Would you like to create a beautiful company advertisement or conduct a visual lesson, but do not know in which program to make a presentation? Then you should read this article. Given the fact that today one of the most common types of advertising for goods, services or presentation of material is a presentation, it can also be assumed that programs for its creation will become very popular.
Many people are wondering what program to make a presentation more convenient and easier. Since in our time there are quite a lot of various software with which you can create numerous graphic files, the same presentations, it will not be difficult to choose something of the highest quality, understandable and simple. Among the whole set of such programs, software developments from Microsoft Corporation are considered the most common and in demand. The most famous products of this company for creating presentations are the following: Power Point and, of course, Movie Maker.
Which program is easier to make a presentation - Power Point or Movie Maker? These types of software are designed to create colorful presentations and videos, both educational and promotional. Each of these software products is convenient in its own way and has unique features that may not be available in another program. Here, for example, Power Point provides the ability to work with an extended list of different animation effects, which can pretty well decorate the presentation being created, while Movie Maker can please the user with an extended list of tools that can simplify the process of designing musical accompaniment.
As everyone knows, when creating a presentation, one of the most important moments that affect the quality and colorfulness is the correct design of animation transitions and decorative design of slides. Many people are interested in what program will make a presentation not only easier, but also more convenient. Most users prefer Power Point, some prefer Movie Maker, but given the variety of tools in these programs, they are both just great for performing the most complex tasks.
On the question of which program to make a presentation faster, you can give the same answer. It all depends on the complexity and goals of the task. If, for example, in the first place is the colorful design of the slides with beautiful text captions, as well as beautiful special effects, then it would be best to use Power Point. If you only need to create a presentation that will play as a video, accompanied by music or voice comments, then it is best to use Movie Maker.
And yet, in which program is it better to make a presentation? You can get an answer to this question only after fully familiarizing yourself with all the features of the two programs described above. Good luck to you!
Many became spectators of various kinds of speeches or reports, which were supported by visual images and comments on the screen. I want to emphasize right away that there is nothing complicated in this and even a computer novice can create something like this. Now I will tell you in which program to make a presentation and how to format it correctly.
Presentation Software
In the vast majority of cases, PowerPoint is used to create presentations. But recently a very interesting software has appeared that can claim to completely replace Microsoft products in the future - Prezi. However, for the inexperienced, it is recommended to start with PP.
Create example in PowerPoint 2016
I propose to move from theory to practice and clearly demonstrate the phased creation of a presentation using PowerPoint 2016.
Initially, you can go two ways:
- make your own slides
- turn to ready-made templates for help.
If you don’t have time to bother with manual design or you are new to the world of creating presentations, I advise the option with templates. So, do the following:
- Launch PowerPoint 2016.
- On the main page, click on the template you are interested in.
- Select your preferred color theme and click the Create button.
- That's it, now you have the first slide ready, which can be filled with text, graphics and images. To create a new one, simply click on the "Create Slide" button in the "Insert" tab.
Setting the background
There are times when expectations do not correspond to reality and you need to change the background of the slide or even the template. But it's not a problem:
You can also fine-tune the background:
Text formatting
Standard fonts can not always convey the context and "zest" of your presentation, especially if it is not made in an official style, but in an arbitrary one. Therefore, text formatting is a common occurrence during the creation of a slideshow. To do this, repeat the following steps:
If you want something unusual, I can recommend the settings of the "Format" menu section. For this:
No pictures anywhere. No wonder they are used in almost every presentation. To add them you need:
One of the key elements of presentation design. To customize slide transition animation, do the following:
This function is rarely used in real life, but if adding an audio effect or music track is important, repeat the steps below:
How to transfer a presentation to a flash drive
This is not difficult, but first you need to save the presentation. For this:
- Click File.
- In the window that appears, click on the "Save as" button and select a directory to save the file.
Evgenia Dychko, Crello Marketing Manager, tells you what to do if you need to put together a cool presentation for investors, but there is almost no time for it (and the Internet too).
Let's imagine a situation: you have been assigned a personal meeting with top market players in another country. It's morning now, meeting in the afternoon, you're on your way. There won't be another chance like this. The stakes are high, the people are serious, the prospects are cosmic.
But you don’t have a slide presentation, and without it, you can’t talk about the product as you need. And still there is no access to working Keynote and PowerPoint. The internet keeps dropping out. On the plane, where you will spend two or three hours, it will not be at all.
It would be possible to put an end to the presentation, but not all is lost. Save simple web designers. Three minutes to panic, the other two hours to exhale and put together a decent presentation with the resources that we have.
Stock up on material. Download everything that can be used in a presentation to your laptop and phone - save links, photos, screenshots, numbers. Take all the old presentations.
Think of a concept. While still in the taxi, highlight the main idea and structure of the presentation. Make a text template on your phone.
Share with colleagues. When a more or less stable Internet appears, share a link to the concept and a draft presentation with the team - a fresh look and comments will not hurt.
If all this is there, you can start.
Here is a list of five basic online presentation services that personally help me a lot when they are on fire.
1. Google Slides
There are only three themes in Google Slides Builder - Personal, Education, Business - with 20+ templates and different themes. If you don't like any of the templates, you can create a presentation from scratch. Slides has simple animations and the ability to add graphs, charts, and videos. The project can be downloaded in the main formats - .pdf, .ppt, .jpg and others - for free.
Screenshot from Your big idea presentation template page on Google Slides
Advantages: Google Slides is included in the cloud office suite, it is used by millions, there are no bugs. Here you can create and edit a presentation in full offline - when the Internet appears, the content is synchronized.
Minuses: global popularity (read: worn out) Slides. Templates and themes are boring, you can’t change the colors in them, you won’t be able to quickly be original on a clean slate either. If you want a custom presentation, this is not the place for you.
Important to remember: add a video for the presentation to Google Drive or in advance. Google Slides does not work with other services.
2. Zoho
Zoho Show is a presentation tool in the Zoho Office Suite that shares many similarities with Google Slides. At the initial level, it is also free, and this is usually enough.
There are about 20 templates, but you can change the color scheme. There are a lot of animations and opportunities to customize graphic elements. But even with some tweaks, Zoho's presentations are minimalist.
Screenshot from the Zoho Show page with a selection of templates
Advantages: In Zoho, you can search for pictures on Picasa and Flickr right from the interface. This will not help much if there is no Internet, but as soon as it appears, you can quickly close this task. You can also create presentations with wide and standard slides.
Minuses: the visual part of the template in Zoho Show needs to be significantly improved so that it doesn’t turn out too bland.
Important to remember: without the Internet, the functionality of the tool is sharply limited. For example, it's not possible to add a new slide offline, so make the presentation wireframe before the plane.
3. Emaze
Emaze makes dynamic presentations - slides beautifully replace each other, fragments jump and spin, the project breathes. There are few templates, only 12 for each area - business, art and education - but enough for basic tasks.
There is a lot of motion in Emaze, if not a lot. For each of the animated elements, you can change the type of movement. All work on adapting the template comes down to adding text and setting up graphics. Photos can be taken from your own, or Picasa.
You can edit the template and add new pages offline. The only thing is that when you try to save, it will constantly issue an alert that there is no connection.
Screenshot from the Emaze page with one of the templates
Advantages: Emaze turns graphic projects into microfilm, and presentations like these are never forgotten.
Minuses: Emaze allows you to create only three presentations for free, and even then they cannot be downloaded - you can only watch online. But even in this format, they look great. Subscription for $12.5/month - and you forget about these restrictions.
Important to remember: Emaze has so many animation options in slides that you can get carried away with embellishment and forget about the main thing.
4. Crello
Crello has a section with multi-page templates that can be used as presentations. Each such template has five pages, but pages can be duplicated.
Slides are configured in the same way as any other graphics in Crello - you can change backgrounds, frames, shapes, icons, stickers and labels.
There are many Cyrillic fonts in the service, but you can add your own from the brand book.
A slide from one of Crello's multi-page projects
Advantages: there are many designer multi-page templates with interesting architecture on the platform. The section is new, visual solutions are not boring. There are new designs coming out all the time, so there's always plenty to choose from. At any stage, the project can be uploaded to .jpg, .png or .pdf. Everything is free.
Minuses: projects in Crello can be edited without the Internet, but then only basic functions are available, mainly for working with text. There will be no access to shapes and photos.
Important to remember: in Crello, you can independently create a multi-page project - in fact, a presentation - from a template of any format: publications, business cards, posters, covers, and others. Just copy the picture on the edit page.
5.Swipe
In Swipe, slides are designed using markdown markup - it acts as a text editor. There are no presentation templates, only page templates, and they have color and font, no graphics.
To customize the appearance of the slide, you need to enter the shade code and font name. Pictures are linked. Videos, gifs, polls cannot be added to a page with text, but they can take a separate slide.
Screenshot from the Emaze page with page templates
Advantages: The main feature of Swipe is maximum simplicity, you can't think of anything more elementary. Here it is convenient to create concise slides with an emphasis on the essence.
Minuses: only five presentations are free, then you need to pay $20/month or $15/month if paid annually. Working without the Internet in Swipe will not work - to go to the next slide, you need to save the current one.
Important to remember: before going into Swipe, review everything you know about markdown. This will save time.
materialsCreating presentations is one of the most common tasks in companies. Speak at a conference, raise funding, defend a new project, make a commercial offer... no meaningful action is complete without presentations. The success of the case depends not so much on the idea that you present, but on the presentation that you prepare.
In particular, the shell plays a huge role - presentation design, visual communication with the audience. Recently, many new presentation programs have appeared and current ones have been significantly updated in an attempt to respond to changes in the format of business communications. We tried to collect the most popular software in the original article on the Business Environment portal, which will help create presentations for all occasions.
MSPowerPoint
The first, of course, is the legendary software from Microsoft. No program other than Power Point has been accused of killing millions of people from presentations. But the point is not at all in Power Point, but in the fact that how it is used. In fact, MS Power Point, especially the 2013 version, is a powerful tool for non-designer. The program's arsenal includes all the necessary tools for creating static and animated slides. True, the interface is very heavy and contains many unnecessary features that disorientate the user and contribute to the creation of a disgusting design.
The program is paid, for personal use the best option is to buy Office 365 for 2499 rubles per year. In addition to power point, the package will include other MS Office programs, solid cloud space on OneDrive and access from 5 devices.
By the way, Power Point is available online for free, and was also recently introduced on the iPad (for Office 365 users and corporate users with a similar option - this infuriated the public tremendously, which is why the rating of the program in the App Store instantly landed at the level of 2-3 stars) . It is true to say that in both cases the toolkit of the program is very limited, many vital functions are not presented in the cloud and on the tablet.
Apple
The main competitor of MS Power Point, which in the near future is predicted to dominate both in the business environment and in personal use. The key difference is Apple's famous ease of use (“ease of use”). Give a presentation in Keynote once, and I don't have to explain that the functionality of the program is incredibly simple and practical. With such an alternative at hand, I'm starting to think of Power Point as a ridiculous misunderstanding whose existence is due only to the widespread use of Windows (in fact, it is).
Add to this the chic design of slide templates and graphics from Apple's best designers (though people manage to make terrible presentations in Keynote). And also - the free distribution of the iWork application package (which includes Keynote) for everyone who bought an apple device, starting in the fall of 2013. Let's not forget the excellent synchronization of all documents between iCloud devices and the cloud version of Keynote, which is in active beta testing and already close to the desktop solution. Do I need to explain further that Keynote is an order of magnitude better and more efficient than its main competitor?
GooglePresentations
Presentations can also be created in the free Google Drive cloud office. In fact, creating presentations in Google Drive is the same as in Power Point, only online and with a slightly modified and slightly truncated interface. Although, I must say that there are clearly more functions here than in the online version of the power point. If you have a licensed Power Point 2013, then you know that collaboration and commenting on slides are available there too - exactly the same features are on Google Drive, designed to simplify collaboration on documents.
To sum it up, Google Slides is the "poor man's Power Point": free and with limited features, but it does the basic tasks you need to create slide presentations. Although, if you tighten up, you can crazy things do even on Google Drive!
Prezi
Fashionable abroad software for creating flash presentations. A feature of Prezi is per-slide transitions. The entire presentation is created on one single canvas, over which, figuratively speaking, the camera circles and zooms in and out of certain areas. Thus, the picture from a bird's eye view, that is, a look at the presentation as a whole, is very clearly visible, as well as the structure of the narrative. To make your life easier, Prezi has many templates with ready-made visual metaphors for your presentations, or you can create a visual skeleton yourself.
As for convenience, it is not so easy to fully master the program due to its functional features. But do not say that it is difficult. Another thing is that this tool is unlikely to be popular in the business environment for permanent use - Prezi effects are useless in all sorts of reporting presentations or commercial offers. It is more of a tool for making impressive presentations to perform.
There is a free account, but it is limited to the publicity of all presentations and disk space. An advanced account will cost from $4.92 per month. There are also special offers for educational institutions and businesses. For iOS (iPad /iPhone) there is a mobile application, as well as desktop solutions for PC / Mac. Otherwise, you can create presentations online as well.
In general, the application is very interesting and original, but it is more suitable for exceptional cases than for permanent use. And you can see the selected works of users that are selected by editors.
Haikudeck
is an attempt to simplify the creation of a presentation and, in general, the content of the slides. The program is based on the principles of Zen presentations, which were formulated by the famous foreign expert Garr Reynolds. What is their essence? The main idea is the minimum amount of information on the slide. One idea per slide and one visualization (image, diagram, or diagram) to support it.
With Haiku Deck, it's extremely easy to create speech slides and simple presentations of your ideas that don't contain a huge amount of information. The interface is as intuitive as possible, there are high-quality templates for design. True, editing templates is limited: developers, thereby, try to maintain the quality of work so that the user does not end up with a template in a terrible way.
The application is free, there is a version for the iPad and the Web platform is being actively tested. Apparently, it is planned to earn money on paid additional templates that can be purchased for a few dollars.
HaikuDeck is perhaps the easiest solution for those who want to prepare the simplest and most colorful presentation without any hassles. You can look at the creations of different authors.
is a new modern presentation tool focused on the digital environment around us. All presentations are created in HTML, which means they can be read from any device. HTML encoding also allows you to customize the presentation in any way (you can climb and edit the code), as well as embed almost any content from the Internet. You can present directly from your web browser, control your presentation from any device, or download an offline version of your presentation by syncing your Dropbox account.
The interface of the graphical editor itself is a little complicated and is not yet perfect in some places in terms of standard functions, but the toolkit, in general, is very interesting. The non-linear creation of slides alone is worth something. Now there is no need to make your story linear by scrolling through the slides from left to right: in Slides, you can go in any direction (left, right, up and down), creating "layers" of the presentation, with the help of which navigation through the slides is convenient for presentation.
Slides has a free version with the most basic features, and a full-fledged product will cost from $6 per month. By the way, all presentations are created online, in your web browser, there are no desktop or mobile solutions for creating presentations in Slides yet - only viewing is possible on other devices.
In general, the tool is very interesting and, quite possibly, the future belongs to it. If your needs lie at the intersection of the possibilities of Slides, then we highly recommend trying to make a presentation here. Examples of presentations can be seen.
is not a pure presentation editor that you are used to in PowerPoint or Keynote. You won't be able to create slides in it, but it can be used to make a handy playlist of all the content that you show during your presentation. PowerPoint and Keynote presentations, PDFs, Prezi, videos, images, and web pages can be merged into one presentation by arranging information in the order you want. No more switching between programs and problems with displaying any materials!
All in all, this is a very handy and useful resource for all presenters. There is a free but very limited version. A professional subscription to the service starts at $8.33 per month. You can work online, or download the program on Windows. The creation of an application for Mac is in full swing.
A tool similar to Slides in its adaptation to the digital environment and the use of all kinds of content from the Internet. There is an insertion of almost any interactive element from the web that enlivens the presentation: up to a live RSS feed, maps from Google, online polls, videos from Youtube or music from SoundCloud. Like Slides, the program allows you to create "layered" presentations with navigation in any direction, contributing to storytelling. You can view and, most importantly, edit the presentation from any modern device with Internet access.
The interface is quite simple, it is not difficult to understand it. Of the interesting features: there is an import of PowerPoint and PDF files, which is very convenient, as well as inserting a presentation anywhere on the Internet.
Projeqt is completely free and is widely used for educational and conference speaking purposes. If your presentation is strongly tied to digital, then Projeqt is designed specifically for you.
Need to make a time-consuming design presentation on a tablet? Perhaps only can compete with the mobile version of Keynote. The program allows you to create presentations on the iPad, using your own well-designed templates that make it easier to work on slides. There are even two templates by Nancy Duarte from her book Slidedocs adapted for the iPad.
The interface is quite simple, there are a lot of functions. What is most pleasing is the attempt to create a full-fledged application adapted for the tablet. There are interesting tools: working with layers, adding photos and videos directly from Facebook, YouTube, Dropbox, etc. But due to the novelty, there are still few supported fonts and modern features like those in Projeqt or Slides.
The application is free, they earn in the same way as HaikuDeck - on paid additional templates. Examples of the best presentations can be viewed directly in the application or on the website in the “Catalog” section.
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If you are interested in creating video presentations, then I advise you to refer to the following resources: PowToon, Explainers, Sparkol, GoAnimate.
And if you didn’t have enough tools to create presentations, then you can pay attention to 9Slides,
A presentation is something like a movie, a demonstration of what the narrator is talking about. There you can add not only text and photos, but also diagrams, graphs, charts, videos and music.
Such mini-movies are used to accompany lectures, reports, visual presentation of some product or service.
You can make a presentation on your computer yourself. This will require PowerPoint. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite, along with Word and Excel.
Create presentations in PowerPoint
Go to Start - All Programs - Microsoft Office and select Microsoft Office PowerPoint from the list.
A program that looks very similar to Word will open. But her sheets are slightly smaller in size and are called slides. It is on them that all information will be placed.
To add a slide, click on the "Create Slide" button at the top ("Home" tab).
The left side of the program shows all the added slides to make it easier to switch between them. To remove an extra one, you need to right-click on it and select the "Delete Slide" item.
To change the arrangement of elements, click on the "Layout" button at the top and select the appropriate option from the list.
You should save the presentation in the same way as in Word - through the "File" (round button in the left corner) - "Save as ...".
You can learn more about saving from this lesson.
Decor
Initially, slides are added in the classic form - white, like regular sheets. But this view can be changed. To do this, the program has a special tab "Design".
The most important part is Themes. These are ready-made designs.
By default, the selected theme is applied to all slides at once. But you can assign it only to some. To do this, select the desired slides (on the left side while holding down the Ctrl key), then click right mouse button topic and select Apply to Selected Slides.
And you can adjust the assigned design through the "Colors", "Fonts", "Background Styles" buttons.
Slides are filled with information in the same way as in Microsoft Word.
Text . To print the text, you need to click in the place where it should be (for example, in the “Slide Title” part). The stick that symbolizes the cursor will start flashing. We just type text on the keyboard.
You can increase or decrease letters through this field:
And the font, that is, the type of letters, can be changed here:
This can be done both before printing and with ready-made text. It just needs to be selected first.
To do this, click on the left mouse button at the end of the text and, without releasing it, drag to the beginning. As soon as it is painted over with a different color (and, therefore, highlighted), the mouse button must be released.
A photo . Click on the "Insert" tab at the top of the program. Use the "Picture" and "Clip" (Picture) buttons to add images.
The Picture button is used to add a photo from your computer. To do this, select a photo through a special window.
Or you can just copy a photo from your computer and paste it into a slide.
"Clip" - these are pictures that are built into the program itself. You can select any of them through the search form on the right side.
More modern versions of PowerPoint also have a Snapshot button. Through it, you can take a picture of the screen and insert this picture directly into the slide.
But you can do it in the usual way, using a screenshot.
Table . Click on the "Insert" tab at the top of the program. To create a table, use the "Table" button in the left corner.
Select the desired number of cells and click the left mouse button to fix the result.
To fill the table, click on the desired cell and type the text. At the top, through the "Constructor" tab (Working with tables), you can change its design.
Graphs, charts. To create them, we also use the "Insert" tab - through the "Diagram" button.
After selecting the appropriate option, another program (Excel) with data will open. Through them, you need to edit the added diagram.
Video and sound. The corresponding buttons are also located in the "Insert" tab. "Sound" adds a musical accompaniment to the slide, and "Movie" (Video) - a video.
Other . Also, the "Insert" tab allows you to add geometric shapes, mathematical formulas, spectacular text (WordArt) and much more to your slides.
Demonstration
For a demo, go to Slide Show. By clicking on the "From Beginning" button, the presentation will start from the first slide. And by clicking on "From the current slide" - from the one that is currently open on the screen.
When the presentation is shown, each slide will be expanded to full screen. By default, switching between them occurs manually - with the mouse or the arrow buttons on the keyboard.
To exit demo mode, press the Esc key on your keyboard (top left).
If you want the slides to switch not manually, but automatically, click on the "Setting time" button.
After such a setting, as a rule, the slides will be displayed a little differently, which is not always convenient. To return to the previous view, simply double-click on any slide with the left mouse button.
Animation. During the demonstration, the slides follow each other without any effects - they just change. But you can set up different beautiful transitions between them. This is done using the "Animation" tab ("Transitions" in versions 2010-2016).
Here you can choose the appropriate transition. By default, it applies to the slide that is currently open. But you can apply it to all slides at once, to do this, click on the "Apply to all" button.
You can also make such transitions not only between slides, but also between elements. For example, a slide has a title, text, and a photo. You can make it so that the title appears first, then the text smoothly appears, and after it the photo.
In PowerPoint 2007, there is a special part for this in the tab "Animation" and "Animation Settings".
In more modern versions of the program (2010-2016), a separate “Animation” tab was made to configure such transitions.
Before applying an effect to any element, it must first be selected.