Alternative To Microsoft PowerPoint

PowerPoint is a powerful presentation application which is very commonly used by lecturers, businessmen, students, trainers, etc. This proprietary presentation program comes together under the Microsoft Office suite (alternative to Microsoft Office is also available). It is easy to use and featured with a lot of functions to create interesting and dynamic slide presentations. This has made it widely accepted and utilised. Having said that, if for some reasons you don’t fancy PowerPoint and seek an alternative to PowerPoint, there are a few applications you can probably try. These applications are free and you can use them to prepare your presentations online.

Google Docs
Google Docs is a free web-based office suite for Google’s users. Like Microsoft Office Suite, Google Docs also has a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation application. Even though Google Docs is a web-based service, it allows users to handle their document office by using Gears, an open source browser extension that adds offline functionality directly to the browser. Users can use the presentation application in Google Docs to prepare, view and edit their presentation materials. Google Docs Presentation features all the basic functions available in PowerPoint such as insert image, text, shape, video, theme, etc. Apart from that, there are not many advanced or improved options.

Zoho Show 2.0
Similarly to Google Docs, Zoho is another web-based office suite which has word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, note-taking, wikis, CRM, project management, invoicing and other applications. Users can use the Zoho Show 2.0 to create slides for presentation. To use this Free presentation application, users need to register and sign up with Zoho. Besides featuring all the necessary tools, Zoho Show 2.0 also allows users to present their work remotely via internet, embed the slide show into blogs or webpages and share their presentation with friends/colleagues via internet.

Besides Google Docs and Zoho Show 2.0 office suite, users can find other presentation applications in office suites such as Kpresenter of KOffice, Impress of OpenOffice, etc. Other than the presentation applications in the above mentioned Office suites, there are also some standalone web-based presentation applications available. These tools are user friendly and powerful.

280 Slides
280 Slides Beta is another neat online presentation tool. This free presentation tool allows users to create their presentation and store it on its server. Users can access to their workings anywhere via internet. Besides, users can download their workings or embed them into blogs or websites. 280 Slides also allows users to add photos and movies to their presentation directly from popular web services such as YouTube and Flickr. Since 280 Slides is in its Beta, there are still some limitations such as limited theme options, the inability to upload your own theme images, etc.

SlideRocket
Like 280 Slides, SlideRocket is another standalone web application which assists users to design professional quality presentations, manage and share libraries of slides and assets, and to deliver presentations in person or remotely over the web. This application is in Beta. Users need to sign up to enjoy this pre-launch version. Take a tour on how SlideRocket works.