PowerPoint Presentation Alternatives Go Mobile

When it comes to planning your presentation you might think that there’s no alternative to PowerPoint. In fact, there are plenty of PowerPoint presentation alternatives when you need to build a slide presentation.

PowerPoint presentation alternatives for smartphones

Previously we’ve taken a look at presentation recommendations from PCWorld. And it’s their team that has produced another short summary of PowerPoint presentation alternatives.

This time they continue a presentation theme from last year. Many of the presentation applications on the list are smartphone or tablet oriented. That’s a change to the usual presentation routine and it’s something that’s set to continue.

The PCWorld list contains a few presentation applications that we’ve come across before, but there are some presentation newcomers that deserve their attention.

PowerPoint Presentation Alternatives

• Haiku Deck is an iPad application that aims to solve the problem of innovative artwork for your presentation. It manages to do just that with the free, off the shelf offering. You can add artwork from your own device, a smartphone or other sources including a huge library of creative commons pictures. Good stuff. Paid-for themes give you the chance to extend the functionality further. Note that there are some limitations to the application, notably the save function and no transitions. But it remains a good offering.
• Kingsoft Presentation Free 2013 is a very neat PowerPoint presentation alternative. It’s got the advantage that it can work with your existing PowerPoint slide decks and save them as Kingsoft or PowerPoint files. Its functionality goes that bit further than PowerPoint, and it’s free of charge. It’s well worth a try-out.
• Pixxa Perspective is a paid for iPad PowerPoint presentation alternative. It’s available, via iTunes, as a free trial that enables you to build one slide deck. After that you’ll need to pay $50 for the basic version. Pixxa Perspective is story-telling presentation software, allowing you to construct some decent presentations. There’s a lot to learn with this approach. It’s certainly different to anything you’ve used with PowerPoint so allow some time to build your first few presentations.

More Alternatives To PowerPoint

• Using the basic Prezi application is free of charge, although there are additional paid packages. This application really is a novel alternative to PowerPoint. It’s gaining ground and we’ve come across many Prezi presentations this year. And that’s probably because it’s easy to use, affordable and creates some attractive presentations. So, it’s a good alternative to PowerPoint.
• The last application on the PC World list isn’t really a PowerPoint presentation alternative. It’s more of a PowerPoint mobile application. The SoftMaker Presentations Mobile is an android app that gives you the means to import and manage your existing PowerPoint slide decks for $5. It’s not big on functionality, and is far from a delight to use…but if you value the means to manage some of your slide presentations on the go, then this might well be the right option for you.

There’s no guarantee that any of these presentation products will actually make you a better presenter or create a better presentation. But they all give you further options when you are mobile and away from the office.

There’s some serious extra functionality in some of the presentation applications. And that probably points to work in progress when it comes to presentation software.

When you need help with your presentation delivery, please don’t hesitate to get in touch about presentation skill training or coaching.