Microsoft PowerPoint has been the unchallanged market leader since it was published in the 1980s. But over the years its compeditors got better and better and today there is a ton of great software available for creating beautiful presentations for free.
Prezi
Starting off with one of the most popular alternative: Prezi. Based on Adobe Flash, Prezi lets you choose from a large variety of templates which all stick to the same design concept. You‘ve probably already seen one of those “bubble -style” presentations as Prezi continual expands its service and gains more and more market share. Unfortunately it automatically publishes your work to the web if you‘re using the free version. Besides you can‘t edit or display your presentations without being connectet to the internet. An upgrade (to unlock those features) is quite expenisve.
Canva
The next service I want to introduce to you is called Canva. Although Canva is more about design in general than presentations it has to offer some useful features and a beautiful design. Using several unique templates and free images, Canva is perfect for all those who want their presentation to look awesome. In the end it‘s possible to either export the result to a PDF/JPG file or save it online to present it later on directly from the browser.
Google Slides
My third and favourite alternative to Microsoft Powerpoint is Google Slides. With the help of minimalistic designs, it‘s up to you how design the Slides. PowerPoint users will recongnise the easy to use interface which really looks like a proper PC-Software although it doesn‘t offer as much (useless) features as PowerPoint does. But the main advantage over Canva and Prezi is not about the usability. What makes Google Slides so special is that it‘s possible to export the final work to a PowerPoint presentation. Even today many companies, schools etc. still depend on Microsofts software. If there‘s no internet connection avalible or you are often asked to send the presentation beforehand, Google Slides should be your first choice.
A conclusion
Dont use PowerPoint! It‘s slow, not user-friendly and all in all outdated. As I said, a good point to start could be Google Slides. It is, as Canva, completely free to use, and you can still stick to your old workflow. Prezi is also an opportunity; but you have to be aware of the fact that your work is going to be published to the internet and everybody is able to find it via Google.
Thanks for reading my post! If you know other good tools for creating presentations, I would appreciate a short comment.
– Kai