PowerPoint may still be the most popular piece of presentation software around, but several web-based alternatives have popped up lately with some truly snazzy features to wow your audience with.
By Jane Hosking
Prezi
With a radically different look to PowerPoint, the cloud-based Prezi can best be likened to a giant whiteboard where you arrange your ideas like a mind map. Using the zoomable interface, Prezi allows you to navigate—or twist and turn— from one idea to the next, in whichever order you choose. Whether you opt to fully customize a presentation from scratch, or just plump from one of the many templates, Prezi’s approach is truly unique and will wow your audience with its creative style. YouTube clips are easily embedded, and you can also imbed your Prezis in webpages. With the premium model you can even download your presentations and use them for offline viewing. Prezi can be a little difficult to use at first but even if you’re not tech savvy the final result has the power to make it look like you are.
Cost: Free for 100MB and publicly visible presentation, and plans from $4.92 a month for 500MB and private presentations.
Features 4
Usability 3
Click the arrows to see how Prezi works.
Emaze
With its zoomable interface that navigates from one idea to the next, Emaze is similar to Prezi. But Emaze differs in that you can present content three dimensionally by choosing one of the dynamic templates available. While this makes Emaze simple to use, it can make it less flexible if you want to customize your own design (though Emaze is set to soon introduce this option on one of their premium plans). The program also allows you to import your old PowerPoint slides, and it can be used on your PC, Mac, tablet, or smartphone. Like Prezi, your Emaze presentations are accessible everywhere via the cloud, can be downloaded on premium plans, and can be embedded online.
Cost: Free for 200MB and publicly visible presentations, with plans starting from $4.90 a month for 2GB and to make your presentations private.
Features 4
Usability 5
A brief Emaze tutorial.
Projeqt
Projeqt is new to the block of presentation platforms and is still building on what it offers. While a little simpler to use than Emaze or Prezi, with its slideshow format, it’s free to use and still offers a more creative platform to present your ideas than PowerPoint. What also sets Projeqt apart from the rest is its ability to imbed or import live feeds such as RSS feeds and tweets, or material from online sources into your presentation. Projeqt allows users to drop into a series of sub-presentations from any of the main slides, unlike PowerPoint with its strict linear structure. You can also create a Projeqt presentation within a projeqt, creating a web of slides that link to each other instead of the usual linear format. Like the other web-based options, Projeqt presentations can be embedded and like Emaze, you can revamp old PowerPoint presentations by importing them into Projeqt. Your Projeqt presentations can also be made public or private, similar to a social media account.
Cost: Free
Features 3
Usability 4
A Projeqt on Projeqt.
