Top Presentation Software and Tips for Good Presentations

Presentation Software is a software installed on computers that enables uses to present data in an engaging manner in the form of text, audio, video and animation clips. Presentations are an efficient means of communicating the progress and plans for a business to stakeholders. They can also be used for training and educational purposes. Presentation software helps users in designing eye catching and informative presentations with the help of built in templates, themes, fonts and various options for data and image input along with special graphical or animation effects. Users can create elaborate presentations in a short span of time with just click and drag options. The best presentation software does not require the users to have any prior knowledge of graphical designing or coding.

Top Presentation Software include –

1. Microsoft PowerPoint – Microsoft PowerPoint is one of the most preferred presentation software that businesses use. Microsoft PowerPoint provides users with an easy to use interface with text and editing options that are similar to its other products such as Excel and Word. This ensures familiarity with the tool. It offers a variety of templates, designs, formatting tools and options, animation and 3D effects, graphical and sound effects to make presentations more appealing. It comes as part of the Microsoft Office suite.
2. Google Slides – Google Slides is an online presentation software that offers users with multiple themes, fonts, and animation to create presentation slides. It is a free software that can be used by all. It can be easily accessed by users through phones, tablets, iPad etc. Google Slides enables multiple users to access the same file simultaneously and make edits while collaborating with teams on the go. Changes made by any user are automatically saved. It also easily integrates into Microsoft PowerPoint and can be used with Chromecast.
3. Prezi – Prezi offers a simple drag and drop option to create and allow users to structure the data easily. It offers functions such as Zoom Revel that lets users Zoom to a particular part of the presentation to highlight details. It offers a huge range of designer templates and reusable templates. It is also compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint. It has pre-design options such as Story Blocks and customizable charts and a huge library of images and photos. It also has the option to insert company branding in a more appealing manner. It is easily accessible from tablets, iPads and even desktops.
4. Quip – The Quip presentation software offers features such as built-in chat, real-time co-editing, and pinnable comments. It allows users to connect to live data from Salesforce, spreadsheets, and other systems. This prevents users to manually update slides. It offers interactive prompts to gain feedback faster. It uses read receipts and analytics, powered by Salesforce Einstein, to gauge utilization of presentation’s across teammates, executives, and customers.
5. Keynote – Keynote, developed by Apple, has over 30 eye‑catching themes to choose from for a professional presentation. It also offers customization of themes. Users can insert photos, charts, and over 700 customizable shapes. It also has vast galleries and math equations stored. Users can animate objects along a path using Apple Pencil or the finger on iPhones or iPads. It has more than 30 cinematic transitions and effects for objects and text, including Magic Move. It can be opened with facial recognition.
6. Visme – Visme is a free presentation platform that offers tools to create presentations, infographics, printables, documents, social graphics, website graphics, videos, flyers, animated GIF’s, charts, reports, graphs, timelines and flowcharts. It contains a huge directory of images and templates. It can be shared though multiple channels such as through download files, links, video etc.
7. Microsoft Sway – Microsoft Sway is an online presentation tool that allows users to create quick slides. It offers a number of templates and also a customization option. It is an easy to use interface with minimum formatting and design options. Users can create, edit and share presentations effortlessly with Microsoft Sway.
8. Xtensio – Xtensio is a presentation platform that allows users to create a beautiful presentation easily. It has various options to add images, text, animation etc. to presentations. It is used in real time and changes are saved automatically. It allows consistent formatting across the presentation with their style guide tool. Data is also categorically organized for easy access.
9. Zoho Show – Zoho Show lets users create, collaborate, present, broadcast, and publish presentations in a smarter way.The software has various themes that can be used for presentations. It has an option to add comments as well for review purposes.

Other presentations software’s include AhaSlides, Animiz, Beautiful AI, Beekast, CrazyTalk, CustomShow, Cyviz, Deckset, Digideck, DS Studio, Emaze, Empower, Corel Presentations, Flowvella, Focusky, Google Slides, Haiku Deck, Hypersay, Imaginators, Impress, Ingage, Inpres, iSlide, Keynote, Knovio.

Tips for Good Presentations

1. Content – Appealing content is the most important factor in a presentation. Content should be relevant and to the topic. If the content is too long people will lose interest. If too short, it displays a lack of effort in creating the presentation.
2. Spacing – The spacing in a presentation is often a factor that is overlooked. Lack of appropriate spacing makes a presentation look too cluttered and unorganized.
3. Consistency – The font, design and theme should be consistent in all slides. A sudden change in the slide does not give a professional feel to the presentations. Gradations can be used to show transitions if necessary.
4. Graphics and Animation – The use of graphics and animations makes a presentation more eye catching and interesting to read. However, too many animations can result in distractions and viewers might miss the actual point of the presentation.
5. Story Telling – A good presentation follows a flow and a story line. Reporting facts is not enough. Presenters need to bring out the why, who, when and how of the facts in a presentation.