The Best Presentation Software: 8 Great Tools for Creating Striking Visuals

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While the most skilled communicators need only their words and presence to make an impression, visual representations should never be underestimated, especially if you’re trying to sell an idea or teach an important concept.

Today, there are dozens of options for presentation software on the market, but you need the best tools on your side if you want your delivery to have the maximum effect on your audiences.

We’ve rounded up 8 of the best presentation tools that you can count on to help you deliver a winning show.

What Is the Best Presentation Software?

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PowerPoint

When it comes to presentation software, PowerPoint remains a staple for good reason: it’s the original, it’s reliable, and it’s pretty hard to mess up.

Whether you’re a middle grade student working on a class project or a business executive working on an important presentation, PowerPoint will help you put together a professional slideshow that you can make as simple or advanced as you’d like.

powerpoint presentation example image

Price: $139.99 (one-time payment)

Features:

  • Create animations, transitions, and 3D
  • Add audio content
  • Create customized templates
  • Edit offline
  • Present offline
  • Insert video content

What Is the Best Free Presentation Software?

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Google Slides

Google Slides is part of the G Suite of office tools that is intended as a free alternative to Microsoft’s PowerPoint.

It’s web-based and may seem a bit limited when compared with PowerPoint, but unlike its competitor, it offers cross-platform compatibility and is great for collaborative work.

google slides coursera example image
Image from Coursera

Price: Free

Features:

  • It’s free! You just need a Gmail account.
  • Easily collaborate with colleagues or classmates
  • Track all changes (and revert if needed).
  • Access your work from anywhere.
  • Q&A tool in Presenter View makes presentations more interactive

What Is the Best Alternative to PowerPoint?

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Visme

Visme allows users to create beautiful graphics, printables, and of course, presentations with their easy-to-use software.

Choose from over 100 custom templates and thousands of slides from different themes, and use the built-in brand kit for typography, color schemes, content blocks, and more.

You can create your first 3 projects with Visme for free!

visme presentation example

Price: $15–$95/month

Features:

  • Customize templates and images
  • Easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor
  • Save and reuse important slides
  • Infographic and social media image editor
  • Extensive and varied template options

More Outstanding Software for Presentations

While PowerPoint and Google Slides are two of the most popular options, they’re not the only ones. There are many excellent presentation tools that cater to creatives, professionals, and more.

Canva

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In addition to creating knockout graphics, Canva is also an excellent tool for visual presentations! A favorite amongst bloggers and home-based businesses, this tool offers a full editing program for all of your visual design needs.

Canva’s free version has quite a lot to offer. The most common roadblocks you’ll run into are the use of premium resources, like certain images or templates, which you can access by purchasing on an as-needed basis, or by upgrading to Canva Pro, which costs $12.95 per team member, per month.

canva presentation example

Price: $0–$12.95/team member/month

Features:

  • Option to upload your own photos
  • Choose from over 1 million stock photos
  • Edit images with stunning filters and add text
  • Features hundreds of professionally-designed slides
  • Brand your presentations with logos and share them as templates with colleagues
  • Access your slides online from anywhere

Prezi

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Prezi is a unique presentation tool that offers a more interactive experience than the traditional slide-to-slide format.

Rather, you’ll visually “leap” from key ideas to related topics, with the goal of emphasizing the relationship between certain ideas.

prezi example image

Price: $5–$59/month

Features:

  • Create interactive presentations
  • Offers a highly visual, HD experience
  • Quickly and easily customizable
  • Collaborate with colleagues in real-time
  • Share via direct links

Xtensio

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Xtensio is a collaborative tool that lets users share live presentations and documents with teams and clients. Using Xtensio, you can create, share, and present presentations and documents.

Moreover, it’s a cloud-based platform, so you don’t need to create extra space in your device. Their impressive templates, color schemes, and images help create presentations that are sure to wow clients. 

xtensio template image

Price: $0–$15/month for individual plans. See business pricing here.

Features:

  • Add images, videos, tables and other interactive modules
  • Build presentations with the drag-and-drop feature
  • Resize slides and image
  • Customize colors and backgrounds
  • Use a customized dashboard, branded with your company logo and custom URL
  • Set your team’s style guide to keep all projects effortlessly on brand

Keynote

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Keynote is Apple’s standard presentation app that comes free with every new Apple device. As far as features, it’s similar to PowerPoint (though a slightly simplified version), with attractive templates and typography.

For smooth collaboration, you can move your Keynote to iCloud to share with others and allow them to make edits.

Best of all, you can use your iPhone as a remote to control your presentation from your Mac!

keynote presentation example image

Price: Free for iOS users; $19.99 for other devices.

Features:

  • Create smooth animations
  • Share with others to collaborate
  • Can easily move to iCloud
  • Present online with Keynote Live’s presentation streaming
  • Use your iPhone as a remote control when presenting from your Mac

Ludus

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Ludus is perhaps the best option for creatives who feel limited by traditional presentation software.

This tool boasts advanced features like gradients and code blocks, making it a great choice for designers. Not an editing whiz? Ludus offers a guided tutorial for new users, which will walk you through some of these more complex features.

ludus presentation example image

Price: $14.99/month (after free 30-day trial)

Features:

  • Upload your own font files, or copy and paste from Adobe
  • Third-party integrations, including Giphy and YouTube
  • Password-protect your presentations
  • Share and collaborate as a team

Present with Confidence

With the right software, you can create a visual presentation that will capture your audience’s attention, whether you’re standing before a classroom, a crowded lecture hall, or a conference room full of executives.

Once you’ve got your visuals down, it’s time to prepare yourself—brush up on your presentation skills by reviewing these public speaking tips so you can hit the ball out of the park every time.

Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!

 

If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:

The post The Best Presentation Software: 8 Great Tools for Creating Striking Visuals appeared first on TCK Publishing.

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