Jill Duffy The Best Presentation Software of 2018 Beyond PowerPoint, our top-rated presentation apps make slideshows (animated videos, Q&As, and collaborative brainstorming sessions) easy to create and a pleasure to consume. Let's say you have a whole bunch of information, and you need to convey it to a group of people. Maybe those people are in your office or classroom, in the boardroom of a company you're going to visit, or scattered throughout the world, connected by the internet. Presentation apps can handle the whole process. First, they let you put your material into a format that's right for sharing with others, usually—but not always—a slideshow.

• Best Presentation Software For Mac

Then, they enable you to present the material, whether that's using a and screen onsite; or offsite with a; or online in real time; or even online but asynchronously, at the leisure of each audience member. A few of the very best apps even have tools for taking questions from the audience and tracking how many people online watched your presentation. The term 'presentation app' used to be synonymous with Microsoft PowerPoint, a part of the suite. While PowerPoint is still one of the strongest players in the field, many other apps have entered the space, bringing with them innovative ways for changing how we format and present information. This subclass of, which used to be best known for inducing snoring during meetings, has grown tremendously to give presentation creators new ways of making their information more palatable, easily digestible, and sometimes downright entertaining. The Best Slideshow Creation Apps The slideshow format is the classic presentation option, and the best two apps in this category are Microsoft PowerPoint and Apple Keynote, which is a part of the former Apple iWork suite (the apps are now only available separately). Both are Editors' Choice apps.

PowerPoint has by far the most, well, everything. It has the most effects, transitions, supported formats, and so forth. You can use it as a desktop app or in a web browser. It supports real-time collaboration, though with some limitations, as I'll explain later. PowerPoint has a lot of features, even a few that help people who are bad at laying out slides do it better. PowerPoint, for all its glory, has a few weaknesses, and price is a big one. Apple Keynote is an excellent alternative for Mac users, and one that costs a lot less.

In fact, it comes preinstalled on new Macs purchased on or after October 1, 2013, meaning most users pay nothing extra for it. If you have an older Mac and do need to buy it, the price is a low one-time fee of $19.99—less than a fifth of the cost of PowerPoint's $109.99. The Most Innovative Presentation App PowerPoint and Keynote are slideshow apps, and some people find that format inherently limiting. They pigeonhole you, the argument goes, into thinking about the information you have to present in a linear way.

In fact, many people can't imagine a presentation that isn't a linear slideshow. But that's not your only choice. The best alternative for getting you thinking differently is Prezi, another Editors' Choice among presentation apps. It's by far the most innovative presentation tool. Prezi is a cloud-based service that completely ditches the idea of sequential slides.

Instead, what you create with Prezi is a giant canvas of ideas and information. You present your work by zooming in and out on different areas of the canvas, as if directing a camera. The effect is surprisingly dynamic and engaging, and its price is reasonable, at $10 per month. Prezi also doubles as a collaborative brainstorming space. One alternative use for this app is to have multiple people share their ideas in real time on the canvas. Whether the final results ever have to be shown to anyone else is entirely up to you.

Another app that throws slide decks to the wind is PowToon. Instead of slides, you create animated scenes so that the final product looks more like a video than a standard presentation. You don't have to have any high-tech animation skills to use it, though you do need deep pockets, as it is expensive, at $89 per month. There's a free version, but it's very limited. The Best Free Presentation App While PowerPoint has a limited free version and Keynote is often free for Mac owners, there's a free presentation app that I like perhaps even more: Google Slides. Google Slides, a third of the suite of office apps (which is in turn part of ), is free for anyone with a Google account. It's only available as a Web app, but it's stable and quick, nonetheless.

One feature I especially like in Google Slides is the ability to generate a link where audience members can submit questions to a presenter in real-time. It adds a wonderful interactive component to your pitches. Best Collaborative Presentation App The aforementioned Google Slides is only available as a Web app, and, partly for that reason, it handles collaboration better than other presentation apps.

Because your Google Slides presentations are always saved to Google Drive by default, they're always available to share. That's not the case with PowerPoint and Keynote, two apps that also support collaboration (Keynote's collaborative features are in beta as of this writing). With those apps, you have to make sure you take the extra step to save your presentation to a cloud storage space, such as or, for the collaborative features to work. It can get confusing if you've been saving the file locally with the desktop app and now have to make a copy to share. Collaboration in Google Slides works the same as it does in other G Suite apps.

The familiar interface is there. When two or more people simultaneously edit a file, you'll see your collaborators' cursors on screen, color-coded to their name and picture (or initials) in the upper right corner. Prezi is also one of the best presentation apps for collaboration, largely because it mimics the G Suite implementation and design. PowerPoint and Beyond Presentation apps are a critical piece of any, and there's a good chance that most anyone who needs to convey information to a group of people—whether it's other employees, potential customers or clients, a university class, or any other group of people—will need to give the occasional presentation. Whether you love standing up and giving a live talk, or you'd prefer to let people consume your prerecorded wisdom via the internet, there's a tool for you. There's no denying that PowerPoint is the king of the hill, but that doesn't mean it's your only choice. Check out the table above, read the capsule reviews below and click through to the full reviews to learn more about your choices for presentation apps.

Do you have a strong opinion about one of the apps listed here (or one that we missed)? Let us know in the comments. Pros: Easy to use. Unique, dynamic, single-canvas presentation format. Creates lively, graphics-rich presentations. Suitable for use as a collaborative whiteboard. Cons: Free-form interface makes it hard to create consistently sized and shaped text and graphics.

Chat not included for collaboration. Bottom Line: Unique and dynamic, Prezi is free-form presentation software that's terrific for informal and unstructured information. But if you're looking for a slide-based alternative to PowerPoint, this isn't it.

Pros: Enables nonexperts to easily make animated videos. A welcome alternative to slide decks. Good interface and tools for adding custom images and voice-overs. Cons: Expensive.

Best Presentation Software For Mac

Limited collaboration features. Heavy reliance on templates may make videos formulaic. No snapping guidelines for aligning, centering. Must first export to embed and reupload any time the presentation changes. Bottom Line: With PowToon, anyone can make video animations instead of drab slide decks to use for presentations, training, and more. You don't have to be an expert in video editing, but you do need deep pockets.

From making presentations at work to presenting projects at schools/colleges, almost all of us need to make presentations every now and then and this task isn’t possible without good presentation software. Thankfully, there is no dearth of free presentation softwares which can be downloaded on different operating systems and devices including Mac. If you are someone who is looking for free software for making presentations and projects, then you can refer to the following given list of the top 3 free presentation software for Mac.

Powtoon Features and functions Powtoon is a free presentation software for Mac which lets you present animated characters and to introduce things as storytelling and not fact telling. It is not only interesting but also lets you create short animated video clips from presentations. This software can also be used to emxbed video clips into your website. Pros: This is unique presentation software which adds the twist of storytelling to make presentations more interesting.

It is easy to use, super cool and the best way to give sales pitches and marketing ideas. This software is ideal for both students and working people. Cons: This free presentation software for Mac is still in its beta mode and this is a negative associated with it. The styles provided are very limited and this too proves to be a big drawback. Powtoon may not be suitable for giving ‘serious’ presentations in certain official settings.

User reviews: 1. Easy to use and fun presentation tool for flipped classrooms or student reports 2. Have fun with this tool. No coding necessary. Get used to the timeline and it’s easy. I had SO much fun with this, and found so much value in it.

PreZentit Features and functions This is a PowerPoint look alike for Mac users which allows you to create amazing presentations without downloading any software. This program beta version is still in its Alpha mode and has a good interface. This free presentation software for Mac is simple to use and has an intuitive interface. Pros: It is very simple, breezy and has simple transitions. This software is similar to PowerPoint and hence users face no problems while using it. It allows you to add media easily to it and this too is a positive.

Cons: It is not very reliable software and this is its biggest drawback. This software is still in its alpha mode which doesn’t make it very usable. PreZentit offers limited functionality and this may too be a big negative associated with it. User reviews: With PreZentit, you can easily create great presentations, show and share them.

Your presentation access is as easy as a lixnk, and it can be seen using any web browser. With PreZentit, you can present it and not have to write it.

PreZentit is a community where you can create (alone or with others), share and show your presentations. OpenOffice Impress This is free and open source presentation software for Mac from Apache which is a desktop baxsed office suite. It is a PowerPoint clone which is intuitive and easy to use. OpenOffice Impress lets you export files in /pptx format to use with PowerPoint on other computers. Pros: It is very similar to PowerPoint and hence seems very easy to use.

It is intuitive in nature and has a basic interface for quick presentation making. Another positive feature of this free presentation software for Mac is that it is a mature and powerful product with a history of over 20 years. It is available on all major platforms and is this too is a positive. Cons: There is no user level support which is developed and maintained by a community. If you are used to using Microsoft office, then you may find this lacking on a few features and functions. Another negative point related to this program is that it doesn’t allow you to transfer presentations made on it to PowerPoint and vice versa and this can be really limiting in many ways.

User reviews: OpenOffice is a smaller version of MS Office and might not have all the features you want, however has the basics of a package, and mostly what people need If you have been using MS Office your whole life, it's probably not as easy to get used to OpenOffice, but it's starting to be used by many developers and on home computers The pros of having OpenOffice is for people who do not wish to purchase a bloated version of MS Office or can't afford to. I think OpenOffice is a good alternative if you want a small, simple, reliable and useful program Free presentation software for Mac.