PowerPoint is the most universal presentation program. Whether used by businessmen or teachers, it’s used by over 500 million people worldwide. Unfortunately, PowerPoint has become uninspiring to its users because of its limitations with design assets and animation.

That being said, users want to be able to produce a quick, easy, and enticing presentation that deviates from basic PowerPoint decks. In this article, we’ll explore the best PowerPoint alternatives in 2022 that will allow you to impress your audience and stand out from the crowd!

What makes a good presentation software?

When choosing the perfect presentation platform to use, here are some key elements that you should be looking for:

• Affordability: The top consideration when choosing a software is finding a platform that won’t break the bank. Creating engaging presentations doesn’t have to be expensive.

• Pre-made templates: The best presentation makers will offer professional, attractive, and easy-to-use templates that will result in multiple presentation styles that are ready to share in no time.

• Customization options: Templates are a great start, but the best presentation makers allow you to customize anything you want, offering the flexibility that you should have when creating presentations.

Leading PowerPoint Alternatives

Are you ready to get to work with these incredible PowerPoint alternatives? These presentation makers will change the way you create and deliver your presentations. 

01 | Powtoon 

Used by over 30M people worldwide, Powtoon is the leading PowerPoint alternative presentation platform because of its ability to create engaging and interactive video presentations. Creating video presentations empowers individuals, teams, and enterprises to transform information into powerful presentations with a professional look & feel. Powtoon’s online presentation software makes presentations easy to create, simple to manage, and quick to distribute. With 100s of templates, characters, stock footage & images, easily create in every style – animation, whiteboard, infographics, screen recordings, and beyond!

Powtoon Highlights:

• Select from hundreds of presentation templates in every style
• An easy-to-use platform that guides you with the correct tools needed to fulfill your vision
• Fully customizable templates with millions of royalty-free footage, images, music, animated characters, custom branding, fonts, colors, and your own logo
• A vast library of animation to spice up an average presentation into an impressive one
• The ability to create a presentation in minutes with it looking professional, sleek, and unique
• Comes with more tools: video maker, GIF maker, screen recording tool, and more!

Pricing Options:

Powtoon offers free memberships for personal use, plus premium subscriptions with monthly and annual plans. 

Ready to start creating? Sign up for free to start producing amazing presentations without any prior experience or skills needed. 

02 | Prezi

Are you tired of the plain linear presentation? With Prezi’s PowerPoint alternative, the unconventional presentation software allows you to create moving, zooming presentations that won’t leave you bored or restricted. This allows the user to focus on topics and subtopics that can be arranged in a way they want. Thus, making presentations flow in a natural, conversational way. 

Prezi’s Highlights:

• Fully editable templates allowing for full customization
• An unconventional in-motion presentation style, allowing you to be bold
• The platform comes with two other apps: Prezi Design and Prezi Video

Pricing Options:

Prezi offers a free 14-day trial and a free plan which includes up to 5 visual projects. The paid plan starts at $5/month.

03 | Canva

Canva offers a highly functioning presentation maker with a collection of creative templates to choose from. The majority of templates are free to every user and are tailor designed for education or business purposes. 

Canva’s Highlights:

• The editor interface allows for a smooth scroll that doesn’t jump around
• A handful of preset animations to add movement to your presentation
• A large library of audio and video files to choose from

Pricing Options:

Canva offers a free plan, while the Pro version starts at $9/month and includes additional features like Brand Kit and custom design templates. 

04 | Beautiful.ai

Beautiful.ai uses artificial intelligence to create unique presentations and allows it to lead the way. When using this PowerPoint alternative, there is no stress or fiddling with slide layouts or transitions – the platform’s technology takes care of that. Beautiful.ai offers the perfect balance between automation and customization. 

Beautiful.ai Highlights:

• More than 40 fully designed templates
• 23 different color palettes to choose from
• Automatically organizes the structure of any presentation

Pricing Options:

Beautiful.ai’s free plan provides unlimited slides, 60+ “smart slide” templates, and collaboration features. The paid plan starts at $12/month and includes secure sharing and revision history. 

05 | Google Slides

Google Slides is the perfect PowerPoint alternative for anyone looking for a simple space to create traditional presentations. This presentation software boasts efficiency as one of its biggest benefits with their great collaboration features. All users need to do is share the link to their presentation and they can receive feedback and comments in no time. 

Google Slides Highlights:

• Collaboration features allows for strong communication between teams
• Changes made on the presentation can be tracked, along with any feedback
• Amazing Q&A tool to make presentations more interactive
• Tons of pre-designed themes

Pricing Options:

Google Slides is free to all users for personal use, or can be accessed with a Google Workspace account for business use.

06 | Slidebean 

Slidebean is a PowerPoint alternative software known for its ready-to-use templates that have been recreated from big name start-up companies. This is a great presentation platform to use if you do not have time to design your own slides. 

Slidebean Highlights:

• Ready-to-use presentation templates for all different purposes
• Access to thousands of icons
• Browse curated color palettes 
• Share and collaborate with others

Pricing Options:

Slidebean’s paid plan is $96/year per user.

07 | Zoho Show 

Zoho is a PowerPoint alternative that provides users with conventional presentation tools similar to PowerPoint’s. However, Zoho differentiates itself with eye-catching animation and slide transitions. The features are more standard than the other companies listed above, but it’s worthy to note that the software makes it very easy to create your own presentation.

Zoho Show Highlights:

• Broadcast your presentation from any device
• Collaborative tools for team editing
• Ability to embed live tweets, Youtube videos, and Flikr images

Pricing Options:

Zoho Show’s paid plan from the Workplace Bundle starts at $4/month per user. 

Make your next presentation shine with an expert PowerPoint alternative!

If you are ready to transform your presentations from uninspired to impressive, get started with one of these PowerPoint alternative presentation makers today!

The post The Best PowerPoint Alternatives in 2022 appeared first on Powtoon Blog.

Is there anything worse than watching a boring PowerPoint presentation at work? Short answer: No. Although PowerPoint is one of the easiest ways to create a presentation, it has turned into the dullest and most draining part of a workday. Fortunately, there is a solution to this catastrophe – the art of embedding videos into your Powerpoint presentations.

Before we get into how to add a video in PowerPoint, it’s crucial to understand this first and most important step. In order for your presentation to achieve your desired outcome, you need to make sure your video is intriguing, slick, and professional. With the help of an online video maker, you can create your own customized videos in minutes to embed a video in PowerPoint. Here’s how you can create videos that are sure to get your colleagues engaged in your presentation.

How to Create a Video

Step 1: Use a Video Maker

Visit Powtoon.com to log in or sign up for free to make a new Powtoon account using Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Office 365, or your email. Log into your account and choose what kind of video you want to create. From there, you can start from scratch or browse templates for inspiration.

Step 2: Choose a Template

In Powtoon’s video template library, you’ll find thousands of video templates for business videos, explainer videos, marketing and sales videos, education videos, training videos, real estate videos, retail videos, and so much more. Simply choose your favorite template and start customizing it to make it your own. Or, you can create a video from scratch.

Step 3: Customize Your Video

Choose from millions of royalty-free images and footage, icons, illustrations, animation, music, colors, fonts, pre-made layouts and scenes, custom characters, and other graphics that you can add to your video for a personal touch. Or, upload your own videos and images to easily customize your new video with just a few clicks.

Step 4: Download Your Video

You’re finished! No matter your skill level, Powtoon gives you the power to create professional videos – no design or tech skills required. Download your video in MP4 format, or export your video directly to PowerPoint. Now let’s find out how to get that video inserted into your presentation.

Tips on How to Make Expert Videos for Your Presentations

Here are a few suggestions when creating a video for your next presentation:

• Add animation: Adding animation is one of the best ways to keep your audience’s attention. Increase engagement with colorful backgrounds, animated characters, footage, and soundtracks – just be careful not to overdo it.

• Keep it short and sweet: No one wants to watch a video that sucks the fun out of the room. Generally, when using a video in a presentation, the video length should be kept to around 30-60 seconds. In the case that your video is longer, break it up into smaller sections so it can be easily digested by your audience.

• Be clear and concise with your format: When you choose to embed a video in PowerPoint, you’re replacing written text. This means you need to use clear, straightforward language that will help your audience follow along audially.

How to Insert Video into PowerPoint

Step 1: Choose your slide

To get started, open up your presentation in PowerPoint. Find the slide where you want to add a video and click on it.

Step 2: Select your video

Go to the top of the navigation bar and click on “Insert”. Depending on what type of computer you are working on (either Mac or PC), you should then select “Media” or “Video” > “Movie from file”. At this point, choose the file you would like to embed a video in PowerPoint. 

Step 3: Format your video

Once your video has been imported, you can adjust the video to play either automatically or once it’s clicked on. You can even choose a video thumbnail and add cool visual effects. Double-check that all the edits are to your liking and you’re done. Enjoy!

How to Embed a Youtube Video in PowerPoint

When adding a YouTube video to your presentation, the process varies based on the operating system and version of PowerPoint being used. For PowerPoint 365, click “Insert video”. Then select “Online video”. After that, copy and paste the web address from YouTube. 

The following steps are for PowerPoint 2019, 2016, 2013, and 2010 versions from a PC:

Step 1: Go to YouTube and find the video you want to upload to your presentation. Then, click the share button below the video frame and choose embed. 

Step 2: Copy and paste the embed code. After clicking on the “Embed” icon, wait for a popup screen that says “Embed video.” Once you see it, click the “copy” button in the bottom right corner. 

Step 3: Now, go to PowerPoint and choose the slide where you want to add the YouTube video. 

Step 4: When you locate your desired slide, select “Insert” to insert different objects into the slide.

Step 5: Click on “Video” > “Online video” or “Video from website”. 

Step 6: Select “Paste embedded code here” and paste the code you copied in step two.

Step 7: Choose your video and click “Playback”.

Step 8: Make sure you’re connected to the internet. You need to be online in order for your video to play. 

Step 9: Click the start menu to check how the video plays back to you.

Make videos and presentations in one place with Powtoon

Powtoon makes it fast and simple to create videos and presentations – all in one place. No matter what you need a video presentation for, it’s easy to create professional visual content in minutes – no skills needed. Sign up to try it free!

The post How to Embed a Video in Powerpoint appeared first on Powtoon Blog.