Five eye-popping alternatives to Powerpoint
We all know people who call motorcycles "Honda"- heck you might be one of them. The Honda motorcycles, due to their once complete dominance of the motorcycle market in Bangladesh, have almost substituted the actual name of the vehicle itself. I am pretty sure there's even a term for this phenomenon – but as terms go, you forgot it the moment you stepped out of high school.
Consider the above situation and imagine the whole world thinking that motorcycles are synonymous with Honda. That is kind of what happened with presentations and Powerpoints. From every single corporate meeting to school and university students presenting downloaded templates and copy-pasted contents, the mention of a presentation is almost always met with groans of foreboding – "Not again, even political talk-shows are more interesting," you think.
It's not that Powerpoint presentations are all bad, just that they have been used and abused so often, the sheer sight of another slide invokes a Pavlovian reflex of dread. Just as with Hondas, there are alternatives. Brought to you by the magic of the World Wide Web.
Prezi
This is one that is catching on with the university crowd. A web-based presentation software, Prezi combines beautiful and smooth transitions through interlinked slides that can be custom arranged. The slides are cinematic and often times will look like you are just zooming in and out of concepts rather than moving on to another slide. The number and style of templates available are diverse and since it is web-based, Prezi is cross-platform. For those with slow internet, a desktop software for viewing the slides is available as well. Very efficient for both students and corporates aiming to impress.
Haiku Deck
This presentation software is one frequently mentioned as a great Powerpoint alternative. Although Haiku Deck comes with only 35 templates, what makes this great is the 35 million stock photos that can be used. If you want image driven presentations, you will want to give Haiku Deck a try. It is extremely easy and intuitive to use, but lacks features for customisation compared to some others. The only big disadvantage is the lack of an option to work offline. The biggest advantage is the ease with which you can work here from your iPad.
SlideDog
This one is for those who like lots of multimedia and other documents in their presentations. Of course, Powerpoint offers the option of embedding, but SlideDog is a presentation launch pad which provides a far more graceful solution to move between these seamlessly. Gather all your presentations, PDFs, video, audio clips and drag and drop onto SlideDog to make your playlist. No more pausing midway and looking through your folders for the clip you want to present.
Projeqt
Best for those who work in the creative industry, Projeqt is a different way to present your ideas. Instead of a screenshot of your Twitter feed, want a live feed? Projeqt has it. Interactive map for your great presentation on Game of Thrones? Check. Basically, you can stream anything from the web from videos to blogs, live. The templates and design are classy and sharable. Although the number of layout options is limited, for those with dynamic content, Projeqt is the way to go. Another great thing about Projeqt is that you can embed the presentation on your websites or blogs – a very cool option to bring together everything you want to highlight onto a single platform.
Keynote and Google Presentations
These two are Apple and Google's versions of Powerpoints respectively. Keynote is for those who prefer working on iOS but are used to how things work on Powerpoint. Presentations made with Keynote are easy to share and useful if you are planning to work cross-platform in iOS devices.
With Google Presentations, you can actually upload Powerpoint files and take it from there. It is similar to how Powerpoint works too, but its selling point is the option for collaboration. You can work in a cloud and have multiple people working at the same time – the perfect way to make sure your team members are not slacking off.
Moyukh Mahtab is Feature Writer at Lifestyle
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