability is a top consideration.

Standalone functionality. There's no reason to use multiple tools when one can do it all, so I didn't test any apps that require and work on top of another presentation app like PowerPoint or Google Slides.

Familiar, deck-based interface. For our purposes here, I only tested software that uses slides, with the familiar deck-based editor you expect from a "presentation" tool (versus, for example, a video creation app).

While most apps now offer AI features in one way or another, it isn't a universal feature yet—and some apps' AI features leave a lot to be desired. For that reason, I opted not to make AI features a strict must-have for this year (though it probably will be a requirement next time I update the article). That means I've still included some apps that don't offer AI—if you opt for one of those, you can still easily get AI-generated images and text from a separate tool and copy them into your presentation app of choice.

Beyond that, I also looked for presentation apps that brought something unique to the table—features above and beyond what you can get for free from a legacy solution like PowerPoint or Google Slides.

Here's what my testing workflow looked like:

I went through any onboarding or guided tutorials.

I created a new deck, scanning through all available templates, noting how well-designed they were (and which were free versus paid).

I added new slides, deleted slides, edited text and images, and played around with other content types.

I changed presentation design settings, like color schemes and background images.

I reviewed and tested the sharing and collaboration options.

I tested out presenter view (when available).

After my first round of testing, I went back into the top performers to test any unique or niche features, like AI, brand settings, and interactive content. With that, these are the best presentation apps I found—each one really brings something different or radically easy to the table.

The best presentation software at a glance

The best free presentation software, canva (web, windows, mac, android, ios).

Canva, our pick for the best free presentation app

Canva pros:

Excellent free plan

Tons of amazing templates for all use cases

Feature-rich

Canva cons:

The AI tools aren't groundbreakingly useful

Canva offers one of the most robust free plans of all the presentation apps I tested. The app delays account creation until after you've created your first design, so you can get started building your presentation in seconds. Choose from an almost overwhelming number of beautiful templates (nearly all available for free), including those designed specifically for education or business use cases.

Anyone who's accidentally scrolled too far and been bumped to the next slide will appreciate Canva's editor interface, which eliminates that problem altogether with a smooth scroll that doesn't jump around. Choose from a handful of preset animations to add life to your presentations, or browse the library of audio and video files available to add. And Canva also has a number of options for sharing your presentation, including adding collaborators to your team, sharing directly to social media, and even via QR code.

Present directly from Canva, and let audience members submit their questions via Canva Live. Once you share a link to invite audience members to your presentation, they can send questions for you to answer. As the presenter, you'll see them pop up in your presenter view window, so you can keep the audience engaged and your presentation clear. Alternatively, record a presentation with a talking head bubble—you can even use an AI presenter here—to share remotely.

Canva has added a number of AI-powered tools , but I wasn't super impressed by them yet. The Magic Design tool, for example, isn't much more useful than the many pre-designed templates already available, while Magic Write is basically just white-labeled ChatGPT. These features will likely improve in time, but for now, you're better off starting from one of Canva's many great templates.

Canva pricing: Free plan available; paid plans start at $120/year for 1 user and include additional features like Brand Kit, premium templates and stock assets, and additional AI-powered design tools.

If you're looking for a capable free presentation tool with a more affordable upgrade, Zoho Show is worth a look. It's completely free for most features, offers a clean, intuitive editor, and includes a number of great templates. Plus, you can automate Zoho Show by connecting it with Zapier .

The best presentation app for AI-powered design

Beautiful.ai (web, mac, windows).

Beautiful.ai pros:

True AI design

No fussing around with alignment

Still allows for customization

Beautiful.ai cons:

No free plan

If you're like me, editing granular spacing issues is the absolute worst part of building a presentation. Beautiful.ai uses artificial intelligence to take a lot of the hassle and granular design requirements out of the presentation process, so you can focus on the content of a presentation without sacrificing professional design. If I needed to make presentations on a regular basis, this is the app I'd use.

Many apps have recently added AI design features, but Beautiful.ai has been doing it for years—and they've perfected the experience of AI design, ensuring the tool's reign as the most streamlined and user-friendly option for AI design.

The editor is a little different from most presentation apps, but it's still intuitive—and you'll start off with a quick two-minute tutorial. When creating a new slide, scroll through "inspiration slides" to find a layout you like; once you choose, the app will pull the layout and automatically adapt it to match the design of the rest of your presentation.

With 10 themes, several templated slides, over 40 fully-designed templates, and more than 20 different color palettes to choose from, Beautiful.ai strikes a perfect balance between automation and customization.

While Beautiful.ai doesn't offer a free plan, paid plans are reasonably priced and offer sharing and collaboration options that rival collab-focused apps like Google Slides. And speaking of Google, you can connect Beautiful.ai with Google Drive to save all your presentations there.

Note: I re-tested the generative AI feature (called DesignerBot) this year. It's great for adding individual slides to an existing presentation—automatically choosing the best layout and matching the design to the rest of the deck—but as with most other apps, it struggled to pull in relevant images.

Beautiful.ai pricing: Plans start at $12/month for unlimited slides, AI content generation, viewer analytics, and more. Upgrade to a Team plan for $40/user/month to get extra collaboration and workspace features and custom brand controls.

If you're a founder looking for an AI presentation tool for your pitch deck, Slidebean is a great Beautiful.ai alternative for startups. The app offers a number of templates; a unique, content-first outline editor; and a generative AI tool that builds a whole pitch deck based on your website. I didn't include it on the list mainly because of the price: the free plan is quite limited, and the paid all-access plan can only be billed annually.

The best presentation app for conversational presentations

Prezi (web, mac, windows, ios, android).

Prezi pros:

Doesn't restrict you to standard presentation structure

Lots of customization options

Prezi Video lets you display a presentation right over your webcam video

Prezi cons:

Steep learning curve

Struggling to squeeze information into a basic, linear presentation? Give Prezi a try. Unlike nearly all other presentation apps on the market, Prezi Present doesn't restrict the structure of your presentation to a straight line. The editor focuses on topics and subtopics and allows you to arrange them any way you want, so you can create a more conversational flow of information.

With the structural flexibility, you still get all the same customization features you expect from top presentation software, including fully-editable templates. There's a learning curve if you're unfamiliar with non-linear presentations, but templates offer a great jumping-off point, and Prezi's editor does a good job of making the process more approachable.

Plus, Prezi comes with two other apps: Prezi Design and Prezi Video. Prezi Video helps you take remote presentations to a new level. You can record a video where the presentation elements are displayed right over your webcam feed. Record and save the video to share later, or connect with your video conferencing tool of choice (including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet) to present live.

Prezi's generative AI feature works ok, but it's more useful as a wireframe. When I asked it to create a presentation about the Stanley Cup Playoffs, for example, the resulting content read a lot like a student writing a term paper in the broadest strokes possible to avoid doing any actual research.

Prezi pricing: Free 14-day trial and a free plan that includes up to 5 visual projects; paid plans start at $7/month and include additional features like private presentations and Prezi Present.

The best presentation app for video presentations

Powtoon (web, ios, android).

Powtoon pros:

Timing automatically changes based on the content on the slide

Can toggle between slideshow and video

Can orient presentation as horizontal, vertical, or square

Powtoon cons:

Limited free plan

Powtoon makes it easy to create engaging videos by orienting the editor around a slide deck. Editing a Powtoon feels just like editing a presentation, but by the time you finish, you have a professional video. 

You can edit your slides at any time, and when you hit play, a video plays through your deck—the feel is almost like an animated explainer video. Each slide includes the animations you choose and takes up as much time as is needed based on the content on the slide. Powtoon figures the timing automatically, and you can see in the bottom-right of the editor how much time is used on your current slide versus the total presentation. If you ever want to present as a slide deck, just toggle between Slideshow and Movie.

You'll likely need to subscribe to a paid plan to get the most out of Powtoon—like creating videos longer than three minutes, downloading them as MP4 files, and white-labeling your presentations—but doing so won't break the bank. Plus, you'll unlock tons of templates complete with animations and soundtracks.

One of my favorite Powtoon features is the ability to orient your video: you can choose horizontal orientation (like a normal presentation) or opt for vertical (for mobile) or square (for social media). When your presentation is ready, you can publish straight to YouTube, Wistia, Facebook Ads, and any number of other locations.

Powtoon pricing: Limited free plan available; paid plans start at $15/month and include white-labeling, priority support, additional storage, and more.

The best presentation app for collaborating with your team

Pitch (web, mac, windows, ios, android).

Pitch, our pick for the best presentation software for collaborating with your team

Pitch pros:

Google levels of collaboration

Assign slides to specific team members

Excellent generative AI feature

Pitch cons:

User interface is a little different than you're used to

Need to collaborate on presentations with your team? Pitch is a Google Slides alternative that gets the job done. As far as decks go, Pitch includes all the beautifully-designed templates, customizability, and ease of use you expect from a top-notch presentation tool. But the app really shines when you add your team.

The right-hand sidebar is all about project management and collaboration: you can set and update the status of your deck, assign entire presentations or individual slides to team members, plus comment or add notes. Save custom templates to make future presentations even easier and faster.

You can also invite collaborators from outside your company to work with you on individual decks. And if you opt for a paid plan, Pitch introduces workspace roles, shared private folders, and version history.

Pitch also offers one of the most impressive generative AI features on this list. It still struggles to pull in relevant images, but I found the AI-generated written content and design to be top-notch.

Pitch pricing: Free plan offers unlimited presentations, custom templates, and live video collaboration; paid plans start at $22/month for 2 users with additional workspace features, presentation analytics, and more.

The best presentation app for conversational AI

Gamma (web).

Gamma pros:

Creates fully fleshed-out presentations from a prompt

Conversational chatbot-like experience

Can still manually edit the presentation

Gamma cons:

Not as much granular customization

I tested a lot of apps claiming to use AI to up your presentation game, and Gamma's conversational AI features were head and shoulders above the crowd.

Simply give the app a topic—or upload an outline, notes, or any other document or article—approve the outline, and pick a theme. The app will take it from there and create a fully fleshed-out presentation. It's far from perfect, but Gamma produces a very useful jumping-off point. (Last year, it was by far the best, but this year, other apps are catching up.)

Here's the key: Gamma is much more geared toward the iterative, chatbot experience familiar to ChatGPT users. Click on the Edit with AI button at the top of the right-hand menu to open the chat, and you'll see suggested prompts—or you can type in your own requests for how Gamma should alter the presentation.

Once you've done all you can with prompts, simply close the chat box to manually add the finishing touches. While you do sacrifice some granular customizability in exchange for the AI features, you can still choose your visual theme, change slide layouts, format text, and add any images, videos, or even app and web content.

Gamma pricing: Free plan includes unlimited users, 400 AI deck credits, and basic view analytics; upgrade to the Plus plan for $8/user/month to get unlimited AI credits, remove Gamma branding, and more.

The best presentation app for audience engagement

Mentimeter (web).

Mentimeter, our pick for the best presentation software for audience engagement

Mentimeter pros:

Tons of audience engagement features

Simple for participants to interact

Mentimeter cons:

Less granular customizability

Bit of a learning curve

If you need to engage with an audience during your presentation, Mentimeter makes that easy. The app is designed around interactive elements like quizzes, surveys, Q&As, sliders, and more (even a Miro whiteboard!).

Each of these is included in a number of different, professional-looking templates, so you can build a fully interactive presentation super quickly.

When it's time to present, your audience members can scan the QR code with their phone cameras or type in the URL and access code to participate. There's one code per presentation (so they won't have to do this on every slide), which gives access to each slide as you move through the presentation.

There are two main drawbacks to this one, though. First, there's a bit of a learning curve and less familiar editing interface (but I found it pretty easy to learn with some practice). The other drawback is that you can't get as granular with the visual customization as you can with many other presentation tools.

Mentimeter pricing: Free plan includes 50 participants per month and 34 different slide types; upgrade to the Basic plan for $11.99/presenter/month to get unlimited participants and slide types, private presentations, and more.

The best presentation app for generative AI

Tome, our pick for the best presentation software for generative AI

Top-tier generative AI features

Simple, customizable templates

Intuitive doc-style editor

There's definitely a learning curve

Tome is one of the new additions to this list that I'm most excited about. If you're looking for generative AI that just genuinely works , it's definitely worth a look. The editor is a bit more stripped down than most presentation apps but intuitive nonetheless—it's almost a cross between your standard deck editor and a Notion-style doc.

To generate an AI deck, click Generate with AI in the top right, and either write your own prompt or choose from the example prompts that cover a handful of common use cases, like sales enablement and company pitches. Edit or approve the suggested outline, then generate the full presentation.

From there, you can edit each slide as a doc via the right-hand menu—without limits on how much information you can include. During the presentation, you simply size down any slides that take up more than the standard amount of space. It's super simple but somehow feels revolutionary in a presentation app.

Tome pricing: Free plan available for manual editing without AI; upgrade to the Professional plan for $16/user/month to use the generative AI and design tools, plus engagement analytics, branding tools, and more.

What about the old standbys?

You might notice a few major presentation players aren't on this list, including OGs Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, and Google Slides. These apps are perfectly adequate for creating basic presentations, and they're free if you have a Windows or Mac device or a Google account.

I didn't include them on the list because the presentation space has really developed in the last several years, and after testing them out, I found these behemoths haven't kept pace. If they weren't made by Microsoft/Apple/Google, I might not even be mentioning them. They're pretty basic tools, they're behind the curve when it comes to templates (both quantity and design), and they don't offer any uniquely valuable features like robust team collaboration, branding controls, video, and so on.

Some of these companies (think: Microsoft and Google) are openly working on some pretty impressive-sounding AI features, but they haven't really been focused on their respective presentation solutions just yet. Rest assured, I'm watching this space, and the next time we update this article, I'll re-test tools like Copilot for PowerPoint and Gemini for Google Slides to see what new features may be available.

In any case, if you're reading this, you're probably looking for an alternative that allows you to move away from one of the big 3, and as the presentation platforms featured above show, there's a ton to gain—in terms of features, usability, and more—when you do.

What about PowerPoint and Google Slides add-ons?

While I focused my testing on tools with full feature-sets—those that can serve as your sole presentation tool—there are a ton of add-on tools you can use atop big name tools like PowerPoint and Google Slides.

If you're looking to expand what you can do with PowerPoint or Google Slides, apps like Marq (formerly Lucidpress), Plus AI , Slidesgo , and Simplified can help you do things like access additional templates, save branded assets, and generate AI presentations from the app you're already using.

Related reading:

Canva AI tools to improve your design workflow

The best online whiteboards for collaboration

How to share a presentation on Zoom without sharing your browser tabs and address bar

This post was originally published in October 2014 and has since been updated with contributions from Danny Schreiber, Matthew Guay, Andrew Kunesh, and Krystina Martinez. The most recent update was in April 2024.

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Kiera Abbamonte picture

Kiera Abbamonte

Kiera’s a content writer who helps SaaS and eCommerce companies connect with customers and reach new audiences. Located in Boston, MA, she loves cinnamon coffee and a good baseball game. Catch up with her on Twitter @Kieraabbamonte.

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