It’s no question that whenever someone has to do a presentation, they use PowerPoint. However, there are a slew of alternatives to Powerpoint and they’re all based in the cloud. These are Google Docs Presentation, Zoho Show, Empressr, 280 Slides, SlideRocket and Prezi. These 6 web-based applications have the following features in common:
- access presentations from anywhere with a browser and an internet connection
- free but sign-up required; some have freemium plans
- import PowerPoint presentations
- share presentations through an application-generated URL
- embed presentations in a website
- includes standard presentation features like text formatting, background themes, shapes, tables and clip art
Each of these applications offer unique features that differentiate them from the pack. Google Docs Presentations and Zoho Show have version history which allows you to go back to previous versions of your presentation. Empressr supports both video and audio recording; however, there is a time limit to these recordings. In 280 slides, presentations can be published directly to SlideShare. One of my favourite features from SlideRocket is the ability to update slides in real-time; thus, eliminating the need to re-embed presentations onto a site. Prezi is a different beast altogether in that there are no slides. Instead, Prezi zooms in and out of each aspect of your presentation, creating a presentation that is both dynamic and engaging.
This is just a small sampling of what each of these web-based presentation applications can do. For a more complete features list, download this table: PowerPoint Alternatives-Features