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25 Tools for Creating and Delivering Amazing Presentations

Updated: August 10, 2022

Published: November 10, 2020

If you're in business, you need to know how to create captivating presentations. Whether you're trying to convince your boss to support a new campaign, talking with a prospect to close a deal, or building a new piece of marketing collateral, you need to know how craft a presentation that won't put people to sleep.

The best (and easiest) way to do that? Use the right tools to create and deliver your presentation.

If you're not sure which tools to use, look no further than this blog post. We’ve compiled our list of the top presentation tools for sales and marketing professionals. They’re listed below, in no particular order. But first ...

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Best Presentation Tools

Canva makes design easy -- even for marketers and salespeople who feel like they're design-challenged. The platform gives you a bunch of presentation templates to use right away, and it's very easy to customize them to your organization and presentation objective. Plus, a variety of apps that integrate with Google Drive, Instagram, and YouTube, to name a few.

Pricing : Free; Pro, $12.95/month for up to five people; Enterprise, $30/month per person

Often, being different is what attracts prospects, and Powtoon can help you do that in your presentations. Powtoon’s animation software lets you easily create videos with props, characters, and more -- which can help you differentiate your company when talking with prospects.

Pricing : Pro, $19/month; Pro+ $49/month; Agency, $89/month

3. PowerPoint

For years, PowerPoint has been the standard in presentation software, but it hasn’t remained static. PowerPoint is full of features to make sales and marketing presentations dynamic and engaging. ( Here are just a few ways you can do that .)

Pricing : Business Basic, $5/user/month; Business Standard, $12.50/user/month; Business Premium, $20/user/month

4. Slidesgo

Slidesgo is your creative companion in the world of presentation design. This website specializes in crafting visually stunning Google Slides and PowerPoint templates that breathe life into your ideas, making them shine on any screen. With a wide variety of templates ranging from business and marketing to medicine and education, Slidesgo empowers presenters of all backgrounds to engage, educate, and inspire their audiences.

Pricing: Free plan, $0; Premium, $4.99; Education, $2.99

A PowerPoint add-in, Oomfo helps sales and marketing pros create those oh-so-important interactive charts for presentations. Specialized charts, live charts from multiple files, data from cloud applications, interactive options, one-click conversions -- it’s all possible, and more, with Oomfo.

Pricing: Free

Apple’s Keynote allows users to work between their Mac and iOS devices, as well as with people who use Microsoft PowerPoint. With easy-to-use visual tools, drag and drop functionality, interactive charts, and more, Keynote is a popular choice among sales and marketing professionals.

Pricing : Free

7. SlideModel

SlideModel contains thousands of ready-made and 100% editable presentation templates to help any presenter save time creating engaging and aesthetically pleasing presentations. Their collection of presentation templates covers a variety of business purposes and even gets updated periodically to add new business and education templates. You can find a collection of visually appealing slides on the site including dashboards, creative infographics, editable Maps, funnels, timelines, mindmaps, and presentation slides depending on the need of your presentation. Their slides templates are easy to edit and are compatible with PowerPoint and Google Slides.

Pricing :  Free plan, $0; One-Day Access, $24.50; Annual Unlimited, $199.90/year

8. Beautiful.ai

Create beautiful slides, pitches, and proposals without a team of designers. AI applies design rules in real time, and a library of free photos and icons are at your fingertips.

Pricing : Basic, $0; Pro, $12/month; Team, $38/user/month

9. Haiku Deck

Available for the web or iPad, Haiku Deck has become a favorite of sales and marketing pros. With Haiku Deck, professionals can quickly create presentations that can be "easily projected, shared, posted, embedded on a website or blog, or viewed on any web-enabled device." Though it's another tool that helps you create presentations from scratch, its ease-of-use sets it apart from the rest.

Pricing : Pro, $9.99 - $19.99/month; Premium, $29.99/month

Vyond is an online animation software that allows you to create animated videos for marketing campaigns, sales enablement, or even human resources. Use their library of customizable templates or create your own from scratch.

Pricing : Essential, $229/year; Premium, $649/year; Professional, $999/user/year; Enterprise, contact for pricing

11. Storydoc

With templates for all the most popular business use cases, Storydoc is an interactive presentation maker built to help sales teams and marketing professionals engage more prospects and boost conversion rates. 

You can create amazing and engaging decks where you can embed video and social media content to tell your story the right way. Then, integrate your CRM into Storydoc decks, as well as calendars, sign-up forms, and other solutions that will make your presentation. Additionally, you have access to Storydoc's tracking analytics which shows who viewed your presentation and which components they interacted with the most. 

Pricing :  Free trial 14 days); Starter Plan, $40/month

Busy sales and marketing pros choose emaze because it makes creating amazing presentations quick and easy. The options abound with emaze: Choose a professionally designed template and then create a slideshow, video presentation , or 3D presentation.

Pricing : Business Plan, contact for pricing; Executive Plan, $40/month; Pro Plan, $13/month

13. Camtasia

TechSmith’s Camtasia is an amazing tool that helps you create professional videos. You can record screen movements, import HD video from another source, customize and edit the video, and then share the completed video presentation on practically any device. 

Pricing : Individual, $249.99/user/year; Business $249.99/user/year; Education, $169.99/user/year; Government and Non-Profit, $223.99/user/year

14. SlideShare

SlideShare is a popular choice for sales and marketing professionals looking for a way to share their content publicly. Because it already has a built-in audience, you can easily distribute your presentation out to lots of people -- and those people can embed your SlideShares on websites and blogs, or share them on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

15. SlideDog

Sometimes, sales and marketing professionals need to be able to move between presentation tools, but it’s not always possible because of their technical limitations. SlideDog is the solution, as it enables users to switch between PowerPoint, Prezi, PDF, web pages and others.

Pricing : Free; Pro, $99/year; Pro Event, $49 for one-time payment

16. Presentation Assistant

Presentation Assistant lives up to its name: It assists professionals by enabling them to annotate, zoom, and more during a presentation. Sales and marketing professionals can clarify and emphasize points more clearly to their audience with Presentation Assistant.

Pricing : Presentation Pointer, $29.95; Presentation Screen Master, $29.95

17. authorSTREAM

Sales and marketing pros choose authorSTREAM to make their presentations dynamic and engaging. authorSTREAM allows users to share their PowerPoint presentations publicly or privately, broadcast them, convert them to video, communicate and collaborate about them, and more.

Pricing: Free or paid plans start at $4.20/month

18. Zentation

With Zentation, salespeople and marketers combine video and slides into a simulated live experience. Presentations created with Zentation become webinars, webcasts, and virtual events for prospects and customers -- all great collateral for marketing and sales.

Pricing : Free; Premium, $10 - $45/month; White-Label, contact for pricing

Sales and marketing professionals love Prezi because it is cloud-based. Prezi makes creating, editing, and presenting from your browser, desktop, iPad, or iPhone possible anywhere, any time.

Pricing : Standard, $5/month; Plus, $15/month; Premium, $59/month

20. Brainshark

Sales reps and marketers often choose Brainshark, a cloud-based presentation tool, because it allows them to create and deliver presentations live or on-demand (even using their iPad or iPhone), use on-demand video content, polls, or surveys for increased engagement, and embed presentations in websites and blogs.

Pricing : Contact for pricing

Vcasmo is a unique presentation tool -- it's a multimedia solution that enables users to synchronize a video and slideshow, side by side. Sales and marketing pros love Vcasmo because it supports playback in three forms: browser, mobile, and iPad. 

Pricing : Free; Standard, $10.99/month; Professional, $16.99/month

22. ViewletBuilder

ViewletBuilder is a different presentation tool; it captures critical screen updates and cursor position changes so sales and marketing pros can create presentations detailing how their product or sites work. With a plethora of features, ViewletBuilder allows for editing and enhancing and includes a variety of publishing and sharing options, too.

Pricing : Pro, $399; Enterprise, $599

23. Zoho Show

Zoho Show is a top pick for sales and marketing pros because it lives online, making it possible to create, access, present, and more from anywhere, any time. The simple, intuitive interface and collaboration features are just two of its beloved benefits.

24. AhaSlides

Pricing : Free; Essential, $4.95/month; Pro, $15.95/month; Annual, Monthly & One-time plans available.

Visme is an all-in-one content creation platform with a vast library of professionally designed presentation templates, each tailored to your industry and specific proposal needs. Its beginner-friendly design platform allows you to drag and drop elements into place, use dynamic fields to update all your content in one place instantaneously and integrate your tools like Hubspot or Salesforce, and more to personalize each presentation.

Pricing: Free, Starter: $12.25/month, billed yearly, Pro: $30/month, billed yearly, Visme for Teams & Enterprises.

What are you waiting for? Pick a tool and start creating. Your prospects are waiting.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in October 2014 and has been updated for freshness and comprehensiveness.

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Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform

AI Presentation Maker

Top 21 Presentation Tools for Creating Engaging and Interactive Slides

Table of Contents

In a world full of smart gadgets and wearable tech, old-style PowerPoint presentations might not grab people’s attention like they used to. But instead of just making old things seem outdated, progress means finding new ways to make presentations more engaging.

That’s why we’ve gathered a range of interactive presentation software and tools. Choose the one that suits you best and watch as the learning experience for your students takes a step forward.

What are Online Presentation Tools?

Online presentation tools are software programs that allow you to build presentations with more engaging elements than just text and bullet points. You can add images, animations, and more, making your content more interesting for your audience.

Plus, many of these tools work on different devices, so you can work on your presentation from anywhere. With the right online presentation tool, you can easily create clear and effective presentations for any occasion.

Why are Online Presentation Tools Important?

Effective presentations require engaging visuals and delivery and must captivate the audience for information to be conveyed efficiently and leave a lasting impression. The key benefits of presentation tools include the following:

• Enhanced Visual Communication: Presentation tools enhance visual communication by incorporating images, charts, and videos. Thus, complex information can be conveyed professionally and interactively while keeping the audience engaged.
• Improved Audience Engagement: Integrating interactive features using presentation tools such as polls, quizzes, and audience response systems actively involves the audience and makes the presentation more engaging and interactive. This leads to better audience engagement and helps presenters better communicate their ideas.
• Organized Content Delivery: Presentation software can assist in creating well-organized and captivating content by using clear headings, bullet points, and divisions that allow for the interactive delivery of information. This layout enables a natural information flow, which makes it simple for the audience to interact with the content.
• Efficient Editing and Collaboration: Presenters can easily alter and improve presentations with the help of editing features offered by presentation tools. These tools also support teamwork, allowing multiple users to contribute to and edit the presentation simultaneously. Presentations become more dynamic and engaging when modifications can be made quickly and efficiently, making them a crucial tool in the workplace.
• Multimedia Integration: You can add multimedia components like music and video clips to presentations using presentation software to improve them and engage people. So, as long as a professional tone is maintained throughout the presentation, the audience is given a richer, more dynamic experience.
• Time Management: Effective presentation tools come with helpful features like timers and slide transitions, which allow presenters to manage time efficiently, leaving a lasting impression on their audience. With these features, transitions between different sections of the presentation become smoother and more engaging.
• Portability and Accessibility: Presentation software enables easy sharing and access of presentations across devices. This capability allows for convenient distribution of information to wider audiences. Moreover, presentation software lets you create engaging and informative slideshows that capture your audience’s attention and leave a lasting impression.

What to Look for in Online Presentation Tools?

1. Pre-designed Templates

A good presentation tool should come with ready-to-use templates that look professional, making it easy to create presentations quickly.

2. Sharing and Collaboration

It should be simple to share files and work together with others in real time, whether you’re sharing webinar slides or collaborating on a project with a colleague.

3. Customization Options

While templates are helpful, the best presentation apps let you customize everything to suit your needs exactly the way you want.

4. Affordability

Making great presentations is important, but it shouldn’t break the bank. There are plenty of free tools available, so cost is something to keep in mind.

5. Stand-alone Use

You shouldn’t need multiple tools to make a presentation. A good presentation app should do everything you need on its own.

6. Enhancing Presentations

Including multimedia elements like audio and video in your slides can make your presentation more interesting and engaging. Look for online presentation platforms that support audio and video well.

7. Encouraging Collaboration

Working together with colleagues can improve your work and make things go smoother. When picking a presentation platform, choose one that lets you collaborate easily with others online.

8. Providing Technical Support

Sometimes, you might run into technical issues when making slides. Make sure the presentation platform you choose has good technical support to help you out quickly if you need it.

9. Making it Easy to Use

Choose an online presentation platform that’s easy to use and navigate. Take some time to research different platforms and read reviews to find one that’s simple and functional.

10. Using Cloud Storage

Picking a presentation platform with cloud access means you can save and access your slides from anywhere. This makes it easier to manage your files and work on them from different devices.

11. Importing and Exporting Files

Make sure the presentation platform lets you bring in files from other places and export them when you need to. It’s also helpful if it works well with different types of video files.

21 Best Online Presentation Tools 

1. slidesai.

SlidesAI is an awe-inspiring presentation tool that leverages the power of AI to create stunning visuals. The tool boasts extensive features such as templates, themes, fonts, color schemes, images, and radials. Moreover, it offers various quick edit capabilities inside its Magic Write tab like paraphrasing sentences and searching images according to your own need.

Canva is an exceptional online design tool with a wide array of customizable presentation templates. Its straightforward drag-and-drop functionality allows users to create stunning and engaging slides in a snap. And that’s not all— Canva integrates seamlessly with popular apps like Google Drive, Instagram, and YouTube, which makes its features all the more accessible and useful.

Powtoon focuses on animation and allows users to create animated videos and presentations. It offers a unique approach to presentations by incorporating characters, props, and other animation elements. This tool helps users differentiate their presentations and dynamically engage with their audience.

4. PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is a highly recognized presentation software among professionals. It offers a comprehensive range of features, such as slide layouts, animation, charts, graphs, and multimedia integration, helping users create engaging and expert presentations. Additionally, Microsoft consistently updates PowerPoint, offering new and improved features over the years.

Prezi is a presentation software that allows users to create non-linear, dynamic presentations. It uses a zooming user interface to create engaging visual journeys through the presentation content. Prezi offers a unique alternative to traditional slide-based presentations.

Nearpod is an interactive presentation tool that is helpful for different learning modes, including in-person, remote, and blended learning. Its broad range of interactive features makes it a versatile choice for educators. Specifically, it is an ideal tool for distance learning. Nearpod offers a free basic version for classes of up to 40 students, and it also has advanced plans available at different price points to meet the needs of larger classrooms.

7. AhaSlides

AhaSlides is a professional, interactive presentation platform that enables presenters to captivate their audience in real-time using live polls, quizzes, and games. With a plethora of customizable presentation templates to choose from, AhaSlides ensures an engaging and interactive experience. Plus, a free basic version and advanced plans are available with flexible pricing options for everyone.

8. Mentimeter

Mentimeter is a well-designed interactive online presentation tool that provides real-time response data and analysis. It helps gather feedback-based statistics at companies, schools, and universities. Mentimeter offers a free basic version and advanced plans with different pricing options.

9. ClassFlow

ClassFlow is a presentation tool that allows you to create in-class, online, or hybrid presentations. It provides real-time statistics and can include a reward badge system. ClassFlow is suitable for schools and universities that want to enhance their classes but have a limited budget. Further pricing details are not provided in the given information. 

10. iSpring Suite

iSpring Suite is an interactive presentation software that allows you to build engaging, device-friendly web presentations. This comprehensive tool offers interactive hotspots, pop-up boxes, navigational options, and animations. This enables you to make presentations that have a significant effect and leave an impression on your audience.  It’s a straightforward solution for scaling content extensively employed by small to medium sized organizations and educational institutions.

Visme is a versatile presentation tool with various features and templates to create visually appealing slides. It provides options for collaboration, multimedia integration, animation, and extensive customization capabilities. Visme suits businesses, educators, bloggers, and social media managers.

12. Google Slides

Google Slides is a must-have cloud-based presentation tool that offers an extensive range of features, making creating and working on presentations a seamless and collaborative experience.  You’ll appreciate its diverse selection of templates, slide transitions, multimedia embedding options, and quick and easy creation of stunning presentations. And, if you value cloud-based solutions and seamless integration with other add-ons like SlidesAI, then Google Slides is the perfect ally for you.

13. Keynote

Keynote is an exclusive professional presentation software designed for Apple users. Its user-friendly interface allows you to create compelling presentations with ease and seamless integration across Apple devices. 

With a plethora of templates, animation effects, and advanced graphic capabilities, engage your audience and deliver an impressive presentation. The stunning visual effects of Keynote make it a must-have for all your presentation needs.

Ludus is a versatile web-based presentation tool that provides an extensive range of visually appealing templates, interactive elements, and advanced customization options to design captivating, interactive presentations. It’s suitable for anyone, from aspiring presenters to professionals, who needs to create engaging content. 

15. FlowVella

FlowVella is one of the leading presentation software which is available to access offline as well. Given its interactive approach to modern presentations, FlowVella is one-of-a-kind presentation-making software.  

16. DocSend

DocSend is a top-notch presentation software that allows you to create interactive slide decks on the go. It comes with a range of amazing customization tools and templates that integrate seamlessly with audience response systems and video conferencing software. 

Additionally, it monitors audience interaction and offers thorough analytics to help you understand what’s working and what isn’t.

17. Renderforest

You may make personalized slides using the free presentation tool Renderforest , which is interactive, straightforward, and user-friendly. It supports a variety of media kinds, including videos and photos, and provides a large selection of layouts and customization possibilities. 

Furthermore, Renderforest provides tools for live participation and analytics so your audience remains engaged throughout the presentation.

18. Zoho Show

Zoho Show provides a free presentation platform as part of its office suite. The free version includes useful features like collaboration tools and secure in-app chat, catering to teams of up to five individuals.

19. Speaker Deck

Speaker Deck , offered by GitHub, is a free presentation tool. While it doesn’t support slide creation within the platform, users can upload existing slides in PDF format. These PDFs are then converted into shareable slideshows, accessible via a unique URL or embeddable code for websites. Speaker Deck is handy for converting PDFs into slideshows, such as for promotional purposes on websites.

20. Genially

Genially specializes in interactive slides, allowing users to create traditional slides, infographics, and interactive projects. The platform offers options for animations and visuals, with user-friendly features complemented by online tutorials and blogs for additional guidance.

Pitch is a collaborative platform for team presentations, considered a viable alternative to your current presentation tool. It offers sleek templates and easy customization for professional presentations. What sets it apart is its focus on teamwork—you can manage projects, assign slides, and communicate with your team seamlessly. Plus, you can invite external partners to collaborate. With additional perks like shared folders and live video calls, Pitch makes teamwork a breeze. 

Choosing the Right Fit for You

Presentation tools have become a game-changer for how we share information. With easy-to-use visuals, interactive features, and collaboration options, these platforms let you create clear and engaging presentations that leave a lasting impression. Whether you need a straightforward presentation with bullet points or one with animations and data charts, there’s a tool out there that fits your needs.

And when it comes to choosing the right fit, everyone knows that there’s no better tool than  SlidesAI . With SlidesAI, you can transform your tedious design work into professional-grade masterpieces in no time! 

The AI-powered technology behind SlidesAI affords you all the tools to create an impactful presentation and captivate your audience. Our interactive presentation feature provides easy-to-use, powerful captions, impressive summaries, and professional-grade content—achievable in just a few clicks.

Moreover, our SlidesAI tool is perfect if you’re unfamiliar with advanced design skills or manual PowerPoint creation, so you can still confidently create captivating presentations.

Create captivating presentations that will keep your audience engaged throughout. Moreover, with the ability to incorporate SlidesAI into your automated presentation workflow, you can save both time and effort while significantly enhancing your presentation skills.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is an effective tool for presentation.

Though several options exist for choosing the best presentation tool online, SlidesAI is an absolute game changer in the industry. Packed with advanced design templates, automated tools, and much more, SlidesAI provides three free presentations for you to try before choosing a plan.

What are the tools of PowerPoint?

Some PowerPoint tools include: Theme, Slide layout, Text style and formatting, Add-ons.

Can I edit presentations without an internet connection?

It depends on the presentation tool you use. Some tools, like web-based editors, require an internet connection to function. But there are also desktop programs that allow you to work offline and save your progress for later.

How secure are my presentations in online tools?

Security is a major concern for everyone using online tools. You must always check the privacy settings and security features offered by any online presentation tool before uploading your work. Choose a reputable company with a strong track record of data protection.

Are there free online presentation tools?

Yes! Many online presentation tools offer free plans with basic features like creating and editing presentations. These plans might have limitations on storage space or collaboration features.

How much do paid plans typically cost?

Pricing varies depending on the tool and the features you need. Most online presentation tools use a subscription model, with monthly or annual fees. Some might offer per-user pricing for business accounts.

Save Time and Effortlessly Create Presentations with SlidesAI

The best presentation software in 2024

These powerpoint alternatives go beyond the basics..

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 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 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 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

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

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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Top 7 Presentation Software

Barkha Bali

Presentation software helps visualize and present data in a series of slides..

Presentations are a great way to train, educate, or sell an idea or a product to the audience. However, tired visuals, irrelevant data visualizations, and poor design layouts are some reasons why most presentations fail to leave an impact.

If your job involves creating and delivering presentations to stakeholders, including prospects, clients, and team members, and you face these challenges, presentation software could be the solution to your woes. The software lets users visualize and present project data in a series of slides. Most tools include pre-installed templates and multimedia stock libraries to build visually appealing and professional-looking presentations.

Nevertheless, we understand that it is not easy to choose a tool that perfectly aligns with your business requirements. We highlight the seven best presentation software for business professionals, in alphabetical order, based on verified software reviews. Read more .

1. Canva: Comprises a stock library for graphics and illustrations

Canva is an online graphic design tool that allows users to create anything ranging from magazine covers to presentations and graphics using a drag-and-drop editor. It comprises a wide range of pre-built presentation templates and over 1 million stock images, graphics, and illustrations that help create professional-looking presentations. Canva also furnishes a mobile application for Android and iOS users.

Customizable designs: Upload your own photos, company logos, and other branding elements to customize pre-built presentation templates. You can add as many slides as you want and experiment with animations, videos, audio, fonts, and color schemes for an engaging presentation.

Multiple presentation modes: Choose from different presenter modes, including standard presentation and audio-only video presentation mode, according to your project requirements.

Real-time collaboration: Invite teammates to collaborate on presentations. This feature lets collaborators leave comments or suggestions, make changes, and add elements to the project.

Customer support options: Help center and FAQs

Trial/Free Version

• Free Version

Starting price

Device compatibility, screenshots.

Slide editing in Canva ( Source )

2. Google Slides: Offers assistive features such as Smart Compose

Google Slides is a presentation tool from the Google Workspace suite. It lets you create and sync slides, share them with your teammates, use comments, and assign action items to build presentations. Google Slides includes assistive features such as Smart Compose—an intelligence tool that provides suggestions to build slides faster—and autocorrect to eliminate spelling or formatting errors. You can use its offline mode to access, create, and edit slides without an internet connection. The solution has a mobile app for both Android and iOS devices.

Real-time editing: Invite teammates to collaborate on slides and make real-time changes. Any changes made to the slides are automatically synced in the version history.

Presenter view: Use the presenter view to present slides during meetings, reference speaker notes, showcase text to viewers, and access live captions for audio content. You can integrate the software with third-party video-conferencing platforms to present slides during online conferences.

Connect with Google Apps: Integrate with other Google Apps, such as Google Sheets and Gmail, to embed data charts or give direct replies to comments. You can also search the web and Google Drive for relevant content and images directly from Slides.

Customer support options: Help center and email

Google Slides

Slide editing in Google Slides ( Source )

3. Keynote: Comes with picture-in-picture display mode

Keynote is a presentation tool developed by Apple for macOS and iOS operating systems. It lets you create visually appealing, interactive presentation slides with dynamic backgrounds, motion titles, and pre-installed themes. With its picture-in-picture display, you can add live videos (such as how-to videos and lectures) or appear in a window within the slides. Keynote’s multiple presenter mode allows presenters to take turns controlling the deck and improve the overall experience. This tool has a mobile app for iOS users.

Interactive elements: Create links by turning text, text boxes, images, shapes, lines, arrows, videos, and other elements into hyperlinks. You can also add captions and titles to images, videos, and shapes.

Precise editing: Use precise editing controls to fine-tune the look and placement of your objects and images. For example, you can use the Instant Alpha tool to make parts of an image transparent and remove an unwanted background or color.

Shapes and images gallery: Access over 700 Apple-designed shapes and images. You can change the color and size, add text, and even create and save your own shapes.

Customer support options: Help center, FAQs, chat, and call

Customization in Keynote ( Source )

4. Mentimeter: Features pop-up help bubbles for assistance

Mentimeter is a presentation software solution that allows users to create interactive presentations by incorporating various features, including polls, quizzes, and open-ended questions. With this tool, users can engage their audience and gather feedback in real time through mobile devices. Each Mentimeter slide features pop-up help bubbles designed to assist users in navigating the software. Mentimeter has a mobile app for both Android and iOS devices.

Fully customizable templates: Mix and match pre-installed templates with different elements such as graphics, images, and layouts to build interactive presentations.

Engagement tools: Leverage various engagement tools, including dynamic word clouds, live polling, quizzes, and Q&As, to capture real-time inputs, visualize the audience’s ideas, and deliver insightful icebreakers.

Integrations: Integrate with third-party apps, such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Hopin, and PowerPoint, to increase the efficiency of presentations and improve collaboration.

Customer support options: Email, chat, and a knowledge base

Presenting during remote meetings in Mentimeter ( Source )

5. Microsoft PowerPoint: Includes an AI-powered presenter coach

Microsoft PowerPoint allows users to create professional-looking presentations using various tools and elements, including text, graphics, multimedia, and images. The tool includes an AI-powered presenter coach that analyzes the speaker’s pace, word choice, and speaking style to provide feedback and suggestions on how to improve the delivery of a presentation. Microsoft PowerPoint has a presentation app for both Android and iOS devices.

3D objects: Create dynamic presentations by embedding 3D objects, animated videos, and transitions.

Convert ink to text: Convert handwritten ink annotations into text. This can be useful if you have made handwritten notes on your slides and want to convert them to text so that they are more legible and easier to edit.

Track changes: Access version history to track and compare changes, navigate between versions, and restore to an older version if required.

Customer support options: Knowledge base, chat, email, help desk, phone support, and FAQs

Microsoft Powe...

Presentation templates in Microsoft PowerPoint ( Source )

6. Piktochart: Integrates with IconScout for design icons

Piktochart is a web-based tool that allows users to create visual content such as presentations, infographics, and business reports. It provides pre-installed templates, graphics, and design elements that can be customized to create professional-looking content. The software integrates with IconScout, which offers a wide range of icons in different styles and categories, such as social media, business, and technology, to add visual interest and clarity to your presentations.

Branding: Drag and drop company logos, screenshots, and fonts to customize your presentation templates. You can create a custom color palette and add design components to align with your company’s branding.

Online and offline sharing: Download your presentation in PPT or PDF format and share it on social media or with your stakeholders. You can switch to presentation mode to present your slides during a virtual conference or video call.

Storytelling: Leverage data charts and maps to visualize your data and highlight focus areas in the presentation.

Customer support options: Chat, video tutorials, and help center

Creating presentations in Piktochart ( Source )

7. Prezi: Comprises Zoom Reveal to focus on critical details

Prezi allows users to create dynamic, interactive presentations. It uses a canvas-based interface, rather than traditional slides, that allows users to pan and zoom between different elements of their presentation. This presentation tool offers a range of templates and design elements, as well as the ability to import multimedia content such as videos and images. It has a mobile app for both Android and iOS users.

Drag-and-drop editor: Drag and drop content and design elements to your slides with the Smart Structures feature, making it easy to organize your presentation without disrupting the layout.

Presenter tools: Use the presenter view to leave notes, prompts, and talking points only you can see while you present; and Live Prezi to share presentations in real time with anyone via a dedicated link. You can use the voice-over feature to record step-by-step narration that plays as people view your presentations.

Analytics: Monitor the progress of your presentation's viewers and determine how long they spend on each topic. Obtain individualized data on who has viewed or shared your presentation and when, allowing you to effectively target your follow-up efforts.

Customer support options: Chat, email, help center, and FAQs

Making a presentation in Prezi ( Source )

How to choose the best presentation software for your business

There are several factors to consider while selecting the best presentation software for your business. Here are some tips to help you make the right choice:

Consider your feature requirements: Before selecting business presentation software, consider your business needs and must-have features. For example, you will need a multimedia stock library, collaboration tools, and the ability to track changes. Also, check if the software allows you to customize and format your slides, including themes and layout options, to create a cohesive and professional presentation.

Look for presentation template library and multimedia support: Software solutions that offer a wide selection of professional-looking templates and fonts can provide a helpful starting point and save time while creating presentations. Besides that, the ability to incorporate multimedia elements can enhance the visual appeal and impact of a presentation.

Check multi-user screen-sharing options: Some presentation software apps allow multiple users to share their screens simultaneously, while some tools do not offer this option. If you are looking for a tool to improve team collaboration, you should consider multi-user screen-sharing features.

Consider collaboration elements: Consider a tool that allows you to collaborate on presentations with your teammates and stakeholders. Real-time collaboration features, such as the ability to share and edit presentations, add comments, and leave feedback, can improve the efficiency of the presentation-creation process.

Assess file formats and device support: Presentation software typically allows incorporating images, audio, and video, but you should double-check which file types are supported and select a solution that supports different file formats. Checking the types of supported hardware is also important, as options to connect with wireless devices and the availability of mobile apps will make it easier to use the tool.

How much does presentation software cost?

Most products in the market are priced on a "per user, per month" basis and can be broken down into three common pricing tiers based on their starting price.

Price ranges:

*The pricing included is for the entry-level/lowest-priced offering found on vendor websites on January 04, 2023. These ranges correspond to the 25th, 75th, and 100th percentiles of pricing information gathered from vendor websites of sample products.

Hidden costs associated with presentation software

The above pricing list summarizes pricing for the base plans of most products. An enterprise or premium product that is priced higher may include additional features, for example, unlimited presentation templates, custom colors, custom themes, company branding, workspace analytics, and priority support. However, even the free plan may have hidden charges, such as training and implementation costs, customization costs, add-on charges, and integration and scalability costs. Before making a choice, ask the software vendor about any such hidden charges to ensure full pricing transparency.

Frequently asked questions when selecting presentation software

Here are some questions to ask presentation software providers before making a final purchase:

Does the presentation solution support real-time collaboration?

If you have a cross-functional team with multiple stakeholders, look for presentation software that supports collaboration. This will help your team make changes to the presentation in real time and reduce the risk of inconsistencies with instant feedback on the content.

Does the software offer stock content?

Stock content, such as pre-installed templates, graphics, videos, fonts, and icons, can save time and effort in the presentation process by allowing you to easily insert pre-made content into your projects rather than having to create everything from scratch. Check with your software vendor if their tool offers access to a variety of stock content options.

Does the software offer offline/online capabilities?

The right presentation tool should be accessible online and offline to accommodate situations where a reliable internet connection may not be available. It should also allow you to easily create, save, and present an appealing presentation without an internet connection. This will help streamline the presentation creation process and make it more convenient.

How well does the tool integrate with other software solutions?

Most presentation tools integrate with communication platforms to facilitate sharing files and assets, collaboration, conferencing, and task management. Before finalizing, you can ask vendors if their presentation software supports easy integration with third-party applications you use. For example, integration with project management software and customer relationship management (CRM) systems can help streamline the presentation-creation process and improve communication.

Methodology

To be considered for this list, products had to:

Have at least 20 unique product reviews published on Capterra within the past two years, with an average rating of 3.0 or higher, as of January 04, 2023. We selected the top seven products from Capterra’s shortlist report for presentation software , having the highest ratings to feature in this article.

Include animation and media library as core features along with customizable templates, collaboration tools, screen sharing, and video support.

Meet our presentation software market definition: “Presentation software helps ministers, salespeople, marketing employees, and other professionals create and conduct presentations.”

The “best functionality” tool is identified based on the highest user ratings for functionality that a vendor received based on user reviews as of January 04, 2023.

Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from Capterra’s presentation software directory . The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products. The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in the Capterra directory that offer them.

Was this article helpful?

About the author.

Barkha Bali is a writer at Capterra, providing expert insights to help small businesses identify the right software for their needs by analyzing user reviews data for the highest rated products in relevant software categories. She has worked in finance, lifestyle, education, and medical. With expertise in marketing and content strategy, Barkha’s work has been featured in Medium and educational websites. When not working, she can be found re-watching “The Office” or “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.”

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Best presentation software of 2024

Make perfect slides for speeches and talks

Best overall

Best for branding, best for marketing, best for themes, best for media, best unique.

• How we test

The best presentation software makes it simple and easy to create, manage, and share slideshow presentations.

1. Best overall 2. Best for branding 3. Best for marketing 4. Best for themes 5. Best for media 6. Best unique 7. FAQs 8. How we test

Presentation software runs at the heart of business sales, management, and development, so it's important to ensure you have the best presentation software for your needs. This is especially when looking to share ideas, concepts, and workflows, and the ability to present these in a simple and understandable way is essential.

However, while presentation software has been traditionally limited to text and images, it has widened its ability to work with different media such as video and audio. 

Therefore it's important for the best presentation software to not simply be easy and simple to use, but also be able to support additional media so that presentations can be more engaging, lively, and ultimately serve their purpose in educating and updating their intended audience.

Below we've listed the best presentation software currently on the market.

We've also listed the best free presentation software .

The best office software in the world is: Microsoft 365 There are many different office software suites out there, but Microsoft Office remains the original and best, offering an unsurpassed range of features and functionality that rivals just can't match.

Even better, Microsoft 365 - previously branded as Office 365 - is a cloud-based solution which means you can use it on any computer, mobile device, or smartphone, without having to worry about compatibility. All your files are saved in the cloud and synced between devices, so you can begin work on a document at home or in the office, then continue working on it on the go.

You can sign up to Microsoft 365 here .

The best presentation software of 2024 in full:

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

1. PowerPoint

Our expert review:

Reasons to buy

For most people, Microsoft 's PowerPoint remains the original and best of all the presentation software platforms out there. While other companies have managed to catch up and offer rival products worthy of consideration, the fact is that PowerPoint's familiar interface and ubiquitous availability means it remains a favorite for the majority of people.

On the one hand, it's long been a staple of the hugely popular Microsoft Office suite, meaning that for most users this is going to be the first - and last - presentation software they are going to need to use.

Additionally, Microsoft has made PowerPoint, along with their other office products, available as free apps (with limited functionality) on both iOS and Android for mobile use, meaning it's even harder to avoid them. And this is before we even consider the inclusion of PowerPoint in Microsoft's cloud-based Microsoft 365.

It does everything necessary that you'd expect of presentation software, allowing you to add text and media to a series of slides, to accompany a talk and other presentations. There are easy-to-use templates included to help spice things up a little, but even a general user with little experience of it is likely to find themselves able to use PowerPoint without much trouble at all.

Overall, it's hard to go wrong with PowerPoint, and although Microsoft 365 has a nominal cost, the apps are free to use even if they do have more limited functionality.

Read our full Microsoft PowerPoint review .

• ^ Back to the top

2. CustomShow

Reasons to avoid.

Branding says a lot about a business, and it’s something firms need to get right from day one – from a good logo to a suitable font. CustomShow is business presentation software that puts all these elements of branding first.

Using the system, you can design and present customized, branded presentations that reflect your company and the products you offer, featuring the aforementioned logo and custom fonts. As well as this, you get a slide library and analytics to ensure your presentations are a success.

What’s more, you can import presentations into the software, and use it to tweak them further. There’s also integration with SalesForce , and because the platform is cloud-based, you can access your presentations on computers, tablets, and smartphones. 

Considering the focus on branding, this offering could be good for marketing and sales teams, and it's used by major companies such as HBO and CBS Interactive.

3. ClearSlide

Just like CustomShow, ClearSlide has a niche focus for companies. The platform is targeted at firms looking to generate successful marketing campaigns, pushing sales via presentations (and more), not least through a range of analytics and metrics to work for sales and marketing.

With the product, you can upload a range of files, including PowerPoint, Keynote, PDF, and Excel. ClearSlide is integrated with other platforms, including Google Drive, Dropbox, and Salesforce.

This system is pretty complex and may offer too many irrelevant features for some businesses, but you can create customized content that reflects your company and the message you’re trying to get out to customers. There are also some good metrics and analysis features, and you can sign up for a free trial before making any decisions.

The real strength of ClearSlide comes from its focus on sales and marketing data, not least being able to track user engagement alongside other metrics.

4. Haiku Deck

Any presentation app will allow you to personalize your slides to at least some extent, but Haiku Deck goes one step further than the competition. It comes with a wide range of themes suited to different needs, and you also get access to 40 million free images from the Creative Commons collection.

When it comes to creating a presentation, you have the option to do so on the web, which means your presentation is accessible across a range of mobile devices as well as desktops. Regardless of the device used, you’re able to select from a variety of different fonts, layouts, and filters to make the perfect presentation.

The great thing about these various customization options is that they’re categorized into different industries and use cases. For instance, you’ll find themes for teaching, cooking, real estate, and startups. Most of the features require you to be online, but hopefully, you’ll have a sturdy net connection wherever you go.

5. SlideDog

It’s all too easy to end up creating a presentation that’s unappealing, and the last thing you want to do is make the audience fall asleep. SlideDog lets you combine almost any type of media to create a rich presentation that’s sure to keep the viewers’ peepers open, avoiding the ‘cookie cutter’ look that makes presentations seem dull.

Marketed as a web-based multimedia presentation tool, it gives you the ability to combine PowerPoint presentations, graphics, PDF files, Prezi presentations, web pages, pictures, videos, and movie clips. You can drag these into custom playlists and display them to your audience with ease.

You’re able to remotely control your presentations and playlists from your smartphone, the web, or a secondary computer, and there’s also the option to share slides in real-time. Audience members can even view your slide from their own devices by clicking a link. That’s a handy feature if you’re looking to create an immersive presentation experience.

SlideDog is probably the cheapest of the presentation software featured, with a free account that will cover the essential features. However, for live sharing and premium support, you need to upgrade.

Read our full SlideDog review .

Prezi is one of the more unique presentation tools. Instead of presenting your graphics and text in a slide-to-slide format, you can create highly visual and interactive presentation canvases with the goal of “emphasizing the relationship between the ideas”.

Presentations can also be tailored to the specific audience, as this is a flexible platform that’s capable of skipping ahead, or veering off into a side topic, without having to flip through all the slides to get to a particular bit.

For business users, there are a variety of handy tools available. By downloading Prezi , you can build and edit presentations with your colleagues in real-time, which is perfect for companies with teams based around the globe.

When you have created a presentation you’re happy with, you can present it live (in HD) and send a direct link to viewers. There are some analysis tools here, too – you can see who’s accessed your presentation, which parts of it, and for how long. The app is available for Mac and Windows devices.

Read our full Prezi review .

Other presentation software to consider

Google Slides  is part of the Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) office platform intended as an online alternative to Microsoft Office. It may seem a little limited by comparison to PowerPoint, but as it's browser-based that means cross-platform compatibility. Additionally, it allows for collaborative work, and Google Slides really works well here. On top of the fact that it integrates with the rest of the Google Workspace apps, not least Google Drive, and you have a contender. 

Zoho Show  is another of the many, many tools and apps that Zoho has made available for business use. It also operates in the cloud so it's accessible to any device with a browser, and it also allows for collaborative work. You can also easily share the link for users to download, or provide a live presentation online. The updated version has a simpler and easier to use interface and comes with a free version and a paid-for one with expanded features.

Evernote  is normally thought of as just note-taking software, but it does provide the option to create a presentation you can share online or with an audience. In that regard, it's a little more limited than the other options in not being dedicated presentation software. However, as an easy and handy way to pull together a presentation quickly, it could serve as a backup or last-minute option, especially if Evernote is already being commonly used by you.

LibreOffice Impress  is part of the open-source suite offered as a free alternative to Microsoft Office, and comes with a powerful array of tools and editing options for your presentation, not least working with 3D images. It's supported by a large community, so it's easy to find an array of additional templates. If there is a limitation it's that it's software you download and install rather than web-based, but any presentations created should be easily portable to the web if needed.

Adobe Spark  does things a bit differently, as rather than just use images it's geared toward video as well. This makes for potentially more powerful multimedia presentations, especially as Adobe also has a big selection of photos and images available for its users. There is a free tier for core features but requires a subscription for custom branding, personalized themes, and support.

Slides  comes with a lot of features in an easy-to-use interface, and involves setting up presentations using drag and drop into an existing grid. It's also internet-based so there's no software to download, and it only requires a browser to use and access. 

Presentation software FAQs

Which presentation software is best for you.

When deciding which presentation software to download and use, first consider what your actual needs are, as sometimes free platforms may only provide basic options, so if you need to use advanced tools you may find a paid platform is much more worthwhile. Additionally, free and budget software options can sometimes prove limited when it comes to the variety of tools available, while higher-end software can really cater for every need, so do ensure you have a good idea of which features you think you may require for your presentation needs.

How we tested the best presentation software

To test for the best presentation software we first set up an account with the relevant software platform, whether as a download or as an online service. We then tested the service to see how the software could be used for different purposes and in different situations. The aim was to push each software platform to see how useful its basic tools were and also how easy it was to get to grips with any more advanced tools.

Read how we test, rate, and review products on TechRadar .

We've also featured the best alternatives to Microsoft Office .

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Nicholas Fearn is a freelance technology journalist and copywriter from the Welsh valleys. His work has appeared in publications such as the FT, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, The Next Web, T3, Android Central, Computer Weekly, and many others. He also happens to be a diehard Mariah Carey fan!

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Review: Top 5 Web-based Presentation Tools Compared

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Google Slides

Bottom line, frequently asked questions about web presentation tools.

Recently we looked at a few alternatives that can help you translate your raw data into some delicious visual goodness. Today I thought we’d talk about ways you might present it.

Most of us — at some point in our careers — need to present our ideas to an audience.

Maybe it’s a client pitch? Sometimes it might be for colleagues or even potential employers. Other times it might be for a bigger audience at a meet-up night or conference.

While your data may be easy to read and understand, applying it to some slides and adding some text can actually benefit you. Now, not everyone has access to the established desktop presentation applications such as PowerPoint or Keynote.

Happily, there are now some great online alternatives out there. And being ‘web-native’, means they’re not only better suited to social sharing platforms than their desktop brethren, but can be launched from ANY computer with a web browser — a huge relief during rare but inevitable hardware disasters.

Today I’m sharing my first impressions on five online presentation services that will keep your audience engaged without tapping your wallet.

This is where the fun part comes in. After choosing to “create a deck” I was taken to the very sleek editor workspace. While Slides clearly wants to make things as self apparent as possible, it does offer a nifty walkthrough tutorial — a thorough guide that shows you where everything is and the function such as the “Top Level Options”.

Slides is friendly enough that you’ll most likely quickly figure this out through trial and error, but it is nice to have an option.

Creating your slides is really an easy task. With ten default slides designs to choose from, you can do everything from upload background images, tinker around with your type and even add speaker notes.

Speaking of type, there are 12 distinct type options to choose from. If that’s not enough variety, you also have multiple color style choices to choose from as well as transitions.

All in all, I think Slides is a winner. However, if I were to have one complaint, it’s the fact that you have to go Pro in order to export your deck to either PDF or sync it to your Dropbox. Until then you’re only options are to export as an HTML doc or to embed it (and pray your WiFi doesn’t fail at the wrong moment).

• View your slides either online or on the go via your mobile device
• Control your presentations through the power of any touch enabled mobile device
• The ability to present your slides live in real-time anywhere in the world
• Variety of themes and transitions at your disposal
• Teams can streamline their presentation workflow
• Share and fork your presentations
• Revisions are saved so you can always go back if you make a mistake
• HTML ability allows you to edit your markup and customize your decks

First Impression : To get started on your first presentation with Zoho Docs, you do have to register for an account. Thankfully, if the last thing you need is one more login to remember, you can sign in via your Google, Google Apps, Facebook or Yahoo accounts.

Once that’s done it’s time to start creating. The workspace is rather attractive and user-friendly, guiding you along without actually forcing you into a structured tutorial from the get go. Presentation formats are broken up into three options: document, spreadsheet or presentation. Take each one for a test-drive by clicking the “Create” button on the left hand screen.

Creating a fresh presentation opens up a new tab to pull up Zoho Show. While this may not be appreciated by everyone, it does allow you to switch back to your Zoho Doc’s workspace whenever you need it without having to press the back button.

Right away you’re prompted to choose one of the 17 available themes as well as selecting a preferred aspect ratio (16:9 or 4:3). This is a nice touch especially if you know you will be presenting on a wide-screen monitor or projection screen. I don’t believe any other tool offered this functionality

While choosing your theme, you can also decide your preferred color palette and font. From there you are taken through a thorough walkthrough of the creation process. There are tons of customization options plus you have four export options for your presentations.

• Unlimited users with the Free Forever plan
• Shared storage is more than generous even with a free account
• Share your work through email, embed it into your sites or even publish it publicly
• Word documents, spreadsheets and presentations can be easily created
• History of your changes in documents are there for you if revisions are needed
• Ability to sync right to your desktop
• Enabled document and user management
• Export your presentation as a PDF, PPTX, ODP or PPSX

First Impression : I must admit that I have used Google Slides once in my life, but that was for a film presentation during my last year of university. If you, like most people, have a Google account, you already have access to Google Slides ,so no registration is required.

To get started you only have to go to your Docs/Drive, open the hamburger menu to the left and click “slides”. Should you have no presentations already created, you only have to click the “+” in the bottom right corner to get started. As with Zoho, you’re immediately tasked to choosing your theme and aspect ratio.

While there are 20 available theme options, they are rather plain when compared to the templates offered by competing products .

While other apps do a good job at ‘prepping’ first time users, this is a case where Google won’t take your hand and walk you through you what Slides has to offer. This may not be a big issue for most, but is likely to discourage anyone who isn’t 100% confident with web apps.

That being said, the UX of Slides isn’t very different to the UX of other Google apps, so many users will feel a sense of familiarity from the start. Adding images and text or even aligning them, changing the type or color are all just a matter of a few button clicks. To add in a new slide you but only need to press the “+” button to the far left on the toolbox.

In order to change up your slide’s layout you need to click the “layout” button which is between “background” and “theme”. This will give you a few more options to choose from and add some dynamic to your final presentation.

As expected there are some transitions to make the slides run smoothly and a bit more options to get something you’re proud of before you share it.

• Similar Google Docs layout makes using Slides relatively easy
• 6 available download formats including SVG, PDF and PNG
• Edit and collaborate on your work in real-time
• Chat and comment right there in your window
• Changes are automatically saved as you work
• PowerPoint compatible
• Enabled offline editing for when you need it
• Absolutely free

First Impression : Emaze prides themselves on allowing you to easily create your own presentations so that you can “emaze” everyone.

Once you register with e-mail address and password, you’re ready to start building your first presentation.

Of course you have to decide which plan you want: Free, Pro or Emazing. Choose and you’ll be immediately presented with an excellent selection of good quality templates — from fun to professional-looking.

Unlike some of the other presentation creators, these templates are thoughtfully categorized to make it easier for you to find the best fit for your presentation. Even though some categories only have one available color choice for that particular theme, there are still 34 themes to choose from.

Like Zoho, creating a presentation in Emaze pulls up a new tab to bring you to the workspace. Instead of the typical walk-through, Emaze uses animated arrows to show exactly where things are and what they do, which is a nice take on the general tutorial.

Because the templates are pre-conceived each new slide template already has a built in layout that only requires you to insert your desired graphics, video and text. Emaze has some cool features as well which include adding sections to your presentations and even adding effects to create motion to your objects.

Creating and editing your presentation with Emaze is rather simple and can be done relatively quickly if you know what you’re trying to achieve. Clicking on text will automatically open a text editor tool to allow you to change text sizes, color, as well as add effects.

There are some limitations to Emaze however. The preset font for your chosen template is the one you’re stick with, plus you have limited color palette to apply to your text. Also, as is often the case, free accounts are always publicly accessible. Not a big deal for many, but a consideration for some.

• Automatic translation tool allows for your presentation to be seen by everyone
• Multi-device compatibility lets you view and edit your work no matter where you are
• 3D effects can be added to your elements
• Share and download your presentations
• Cloud based and HTML5 enabled to allow for seamless and efficient workflow
• A variety of pre-designed templates

First Impression : After getting yourself signed up with Visme you are thrown right into creating by first naming your project. Once you have your project named it’s time to decide whether you want to create a presentation, infographic, banner ad or a blank canvas.

The first thing you will notice is the comparitively low number of templates available to you when creating your presentation. There are 7 templates in total. Of course, you’re quite free to design your own layout by choosing a blank canvas, but it’s a little disappointing when Visme’s own marketing boasts about the ‘ tons of template and presets ‘ that are available to you.

The dashboard for your presentation is mapped out for you in your first go round, in a very similar method to Emaze’s approach.

The layout for creating is as simple as you can get so if you don’t need or want all the fancy effects and all that jazz Visme is definitely for you. While there isn’t anything amazingly new that Visme brings to the table, their presentation creator there are some nice touches.

The first thing worth noting is the thousands of free stock images that are available for you to use in order to make your presentation stand out. Simply search on a given topic and ninety percent of the time a viable result will seem to pop up. Photos aren’t the only visuals available — you’ll find hundreds of vector images too.

In my opinion, whatever Visme may lack in features, they certainly make up for with their easy-to-use editor and their large, free asset library. Visme also does allow you share, embed and download your presentation, but unfortunately you’re stuck with the branding and fewer options unless you upgrade.

• Free templates and presets available to you from the start
• Customizable assets
• One-click security settings to keep your work hidden from the public
• Pre-loaded fonts, images and vectors all for you to use
• Share via social networks or URL links
• Downloadable and embeddable for when you want to share offline or online
• The ability to create anything from presentations to banner ads

While everyone is going to have different needs, I can tell you that these five should be high on your list to visit when choosing a solution. Each presentation builder offers something different but most of all they are all user-friendly.

If you’re looking for top-notch slide builder with an impressive, free option, I’d currently recommend Emaze and Slides. But don’t let that stop you from trying out the other three as well. This is a competitive sector with new features and improvements being rolled out regularly.

What are the key features to look for in a web presentation tool?

When choosing a web presentation tool, consider features such as ease of use, customization options, collaboration capabilities, and the ability to share presentations easily. Some tools offer interactive features, analytics, and the ability to embed videos or other media. The best tool for you will depend on your specific needs and the audience you’re presenting to.

Are there free web presentation tools available?

Yes, there are several free web presentation tools available. Some of these include Google Slides, Prezi, and SlideShare. However, keep in mind that free versions may have limitations or include watermarks on your presentations. For more advanced features, you may need to consider a paid version.

How can I make my online presentation more engaging?

To make your online presentation more engaging, consider incorporating multimedia elements such as videos, images, and interactive quizzes. Use storytelling techniques to connect with your audience and keep your content concise and focused. Also, consider using a tool that allows for real-time audience interaction, such as live polls or Q&A sessions.

Can I collaborate with others on my presentation using these tools?

Yes, many web presentation tools offer collaboration features. This means you can work on a presentation with a team, even if you’re not in the same location. You can share the presentation, make edits in real-time, and leave comments or suggestions.

Can I use web presentation tools on different devices?

Most web presentation tools are compatible with various devices, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. This allows you to create, edit, and present from anywhere. However, it’s always a good idea to check the specific device requirements for the tool you’re considering.

How can I share my online presentation with others?

Most web presentation tools allow you to share your presentation via a link, embed it on a website, or download it as a PDF or other file format. Some tools also offer the option to present live online, allowing your audience to join from anywhere.

Can I track the performance of my online presentation?

Yes, some web presentation tools offer analytics features. These can provide insights into how many people viewed your presentation, how long they stayed, and which slides they interacted with the most. This can be useful for understanding your audience’s engagement and improving future presentations.

Can I customize the design of my presentation?

Yes, most web presentation tools offer a range of customization options. You can usually choose from a variety of templates, change colors and fonts, and add your own images or logos. This allows you to create a presentation that aligns with your brand and captures your audience’s attention.

Are there any limitations to using web presentation tools?

While web presentation tools offer many benefits, there can be limitations. For example, some tools may require an internet connection to access and edit your presentations. Also, free versions of these tools may have limitations on features or the number of presentations you can create.

How can I improve my presentation skills?

Improving your presentation skills involves practice, feedback, and continual learning. Consider joining a public speaking group, taking a course, or reading books on the subject. Also, take advantage of the features offered by web presentation tools, such as rehearsal modes and presenter notes.

Gabrielle is a creative type who specializes in graphic design, animation and photography.

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6 online presentation tools that’ll engage your audience

Get your team on prezi – watch this on demand video.

Meghan Ryan April 09, 2021

Online presentations are more common in the workplace than ever before. Maybe you just launched a new product and you need to create a product demo for a remote client. Or maybe you want to do online sales training for your employees. Presentations like these are really different online than they are in person, and many things that helped you stand out and engage your audiences in the office won’t help you when you present online. It helps to have all the virtual presentation tools at your disposal to make your presentations stand out and get people’s attention online . 

What we look for in online presentation tools  

A free version to try.

Free trials and free basic plans allow you to try out the platform and decide whether you like it before you make a purchase. You don’t want to spend a lot of money buying the product and then realize you’re not going to use it. 

Ease of use

Good online presentation tools should be easy to learn and easy to use. Learning how to use a new tool takes a little time and effort, so you should choose a virtual presentation tool that has clear instructions, intuitive design, and starting blocks like templates and color schemes to help make designing presentations easier. 

Audience engagement

It’s tempting for online audiences to multitask or tune-out during a presentation, so your online presentation tools should help you grab their attention and keep them engaged. . Use virtual presentation tools that allow you to add interactive multimedia elements, such as moving text, audio, images, GIFs, and videos to your presentations. Something as simple as a unique slide animation can help your presentation stand out. 

Cloud storage and access

With cloud storage and access, you don’t need to carry your computer around to edit or use your presentations in different places. Your online presentation tools should have online access, so you can work on your presentation anywhere, anytime as long as there is an internet connection.

Team collaboration features

Got a project you need to work on with your teammates? It’s very inefficient if only one person can work on a project at a time, especially in a remote work environment. Find a web presentation tool that allows multiple people to edit at the same time. Real-time teamwork and collaboration leads to better productivity and communication. 

What online presentation tool could possibly cover all of those requirements? Keep reading to discover our top online presentation tools for 2022:

1. Prezi Video

Prezi Video is a video presentation tool that lets you bring text, video, images, and GIFs onto the screen with you, resulting in a professional-looking presentation that’s more engaging for your audience. At the same time, your audience can react with unlimited on-screen responses using Prezi Video. Creating a presentation is easy with Prezi’s free video templates or by reusing slides from a past presentation. You can sign up for a free trial or get your whole team using Prezi with our business solutions . Reach out for more details.

Presenters love the ability to make unique presentations that help them stay connected to their virtual audiences. Try out Prezi Video for your next training, sales pitch, webinar, online class, team update, and more.

Otter is a note-taking tool that can transcribe audio to text. Run Otter in an online meeting to record the conversation and create a written record of what was said. Afterward, Otter will provide an automatic summary of the most commonly said phrases and generate a nifty word cloud.

Virtual audiences can use it to capture information without breaking focus during a presentation or an event, and presenters can rely on it to connect with more audiences. Check out Otter to learn more about using it for your virtual events .

3. Creatopy

Creatopy lets you create animated GIFs for slideshows, emails, banners, and presentations. You can use one of their pre-designed templates and customize it with your own text, or start from scratch and make a GIF with your own imagery and content. Either way, you’ll create animations that’ll pop on screen.

Creating a GIF is easy with Creatopy’s drag-and-drop editor, so you can create professional designs in minutes. Get started and learn more at Creatopy.

Grain is a tool for recording and sharing highlights from virtual meetings. It’s great for record-keeping and recapping for your teams. Instead of reading or listening to the summary of a presentation, your team can just watch the best moments themselves.

Grain is a useful addition to the virtual presentation toolbox, especially in the post-event phase of a presentation. Send attendees highlights of the most important parts and avoid diluting your message through different media. Check out Grain to learn more.  

Docket is a workspace for collaboratively building meeting agendas and creating reminders so no items go undiscussed. Since it’s a shared workspace, it helps keep your team aligned and up to date on learnings. Use it to organize a virtual presentation with a client or stakeholder and to store notes on the presentation post-facto. 

Integration is currently available on several platforms , including Google and Zoom. Check out Docket to learn how it can help your team.

Krisp is a noise cancelling tool that can be used to improve audio quality on any conferencing, voice messaging, and communication app. Turn it on and remove background noise from yourself and other people on the call. It’s quick to set up and works with a wide range of headsets and microphones. 

Krisp is a crucial online presentation tool whenever you’re presenting from a shared space. Try it during your next call or presentation.

See these tools in action and explore the best virtual presentations on Prezi when you visit the Video Gallery . Or get started today and make your own virtual presentation on Prezi Video.

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The Best Presentation Software of 2023 – Free and Paid Alternatives

Discover the best free, freemium, and paid presentation software options for 2023. From Canva and Haiku Deck to Genially and Beautiful.AI, these are the tools you should check out! Short on time? Peruse our comparison table!

Dag Hendrik Lerdal

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Although this list, just like our competitors, is made to pique your interest in SlideDog , we won’t list 50+ PowerPoint “alternatives,” bashing Office PowerPoint and claiming it’s dead with no other reason than it being a mature, stable, and the de-facto slide creation tool for grown-ups. 

And we will not list every “presentation-related” software we can find . That means no listing of animation software like “PowToon,” sales & marketing software like “CustomShow,” and publishing platforms like “SlideShare (LinkedIn).”

Instead, we’ll show you an opinionated and prioritized list that’s comprehensive (but not bloated) and focused 100% on slide creation software that we consider real alternatives to PowerPoint. 

Plus, we are going to keep this list up to date.

The Best Presentation Software in 2023, Compared

A note on slidedog.

SlideDog is not a real PowerPoint alternative, but it is a great supplement.

SlideDog presents your files seamlessly and professionally to the audience at meetings, events, sales presentations, conferences, lectures, and more. It’s a Windows app that lets you switch between various presentation media such as PowerPoint, PDF, Prezi, video, and web pages. 

It’s perfect for people who use multiple forms of media in their presentations and a great tool at events where you have multiple presenters.

To learn more about SlideDog and its other features, such as Live Sharing, Audience Interaction, and the SlideDog Remote App, check out the features and download the free version .

PowerPoint Alternative #1: Microsoft Sway Presentations

If you want to stay within the Microsoft ecosystem, you’ll want to check out Microsoft Sway . Although it’s technically designed for presentations, you can use it for newsletters and other media storytelling.

Microsoft Sway Core Features

• Integration with the O365 suite, as well as OneDrive, YouTube, and Twitter, for easy content embedding.
• Templates, interactive and dynamic presentation elements, such as navigation buttons and embedded web content.
• Collaboration features.
• Cross-platform accessibility, supporting desktop, web, and mobile (iOS and Android) versions.
• Analytics and tracking.
• Automatic layout and design suggestions.

Microsoft Sway OS

Desktop and web.

Microsoft Sway Pricing

Microsoft Sway is available if you already have a Microsoft 365 subscription (starting from $6.99/month). You can also use it for free with limited features. 

Is Microsoft Sway a Replacement for PowerPoint?

Not really. Sway lacks presentation control features like remote control or presenter view. Still, it’s a good tool for mini-presentations and interactive documents.

Microsoft doesn’t seem to be investing a lot into it (it even dropped out of the iOS store), so don’t lean on it as your main presentation tool.

PowerPoint Alternative #2: Google Slides – The Best Workhorse Presentation Software [Free]

Google Slides is the new PowerPoint, or so they say. In any case, it’s a handy, widely-used presentation tool, so if you want to use it company-wide, you won’t struggle with user adoption. Plus, it’s very beginner-friendly and integrates with the rest of your Google ecosystem.

Google Slides Features

• Converts PowerPoint Files to Google Slides and vice versa.
• Smart Compose AI feature for creating presentations faster. 
• Real-time collaboration (including chatting, comments, and reviews).
• Templates, videos, gifs, images, graphic assets. Plus, add-ons to include audio and more. 
• Beaming to a secondary screen using Chromecast and AirPlay.
• Presenter View with notes and upcoming slides enabled by a secondary browser window.
• Built-in audience interaction , allowing Q&A that will show up in Presenter View.
• Remote control via an iOS or Android device.
• Google Meet remote presentation.

Google Slides  OS

Web-based app, mobile app.

Google Slides Pricing

Free. Paid Workspace plans at $12/user/month for meeting recordings, group policies, and online support.  

PowerPoint Alternative #3: Apple’s Keynote Is One of the Sleekest Presentation Software [Free]

Keynote is mainly used by people committed to the Apple ecosystem. Although you can export your Keynote slides to PowerPoint , it won’t guarantee that everything will be presented the same way. Still, you can also use Keynote on a PC, provided that you use iWork, and it’s definitely one of the sleekest presentation tools. 

Apple Keynote Presentation Features

• Open, edit, and save PowerPoint files. Existing Keynote presentations can be exported to PowerPoint. (Beware of glitches caused by the file type conversion.)
• Built-in live collaboration.
• Control the presentation from an iOS device using Keynote Remote.
• Presenter view with notes and a preview of the next slide.
• Present remotely to an audience with Keynote Live using an Internet-connected Mac, iPad, or iPhone.
• Templates, effects, animations, graphic assets + Apple Pencil additions. 
• Live video feeds and YouTube and Vimeo videos. 

Desktop + Mobile (iOS & Android) + Web (requires iCloud account).

Keynote Pricing 

Keynote is free.

#4 LibreOffice Impress: The Simple Open-Source Presentation Software [Free]

LibreOffice is a community-driven, free, and open-source office suite. It comes with Impress, a desktop software for creating and editing slide presentations, similar to Microsoft PowerPoint and Apple Keynote. In general, it can get clunky like most open-source tools, but it’s still a good option for simple presentation software.

LibreOffice Features

• Open, edit, and save PowerPoint files. Beware: not all of PowerPoint’s features are implemented in LibreOffice, so fonts, images, and drawings may appear scrambled or not at all.
• A server version with Live Collaboration features.
• Remote control with tablets and phones with Impress Remote for iOS and Android devices.
• Animations, templates, effects, 3D models.
• Presenter view.

LibreOffice OS

LibreOffice works on Windows, iOS, Linux, as well as Android. 

LibreOffice Pricing

LibreOffice is 100% free.

#5 Slides: The Best Overall Presentation Software [Paid]

Slides sets itself apart with a minimalist approach, as opposed to the complex PowerPoint interface. And with the rise of AI, it also incorporates OpenAI’s features to help you create presentation content faster. 

However, a unique feature of Slides is that the slide decks are pure HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, so they can be self-hosted and customized down to the last line of JavaScript.

Slides Features

• Import PDFs and PowerPoints, turning them into a Slides presentation, but won’t translate all fonts and media correctly.
• Live streaming.
• Remote control.
• Presenter view. 
• Click, tap, and hover interactivity.
• Use code blocks and Developer Mode for custom features.
• AI for slide generation, content, etc.
• Templates, (auto)animations, media library, integration with Unsplash and GIPHY, and video support.
• Collaboration and team features. 

Slides works as a web-based app.

Slides Pricing

Slides pricing starts from $5/mo.

#6 Our Take on ZohoShow’s Presentation Software [Free]

If you’re already in the Zoho ecosystem, it might be worth considering ZohoShow . Some of the happiest users of ZohoShow I know are sales professionals looking for tools to create more engaging proposals and pitches. 

ZohoShow Features

• Import and export PowerPoint files.
• Real-time collaboration and co-editing.
• Remote control via phone or smartwatch using Zoho Show’s mobile app.
• Templates, themes, and design elements.
• Analytics and insights.
• Interactive elements, including charts, tables, and multimedia content.
• Apple TV and Android TV apps let you beam your presentations to a conference room.

ZohoShow OS

Web app, Android, iOS. 

ZohoShow Pricing

ZohoShow is free.

The Best Presentation Software #7: Prezi [Paid]

Prezi is one of the more, if not the most, innovative alternatives to PowerPoint, loved by presenters who prefer delivering information organically (and not with a scripted path). Rather than traditional slide-based presentations, this presentation software offers a zoomable canvas where users can create visually engaging and interactive presentations.

Prezi Features

• Import PowerPoints, turning them into a Prezi presentation. You mostly get the correctly formatted content of the slides, but you have to turn it into a proper zoomable mind-map Prezi on your own.
• Dynamic zooming and panning functionality for a more engaging and cinematic presentation experience.
• Real-time collaboration.
• Integration with multimedia content, including videos, images, and audio.
• Templates, design elements, infographics, and more.
• Present over video.
• Analytics. 

Desktop, web, and mobile (Android and iOS).

Prezi Pricing

Prezi starts from $5/month.

#8 Visme [Freemium]

Visme is a versatile presentation software you can use for (obviously) presentations, as well as documents, infographics, data visualizations, designs, and videos. It’s used by companies, schools, and more!

Visme Features

• Import PowerPoint files and export presentations to PowerPoint, PDF, HTML, and more.
• Drag-and-drop interface with a library of customizable templates, charts, icons, images, and multimedia assets.
• Collaboration and co-editing features.
• Animations, transitions, and interactive elements
• Integration with third-party platforms, including Google Drive, Dropbox, and YouTube.
• Pre-designed slide layouts and smart templates.

Visme Presentation Software OS

Desktop, web, and mobile.

Visme Pricing

Visme offers a free option, and the paid plans start from $12.25/month.

#9 Ludus Presentation Software: The Best Option for Figma Fans [Paid]

The founders describe Ludus as: “It’s like Sketch and Keynote had a baby in the cloud,” and I will admit that it looks sleek. (But maybe it’s just the dark mode!) If you’re looking for the best presentation software for designers , Ludus offers features like layer blending and more! 

Ludus Presentation Features

• Figma-style editing, complete with layers, colorization, cropping, and more.
• Add code to your slides.
• Boost your efficiency with keyboard shortcuts.
• Real-time collaboration (with a chat).
• Interactive and animated elements, reusable Smart Blocks, gifs, videos, and more.
• Presenter view (called the Speaker View).

Ludus works as a web-based and desktop app. 

Ludus Pricing

Ludus starts from $14.99/month/user.

#10 SlideBean [Freemium]

SlideBean is a presentation software that aims to simplify the presentation creation process by providing users with automated design tools and smart templates. These days, it specializes in helping founders build pitch decks , but it’s spreading like wildfire among startup teams, too.

The big caveat is that you can’t export the free presentations. If you want to do that, you’ll need to upgrade to their All-Access $228/year package (with an investor CRM and other startup goodies). 

SlideBean Features

• AI-powered presentation creation, where users input content, and SlideBean generates a design.
• Real-time collaboration features.
• Smart slide templates and design recommendations.
• Remote control via phone.

SlideBean OS

Slidebean pricing.

Free, but you’ll need the All-Access $228/year package to export presentations. 

#11 Is Canva a Good Presentation Tool? [Freemium]

Ahh, Canva ! It’s been helping SMBs create decent graphics for years. While not exclusively a presentation software, Canva offers a wide range of design templates and customization options suitable for various purposes, including presentations. I can’t count all the times I’ve seen startup founders run their pitch deck presentations on the web app. 

So, is Canva one of the best presentation software options in 2023? Let’s check out the features!

Canva Presentation Features

• Extensive library of presentation templates, graphics, and design elements.
• Drag & drop interface.
• AI tools for composing content, syncing music, etc. 
• Save presentations as PPTX, PDF, JPEG, and more.
• Live chat during the presentation with Canva Live .
• Magic shortcuts for special animations (think: the letter C for confetti rain).
• Many, many more features with the Canva suite (logo design, social media graphics, flyers, proposals, etc.).

Web-based, Android app, and iOS app.

Canva Pricing

Canva offers a free plan, with paid plans starting from $12.99/mo/user.

#12 Beautiful.AI [Paid]

Is it beautiful? Is it AI? Definitely! When we’re discussing the best presentation software in 2023, we can’t omit the fact that AI is making the rounds (as you’ve noticed with all the Smart features in the previous contenders on the list).

And with Beautiful.AI , you get end-to-end enhancement, from smart templates to formatting and content!

Beautiful.AI Presentation Software Features

• AI presentation features galore: Smart templates, auto-adapting slides (smart formatting), automatic animations, and more.
• Photo, video, and icon gallery. Plus, charts, graphs, and other data visualization options.
• Export presentations to PowerPoint and edit them in PowerPoint on the Beautiful.AI Pro plan.

Beautiful.AI OS

Web-based and desktop.

Beautiful.AI Pricing

Beautiful.AI starts from $12/month for individuals and from $40/mo/user for teams.

#13 Genially: The Interactive Presentation Software Option [Freemium]

Genially is a presentation software that focuses on creating interactive and immersive presentations, infographics, and other visual content. The interface is pretty similar to PowerPoint, but it’s smoother and offers a simpler experience. 

Personally, looking at it, I think it fits educational presentations well , while you might feel underwhelmed when using Genially for business presentations.

Genially Features

• Import your PowerPoint slides and share or download your presentations as .MP4s, PDFs, HTML, and other formats. 
• Template and graphic assets gallery.
• Interactive elements such as quizzes, polls, and hotspots.
• Animation and transition effects.
• Multimedia content support (including websites, videos, and audio).

Genially OS

Genially pricing .

Genially is hiding its pricing behind the sign-up page (an immediate no-no from me), but it offers a free plan. 

#14 Haiku Deck [Paid]

Rooted in the idea that you need to get rid of clutter and step into the flow zone to create beautiful presentations, Haiku Deck ’s understated presentation software might be a good choice for the PowerPoint convert.

HaikuDeck Features

• Templates, fonts, image filters, and stock image gallery.
• Simple (and a bit underwhelming) editor.
• Embed videos from YouTube into your presentation.

HaikuDeck OS

Web-based, Windows, iOS app. 

HaikuDeck Pricing

HaikuDeck starts from $9.99/month. 

#15 FlowVella Presentations Review [Paid]

In addition to presentations, FlowVella also specializes in digital signage , with plenty of its customers using it to power their iPad kiosk apps.

You’ll also see quite a few real estate agents using it for listing presentations. And while the design looks more similar to PowerPoint than most of us would like, there’s no doubt it’s a handy presentation software option!

FlowVella Features

• Interactive features such as navigation buttons, links, and interactive hotspots.
• Integration with multimedia content, including images, videos, PDFs, and audio files.
• Presentation templates and image gallery.
• Kiosk mode.

FlowVella OS

Native mobile app for iOS, desktop, and web.

FlowVella Pricing

FlowVella starts from $10/month.

#16 Pitch.com Presentation Software [Freemium]

Finally, the last contender on our list of the best presentation software is Pitch – a tool primarily built for startup teams. The visuals are pretty sleek, too, and it has all the features you’d need to collaborate with your team.

Pitch Presentation Software Features

• Collaborative editing and real-time teamwork features.
• Brand kit features for consistency.
• Template gallery & reusable templates and components.
• PDF and PPTX exports.

Desktop and mobile apps, web-based.

Pitch Pricing

Pitch has a freemium plan, and the paid options start from €8/member/month.

Summary & Final Thoughts

The struggle to find a PowerPoint alternative and the best presentation software is neverending. However, remember that you have to find the tool that works best for your use case, team, and budget.

When it comes to our favorites, we built SlideDog to meet our multimedia demands (even if it’s not strictly a presentation tool). However, we love Google Slides for its level of integration with the Google ecosystem, and Pitch.com is a fantastic option for startups. 

On the other side of the equation, if you’re doubling down on AI, you might just find a good fit with Beautiful.AI.

But no matter what, remember that your ideal tool is here to enable your ideas . Put them front and center, and your presentation will be amazing!

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15 Online Presentation Tools to Win Over Your Audience

Discover the best presentation tools to make your next presentation stand out. From design to delivery, these tools will take your presentations to the next level.

If you’re tired of PowerPoint presentations that lack engagement, you’re not alone. The tool is great, but it often falls short when it comes to interactivity. So, how do you keep your audience captivated during an online presentation?

No worries! We’ve compiled a list of impressive web-based tools to help you design dynamic and eye-catching presentations. Let’s dive in.

1. Zoho Show

Zoho Show is an excellent choice for creating dynamic slides and working together on them. It allows you to import a range of presentation formats for editing. The platform offers various features such as adding animations, transitions, and even embedding videos and social media posts.

Once you’re done, you can broadcast your presentation from anywhere, or even embed it on your website.

Cost of Zoho Show

Zoho Show offers a free basic plan, with paid plans starting at $4.

Visit Zoho Show

2. Google Slides

Google Slides is another versatile tool that enables you to create, modify, and share presentations. It offers a variety of templates, font options, and multimedia embedding capabilities. However, when it comes to creating interactive presentations, it’s not as feature-rich as some other options like Prezi and Visme.

Also check out our posts on:

• Websites to download free Google Slides Themes
• 15 Google Slides tips

Cost of Google Slides

Google Slides is available for free.

Visit Google Slides

3. Flipsnack

Flipsnack adds a touch of interactivity to your presentations by offering a 3D page-flip effect. Whether you want to design your presentation from scratch or upload an existing PDF, Flipsnack has you covered.

Among its interactive features are photo slideshows, GIFs, audio and video elements, as well as social media buttons and map embedding. If design isn’t your forte, you can utilize one of the numerous templates in Flipsnack’s built-in library.

You can download your presentation in various formats, such as HTML5, web PDF, print-ready PDF, and several image and video formats. Share your final product online to captivate your audience.

Cost of Flipsnack

• Starter : $14/month for 10 catalogs, with 100 pages per catalog
• Professional : $35/month for 50 catalogs, with 200 pages per catalog
• Business : $79/month for 500 catalogs, with 500 pages per catalog
• Enterprise : $210/month for 1000 catalogs, with 1000 pages per catalog

Visit Flipsnack

Prezi takes customization to the next level with its extensive template library. The platform allows you to track viewer engagement through analytics and even control the presentation remotely via your mobile device.

With Prezi, you can create unlimited presentations and maintain full privacy control. The platform supports video uploads, presenter notes, and even offers specialized online training.

Read our tips and tricks to become a Prezi pro.

Cost of Prezi

Prezi offers a 14-day free trial, with paid plans starting at $9 per month.

Visit Prezi

Visme empowers you to create compelling visual stories using gorgeous presentations and infographics. It transforms plain data into engaging narratives that capture attention.

With access to over 100 fonts and millions of free images, Visme enables you to enrich your presentations. You can also upload audio and video files, providing even more ways to captivate your audience.

Visme grants complete control over privacy settings and offers unlimited storage. View the presentation in your browser or download it for offline use.

Cost of Visme

Visme offers a free plan, and its Starter package begins at $12.25 per month.

Visit Visme

Emaze is a user-friendly software that allows you to turn traditional PowerPoint presentations into interactive, storytelling projects. The platform offers a multitude of presentation templates and video backgrounds.

In addition to templates, Emaze allows you to add various forms of media content, including GIFs and live social feeds. Special effects like pan, zoom, and transitions can be applied to make your content more interactive and engaging.

As a cloud-based presentation tool, Emaze enables you to access your projects from any location. You have the flexibility to work with 2D and 3D slides, and can view or edit your presentations on any device. What’s more, you can share them in multiple languages using the automated translation feature. You also have the option to download your presentation as a PDF for offline viewing.

Cost of Emaze

Emaze offers a basic plan for free. For more features, the Pro Plan starts at $9 per month.

Visit Emaze

7. Piktochart

Piktochart enables you to design infographics that can be displayed as slideshows. The platform provides more than 600 professionally designed templates, along with a variety of fonts and color styles to make your projects unique.

With Piktochart, you can include charts and maps to enhance your presentation. Additionally, the tool allows you to use industry-specific icons as needed. You can either use stock photos from Piktochart’s library or upload your own images and videos for a more personalized touch.

Data can be imported from Google Sheets and SurveyMonkey forms, and your final project can be shared online or downloaded and printed in multiple formats such as PDF, JPG, and PNG.

Cost of Piktochart

The basic plan is free, while other plans range from $24.17 to $82.50 per month.

Visit Piktochart

8. Genial.ly

Genial.ly is a unique platform that lets you add interactive effects and animations to your presentations. The tool also integrates content from external services like Spotify, YouTube, Google Maps, and Amazon to make your slides more engaging.

Genial.ly offers various premium templates, allowing you to create an unlimited number of presentations. Like the other platforms, you can upload your own media files or use the in-built resources to enhance your content.

All your projects can be shared via email or social media platforms, including WhatsApp. Moreover, they can be embedded directly onto your website. For those interested in tracking performance, analytics can be enabled for each presentation.

Cost of Genial.ly

Genial.ly provides a basic plan for free, while other plans range from $7.49 to $79.15 per month.

Visit Genial.ly

9. Haiku Deck

Haiku Deck is a straightforward tool for creating presentations, although its user interface may seem a bit dated. It offers a variety of fonts, sleek layouts, and image filters for a professional look. Additionally, the tool provides access to over 40 million stock images on various subjects, making it suitable for almost any project.

Your slides are stored online , allowing you to access them from any device. Haiku Deck comes with numerous other features such as PDF downloads and PPTX exports.

For educational settings, Haiku Deck offers a ‘Haiku Deck Classroom’ subscription. This plan provides all the features of the standard Haiku Deck, and additionally allows a teacher and multiple students to access the tool in a bundled package .

Cost of Haiku Deck

The basic version of Haiku Deck is free, while premium plans range from $9.99 to $29.99 per month.

Visit Haiku Deck

10. PowerPoint Online

PowerPoint Online provides all the essential features like image handling, transitions, animations, and a variety of templates. You can download your presentations as PDFs for offline access , or share them online. Although user-friendly and familiar, PowerPoint Online doesn’t quite match up to other tools like Prezi or Emaze.

Cost of PowerPoint Online

PowerPoint Online is available for free.

Visit PowerPoint Online

Canva offers a drag-and-drop interface where you’ll find numerous impressive layouts for various subjects. It allows you to select images, fonts, and colors that align with your brand. Moreover, it provides access to more than a million high-quality stock photos and also lets you upload custom images .

With Canva, you can also choose from over 120 different fonts to give your presentation a unique style. You can easily edit and update your slides, apply striking filters and text options , and even share them on social media. Canva also features a ‘Presentation Mode’ to present directly from your account.

Cost of Canva

Canva offers a free plan. For more advanced features, Canva Pro costs $199 per year per user, and Canva for Teams is priced at $149.90 for five users.

Visit Canva

12. Flowvella

Flowvella is an adaptable tool designed to make your presentations more interactive and engaging. You can seamlessly integrate various types of media such as images, videos, text, hyperlinks, galleries, and even PDFs.

What distinguishes Flowvella is its unique Kiosk Mode . This feature enables you to securely display your presentation on a digital screen, protected by a PIN code. Moreover, you can share your content through a personalized URL , making it available both online and offline.

Cost of Flowvella

Flowvella provides a free basic plan. Additionally, premium plans are available for $10 to $20 per month.

Visit Flowvella

Slides is an all-in-one platform that guarantees compatibility with any device. The tool offers various features such as adding multimedia elements from platforms like YouTube, Google Maps, and Vimeo. It also supports SVG images.

Choose from a wide range of layouts and templates, utilize Google fonts, and easily embed or share your presentations on blogs or websites.

Cost of Slides

Slides offers a free basic plan as well as premium options, ranging from $5 to $20 per month.

Visit Slides

14. Slidebean

Slidebean is a powerful tool that allows you to create eye-catching presentations in just minutes. The platform features a wide variety of professional templates, images, and even GIFs that you can customize to align with your brand.

Once your presentation is ready, you have the option to present it remotely . You can also monitor viewer engagement through its activity metrics .

Cost of Slidebean

Slidebean offers an all-access plan, priced at $228 per year.

Visit Slidebean

15. Pitch Deck

Pitch Deck simplifies the presentation design process with its easy-to-use, drag-and-drop templates . You can include a variety of elements like graphs, images, videos, and even interactive polls.

After completing your presentation, you can effortlessly share it and view it on any device. You’ll also have access to real-time analytics to assess the impact of your presentation.

Cost of Pitch Deck

Pitch Deck provides two pricing options: the Single Desk plan for $99 per year and the Premium plan for $199 per year. Both options come with a 14-day trial.

Visit Pitch Deck

7 Key Features of Presentation Software Must Have | Updated in 2024

Jane Ng • 24 Apr 2024 • 8 min read

It is known for fact that when giving presentations, the audience’s attention is the biggest factor that keeps the speaker motivated and poised.

In this digital age, there are various presentation tools available that can enhance audience engagement. These tools include interactive slides, polling features, and real-time feedback options.

Finding the best presentation software among a plethora of options might be overwhelming and time-consuming. However, it is important that you explore your options to ensure that you’ll deliver a presentation that will leave a lasting impact on your audience.

Narrow down your choices by searching for the best qualities of a presentation software that not only offers innovative features but also prioritizes audience interaction. 

Browse the list below to find the 7 key features a presentation software must have and why they are important for creating engaging presentations.

Table of Contents

• More Presenting Tips with AhaSlides
• What Is Interactive Presentation Software?
• #1 – Creating & Customizing
• #2 – Quizzes & Games
• #3 – Polling
• #4 – Q&A
• #5 – Spinner Wheel
• #6 – Audience Experience
• #7 – Bonus

Better Presentations with AhaSlides

More tips with ahaslides.

• AhaSlides Features
• AhaSlides Tips on Live questions and answers
• AhaSlides Idea board

What is Interactive Presentation Software?

In the simplest terms, interactive presentation software provides tools to build content that your audience can interact with. 

Before, giving a presentation was a one-way process: the speaker would talk and the audience would listen. 

Now, with the advancement of technology, presentations have become a two-way conversation between the audience and the speaker. Interactive presentation software has helped presenters to gauge audience understanding and adjust their content accordingly.

For instance, during a business conference, the speaker can use live polls or an audience response feature to gather real-time feedback on certain topics. Aside from getting the participants involved in the discussion, this also allows the presenter to address any concerns or questions.

What are some highlights in using interactive features in presentations?

• Suitable for all group sizes, from small groups to a large hall of people
• Suitable for both live and virtual events
• The participants are given the opportunity to share their thoughts through polls, live Q&A , or make uses of open-ended questions
• Information, data, and content are displayed with multimedia elements, such as images, animations, videos, charts, etc.
• There’s no limit to how creative speakers can be — they can customize the presentation to make it more appealing and attention-grabbing!

6 Key Features a Presentation Software Must Have

The current interactive presentation software on the market will all have basic features: customizable, shareable, equipped with a built-in library of template slides, and cloud-based.

AhaSlides has all of that and more! Discover how you can make your presentations impactful with its 6 key features:

#1 – Creating & Customizing – Features Of Presentation Software

How you design your presentation is a reflection of your personality and creativity. Show them who you are with visually stunning and well-organized slides that capture the essence of your ideas. Incorporate captivating visuals, such as images, graphs, and charts that not only enhance the overall aesthetic but also effectively convey your message. Additionally, consider adding interactive elements or a bit of storytelling that will keep your listeners interested to know more.

If you have prepared your presentations using Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint, you can easily import them on AhaSlides! Edit multiple slides at once or invite others to collaborate on customizing the presentation.

AhaSlides has outstanding features, including 17 built-in slides library, grid view, participant view, sharing and downloading presentations, customizing viewers, and more!

Don’t hesitate to make your presentation unique! Create your own slide deck or personalize a slide template.

• Interactive presentation software, such as AhaSlides, lets you change the background to anything you like, from colors to images, even GIFs if you want.
• You can then customize the URL access token to make the invitation to your presentation more personal.
• And why not make your presentations more vibrant with the wide range of image options in the built-in library, along with the choice to embed audio and add more fonts (aside from the multiple fonts available)?

#2 – Quizzes & Games – Features Of Presentation Software

What better way to start a presentation than with a game? Presentations never sounded entertaining; in fact, it connotes a boring and monotonous experience for many.

Kick-start the session with an interactive activity to instantly grab your audience’s attention and create a sense of excitement. This not only sets a positive tone for the rest of your presentation but also helps to break the ice and establish a connection with your audience.

AhaSlides has free audience engagement features that will up your game! Build audience rapport with AhaSlides’ live quiz games .

• AhaSlides champions interactivity through its various quiz types. It also allows team play , where a group of participants can compete against each other. They can choose their group or the speaker can use the AhaSlides spinner wheel to randomly assign participants to teams, adding an element of excitement and unpredictability to the game.
• Add a countdown timer or time limit according to each question to make the game more thrilling.
• There is real-time scoring and after the game, a leaderboard appears to give details of each person or team’s scores. 
• In addition, you can moderate the full list of answers provided by the participants and manually select the ones you want to accept.

#3 – Polling – Features Of Presentation Software

Knowing the audience’s expectations and preferences will enable the presenter to effectively adjust the content and delivery of the presentation. This can be done through live polls , scales , word clouds, and idea-sharing slides . 

Moreover, the opinions and ideas obtained through polling are also:

• Super intuitive. Plus, you can display the poll results with a bar chart, donut chart, pie chart, or multiple comments in the form of sliding scales .
• Great in stimulating creativity and increasing the audience response rate. Through AhaSlides’ Word Cloud and other engaging tools, your audience will brainstorm together and bring you unexpected, valuable insights.
• Convenient for the audience. They can get tracking results right on their phone.

Alternatively, you can choose to show or hide the results . It’s okay to keep a little secret for the audience to suspense until the last minute, isn’t it?

#4 – Q&A – Features Of Presentation Software

Since modern presentations focus on getting the audience involved, a Question & Answer portion is a smart way to keep them on track. 

AhaSlides offers a built-in Q&A feature that allows participants to ask questions directly from their devices, eliminating the need for hand-raising or interruptions. This ensures a smooth flow of communication and encourages active participation from the audience.

What does AhaSlides’ live Q&A do? 

• Saves time by viewing questions in an orderly table. Speakers will know which questions to address first (like the most recent or popular queries). Users can save the questions as answered or pin them for later use.
• Participants can vote for the inquiries they feel need to be answered right away while the Q&A is ongoing.
• Users have full control in approving which questions will be shown or neglected. Inappropriate questions and profanity are automatically filtered as well.

#5 – Spinner Wheel – Features Of Presentation Software

Spinner Wheel is a versatile tool that can be used in a variety of settings, such as classrooms, corporate training sessions, or even social events. With its customizable options, you can tailor the Spinner Wheel to fit the specific needs and goals of your audience. Whether you want to use it for icebreakers, decision-making exercises, or simply as a fun way to choose a random winner, it is sure to bring energy and thrill to your event.

Alternatively, you can save this best random picker wheel for the end of your presentation, to see which lucky participant will receive a small gift. Or perhaps, during office meetings, the spinner wheel can be used to decide who the next presenter will be.

#6 – Audience Experience – Features Of Presentation Software

The real essence of an interactive presentation is to make the audience feel like active participants rather than passive observers. As a result, the listeners feel more connected to the presentation and are more likely to retain the information shared. Ultimately, this interactive approach transforms a traditional presentation into a collaborative and enriching experience for everyone involved.

Your audience is your most important asset when delivering a presentation. Let AhaSlides help you give a successful presentation that will resonate with them long after it’s over.

• The more, the merrier. AhaSlides allows up to 10,000 people to join your presentation at once. Don’t worry! It will not be difficult to access, because each participant can only scan a unique QR code to join your presentation.
• There are 15 languages available — a huge step in breaking language barriers! 
• The interface is mobile-friendly, so you do not have to worry about your presentation showing errors or quirks on any mobile device. 
• The audience can see all the question slides, quizzes, and content appear on their mobile devices without constantly looking up at the presenter’s screen.
• Participants can share their quiz scores with a simple tap, or react to all of your slides with 5 colorful emojis. Just like Facebook!

#7 – Bonus: After the Event 

The best way to be a good speaker or presenter is to learn a lesson or paint yourself an overview of each presentation.

Does your audience like the presentation because of what ? How do they react to each question? Are they paying attention to the presentation? You need to put those questions together to come up with the final result.

It’s not possible to accurately tell if a presentation is going well or resonating with the crowd. But with AhaSlides, you can collect feedback and analyze how you did.

After the presentation, AhaSlides provides you with the following:

• A report to see your engagement rate, top responsive slides, quiz results, and your audience behavior.
• A shareable link of the presentation that already has all the participants’ responses. So, you can always come back to it to know your strengths, weaknesses, and what your audience needs in a presentation. Additionally, you can export the necessary data to an excel or PDF file. But this is only on the paid plan. 

Undoubtedly, choosing a comprehensive and easy-to-use interactive presentation software will transform your presentations.

AhaSlides revolutionizes traditional presentations by offering interactive features that encourage audience participation and collaboration. Through live polls, quizzes, and Q&A sessions, the audience can actively engage with the content and express their opinions.

With AhaSlides , you are no longer limited by old molds and can freely create your own presentation by registering and creating an account today (100% free)!

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Check out AhaSlides Free Public Templates Now!

A writer who wants to create practical and valuable content for the audience

More from AhaSlides

8 Time-Saving Presentation Tools You Need to Know

Running out of time to create your presentation? Check out these tools that will help you create professional presentations in no time!

Creating an effective presentation is a time-consuming task that requires careful planning and execution. However, sometimes we find ourselves in a time crunch and need to deliver a presentation quickly without compromising quality.

In such situations, having the right tools at our disposal can make all the difference. Check out these eight time-saving presentation tools that can help you create stunning presentations in a short amount of time. Whether you need to create a sales pitch, a training session, or a conference talk, these tools will help you save time and impress your audience.

Prezi is a cloud-based presentation software that allows you to create and deliver visually engaging presentations. Unlike traditional slide-based presentation tools like Microsoft PowerPoint, Prezi uses a zooming user interface (ZUI) that enables you to move between different levels of a presentation, zoom in and out of different elements, and create a more interactive and engaging experience for the audience.

Prezi offers a range of templates and tools to help you create presentations, including a library of pre-designed graphics, shapes, and icons.

You can also import and embed various multimedia elements into your presentations, such as images, videos, and audio files.

One of the key features of Prezi is its collaboration capabilities. You can work on presentations together in real-time, allowing multiple team members to contribute to the same project simultaneously. Prezi offers analytics and reporting tools that enable you to track the engagement and effectiveness of your presentations.

Prezi is a powerful tool for creating dynamic and engaging presentations, and its unique zooming interface can help you to stand out from the crowd and capture your audience's attention.

2. Google Slides

Google Slides is a free, cloud-based presentation software offered by Google as part of the Google Workspace suite. Similar to other presentation software like Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides allows you to create and deliver presentations with a variety of multimedia elements, such as text, images, videos, and charts.

One of the key benefits of Google Slides is its collaborative features. Multiple users can work on the same presentation simultaneously, making it easy for teams to collaborate and share ideas. You can also comment on specific slides or sections of a presentation, making it easy to provide feedback and suggestions.

Google Slides also offers a range of pre-designed templates and themes to help you create engaging presentations . You can customize your presentations with various fonts, colors, and graphics to match your brand or personal style.

Canva is a web-based graphic design platform that offers a wide range of tools and templates for creating various types of visual content, including presentations, social media graphics, posters, infographics, and more.

It offers a user-friendly interface and requires no design experience to create professional-looking designs. Canva offers a vast library of templates, graphics, and images that users can easily drag and drop into their designs.

You can also upload your own images and assets to use in your designs. The platform includes a variety of tools for editing images, adding text, and customizing layouts. One of the key features of Canva is its collaboration capabilities. Teams can work on designs together in real-time and share feedback and suggestions directly within the platform. You can also download designs in a variety of formats, including PNG, JPEG, PDF, and more.

Canva offers both free and paid versions of the platform, with the paid version unlocking access to more advanced features, such as premium images and templates, as well as team collaboration tools.

4. Haiku Deck

Haiku Deck is a cloud-based presentation software that is designed to create visually stunning and simple presentations. The software is available for both desktop and mobile devices and uses a simple, clean interface to create presentations.

Haiku Deck offers a library of free high-quality images that you can use in your presentations, as well as the ability to upload your own images. The software also includes a variety of built-in design templates and themes to help you create presentations quickly and easily.

One of the unique features of Haiku Deck is its emphasis on using a limited amount of text on each slide, with the goal of creating visually appealing and easy-to-read presentations. The software includes a feature called Haiku Deck Zuru that uses artificial intelligence to automatically generate text for slides based on keywords or phrases entered by the user.

Haiku Deck also includes a variety of sharing options, including the ability to share presentations directly from the software or embed them on a website or blog. You can also download presentations as PDFs or PowerPoint files.

5. Slidebean

Slidebean is a cloud-based presentation software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help you create visually appealing and professional-looking presentations quickly and easily. The software offers a range of templates and themes, as well as design recommendations based on the content of the presentation.

One of the key features of Slidebean is its use of AI to automate much of the design process. You can input your content into the software, and Slidebean will generate a design based on the content, including suggested fonts, colors, and layouts.

You can also customize your designs using a range of editing tools and templates. Slidebean also offers a range of collaboration features, allowing teams to work together on presentations in real-time. You can comment on specific slides, track changes, and assign tasks to team members.

The software also includes analytics and reporting tools, allowing you to track the engagement and effectiveness of your presentations. You can see how many people viewed the presentation, how long they spent on each slide, and how many times the presentation was shared.

Visme is a cloud-based visual content creation tool that allows users to easily create and share professional presentations, infographics, reports, and other types of visual content. It offers a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy for you to add text, images, charts, icons, and other elements to their designs.

Visme also provides a wide range of templates and pre-designed graphics to help you create stunning visuals quickly. You can customize these templates to match their brand or style preferences. Visme also provides collaboration features, making it easy for teams to work together on projects.

In addition to its design capabilities, Visme offers features for data visualization, animation, and interactivity, allowing you to create engaging and interactive content. It also provides analytics to track the performance of your visual content.

Emaze is a powerful and versatile presentation software that offers a wide range of features and capabilities. Its ease of use and extensive range of templates and designs make it an attractive option for individuals and businesses looking to create professional-looking presentations quickly and easily.

Emaze offers a wide range of templates and designs to help you create professional-looking presentations quickly and easily. It also includes a variety of multimedia features such as video, audio, and animations that can be embedded into presentations. You can also upload your own media files and incorporate them into your presentations.

One unique feature of Emaze is its 3D and panoramic capabilities, which allow you to create immersive and interactive presentations. With Emaze, you can create virtual tours, 360-degree presentations, and other engaging experiences that go beyond traditional slideshows.

Emaze also offers a range of collaboration tools, making it easy for teams to work together on presentations and projects. You can invite others to collaborate on a presentation, leave comments, and track changes.

Powtoon is a video creation platform that allows you to create animated videos and presentations. Powtoon offers a variety of templates, graphics, and characters to help users create animated videos quickly and easily.

You can also upload your own media files and incorporate them into your videos. Powtoon's drag-and-drop editor makes it easy for you to add and arrange elements on the screen. One of the key features of Powtoon is its ability to create explainer videos, which are short videos that explain a concept or product in a simple and engaging way.

You can also add voice-overs, music, and sound effects to their videos. Powtoon can also be used to create presentations; its mode allows you to create interactive presentations with animated elements and multimedia.

Create Stunning Presentations With These Quick Presentation Tools

When you're pressed for time and need to create a presentation quickly, it's important to have the right tools at your disposal. Fortunately, there are a variety of time-saving presentation tools available that can help you create stunning presentations in a fraction of the time it would take to create them from scratch.

By using these tools, you can save time and create visually stunning presentations that are sure to impress your audience. Whether you're a student, a business professional, or anyone in between, these presentation tools are a must-have for anyone who needs to create presentations quickly and efficiently.

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The Best Interactive Presentation Software and Tools in 2024

Table of Contents

iSpring Suite is a PowerPoint add-on that allows you to create interactive and engaging presentations with relative ease. iSpring Suite makes the list for its wide range of features combined with its simplicity of use . As it’s an add-on for PowerPoint, downloading, setting up, and using iSpring Suite is super simple and intuitive.

What makes this presentation software stand out is the array of features for adding interactivity to your presentations. It allows you to add dynamic assessments with 14 different quiz types, interactive videos, and dynamic role-plays with branching. The software also includes a unique character builder that allows you to add custom-illustrated characters to your presentations.

iSpring Suite has one of the best content libraries of any interactive platform for presentations, with over 90,000 assets and templates to choose from. The tool also allows you to add multimedia and even screen record your presentation into a video tutorial, all within the same program. You have several export options for your presentation, meaning you can upload it to an LMS for your learners to interact with, and for you to manage their learning journeys.

While iSpring Suite is full of useful features for making existing presentations more engaging and interactive or creating them from scratch, it is limited to PowerPoint-based slide decks. If you’re starting from a PowerPoint presentation, then this is an advantage, but if you are looking for a whole new approach to presentations, then this may be a drawback. Moreover, iSpring is one of the more premium options, as it comes in at a higher price.

However, you get what you pay for, and iSpring is feature rich. The newest feature it offers is an AI assistant that can help give inspiration, write content, and design assessments. iSpring Suite is easy to use and feels familiar to anyone who has ever made a PowerPoint presentation. This combination of features and ease of use makes iSpring Suite the best interactive presentation software overall.

Best for: 

iSpring Suite is the best option for small and medium businesses, schools, and universities.

A user’s feedback on G2 – 4.6 out of 5 stars

iSpring changes the PowerPoint game with its user-friendly extensions and features. I will never create another PPT without it. Even though it is very user-friendly, I am not very technologically literate. So, it’s always the best thing ever when I click ‘Help’ and get support from a live agent. I get super quick responses and quick fixes that I wouldn’t have been able to figure out myself. The support team really makes a difference. Shout out to Julia on the tech team!

Nearpod is an interactive presentation tool that is ideally suited for teachers. Where Nearpod stands out is in providing real-time insight into your students’ progress through an interactive learning experience.

Like other interactive presentation software, Nearpod can be used in different ways. First, it works nicely as a tool for making classroom presentations more interactive through class participation activities, such as polls and premade games.

However, Nearpod has two more useful modes that make it great for teachers who need to conduct distance learning. With the first mode, the teacher can present and pace the lesson themselves, with the students accessing the lesson remotely. This works much like a distance learning lesson, and you can benefit from the interactive elements much the same as in the classroom.

The other mode that Nearpod provides allows your students to access and interact with the lesson at their own pace and in their own time. This would be a great tool for students who can’t attend lessons, for example.

Creating interactive lessons with Nearpod is simple and effective, but not outstanding by any means. Where Nearpod does shine, however, is in how easy it is to track your students’ progress and understanding of the material, with formative assessments and quizzes, all within the same app.

While Nearpod could be used for other learning situations, and not just in schools, the app is really geared toward teachers and schoolchildren. The design and features were built with this use in mind. With this target audience, the gamification elements of Nearpod are great. They’re intuitive and very pleasing to the eye, thus making them perfect for kids to engage with the learning content.

Nearpod is also free to use for classes up to 40 students, but it does have some limitations. The app only allows for 100 MB of storage and some LMS integrations. However, Nearpod for Schools offers good value for money and can offer bespoke solutions for you and your intuition’s needs.

NearPod is the best option for schools – especially for distance learning.

I like that there are so many great lessons and activities already created that are available for teachers to choose from. It is also user-friendly and easy to add to any lesson plan! There’s not much I dislike about this learning resource. The only thing I can say is that I have found that NearPod is not always easy for every student to interact with the lesson. Nearpod helps me plan exciting lessons and takes a lot of work and time out of my lesson planning and preparation time. It is also great to use when there is a substitute in class.

Prezi is one of the best online tools for making interactive presentations that look beautiful and dynamic . Prezi’s standout feature is its approach to your presentation structure: instead of a linear format, you can navigate your presentation in a much more flexible and dynamic manner. Besides this unique design approach, Prezi gives you a lot of customization features that center on making presentations that look striking.

If you’ve ever made a presentation, then you probably understand what is meant by a linear presentation – a slide deck where each slide shows some information or visual, and over the course of the presentation, you proceed from slide 1 through to the final slide. Prezi breaks this format. Instead, you can jump to any slide in the deck via animations.

A good way to picture this is to imagine a title slide with subheadings. In Prezi, clicking on a subheading will transport you to a new slide by zooming in and revealing new information. This can be done with images or other design elements, and the crucial part is that you can zoom back out to the master slide to re-navigate to wherever you wish. This system has some advantages.

Non-linear navigation means you don’t have to follow a specific order for your presentation, but can go where you please. Moreover, this structured approach can really help learners categorize information in their minds, as they can see where each element fits into the whole. Lastly, this system can wow your audience and leave a lasting impression on them.

There are, of course, some drawbacks to this kind of interactive slideshow. While a Prezi presentation can look great, it can be problematic. If, for example, you are presenting over an online connection or on an older machine, you may find the zooming animations look a little messy, can be distracting, and not to everyone’s liking. That being said, this is a minor limitation to Prezi’s beautiful design.

Prezi is the best option for businesses with a creative approach.

A user’s feedback on G2 – 4.2 out of 5 stars

As someone who develops apps, Prezi really does stick out among the crowded competition by making presentations interesting and dynamic. With the zoom feature and more creative transitions, we have a fresh alternative to standard PowerPoint slides: every story comes out all the better for our presentations. What I love about Prezi is that you can create more of an interactive background. This gives my work a bit more of a business-like look.

Vaishali T.

4. Mentimeter

Mentimeter is one of the best tools for making presentations interactive by focusing on audience participation . With this app, you can update your slides with live polling, quizzes, and word clouds to keep your audience engaged and interacting with your content.

The word cloud feature is especially useful. It’s very easy to set up and creates a great interactive element for your slide, allowing the audience to contribute answers to a question that are then displayed anonymously on your slide. This kind of interactivity is simple yet effective.

As an interactive presentation platform, Mentimeter focuses on being incredibly simple to use and is therefore nothing special in terms of design features. Mentimeter is best used as a tool for uploading your premade slide deck and adding quick and simple interactive elements for when you present to an audience.

One of the great things about this system is that your audience doesn’t need to download an app but can interact with your slide from the web browser on their phone or other device. This makes it great for delivering presentations to larger audiences when you want to increase engagement or collect feedback.

Mentimeter also allows you to visualize the data you collect during your presentations to further analyze and make decisions accordingly. It is intuitive and simple to use, making it great for workshops, meetings, and events that require feedback.

Mentimeter is the best option for gathering feedback-based statistics at companies, schools, and universities.

Mentimeter is an outstanding tool, its features, the functionality, the ease of creating interactive & engaging presentations with a whole suite of templates are outstanding – as a direct result I have used this extensively which as a result has helped me drive our employee satisfaction measure +6 points above the corporate benchmark.

5. SlideDog

SlideDog is unique among dynamic presentation tools in that, instead of being an interactive presentation maker, it is a tool for seamlessly presenting multiple presentations or files at the same time. SlideDog is a live presentation software designed for multimedia presentations and supports any kind of presentation media.

SlideDog is a niche product, but it is very good at what it does. If you have ever had to present something and found yourself jumping from your presentation to a PDF, YouTube video, or web page, then SlideDog can solve your quandary. You can meld multiple presentations, files, and media together into a single playlist and then hit play. You can set up your presentation to run on its own or control it from a separate device. 

As an interactive presentation app, SlideDog is easy to set up and use and offers some useful features, such as live presenting to multiple devices and some interactive elements such as polls, questionnaires, and an audience chat. While SlideDog doesn’t boast the most sophisticated interactivity, that’s not the focus of the tool.

One of the key use cases that SlideDog can be useful for is tying together multiple presentations delivered by multiple speakers at the same event into one simple and sleek flow. You can upload PowerPoint presentations as well as files from Prezi and SlideDog will keep the animations and visuals intact.

Overall, SlideDog is the perfect tool for its specific use case and is perfect for presenters who find themselves jumping from their slides to webpages, PDFs, or documents during their presentations.

SlideDog is the best option for people who organize meetings, conferences, and other events that involve several speakers with individual materials of different formats.

A user’s feedback on G2 – 4.2 out of 5 stars

The application of SlideDog allows for creating presentations that are interesting in addition to the slides themselves, which could contain web pages, videos, pictures, text, or Excel files. I enjoy the possibility of the user’s presentation to partners or colleagues. The software SlideDog is user friendly, and it is easy to use the interface, has very useful features, a clean design, and accepts the common formats of files.

6. FlowVella

FlowVella is an interactive presentation app for Apple devices that excels at producing clean, professional-looking content that audiences can interact with . FlowVella’s presentations are a great way of making informative presentations that audiences can interact with independently from the presenters. One of its highlighted use cases is in iPad kiosks.

Compared to other software for interactive presentations, FlowVella can seem a little limited in the features it provides for content authoring but instead focuses on making it easy to design very functional interactive slides that combine videos, images, text, and PDFs to create a simple interactive presentation.

FlowVella allows you to make professional-looking info slides with dynamic navigation and seamless media incorporation. You can use the many templates provided to make excellent content. 

Where FlowVella shines is in the sharing and implementation of its presentations. While you can use the app to deliver presentations in a traditional setting, the focus here is on multiple devices, independent and offline experiences, or kiosk mode. If you have ever been to a museum or exhibition, then you have probably interacted with an iPad displaying some information. FlowVella stands out in exactly this kind of environment.

With functionality and simple design at its core, FlowVella focuses on presentations that offer detailed information in a pleasing design, with interactivity that anyone can access. The app is optimized for display devices like iPads, but it also works effortlessly on iPhones and Mac computers.

FlowVella also has a nifty custom URL system for easy sharing and offers comprehensive analytics features so you can analyze how people interact with your presentations. Overall, FlowVella is a great option for its kiosk mode but falls behind competitors in terms of its interactive features.

FlowVella is the best option for exhibitors who need to create content to arrange iPad-based kiosks for events.

A user’s feedback on G2 – 4.1 out of 5 stars

The presentations that can be created have been of interest to clients, attracting attention. It is an effective tool that has allowed me to keep track of each presentation by knowing who sees it and for how long. With this information, it helps me analyze how much impact it has.

7. IntuiFace

IntuiFace is a truly unique platform and one of the best interactive presentation tools for creating bespoke and professional experiences . IntuiFace goes beyond traditional presentations and instead focuses on the unique experience that devices can offer in retail settings or that commercial and educational installations need to provide.

IntuiFace excels in exactly this area by taking any input media, such as images, videos, and text, and creating a truly bespoke experience to present the information to an audience with high levels of interaction. It can be used by businesses to create unique purchasing or product customization experiences, or in exhibitions for unique learning and interaction experiences.

The most amazing thing about IntuiFace is that anyone can use it because it requires absolutely no coding skills to create these solutions. Such bespoke solutions for presenting information and creating unique interactions would normally require a bespoke solution, but not with IntuiFace; it is actually an incredibly intuitive interactive presentation platform.

As you would expect from the intended use case, this tool is optimized to work on devices with touchscreen functionality and maintains its performance across devices of all shapes and sizes. This makes it the go-to option for exhibitions and installations that include the highest levels of interaction with audiences.

Although it is surprisingly intuitive, IntuiFace is not the simplest program for creating interactive presentations and definitely goes above and beyond most presenting needs, which makes it an expensive option for most. It is, however, arguably the best tool for the job when it comes to interactive installations. As a no-code solution, it can be a time- and cost-saving solution for businesses and institutions that would otherwise look to bespoke digital solutions.

IntuiFace is the best option for presentation designers who want to create a “wow effect” on a multi-touch screen at exhibitions, conferences, and other events.

A user’s feedback on G2 – 5 out of 5 stars

IntuiFace combines familiar features you will find in PowerPoint, Keynote, Photoshop, and Illustrator with a unified UI and an easy-to-use set of features and tools. The supported APIs make interfacing with external data possible, a function that once required extensive custom coding. Deploying experiences via the IntuiFace cloud has been of great benefit to my clients located out of state. 

Visme stands out for its visuals and simplicity . As interactive tools for presentations go, Visme is simple to use, and it’s easy to find all the features you might need for your design. You can choose from a huge selection of templates and make your presentations visually appealing with their enormous content library.

With data visualizations and media integration, Visme excels in the design area. This means you can convert existing slides or documents into beautiful presentations or create them from scratch. Your presentations will also be engaging with several interactive features.

Visme offers customized navigation, animations, clickable assets, polls, quizzes, and videos, all of which can make your presentation more engaging. However, it doesn’t stand out in terms of interactivity, instead focusing on ease of use and design.

One feature that Visme is proud to offer is its AI-powered design assistant, which can take your prompts and help you design your slides accordingly. This could be a great tool for accelerating the design process and compensating for a lack of inspiration. The tool is, however, still in beta and may not be a useful tool for those who want to take design into their own hands.

Visme’s other great features are the simple infographic tool for data visualization and the end-to-end branded content creation. Visme stands out as a great option for those who value design and want an intuitive platform for making awesome-looking presentations.

Visme is the best option for educators, presenters and communicators – especially those who prefer team work – as Visme lets you organize the project data into folders and provide role-based permissions.

Visme is an infographic maker tool with hundreds of beautiful templates to create visually-effective infographics. I can collaborate with my team members in real-time to get and implement the best ideas.

Harinder S.

9. Pear Deck

Pear Deck is another excellent interactive presentation tool for teachers. In this case, Pear Deck is especially notable for its capacity to create presentations with differentiated instruction for a range of diverse learners .

Just like Nearpod, Pear Deck is designed to be used by teachers, and while it can be used for distance learning, it focuses more on being a classroom tool for interactive learning. Pear Deck is designed to maximize the engagement and interactivity of your slide-based presentations. It incorporates analytics and feedback into the platform.

This classroom interactivity tool is great for encouraging students to get involved with the material on screen through tasks, quizzes, and discussions that are built into the presentation. You can also collect real-time feedback for immediate insights into your students’ comprehension and assess each student individually.

The standout feature of Pear Deck is the way it helps you include differentiated instruction, meaning you can provide different levels of support or challenge to different students. This means you can close learning gaps by supporting weaker learners while simultaneously pushing stronger learners to achieve more, all in the same lesson.

Pear Deck achieves this through a wide range of pre-made blocks, templates, and even lessons. The program allows you to create these engaging lessons, but is limited in its design options. While Pear Deck is a great choice for teachers in schools, NearPod surpasses it slightly as the top pick. However, Pear Deck is a great option for its differentiated instruction capability. In real terms, both are good options for teachers, and it will boil down to personal choice.

Pear Deck is the best option for schools and educators working with children.

A user’s feedback on G2 – 4.4 out of 5 stars

Pear Deck is a great way to get students engaged in a simple, and maybe boring, PowerPoint presentation. I use Google Slides and try to make it engaging. Pairing it with Pear Deck allows students to get engaged in ways that work for them.

Jonathan K.

10. Genially

Genially makes the list for its excellent options for gamified presentations . Like other interactive tools for presentations, it is simple to use, looks great, and has plenty of features for interactivity, but that doesn’t place it above the others. Genially stands out most of all for its gamification options, which are simple to implement.

The gamification tab in Genially’s presentation builder is intuitive and makes it easy to add quizzes, drag-and-drop games, and even an escape room game into your presentation. Gamification is a huge topic in eLearning and has been proven to positively impact learning across many fields, therefore making it a huge bonus for your presentation.

While other interactive platforms for presentations make gamification possible, Genially has great options that are incredibly easy to implement. Moreover, Genially also offers a wide range of interactive elements such as hover-over labels, hotspots, and pop-ups, which also means learners can interact with your presentations without the need for a presenter.

Genially makes visually impressive presentations and is simple to use. It is also priced competitively, and offers plenty of value for its cost, and even offers a generous free plan.

Genially is the best option for people from different professional areas who want to engage their audience by presenting their content dynamically, beautifully, and in a highly interactive way.

Genially is the best web-based design enhancement tool I’ve ever used. The media options, integration options, templates, etc. are absolutely top notch, and look incredible on any style of Genially you create! I mostly use Genially for creating flyers, interactive images, and interactive (non-linear) presentations. I’ve created my own “brand” inside of Genially, and it’s incredibly easy to use everything I’ve created anywhere I want, as well as to use the pre-created media. It’s just an amazing tool.

11. Beautiful.ai

Beautiful.ai is one of the most innovative online presentation tools for its use of AI in the design process . What Beautiful.ai does is to simplify and accelerate the process of creating visually succinct presentations from your content, through the use of artificial intelligence. All you have to do is insert your text and media, and the AI assistant does the rest.

This system works great for applying a theme to an existing presentation in order to apply branding, for example. You just have to select your template and colors, and the AI assistant will make sure that each slide is optimized to look great. Beautiful.ai removes the need to go through all your slides, adjusting fonts, scales, positions, colors, and more; it all just works.

Beautiful.ai is a time-saving tool that allows you to focus on the content of your presentation. While it is truly amazing at what it does, it isn’t designed to do much else. Beautiful.ai doesn’t add interactivity options, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make engaging slides with it.

Like other interactive presentation software, Beautiful.ai has added a generative AI feature to its platform, allowing you to create slides from written prompts. While this does have the potential to be an effective time-saving tool, it is hit-and-miss in its current form. Like many other generative AI options, it usually doesn’t give you exactly what you want, so if you are serious about your presentations, you still need to make them yourself. However, with Beautiful.ai, the design can be automated effectively.

Beautiful.ai is the best option for people who create or edit presentations often and want to spend less time on that task, while keeping their work at a high level.

A user’s feedback on G2 – 4.7 out of 5 stars

I like the AI Bot that creates beautiful slides with great visuals. This enables one to create an entire presentation in a short time. It is better than other platforms because of the numerous templates available and the accuracy. The suggestions to shorten or change the tone of the text are also a plus.

Catherine O.

How We Tested the Best Interactive Presentation Software

In order to provide an informed and unbiased list of the best interactive presentation software, we first established our expectations, then collected our sources, and finally tested, critiqued, and reviewed.

We decided that each of our choices needed to offer a stand-out feature, to ensure that every single product on the list would be useful to someone, but we also needed to assess each product for the range of features it did or didn’t offer. We then read related articles and review videos to gain insights from reputable sources.

We downloaded and tested the free versions of the products where possible to get a feel for their functionalities. Finally, we put our experience and that of others together in order to assemble an insightful list of the most useful and capable tools for making presentations more interactive.

FAQ on Using Interactive Presentation Software

Many questions arise when discussing interactivity in presentations, so we collected some of the most frequently asked questions and provided our experienced answers.

1. How can I make my presentation interactive?

Interactivity in a presentation means having your audience participate in your delivery to some degree, and this can be achieved through different means. You can establish higher levels of engagement through media and interesting visuals, but interactivity requires a little more.

You need to get your audience involved. You can add questions to your presentations and include a way for learners to share their answers. Another option is to add games to the slides or have your audience navigate through the content themselves. Giving your audience autonomy is an effective way to boost learning and enjoyment.

2. How do I make an interactive PowerPoint presentation for eLearning?

PowerPoint presentations and effective eLearning can go hand in hand, presuming that you understand the key components of effective eLearning and apply that theory to your PowerPoint through effective interactivity. 

Interactivity is one of the most effective methods of achieving high-quality eLearning success, and this can be implemented through software such as iSpring Suite, which allows you to add interactive elements to your PowerPoint presentations. Once your PowerPoint presentation includes interactive elements, you can present it directly or upload it to an LMS for further eLearning effectiveness.

3. What are some other popular PowerPoint alternatives for creating interactive presentations online?

There are several popular alternatives to using PowerPoint for creating interactive presentations online. One of the most commonly used options is Google Slides, which is compatible with several of the tools on our list. Other great examples include Prezi, Mentimeter, FlowVella, Visme, and Beautiful.ai.

4. How does Google Slides compare to PowerPoint as a presentation tool?

Google Slides and PowerPoint are extremely similar to use as presentation tools. If you know how to use one, you can use the other without issues. Where Google Slides differs is that it is an online tool, like other Google services, so all of your projects are saved and edited online. This means they can be collaborated on and shared a little more easily. 

Google Slides also offers seamless integration with other Google services, such as Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Drive. One bonus is that Google Slides can integrate automatically with Google Classroom, allowing you to share your presentations with students if you’re a teacher.

That’s our list of the 11 best interactive presentation software and tools. We hope you found the choices helpful and located the right tool for your use case, or at least could find the information you need to arrive at an informed conclusion about which tool is best.

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Content creator:

Helga Kolinski

iSpring editor and boots-on-the-ground author. She’s always ready to share in-depth insights on the most hardcore eLearning topics with her readers.

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Article • 12 min read

Creating Effective Presentation Visuals

Connecting people with your message.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

Apple® founder Steve Jobs was known widely for his great presentations. His unveiling of the iPhone® in 2007 is considered to have been one of his best presentations ever, and, if you were one of the millions who watched it online, you'll know why. The presentation was engaging, and passionate.

Jobs was particularly well known for building his presentations around powerful visual aids. He knew that slides are most effective when they tell a story rather than convey information, so his visuals were simple, elegant, and image-based. They complemented and reinforced his message, and they never competed with him for his audience's attention.

You don't have to be Steve Jobs to give a great presentation, but you do need great visuals. They convey a powerful message about your ideas and your brand, so it's essential to get them right. In this article, we'll look at how you can create effective presentation visuals – slides that connect your audience with your message.

Why Simplicity Speaks Volumes

The saying "A picture is worth a thousand words" is popular for a good reason: the human brain processes information more effectively when it is accompanied by images, or by short, memorable statements. This means that when you use simple, image-based slides to support your message, your audience can better grasp the information you're communicating.

However, many people use too many slides, or they build presentations around visual aids that are word-heavy or excessively complex.

These kinds of visual aids can negatively affect your presentation. Let's look at some examples:

• You're trying to convince the board to support a new product idea. Your slides are made up of graphs, numbers, and blocks of text from top to bottom, and board members spend most of their time reading the slides instead of listening to you. The result? You don't make a real connection, and your passion for the project is lost on them. They vote unanimously not to take the idea forward.
• You're pitching to a promising potential client. You spent a lot of time creating your slides, using many colors, animations, and fonts. However, the slides are so complex that your client has trouble understanding them. She leaves the presentation feeling overwhelmed and tired, and avoids using your firm because she fears, subconsciously, that dealing with your firm in the future could be similarly draining.
• You're giving a presentation to your department to highlight its good work. You want to feature everyone, so you make a slide detailing each person's accomplishments. Your department has dozens of people, so by the end, your team cares more about leaving than their results.

Now think about what happens when you use simple and engaging visuals. Instead of generating confusion or exhaustion, your slides create a positive connection with your audience. People might not remember exactly what you said, but they will remember a powerful image. They'll recall the positive emotions that they experienced during your presentation, and they'll start to associate your brand with clear, intelligent communication.

The results will be profound. You'll win new clients, convince colleagues to act on your ideas, and earn recognition for your team members' hard work. In short, you'll make positive impressions that will remain in people's minds long after the details of your presentation have faded.

Creating Great Visuals

Your visual aids have one job: to support your presentation . However, it takes considerable time, creativity, and effort to develop slides that do this well. Use the tips below to make the most of your preparation time.

1. Be Consistent

A common mistake is choosing different colors and fonts for each slide. This can confuse your audience and divert attention away from your message. Stay consistent with your slides, so that they form part of a seamless whole.

First, choose colors carefully, as color will affect your presentation's mood and tone. Also, think about the space that you'll be presenting in. If the room will be dark (with lights off), choose a darker background color, such as dark blue, black, or gray, with white or light-colored text. If the room will be light (with lights on or plenty of ambient light), choose a white or light-colored background, with black or dark-colored text.

You also need to match color with the tone and message of your presentation. Bright colors convey energy and excitement, while darker colors may seem more conservative and serious. Align the color palette you choose with your subject matter.

Microsoft® PowerPoint and Apple's Keynote are the most widely used presentation packages. They feature useful templates and tools, and most people are familiar with the layout of their presentations.

However, cloud-based presentation tools have features and templates that might be new to your audience, increasing the potential impact of your presentations.

2. Consider Culture

Before you create your visuals, make sure that you understand your audience. This is especially true if you're presenting to a culturally diverse group.

For example, not everyone reads from left to right, and people from some cultures may consider a particular color offensive or bad luck in business settings (look out for examples of this in our Managing Around the World articles). Additionally, jargon or slang may cause confusion with your audience.

When designing your visuals, use images and photographs that reflect the culture to which you're speaking. If you're presenting to a culturally diverse group, use pictures and images that reflect this diversity.

And keep graphics and phrases simple; remember, not everyone in the room will be a native English speaker. Whenever possible, use images to replace bullet points and sentences.

Our article on Cross-Cultural Communication has more tips for communicating with an ethnically diverse group.

3. Use Images Intelligently

When Steve Jobs unveiled the MacBook Air® , he needed to show just how small this new laptop was. The audience wasn't going to remember that it was 0.68 x 11.8 x 7.56 inches; those numbers don't create an emotional response. Instead, he showed them that the MacBook Air would fit easily into a standard manila envelope. This was a powerful way to show its size.

This kind of creativity is essential when choosing images. Your audience has probably seen plenty of bad clip-art and too many pictures of cross-cultural handshakes. Brainstorm creative, clever approaches with your imagery, and look for photographs or illustrations that tell a story in a less obvious way.

Thoughtful images will keep your audience engaged, reinforce your professionalism, and make a lasting impression.

4. Break Complex Data Down

When you have to communicate complex data or large chunks of information, avoid putting it all on one slide, as your audience may struggle to take in all of the details. Instead, either summarize the information, or split it up over several slides.

You can also use handouts to communicate complex information. Handouts allow your audience to look at data closely. This is especially important when you're presenting to analytical people, such as engineers, scientists, or finance professionals. They are trained to be skeptical about data, and a handout will give them a closer look. Once again, this kind of attention to the needs of your audience will highlight your professionalism and support your message.

5. Keep It Simple

Each slide should focus on one idea or concept. This allows your audience to grasp quickly what you want to communicate. Keep your text to a bare minimum (10 words or fewer if possible), and, where you can, use an image to convey a message rather than words: for example, consider using a graph instead of a list to show changing trends. Each slide should take three seconds or fewer to process. If it takes longer, the slide is probably too complex.

It can sometimes be helpful to follow a clear structure when creating your presentation; for example, if it is focused on a document or process with which audience members are familiar. This will help them make connections between your content and their existing knowledge.

Avoid bulleted lists whenever possible; they make it too easy to put several ideas on one slide, which can be overwhelming for your audience. If you do need to use bullets, don't use sentences; instead, simply list the fact, statistic, or idea you want to communicate. Then use your narrative to educate the audience about what these mean.

To simplify the wording on your slides further, highlight the key word in every sentence.

Next, look at the layout of your slides. Aim to use a plain background and plenty of blank space: this will help to focus audience members' eyes on your message. Avoid decorating slides with background pictures, logos or patterns that could distract attention.

Last, consider using blank slides when you need the audience's complete focus; a blank slide is equivalent to a pause, and it will add drama, tension, and focus to your words.

Many people underestimate how much time they need to set aside to prepare for a presentation. They'll spend days creating content and visuals but only a few hours practicing. Allow extra preparation time to hone your message and feel fully confident in your presentation.

First, take our interactive quiz, How Good Are Your Presentation Skills? to get an idea of how well you speak. Our articles on Delivering Great Presentations and Better Public Speaking contain tips and strategies that will help you communicate with clarity and intention.

When you practice your presentation, use your visuals. You should be able to glance at each slide and know exactly what you want to say.

If you're not confident in creating your own slides, think about outsourcing the task to a professional. This can be a smart option when a lot is at stake, or when you don't have the technical skills to create the type of presentation you want.

Consider using an outsourcing service such as Elance , Guru , or PeoplePerHour to find a suitable professional.

If you do, keep in mind that managing a freelancer requires a different approach from managing a regular staff member. Be clear about the project details, communicate your goals for the presentation, and set deadlines that give you plenty of time to revise and add as necessary.

Presentations that are too complex or lengthy can undermine your message. To create better visuals, do the following:

• Stay consistent.
• Consider culture.
• Use images intelligently.
• Break down complex data.
• Keep it simple.

If the stakes are high with your presentation and you don't feel confident with your technical skills, consider outsourcing slide preparation.

"iPhone," "Apple," "MacBook Air," and "Keynote" are trademarks of Apple Inc. (see www.apple.com ). "Microsoft" and "PowerPoint" are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation (see www.microsoft.com ). We have no association or connection with these organizations.

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Presenter Tools and Features

Locked lesson.

• Lesson resources Resources
• Quick reference Reference

About this lesson

In this lesson, we will run a slide show and explore the in-presentation features such as blacking out the screen, using annotations, turning on subtitles and switching pointer options.

Exercise files

Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ PowerPoint presentations from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.

Quick reference

We should use Presenter view whenever we are presenting to an audience. Presenter view includes many tools and featuers to assist the presenter during the presentation. 

When to use

We use Presenter view whenever we are running the slide show for an audience. 

Instructions

Remove timings.

• From the Slide Show tab, in the Setup group, untick Use Timings.  

Switch to Presenter View

• From the Slide Show tab, in the Monitors group, tick the box next to Use Presenter View .
• Press F5 to run the slide show. 
• Hover the mouse over the icons in the bottom left-hand corner. 
• Click the elipses . 
• Select Show Presenter View . 

Presenter View shows the current slide, the next slide and any notes. 

• Click the arrows underneath the current slide to navigate through the presentation. 
• Notice the timer in the top left-hand corner. 
• Click Show Taskbar to see the taskbar and access other applications. 

In-Presentation Tools

Access in-presentation tools via the icons underneath the current slide. 

• Click Pen and Laser Point tools.  
• Select Laser pointer . Use the laser pointer to point at items of interest on the slide. 
• Select Pen . 
• Use the pen to annotate the slide. 
• Select Erase to erase one annotation or Erase All Ink on Slide to erase everything. 
• Select Ink color to change the color of the pen. 
• Select Highlighter to highlight text and other items on the slide. 
• Click See All Slides . This lets up easily jump between different slides in the deck. 
• Click Zoom into the slide . Use the hand cursor to Pan . 
• Click Black or unblack slideshow . We use this to temporarily blackout the slides so the focus is on us. 
• Click Toggle subtitles . Improves accessibility for anyone hearing impaired. 

More Presenter Tools and Features

• Click the elipses. 
• Select Screen from the menu. 
• Select White screen . This is the same as blacking out the screen. 
• Select Subtitle settings . Choose where to display subtitles. 

End the Slide Show

• Click End Show. 

PowerPoint will ask us if we want to keep ink annotations, if we added some.

Hints & tips

• The Timer is useful as it helps us keep track of time when presenting. 
• It's recommended to black out the screen when we want the audience to focus on us and what we are saying. It prevents people being distracted by the slide. 
• The default color for the laser pointer and pen is red. We can change this by selecting a different color from the palette in the Set Up Show dialog box. 
• 00:04 Earlier on this course,
• 00:05 I showed you how you can use Presenter View when running your slideshow.
• 00:09 And when you're using Presenter View, there are many other tools available in
• 00:14 that view, that help you to present your information in a clear and effective way.
• 00:18 And that's what we're going to explore in this lesson.
• 00:21 Now, if you recall, we set up timings on our presentation.
• 00:26 Now, one thing I didn't mention was how to essentially remove those timings from
• 00:30 your slides.
• 00:31 And it's fairly straightforward, if we go to the slide show tab in the setup group,
• 00:37 you can see that currently I have the use timings box checked.
• 00:41 So, all I need to do is uncheck that, and those have been removed.
• 00:46 So now let's jump back into Presenter View.
• 00:49 And if you recall, the first thing you need to make sure you have checked is this
• 00:54 little checkbox just here in the monitors group, where it says use Presenter View.
• 00:59 Once you have that checked if you press the F5 button to run that slide show,
• 01:03 you'll notice in the bottom left hand corner we have these little faded out
• 01:08 icons.
• 01:09 So if we click the three dots or ellipses on the end here,
• 01:13 we can jump straight into Presenter View from this menu.
• 01:17 So now that we're in here, let's take a bit of a closer look.
• 01:20 As the presenter, this is particularly useful because I can see my presentation,
• 01:25 I can see the slide that I'm currently on.
• 01:28 I can see what the next slide is coming up, and as we've seen before,
• 01:32 I can see any notes that I have underneath each of these slides.
• 01:35 I can scroll through my slides using these arrow buttons at the bottom,
• 01:41 and I also have a timer in the top left hand corner of this slide.
• 01:46 So basically when I'm running my presentation,
• 01:49 I can see if I'm making good time.
• 01:52 So that's particularly useful if you have a 20 minute or 30 minute slot,
• 01:56 you can keep an eye on how you're progressing.
• 01:58 Just above that, I have an option to show the taskbar, and
• 02:02 that's going to pull up my taskbar so I can access other applications.
• 02:06 I can also change my display settings from here, so I can swap the Presenter View and
• 02:12 the slide show, and I can also duplicate the slideshow.
• 02:16 And then finally, I have an end slideshow button which we'll use when we want to
• 02:20 come out of Presenter View.
• 02:21 Now, the main thing I want to focus on here,
• 02:24 are some of the in presentation tools that you have available.
• 02:28 And these tools can really help you when you're presenting to an audience.
• 02:33 Now you'll find all of these tools directly under your slideshow.
• 02:37 So the first one here is the pen and laser pointer tool, and when I click that,
• 02:42 I get this little menu pop up, and I can choose any one of these options.
• 02:47 So if I select laser pointer for example, you can see exactly what I get.
• 02:52 So I'm sure you've seen this in presentations you've attended before,
• 02:56 in order for the speaker to point at different things on the side, it's useful
• 03:01 to have something that stands out a lot more than just a very small white cursor.
• 03:07 And let's jump back into this menu, I also have the option of a pen.
• 03:12 And this is going to allow me as the presenter to basically draw on my side.
• 03:17 So again, if I want to highlight something on here, I can draw a circle.
• 03:22 This is a lot easier if you have a stylus as opposed to a mouse.
• 03:26 And of course I have some erase options, so
• 03:28 I can choose to erase specific annotations or I can erase all ink on the side,
• 03:33 which is exactly what I'm going to do right now.
• 03:36 Now incidentally, if I am using that pen to annotate my slides,
• 03:40 I can choose the ink color from a limited palette.
• 03:44 And finally, I have a highlighter, so this does exactly as you would expect,
• 03:48 I can go in and I can highlight certain lines of text or other items.
• 03:53 Some really useful things in there.
• 03:55 The next button along allows me to see all of my slides,
• 03:59 so this takes me into a completely different way of viewing.
• 04:03 I've got my sections listed down the left hand side and I can switch between them,
• 04:08 and if I want to show a specific slide, I can just select it from the slide deck.
• 04:13 So, this is quite useful if you're in a presentation and
• 04:16 you need to maybe jump around to different slides within the deck.
• 04:19 The next button along is the zoom into slide option.
• 04:23 And if I click this,
• 04:24 you can see it does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin.
• 04:28 You can see that my cursor has changed to a little plus,
• 04:31 and if I click, it's going to zoom into this slide.
• 04:34 My cursor then changes to a small little tiny hand, and
• 04:38 it means I can pan around or drag around my slide,
• 04:42 and really hone in on specific things that I want my audience to see.
• 04:47 Click zoom again to zoom back out.
• 04:50 Now this next button is one that I use all the time.
• 04:53 And this will essentially blackout your slideshow.
• 04:57 So occasionally if I'm running a presentation,
• 05:00 maybe I want to speak to my audience and I want all of their focus to be on me, and
• 05:05 not what's showing behind me on the screen.
• 05:08 So to facilitate that, I might choose to blackout my presentation for a moment.
• 05:13 So if I click this, it's basically just going to show a blank slide on the screen,
• 05:18 click it again, and it brings my presentation back.
• 05:21 The next button along is to toggle subtitles.
• 05:24 So when I click this, so you're going to see that I'm going to start to get
• 05:27 subtitles appear at the bottom of the screen.
• 05:30 So this is brilliant for anybody who is hearing impaired or struggles to hear what
• 05:35 you're saying, it really adds to the accessibility of your presentation.
• 05:40 And you can choose to toggle these on and toggle them off, whenever you like.
• 05:45 And then finally, we have this little ellipses on the end,
• 05:48 which just has a few more options.
• 05:50 I was speaking a few minutes ago about being able to black out the screen.
• 05:54 And you'll see here if I hover over this option in the menu I have a choice of
• 05:58 blank screen or a white screen.
• 06:01 So if I click that, that's what I'm going to get, and
• 06:03 I can toggle back to my presentation.
• 06:07 I can also choose to hide Presenter View, which is just going to take me back to
• 06:11 the normal slideshow view, and I can set my subtitle settings as well from here.
• 06:17 So I have mine displayed below the slide,
• 06:19 and I find that that pretty much works for me.
• 06:22 But you could choose to have them above at the top overlaid, or
• 06:25 at the bottom overlaid.
• 06:27 And when I say overlaid,
• 06:28 it just means they're going to overlay your actual slide.
• 06:32 And then at the top here, I have an option to see what was last viewed.
• 06:37 So that's going to take me back to the slide I was on a previous to this one.
• 06:42 And then of course finally, we have a way to access help and an end show button.
• 06:48 So there are so many useful things in this Presenter View.
• 06:52 If you're somebody who runs presentations all the time, and
• 06:55 you're still using just the F5 slideshow view, then you really are missing a trick.
• 07:01 This is going to make your life so much easier.
• 07:04 But for the time being, I'm going to click End show,
• 07:07 it will ask me if I want to keep my ink annotation.
• 07:10 So if you have made any annotations on your slide,
• 07:13 maybe with the pen or the highlighter, you can choose to keep them at this point.
• 07:18 Now, I don't want to keep them, so I'm going to say discard.
• 07:22 And it jumps me back to my normal view.
• 07:26 So that is it, that is Presenter View, and
• 07:28 all of the in presentation tools you have at your fingertips.
• 07:32 I hope you find that useful, I will see you in the next lesson.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

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6.5 Designing a Presentation in Google Slides

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Discuss similarities between Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint
• Review differences between Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint
• Explain the roles Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint play in a workplace

My Life in a Snapshot was intended to be a solo presentation, so you had no need to assemble a team. But what if you need to design a presentation on a different topic that does require a team? What if, for example, the presentation was a proposal for a new marketing campaign that you and four others have been working on? Is Microsoft PowerPoint still the best option? This section will introduce Google Slides as another tool you can use to create and build presentations.

Slides is the presentation application offered in the Google suite of products, which is a cloud-based system. To better understand the tool and its importance, let’s get started with the similarities it holds with PowerPoint .

Similarities between Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint

PowerPoint and Slides are both software programs that allow you to create and edit slideshows for presentations. When you begin to create a presentation with Slides , you will be presented with several themes and template s suitable for various applications in business, school projects, and general use. These designed templates can be customized with color, text, and style. Figure 6.41 shows Slides when first opening the program and selecting a new presentation; the default, a blank presentation, is circled. Next to the blank presentation option are the different themes and templates.

As in PowerPoint, once a presentation is either opened or begun in Slides, you will see a ribbon with tabs and options that are comparable with those in PowerPoint. In some cases, the programs even use identical word choices, such as the File, View, and Insert menus. It is a good idea to review the tabs in Slides before beginning a project. Look for the numerous overlaps in terminology and the familiar icons Slides shares with PowerPoint. However, one distinct feature of Slides is that it offers drop-down boxes from each tab, rather than a changing ribbon, as in PowerPoint.

There are other similarities between Slides and PowerPoint. For example, the thumbnails of the slides run down the left side with the highlighted slide in the center of the frame, and tabs across the top of the sidebar for navigation purposes. Both programs offer options for adding new slides, changing layouts, selecting design elements, and inserting text/images.

Both programs can create professional, high-quality electronic presentations. As technology continues to evolve, both programs adapt and continue to offer user-friendly tools. In general, both tools allow users to:

• add text, images, videos, charts, graphs, and links to any slide
• pick a custom font while selecting and using premade themes
• use basic transitions between slides and print to PDF
• collaborate with team members to greater or lesser degrees

Differences between Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint

Understanding some of the key differences between Slides and PowerPoint will help you decide which tool to use and when it can be most helpful while working at WorldCorp. To start, PowerPoint is a stand-alone software program that users can purchase or access through a provider such as a school, a company, or an organization to which they belong. Stand-alone software programs are typically installed on a computer’s hard drive and can be launched by double-clicking an icon on the desktop or by selecting the program from the list of installed programs in the operating system. Stand-alone software programs are self-contained and do not rely on external resources, such as a connection to the internet or services to function. They are referred to as “offline capable.” The application, or app, is just a click away for the user to begin their work, regardless of their internet connection. As the program has advanced and added new features, it has expanded to include online collaboration. PowerPoint now offers users online experiences through the combination of Microsoft OneDrive and Microsoft 365 .

Slides, by contrast, is a web-based software application that is part of the Google suite of productivity tools. As covered in the chapter on Essentials of Software Applications for Business , web-based software programs are hosted on a remote server and accessed over the internet using a web browser, rather than being installed on a computer’s hard drive. This makes it possible for users to access the software from any device with an internet connection, as the software and data are stored remotely and not on the user’s local machine. This helps ensure that there are no delays or negative experiences such as slowing down a user’s internet connection. They are often designed to be more lightweight, with fewer features compared with their desktop counterparts.

As a cloud-based application, Slides offers a unique advantage to offline applications when collaborating in a team. As with other Google programs, users can work on the same file in real time across multiple computers. This facilitates collaboration and eliminates the need to pass files back and forth between team members.

However, Google does offer an offline option for users as well. When using Google’s web browser, Chrome, users can install a browser extension that allows its online Google programs, such as Slides and Docs, to download the applications to their local computer, allowing users to work on their projects even without access to the internet. Additionally, Chrome operating systems typically come with other Google offline programs preloaded. Google offline functionality is available for some mobile devices and most desktop operating systems. It’s possible to use Google offline for some mobile devices and most desktop operating systems.

The most prominent difference between Slides and PowerPoint lies in their origins as a cloud-based application versus a desktop application, respectively. Slides has a minimal appearance and relatively fewer features, keeping things simple across their programs for ultimate user ease. Its goal is accessibility and collaboration in an online environment. In contrast, PowerPoint offers more robust features with more capabilities. In this respect, Slides works better than PowerPoint on mobile application devices.

However, it is still optimal to use a computer when creating a presentation in either program. Using a cell phone or a tablet poses challenges for users who want to harness the full potential of PowerPoint. To maximize the user experience, PowerPoint is recommended for use on a laptop or desktop computer due to its overall capability and processing needs. Having a larger screen with a more robust computer processor can make it easier to see subtle editorial changes or to handle large file size changes to a high-resolution image.

How Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides Function in a Workplace

Several features of Slides make it a unique and intriguing piece of software to have alongside PowerPoint . Both programs are commonly used in workplace settings, but may be used with different goals and audiences in mind. At WorldCorp, different teams use different tools in ways that work best for them; often, team members find that a project requires a combination of both programs.

A best practice for a collaborative presentation would be for a team to start working in Slides. Team members can work offline if they choose, or they can work together online constructing slides. Once the rough outline of the presentation has been accomplished and agreed upon through online collaboration, the Slides presentation can be saved as a PowerPoint file. Conveniently, Slides offers a way to quickly export presentations as PowerPoint files. A member of the team who is well-versed in PowerPoint and digital presentation development can then edit the slides if needed. They can work offline to unify and format each slide into a cohesive slideshow.

Conversely, you can also open a PowerPoint file in Slides. However, note that because Slides is less feature-rich than PowerPoint, you may not be able to preserve your slideshow exactly. Let’s look at converting the saved PowerPoint presentation that you have been working on, My Life in a Snapshot , to Slides. First, upload your PowerPoint presentation to your Google Drive . Then, open Slides; the PowerPoint most likely will be listed as a recently saved file on the opening screen. Select the file and begin. Figure 6.42 shows the warning that Slides wants to issue before you start editing: “Some PowerPoint features can’t be displayed and will be dropped if you make any changes” appears in a dialog box after selecting the saved file. There are fewer design options with Slides, and Google does not include all of the features that PowerPoint does, such as WordArt . This means that anything that was formatted as WordArt in PowerPoint will not appear correctly in the Google Slides version, or may even be deleted entirely. For this project, please go ahead and dismiss the warning to begin.

You may want to do this conversion process if you want to open your PowerPoint file for online collaboration, for instance. If your PowerPoint does not contain too many complex features, converting the file to Slides is usually an easy process that results in a Slides presentation that looks extremely similar to your original PowerPoint.

Sometimes, your choice of which program to use is determined by the software ecosystem that your company is part of. Workplaces will often choose one type of program—Google, Microsoft, or another large brand—to use at all levels of their company to streamline usage and file types. Preference and ecosystem requirements will typically be the key drivers in determining which tool to use for your presentation, but once you have learned one of the applications, you will have a faster learning curve when it comes to learning the other. Because Microsoft has traditionally dominated the office workplace, applications like Word and PowerPoint are more common in business settings. However, with schools and small businesses looking to offer free and affordable options for newer users (for example, Chromebooks are required in some classrooms), Slides continues to expand its reach. Its ease of use can attract those new to working with digital presentations or collaborating with teams on a project. Knowing and being confident in both programs removes the walls of an ecosystem, particularly if it is easy to change files from one type to the other. As we work in ever-diverse workgroups, the ability to move from one program to another becomes increasingly important.

This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's permission.

Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution License and you must attribute OpenStax.

Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/workplace-software-skills/pages/1-chapter-scenario

• Authors: Tammie Bolling, Angela Mitchell, Tanya Scott, Nyrobi Wheeler
• Publisher/website: OpenStax
• Book title: Workplace Software and Skills
• Publication date: Nov 29, 2023
• Location: Houston, Texas
• Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/workplace-software-skills/pages/1-chapter-scenario
• Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/workplace-software-skills/pages/6-5-designing-a-presentation-in-google-slides

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