People love to criticise PowerPoint. To be honest, this has always struck us as blaming shoddy workmanship on the tools rather than the tradesman, but nonetheless given the constant PowerPoint bashing it does seem surprising that it has not budged as the default presentation software for decades. This seems especially odd given the number of new, innovative options available. So if you’d like to shake things up, this is a roundup of some of the less mainstream options out there:
1. Haiku Deck
Haiku Deck, as the name would suggest, brings simplicity and restraint to presentations working on the principle that less is more. They do this is by providing beautifully designed templates with limited text availability, access to a gallery of 35 million free images (with no dodgy clip art in sight) and cloud storage for accessibility across all your devices. There are templates for a startup pitch, a culture and core values presentation, a professional profile, and countless more.
2. Powtoon
The team at Powtoon promise to ‘bring awesomeness to your presentations’ by providing easy to use software to create animated videos. Choose from ready-made templates for plenty of business situations, with a range of themes to suit different corporate cultures. It’s ideal to create an engaging explanation of your strategy, a new initiative or workplace policies. For more check out their YouTube Channel.
3. Prezi
Dynamic, not static – that’s Prezi’s point of difference. Prezi is all about the non-linear presentation, combining motion, zoom, and spatial relationships to create energy and flexibility in the delivery of your message. Like Haiku Deck, it’s cloud based so it’ll work across your devices. It’s definitely different, but templates make it easier and if you need help they offer webinars through the website.
4. Slidedog
Say goodbye to those clunky awkward moments when you need to flick between your presentation slides and a pdf/video/website etc. Slidedog is not designed to create content; think of it as a multi-media presentation tool allowing you to move between multiple file-types in a seamless playlist, including content created in PowerPoint and Presi. Your audience can follow on their own devices in real time and functionality includes audience polls and live chat, among a host of other features. This YouTube video will give you more info.
5. Visme
This web-based program’s strength is in transforming data into stunning visual content such as infographics. Again it’s cloud synced so you can present from anywhere using any device.
So that should shake you out of your PowerPoint rut. And while we’re talking about presenting…
THIS WEEK IF YOU…
… READ one thing, peruse this article by the Head of TED on how to end your presentation (and how not to). Never mumble an anticlimactic ‘Um, that’s it, any questions?’ again. Your ending should be as powerful and thoughtful as your opening.
That’s all, Vibers.
Thanks for reading.
Oh and as always it would be great if you could flick this to someone who will like it. Thanks in advance.
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