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How do I do a PowerPoint presentation without PowerPoint available?

I often use PowerPoint for presentations. Confronted with such disadvantage: PowerPoint is not installed on each computer. Advise me an alternative solution, as you can get without having to install PowerPoint, and is it possible?

  • microsoft-powerpoint
  • presentations

Tamara Wijsman's user avatar

  • Do you send the presentation on CD or other media and need for it to be self running, or will you be there to set things up and run the presentation? What version of PowerPoint do you need to support, and what features do you use (for example, links to external files, links to the net, movies, sounds, etc)? –  Steve Rindsberg Nov 15, 2011 at 15:45

8 Answers 8

  • export the presentation from PowerPoint to a self contained presentation
  • use Google docs
  • use a tool like Prezi ( my recommendation, never looked back to PowerPoint)

Nasreddine's user avatar

Microsoft provides PowerPoint Viewer free of charge. It won't allow you to modify PowerPoint presentations, but it will allow you to play them. I don't think there's a portable version that can be run from a thumb drive, but it's a small install for computers that don't have the full Office treatment.

MBraedley's user avatar

  • 1 Unfortunately, PowerPoint Viewer has been retired. –  Adam J Limbert Oct 8, 2018 at 8:57
  • I wrote a website with a script catching pressed key. (Browser in fullscreen mode)
  • I often simply use PDF files
  • You can take a PPT viewer with you (portable version, no installation required)

Smamatti's user avatar

You can use Windows Live Webapps.

You can also use the Broadcast feature which allows all your users to watch the same slideshow.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/web-apps-help/about-the-broadcast-slide-show-feature-HA010383019.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HA010378340

You send a link to your users and they can all watch your slideshow. You can control which slide they see from inside Powerpoint.

surfasb's user avatar

As far as I know, PowerPoint is able to produce a standalone .exe file that plays your slideshow. I guess that would be a suitable solution for almost any computer, because you do not need to install anything and you do not need any user privileges at all. Unfortunately I do not have MS Office on my own, but I guess you should find the option to do that on "export" or "save as". I also heard the it is possible to export the slideshow as flash (.swf) file (I know for sure in LibreOffice) which would be a possibility, too because most systems nowadays have an internet browser with installed flash player.

Michael K's user avatar

  • PowerPoint isn't able to produce a standalone EXE. While it can't export Flash on its own, there are add-ins that will convert PPT to Flash. –  Steve Rindsberg Nov 15, 2011 at 15:43
  • I am pretty sure that I used that feature a few years ago, it may be that it was only in a very old office version. Exporting as flash, like I said can be done in LibreOffice. It is one additional tool, but using a tool or using a plugin is mostly not a very big difference. –  Michael K Nov 15, 2011 at 15:45
  • I'm guessing you may've used something like this: indezine.com/products/powerpoint/pp2003/ppt2exe.html (not exactly built into PPT but semi-close). Subject to the limitations of the viewer, it'd work nicely for many uses, but wouldn't work with the 2010 viewer, in case that's a necessity. –  Steve Rindsberg Nov 15, 2011 at 15:57

Here are your options:

  • If you need the exact fidelity (animations & graphics) of your PPT but without the ability for the recipient to edit it, go for File > Export > Video (4k)
  • If you don't need animations to be preserved but everything else should be as is and the recipient shouldn't be able to edit, go for File > Export > PDF
  • If you need the recipient to edit / control the presentation with their device try the PowerPoint Web App which is free.
  • If the recipient isn't well versed with Powerpoint but they'd still like to edit the file, convert it to Google slides .

Gaurav Ramanan's user avatar

GoogleDocs has a presentation tool.

McKay's user avatar

You can view a presentation without PowerPoint using PowerPoint Online or Office mobile apps . PowerPoint Viewer has been retired. For more information, see View a presentation without PowerPoint .

Adam J Limbert's user avatar

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how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

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3 Free Web Apps to Make PowerPoint Presentation Without PowerPoint

how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is one software you should have on your computer, especially if you are the one who regularly does a presentation in the workplace or prospecting a client. But, what if you don’t have the PowerPoint software yet still want to make a presentation slide?

Turns out, there are plenty of alternative online apps that allow you to create a PowerPoint file even without PowerPoint software .

Here are some free web presentation apps that considered the best in the industry.

#1 PowerPoint Online

how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

It is not surprising that Microsoft has released the web-based version of PowerPoint. This online tool has almost everything you need to make a beautiful slide. It shares the same similarity with its offline brother. You can add slides, choosing a template, adding animations, enable Slide Show, and handful other useful features.

PowerPoint Online is available for free by signing up to Microsoft account (I’m sure most of us already have). Then you can start using the tool by visiting the PowerPoint Online website .

#2 Google Slides

how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

Google Slides is the most popular alternative for PowerPoint. It looks somewhat similar to PowerPoint Online but with fewer menus — providing a clean and simple interface that easy to learn. Besides creating a presentation slide, you can also export the file into PPTX format which can be rendered using Microsoft PowerPoint.

If you have a Google account, you automatically have the privilege to use Google Slides via its website . Your file will be saved to Google Drive in real-time while you editing it. Google Slides also comes with a variety of free templates that ready to use.

#3 Zoho Show

how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

Zoho Show is another presentation web app that you can use to create a simple slide list. If Google Slides was so minimalistic, Zoho Show is even simpler than that. This means you can easily understand the function of each menu and create a presentation file faster.

It’s not only free, but also open-source where developers can modify the software according to their needs. Zoho Show comes with several file options to export, including PPT, PPTX, PPSX, and SXI. You only need to register to the Zoho website , then you can start using the tool right away!

BONUS: Visme , Prezi , & Slides

how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

Looking for a modern presentation web app? Visme, Prezi, and Slides are probably the best tools for you. These presentation tools have a minimalistic approach that encourages you to use pre-made templates that available in their library. Therefore, you can make a beautiful slide easier and faster.

Of course, these are separated services and none of them are related to each other, but they share the same similarity you can expect; paid options, tons of templates, and the free version only have enough features to create a small presentation project.

Both Slides and Prezi start as low as $5 per month while Visme is way higher at $14 per month .

Alright. That’s the three web apps to create a PowerPoint file without actually having Microsoft PowerPoint installed on your computer.

Personally, I still prefer to use PowerPoint Online as the closest alternative for Microsoft PowerPoint. But I’m sure you have a different opinion on that regard.

So, how about you? Which tool do you love the most?

About The Author

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How to Open PowerPoint Documents Without PowerPoint

how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

Lee Stanton Lee Stanton is a versatile writer with a concentration on the software landscape, covering both mobile and desktop applications as well as online technologies. Read more July 2, 2021

Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to open a PowerPoint presentation but don’t have the program installed on your computer? Maybe you’re at work and forgot to bring your laptop. Or perhaps you’re using your friend’s home PC, which doesn’t have an up-to-date version of MS Office.

How to Open PowerPoint Documents Without PowerPoint

If this sounds like you, we’ve got some good news. There are plenty of tools that can help open that PowerPoint document, and you don’t even need to spend big to get them.

In this article, we’re going to take you through the different tools that you could use to open a PowerPoint file if you don’t have the program on your device.

PowerPoint Compatible Applications

Microsoft PowerPoint may be the Mona Lisa of presentation programs, but it’s definitely not the only well-known option in town. Whether you want to make your work stand out with some snazzy transitions and animations or need an easy-to-use tool for creating basic slide shows, there are plenty of options available on the market. These include web-based utilities like Google Docs Presentations, LibreOffice Impress, PowerPoint Viewer, NeoOffice, Slide Share, and others.

Let’s now see how each of these tools work.

1. Downloadable Programs

a) PowerPoint Online

PowerPoint Online is a cloud-based service from Microsoft that allows users to create, edit and share presentations on any of their devices. It provides high-quality presentation tools that let you design and collaborate with your team and automatically synchronize that information across your connected devices.

To use PowerPoint Online, all you need is a browser and a Microsoft account (hotmail.com, live.com, outlook.com, MSN, or even a Microsoft 365 work/school account). If you have the file on your computer, you can view it with one simple drag from your desktop to the PowerPoint web page. You can also use PowerPoint online to open files saved on Dropbox or OneDrive.

PowerPoint Online lets you share or collaborate with partners when giving presentations. So you’ll never have that awkward moment during work meetings where colleagues are trying to pass along an idea but can’t quite do so because they don’t have access to the specific content like you do.

how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

b) PowerPoint Viewer

PowerPoint Viewer is a great tool to use if you want to view your PowerPoint presentations. It works well with password-protected documents and allows you to open, print, and share files with others. Although it doesn’t allow you to edit anything, you can see slideshows in their entirety and compile notes on ideas that may have been brewing while it was being created.

Although, Microsoft retired the original PowerPoint Viewer back in 2018, but we already have a few replacements designed for Windows 10 version 17763.0 or higher. A good example would be PPTX Viewer , which offers pretty much the same tools as the application originally developed.

how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

2. Open-Source Tools

You’ll be pleased to learn that Microsoft PowerPoint isn’t the only tool you can use to power through a slideshow. There are plenty of open-source alternatives out there that don’t involve the default software package from Microsoft. In most cases, these alternatives are as good as PowerPoint itself, if not much better. Before looking at our top picks under this category, it’s important to understand what open-source tools are.

Open-source software is software whose source code is available to the public for reuse, study, and redistribution under a list of licensing terms that indicate various copyright responsibilities. Unlike proprietary software, no one owns open-source software. Everyone can modify it and share it with others. For this reason, you should always exercise caution before using any open source program for your presentations.

Here are our top open-source presentation tools:

a) Apache OpenOffice Impress

Apache OpenOffice Impress is a free and general-purpose office software compatible with many different kinds of documents. It includes a word processor (similar to Microsoft Word), a spreadsheet application (similar to Excel), and a presentation and graphics program (similar to PowerPoint). It is available in over 100 languages and also allows you to install third-party extensions for additional functionality.

To open a PowerPoint file with the help of Apache OpenOffice Impress:

how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

Apache OpenOffice Impress is a versatile tool that allows you to view and create striking presentations. You can even enhance your presentations with 2D and 3D graphics, special effects, and animations. The toolbar and sidebar are incredibly user-friendly. There’s a “Properties” button to help you sort through slideshows as well as a “Navigator” button to enable you to navigate around with ease. In addition, a variety of formatting tools are available in the “Style” section located at the top of every slide.

Apache Open Office Impress might not have the best graphics but it certainly won’t disappoint. That said, there’s a minor learning curve involved, and it’s unlikely that you’ll hit the ground running. But once you conquer that hurdle and learn how all of its features work, you’ll be making high-quality presentations in no time.

b) LibreOffice Impress

LibreOffice’s presentation software is also named Impress. It’s synonymous with quality presentations that are just as good as those created using PowerPoint.

To open a PowerPoint file with LibreOffice:

  • Download and install the software on your computer.

how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

LibreOffice Impress comes with a wide range of templates to choose from, but their basic layout can be tweaked by installing specific formatting add-ons. That includes animated transitions and decorative frames. So it’s a good pick if you need well-crafted presentations, complete with visual animations and powerful charts for your marketing campaign.

Libre Office and Apache OpenOffice are strikingly similar. As a result, some users use them interchangeably.

c) NeoOffice

NeoOffice is a free, open-source office suite for Mac that includes word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and drawing applications. It also allows you to open presentations initially created using LibreOffice or OpenOffice Impress.

 To open a PowerPoint presentation using NeoOffice:

how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

  • Navigate to the location of your PowerPoint document.

how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

NeoOffice comes with several benefits. First, you don’t have to use or subscribe to any particular service to work with your documents in the software. Second, it’s always up-to-date because the developers constantly monitor the program and install the updates by themselves. They don’t have to wait for official approval from a company owner such as Microsoft or Apple to release new features. Lastly, there are no commercial restrictions on downloading copies for multiple people at once.

3. Web-Based Tools

a) Google Docs Presentations

If you want to make a presentation without using PowerPoint, Google Slides is an excellent option. It lets users easily import their presentations and share them with others conveniently through the cloud. Although it doesn’t come with the same features as Microsoft PowerPoint, it’s one of the most user-friendly presentation tools.

If you want to open a PowerPoint file using Google Docs, here are the steps:

how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

Besides viewing the file, you can also make further tweaks as you see fit. Additionally, you can download the presentation in various formats, including PPTX, ODP, PDF, JPEG, and TXT.

b) SlideShare

SlideShare is a social media site for presentations. Users can upload their slideshows and embed them on other websites. Presentations are typically viewed by browsing topics that others have uploaded within a specific category (e.g., business, marketing).

To open a PowerPoint file using SlideShare:

how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

  • Navigate to the location of the PowerPoint document you’d like to view and then click on “Open.”

how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

  • Click on “My Uploads” to view the presentation.

SlideShare comes with its limitations. Notably, you can only upload PPT files as static slideshows with no multimedia or animation effects. In addition, the quality of the text and images you create within your presentation is low since everything is saved in a raster format (720 x 480 pixels resolution).

Despite the low resolution, SlideShare presents one of the best ways to introduce yourself and your work in an interactive format that’s easy on the eyes. You’re able to create engaging, compelling, and immediately shareable presentations that can be accessed anytime.

F requently Asked Questions

How do i use powerpoint on a smartphone or tablet .

The Microsoft Office mobile app lets you read, view, and edit PowerPoint documents on the go with your iPad, iPhone, or Android device. You can store files in the cloud and access them from anywhere. The app is designed to work around your schedule by seamlessly syncing the files on your devices to provide online and offline support.

You can use the app to open files in your Google Drive or OneDrive account and quickly transfer them between devices. What’s more, you can create a document on one device and then continue editing it later on another device. Thus, the app is perfect for co-authoring with others.

The app is readily available in both the App Store and Google Play.

Make Presentations Like a Pro

PowerPoint is an excellent program for presentations, but its alternatives may work better depending on your needs. In this tutorial, we’ve shared information on how each of the available options works and what to do to view your document. We’re confident that this information will help you choose the perfect presentation tool for your next project.

Have you tried any alternatives to PowerPoint? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Ditch the slides: deliver great presentations without powerpoint.

  • Written by Colin James
  • Last Updated December 2, 2023

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Introduction

Have you ever sat through a boring presentation? I’m going to guess your answer is “yes”. Invariably, when we ask this question to our program participants, all hands go up.

Think back to those presentations. I’m willing to bet there was a common element: a deck of densely packed  PowerPoint slides  behind the speaker.

Now, I don’t know about you, but as soon as I see slides like this in a presentation, my attention immediately starts to wane. You would think that visual information, graphics and graphs would enliven and enrich a presentation. But it’s not the software itself that’s the problem – it’s how it’s being used.

So how can we communicate more effectively –  without relying heavily on PowerPoint ?

In part one of our two-part video series  Presenting Without Slides,  I talk about why PowerPoint is such a presentation killer, and how to reframe your approach to using slide deck software in a way that is more  engaging to your audience .

How to Present Without Powerpoint

01. only use slides if they add value to your presentation.

For tens of thousands of years, humans have demonstrated effective communication without PowerPoint. Global businesses have been built, wars won and lost, worlds ‘discovered’ and centuries of learning compiled and shared without the use of PowerPoint. Projected imagery itself is, of course, a modern invention.

And while there is value in visual aids, we need to start thinking of ourselves as communicators first.

If the PowerPoint deck communicates the message or is used to simply format content ideas, then hand it out for people to read and follow it with a Q&A. Presenting is foremost a spoken, auditory experience with the visuals providing support and value.

Each slide needs to be rigorously and brutally assessed with this question: “How does this slide enrich, deepen or support the message?”

While stepping away from PowerPoint might seem daunting, numerous engaging visual aids can captivate your audience. Consider utilizing:

Whiteboards or Flip Charts: Engage your audience by sketching diagrams, mind maps, or key points as you speak. This interactive approach allows for real-time interaction and visual learning.

Props and Objects: Incorporate relevant props or physical objects related to your topic. For instance, if discussing teamwork, use a puzzle or rope to illustrate your point visually.

Handouts or Infographics: Prepare concise handouts or visually appealing infographics that complement your verbal presentation. These can be distributed before or after your talk to reinforce key information.

02. Be Confident Presenting Without Props

Imagine you walk into the room – no PowerPoint presentation behind you, no notes, no visual aids, no clicker in hand. You simply stand there in front of your audience and speak with zest and authenticity.

If you do this, you convey to your audience the  quality of authority . You’re saying, “I am confident enough to stand before you without the props to help me, because I am enough. What I have to share and say is enough value in and of itself.”

When you own the space, you become the powerful communicator.

Ask yourself, “If the projector exploded, or the whiteboard magically melted, could I still deliver the outcome? Would I have enough confidence in myself to articulate and convey my messages in a manner that engages and enriches my audience – and deepens their ability to apply what I have presented?”

Your answer must be “Yes!” It’s that simple. And that challenging.

Don’t believe me? Well, why not try it for yourself?

If you do get stuck try encouraging audience participation to create an immersive experience and take some the pressure off you.

These could include:

Group Activities or Exercises: Break your presentation into segments where the audience collaborates in small group discussions, activities, or problem-solving exercises. This fosters active engagement and reinforces learning.

Q&A and Discussion: Allocate time for open discussions, allowing attendees to ask questions or share opinions. This promotes dialogue and deeper understanding while keeping the presentation dynamic.

03. See Yourself as a Visual Aid

The third step to avoiding a dreary presentation is to think of yourself as a visual aid. Yes – you are the reference point! The other stuff you bring into the room is just collateral that either supports or distracts from what you have to say.

Your physiology, gestures and voice can create interest, intrigue, imagery and emphasis.

Your presence on stage is a significant visual aid itself. Consider these tips:

Body Language and Delivery: Use expressive gestures, varying tones, and impactful body language to emphasize key points. Your physical presence and energy level play a crucial role in engaging your audience.

Eye Contact and Connection: Establishing eye contact and connecting with your audience builds rapport and ensures their attention remains focused on your message.

Examples of Successful PowerPoint-Free Presentations

TED Talks: Many TED speakers deliver powerful presentations without relying heavily on slides. They use storytelling, props, and personal anecdotes to convey their messages effectively.

Live Demonstrations: Tech companies often showcase product features or concepts through live demonstrations instead of slides. These real-time examples create an engaging experience for the audience.

Remember, effective presentations rely on your confidence, communication skills, and ability to connect with your audience. PowerPoint is just one tool among many for communication. By exploring alternative methods, you can create impactful presentations that resonate long after the session ends.

Don’t shy away from experimenting with different presentation styles and tools to find what works best for you and your audience. It’s about delivering a memorable experience that leaves a lasting impression!

If you don’t feel quite up to it yet, don’t worry – we’ve got just the thing to help.

Join us at our next Public Speaking Workshop. Break the shackles of nerves and learn how to build and deliver engaging presentations to amplify your audience experience.

No more hiding behind PowerPoint slides – remember, it’s your message (and how you deliver it) that will make you a star!

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The Colin James Method®  Facilitators train corporate executives to  improve their professional development  with a proven methodology. Our highly trained Facilitators and Coaches are recognised for their experience in their fields and have worked with many individuals and organisations around the world to master the art of communication.

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Creative Presentation Ideas Without PowerPoint: 7 Unique Ways to Engage Your Audience

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Are you in a creative rut when it comes to making presentations and engaging your audience? Have you found yourself relying too much on good ol’ PowerPoint and need a breath of fresh air? We have the ultimate answer to your woes – 7 unique ways to present your subject without PowerPoint! These top 7 suggestions guarantee to get your audiences’ attention, keep them engaged, and make them beg for more. From utilizing props and infographics to interactive activities and storytelling, you’ll be able to find the method that works best for you. And they all come without having to use PowerPoint! So Read on to discover the secrets behind our top 7 creative presentation ideas without PowerPoint, and how you can make your next presentation a smashing success!

Quick Breakdown

There are many creative ways to present information without using PowerPoint, such as creating a hands-on demonstration , using scanned images with voiceover narration, or making a video. You can also use posters, flipcharts , props, and other visuals to help engage your audience.

Explaining Concepts with Storytelling

Storytelling can be a powerful way to explore complex concepts and engage with audiences. Using stories to explain ideas encourages critical thinking, increases audience engagement, and gives meaning to abstract topics. Unlike the structure of PowerPoint slides, storytelling allows for organic dialogue between presenter and audience, creating an environment where both are actively involved in exploring concepts. Furthermore, by using a narrative approach to present information, ideas become easier to remember as they are given much-needed context. Arguments against using stories as a means of communication focus on its relative unstructured nature and the lack of advantages that tangible visuals provide. Others find it difficult to measure engagement when using stories as opposed to traditional PowerPoint slides or other visual aids . However, the most effective storytellers understand how to use emotion, tension, humor, surprise, and suspense to narrate concrete arguments that will stay with their audiences long after their presentations have ended. Storytelling is one of the oldest forms of interpersonal communication; it’s no wonder the listener’s attention is captured from start to finish. By creatively utilizing this ancient technique in combination with modern teaching practices, presenters can captivate their audiences with gripping narratives about important topics. Such engagement not only encourages comprehension but also sparks curiosity and debate among listeners. With so much potential for success, explain concepts with storytelling has become increasingly popular in business settings and other professional environments. Ready to take your presentation skills up a notch? By engaging audiences with interactivity you can ensure that your audience members leave with a full understanding of the concept you were trying share while having a great time doing it!

Engaging Audiences with Interactivity

Interactivity is a great tool for engaging (and not boring) audiences in a presentation. Interactivity can come in many forms and can be tailored to the subject matter, needs of the presenter, and objectives of the audience. Depending on the environment and resources available, there are several ways to introduce interactive elements into presentations. Two popular types of interactivity that can be used are Q&A sessions and polling or surveys . Q&A sessions can be structured by designating time at the end of the presentation or set up as an ongoing part of the presentation. This allows the presenter to quickly address questions from the audience while also staying on topic and providing additional clarity when necessary. Polling or surveys are great for getting more in-depth opinions from participants on a specific topic, helping to provide further context around various aspects of presentation topics . Another method for introducing interactivity is game-based activities. This could include quizzes, challenges, puzzles, scavenger hunts, and other types of games depending on the objectives. Games are often a great way to get people engaged with one another as well as pique interest in the content presented. It’s important to carefully consider whether this type of activity is appropriate for your particular situation prior to implementing it into a presentation. Overall, there is no single best way to incorporate interactivity into your presentation but it is a powerful tool that can help make it successful if used correctly. It’s important to understand how certain interactive elements might affect your message by building in enough time for feedback and thorough responses if needed. With careful planning and consideration for all audiences involved, you can craft engaging presentations without relying on PowerPoint alone. Next we will look at how using an interactive whiteboard is another great alternative for presenting without PowerPoint.

Interactive Whiteboard

Interactive whiteboard technologies offer content-rich, audience-engaging presentations without the same level of formality as PowerPoint. With an interactive whiteboard, you can tap into a wide variety of multimedia content that encourages audience engagement and creativity while reducing any text-heavy messages. A well-made and engaging presentation on an interactive whiteboard can provide students or trainees with an immersive experience, allowing them to visualize and understand complex topics in ways that are not possible with traditional paper-based materials. From the point of view of traditional powerpoint presentations, one advantage of an interactive whiteboard is the fact that the audience can actively participate in the process by sharing their thoughts or responses via either verbal discussion, written comments, or drawings in real time. Other benefits include simple navigation and navigation tools for finding specific parts or pages within a presentation. Additionally, sound effects like music or videos may also be included to make the presentation more attention-grabbing and creative. A disadvantage is that interactive whiteboard systems are typically more expensive than traditional PowerPoint software. Moreover, they often require additional hardware such as a projector or other devices needed to connect it to media sources such as computers and tablets. Furthermore, without technical support assistance at hand, it can be difficult for those who are unfamiliar with this technology to operate the interactive board effectively. Therefore, it is important to take into consideration these potential cons before planning a presentation on an interactive whiteboard system. Overall, when used responsibly and creatively, an interactive whiteboard provides a captivating alternative to PowerPoint presentations without diminishing its educational value and potential effectiveness in communicating key messages and ideas to your target audience. As the next section will discuss further, adding hands-on activities to your presentation is another way create impactful and engaging experiences for your attendees.

Hands-On Activities

Hands-on activities evoke a sense of participation and engagement that can be just as powerful as engaging with a PowerPoint presentation. However, they work best with smaller audiences where the participants are able to get up close to the facilitator and interact with one another. Depending on the type of message you’re trying to convey, different types of hands-on activities may be suitable. For example, if you want to capture creative ideas in a group setting, an exercise such as “speed sketching” could be conducted. Everyone in the group would have to collaboratively draw a set concept or idea in five minutes or less . Alternatively, if you’re trying to inspire people about a specific topic, physical representation will help them retain more information and give them a better understanding of complex topics . More traditional activities such as panel discussions and debates are also great options for fostering an interactive environment amongst any audience. Leading into the next section: Illustrating ideas with multimedia has been tried and tested by many businesses and organizations for its ability to effectively engage larger audiences who may have varying interests or perspectives on the topic being presented.

Illustrating Ideas with Multimedia

When it comes to creative presentation ideas without PowerPoint, leveraging multimedia to illustrate ideas can be an effective method of bringing the audience into an experience and capturing their attention. Multimedia elements such as images, videos, audio clips, and even live web streams can help bring the presentation to life and add a “wow” factor that PowerPoint cannot provide. Not only can visuals help encourage engagement, but this type of multimedia also helps break up the monotony associated with lecturing for long periods of time. By introducing multimedia elements during a presentation, audiences will find this type of approach to be interesting and memorable. Using multimedia for presentations can also add to the impact of narrative content. Rather than just reading from a script or speaking from memory, adding visuals or sound effects can make stories more captivating while strengthening an argument. That said, it’s important to remember there are drawbacks associated with multimedia elements. If not used sparingly, they can quickly become too distracting or take away from the message you’re trying to convey. Ensuring multimedia adds value instead of detracts from your talk is key when leveraging multimedia in creative presentations. Finally, leveraging multi-media is only one side of incorporating creative techniques into a presentation — performance demonstrations are another great way to engage an audience. In the next section we’ll look at how you can use props and physical demonstrations to capture the audience’s attention and create a lasting impression.

  • According to a 2004 study , PowerPoint is just presentation technology’s latest iteration and will eventually be replaced by something else.

Performance Demonstrations

Performance Demonstrations are a great way to keep your audience engaged and excited about your presentation. Whether you decide to show off a skill you possess or hire an expert in their field, an engaging, “real performance” is sure to leave a lasting impression on your audience. The advantages of performing a demonstration are that it keeps the audience focused, provides an interactive element to the presentation and makes for a more creative form of communication. Additionally, it allows the presenter to explain some abstract ideas in concrete terms. For example, when explaining aerodynamics, if you have an expert mathematician available, they could use calculus to calculate air resistance and lift force while teaching the audience a physical demonstration. On the other hand, there are potential downsides when incorporating performance demonstrations into your presentation. Not everyone will understand the topic presented; visual learners may comprehend more easily than those with auditory learning styles and vice-versa. Additionally, performance demonstrations run the risk of not being done effectively causing confusion instead of clarity during the presentation. Regardless of these drawbacks, if done correctly, performance demonstrations can be a great way to engage any audience. Following this section about Performance Demonstrations we will explore how Presenters can use Physical Objects as another unique way to capture an audience’s attention and lead them through their message without PowerPoint.

Present Ideas Using Physical Objects

Using physical objects to convey a message can be an effective and creative means to engage an audience. By incorporating tangible elements, such as props, displays, and other materials, presenters can physically demonstrate a concept or idea in a way that captures attention and encourages interaction. Additionally, physical objects can enable the audience to have both tactile interaction as well as visual stimulation. This can help to keep individuals focused on the presentation and more likely to remember what is being said. For example, while explaining increasing sales numbers over time, a presenter may use a graph written on a whiteboard with colored markers. As each section of the graph is explained, the presenter can point to sections of the board with the markers to emphasize certain points or data points. This allows for visual tracking of progress on the graph, as well as directing attention away from other slides or topics being discussed. Furthermore, using physical markers instead of electronic slides gives the audience something tangible with which to interact and remember. Physical objects may also be used as props for storytelling or examples within a presentation. However, this approach can prove difficult if not done correctly due to unexpected issues with transport or storage of materials. If not managed properly ahead of time, these unforeseen problems can have an impact on the quality of the presentation and its potential success. For this reason it is important to weigh all options carefully before selecting any physical props for incorporation into the presentation.

Visual Props

Visual props are a great way to engage audiences and create interesting presentations. These props can include items such as whiteboards and markers, storyboards, sculptures, or even art installations. Visual props can be used to illustrate complex concepts, break up information into more concentrated bits, and make your audience feel like they are actively participating in the presentation. On one hand, visual props might help enhance rather than dominate a presentation. Rather than simply showing an audience slides of written words on a screen and speaking over them, visual props may allow the presenter to incorporate elements of drama and interaction with the audience. For example, depending on the type of prop you choose, viewers may be encouraged to ask questions or share their experiences in relation to what is being presented. On the other hand, using too many props can become overwhelming for an audience and detract from the larger message you want to convey. Additionally, if your chosen prop is too heavy or bulky it can become difficult for a presenter to move around while speaking over them. It is important to focus on how much of your prop should be seen and how much of it should remain behind-the-scenes or in storage during a presentation so that it has maximum impact if needed but also won’t distract from the topic at hand. Overall, visual props provide an effective way to engage viewers in a presentation without the use of PowerPoint. With thoughtful planning, visuals can be used in strategic ways that emphasize key points and foster a greater understanding rather than being distracting or overwhelming to your audience. In order to reach your audience with flashcards – the next step after incorporating visual props – additional considerations have to be taken regarding content selection as well as readability and accessibility.

Reaching the Audience with Flashcards

Using flashcards is a great way to engage an audience and make sure information is retained. This can be done before your presentation, during question and answer, or at the end as a review for what has been discussed. Flashcards are especially helpful for presentations that include a lot of facts and/or data, as they allow individuals to easily retain information without relying on taking notes. Moreover, flashcards can be used in creative ways to keep an audience’s attention. For example, a presenter can set up different stations throughout the room that have cards which can be collected during the presentation. Additionally, they can be used as an interactive prop to illustrate points or ask questions to audience members. Finally, they can be used as part of a game or challenge to test how well attendees absorbed the content. The downside is that using flashcards can take up considerable time depending on the size of the audience and it must be incorporated correctly into the flow of the presentation to avoid disruption. Additionally, it may not be effective if you are presenting topics with limited supporting numbers or facts. That being said, incorporating flashcards into an engaging presentation when done properly adds excitement and encourages participation among attendees. As mentioned previously, there are many different ways to creatively engage your audience without having to rely on tools like PowerPoint. However, having a few final tips will help make sure your unique presentation goes off without a hitch so let’s discuss that in the following section: A Few Final Tips on Creative Presentations.

A Few Final Tips on Creative Presentations

Creating a successful and engaging presentation without PowerPoint can be difficult. Apart from frameworking it differently and using alternative tools, there are a few time-tested approaches that could help you create powerful presentations. Here are a few tips to consider when creating creative presentations without PowerPoint. 1. Develop Your Story: Whether it’s one of your own experiences or craft an interesting case study for the audience to learn from, using the story format allows for naturally captivating presentation. By starting with a hook and weaving through historical perspectives and facts, you can make sure your presentation will be more memorable and enjoyable for the audience. 2. Have Fun With It: When developing your presentation without PowerPoint, it’s essential that your main focus is getting the information across in an easy-to-understand yet engaging way. Having fun while delivering the content will make it easier for audience members of all age ranges to remember what they were taught. 3. Enrich with Visuals: A presentation isn’t complete if there aren’t visuals to enhance the delivery of your message or topic. Tools like Prezi and PowToon are great alternatives to PowerPoint that you can use if you want to add visual appeal to your next presentation; similarly, incorporating images or art into your slides will guarantee attendees understand essential points they need to take away from your content delivery process. 4. Set Your Audience Expectations: Prepare a clear plan before presenting so that every component found within each slide is communicated effectively and thoroughly explained during the talk; also tell your audience exactly what you should expect from them as well – is there a question and answer session ? Do they have an activity or assignment to complete by the end? By providing these expectations ahead of time, navigating through the material will appear much easier both visually and mentally. 5. Practice & Rehearse: No matter how great of an idea you come up with, if you don’t practice it beforehand then it won’t go over as smoothly as intended. Make sure you’re well rehearsed on all topics covered within the presentation so that no questions go unheard due to memory recall issues caused by stress in public speaking contexts; additionally, rehearsing frequently also allows for polish lines that add even more flavor to any speech! When crafting a creative presentation without PowerPoint, following these top tips helps ensure success in each delivery. As long as thought is put into their approach beforehand, practically anyone can develop an effective method for teaching others without relying solely on slideshows generated through computer software programs like Microsoft Office Suite products!

Responses to Frequently Asked Questions

What are the advantages of using alternative presentation ideas without powerpoint.

The advantages of using alternative presentation ideas without Powerpoint are plentiful. For starters, they allow speakers to be more creative and expressive since they don’t need to limit themselves to text-based slides and static visuals. Additionally, these alternatives can be especially effective for highly interactive or participatory presentations. For example, having audience members take part in activities such as role playing, group exercises and simulations can help create an engaging dynamic and offer a much more immersive experience than a traditional powerpoint presentation. Finally, alternative presentation ideas allow the speaker to use a wide range of media formats including videos, visuals, music and sound effects to present their message in a compelling way. These elements can create emotional connections with the audience that are unlikely to be achieved through static “bulleted text” slides.

How can I make an effective presentation without Powerpoint?

Making an effective presentation without Powerpoint can be achieved by leveraging various creative techniques. Firstly, it is important to know your audience and the message which you are trying to convey. When beginning a presentation without Powerpoint, it is beneficial to start strong with a short introduction of yourself and the topic. This will help the audience to more easily relate to what you are sharing. Secondly, using hands-on activities such as demonstrations or simulations are powerful teaching tools that could help to engage your audience in the presentation. You may also consider using props, videos/animations or storytelling techniques as they can draw in an audience and bring to life the subject matter. Thirdly, focus on keeping your audience well informed throughout the duration of the presentation by strategically placing breaks or visual cues. This can make the content easier to digest, in addition to lightening up any dull sections with humour or anecdotes. Lastly, end on a strong note and ensure that there is closure after delivering your message. Acknowledging any questions from the audience, a summary of what was discussed and thanking them for attending will help round off a successful presentation without Powerpoint.

What are some creative presentation formats that do not require Powerpoint?

Creative presentation formats that do not require Powerpoint include: 1. Storytelling – Use stories to bring your message to life and engage your audience. Telling an interesting, engrossing, or even personal story can be a great way to capture and retain the attention of your audience. 2. Role Play – An interactive way to demonstrate a concept is by having people act out scenarios related to the topic at hand. Whether it’s two people performing a skit or a large group of volunteers playing characters in a scene, role play can make abstract concepts concrete while providing a visual aid for the rest of your audience to latch onto. 3. Visual Presentations – One of the most common forms of presentations rely on visuals such as diagrams, maps, charts, etc., rather than words. Incorporating some visual elements will make it easier for people to understand certain key points in your discussion as well as help you keep your audience engaged during long sections of speech. 4. Demonstration – Show don’t tell is an old adage that applies when presenting without Powerpoint. You might prefer to use the time allotted for interactive demonstrations either in person or video clips that show the product or service in action. 5. Workshops – Teaching your audience a new skill or practice can be incredibly engaging while managing to educate them along the way as well. Setting up guided workshops with activities designed around group dynamics can also be highly effective in terms of creating lasting engagement with everyone present.

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Everybody likes to make fun of PowerPoint, but when it comes to expressing your ideas, making your pitch, and so on, the slide deck remains one of the most effective tools.

That said, PowerPoint isn't exactly free, and I suspect most seasoned users would agree it hasn't evolved much over the years. What if you want to integrate, say, a live Twitter feed in your presentation, or move beyond static slides?

Good news: There are plenty of PowerPoint alternatives, some of them free, some of them capable of adding considerably more pizzazz to your materials. In addition to the obvious PowerPoint clones -- Google Docs, OpenOffice Impress, Zoho Show and so on -- make sure to check out these three free outliers:

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Claim to fame: Media-rich presentations

Summary: Currently in beta, the newly rebuilt Bunkr lets you whip up presentations inside your browser, but with a twist: It's designed to incorporate not just your own content (text, photos, etc.), but also a wide range of Web stuff.

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Thus, for any given slide, you can embed photos from your cloud-storage services, video from the likes of YouTube and Vimeo, feeds from Instagram and Pinterest, charts from Infogram and Chartblocks, audio from Spotify and Soundcloud and so on. This might be single most Web-savvy presentation tool ever.

It is not, however, the most versatile. Although you can choose from a smattering of background colors for your entire presentation (not individual slides), there are no font or transition options, at least for the moment. (Bunkr is currently in beta.)

Even so, Bunkr offers a fast and easy way to produce media-rich slide decks.

Price: Free (in-app purchases available)

Claim to fame: iPad-powered (but also Web-based)

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Cooler still, Haiku Deck automatically queues up a list of available options based on words you've added to your slides. Tap the one you want, and bam: the perfect background.

The tool started out as an iPad app, but there's now a Web-based version as well. If you're looking to build slides that are heavy on imagery, this is the place to start.

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Summary: Prezi is the anti-PowerPoint, a presentation tool that doesn't just flip or swipe from one slide to the next. It flies , Google Earth-style, from one set of data to another. Sounds simple, but when you see it action, you'll loathe the idea of going back to static slides.

This is better shown than explained, so take a look at this sample:

You can build your presentations in your browser, but if you want to work offline, you'll need to download a version for Windows, Mac, or iOS. The service is free, too, though business users may want to consider one of the premium plans. These start at $10 per month (or $59 annually) and include private presentations, considerably more storage, custom logos and 24-7 support.

Unless you create a lot of materials, a presentation subscription service may seem like overkill. But Prezi really does add some cool visual flair to the experience, and if it helps you dazzle your audience, well, it might just be worth it.

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How to Deliver a Memorable Presentation without Powerpoint

Yes, you CAN deliver a memorable presentation without PowerPoint!

But will you be memorable?

ABSOLUTELY.

People spend far too much time preparing PowerPoint or Prezi slides for a presentation and not enough time thinking about how to influence audiences, so today we want to give you some tips on how you can deliver a memorable presentation without PowerPoint.

Your slides are an aid to your presentation, but they’re not the presentation itself.  The more you stand side-on to an audience reading from them, the more likely you are to have zero impact.

Yes, you’ll survive.  And yes, everyone will tell you were great! (No-one will want to hurt your feelings).  But no-one will remember a thing you said.

Here’s another way.

Ask yourself what you want your audience to think, feel, do or believe?  Are you there to educate?  To motivate?  To entertain? Your presentation needs a purpose.  And the answer to this question gives your presentation its shape.

Once you’ve answered that question, the opening line of your presentation becomes obvious. For example:

“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. My aim today is to inspire you to quit your very safe day job and pursue your dream of owning your own business.”

You’ve told them exactly why you are there and what you plan to achieve. This gives them a clear direction, and something to look forward to!

Now you’ve got their attention, take them on a journey.

Think of one, two or three reasons –  no more – why people should do just that: quit their day job and start a business.  These reasons will become the key messages you want the audience to remember.

My own three reasons for owning a PR consultancy are these – autonomy, job satisfaction and financial freedom.

So here’s your presentation so far.

“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, my aim today is to inspire you to quit your very safe day job and pursue your dream of owning your own business. I know you’ve got a dream like this. Now there are three reasons why everyone should live life without a safety net and pursue this dream.  The first is autonomy – having complete control over your own life. Imagine that. The second is job satisfaction.  Having your clients hug you, when they adapt your ideas and it changes their lives.  I can tell you, that’s a great feeling. And the third is financial freedom.  No longer just working for wages, but tasting some profit as well.”

That’s the introduction to your presentation.  You’re sixty seconds in, no Power Point in sight.  And you have the attention of the entire room.  They’re open to the proposition you’re making, and ready to go on a journey.

Your introduction gives you the structure for your presentation.  Stay with what you’ve promised and don’t introduce any other themes.  You stated your purpose and key messages in the introduction. Now repeat those messages and elaborate on them. Use the same order as in the introduction.

Illustrate your key messages with personal stories or real industry case studies.  The more personal and emotional the better.  You won’t need Power Point, you won’t need notes and what you say will be unforgettable.

Here’s how you might unpack the first key message in your presentation.

“The first reason you should quit your very safe day job and pursue your dream of owning your own business is autonomy.  If you’re a natural boss, who has been masquerading as an employee for twenty years, business ownership is for you.  If you’re a parent who regrets missing out on limitless precious moments with your children, the autonomy of business ownership is for you.  My drive to starting my own PR firm was a combination of these.  I’ve always been the dad who purposely worked 5.00am starts in the newsroom so I could be there when my kids got home.  I’ve never been able to understand the kind of reasoning that puts children as top priority in theory, but not in practice.  I came from a small business family, and I’ve  watched them make a success of things while I’ve been toiling away at the ABC.  Not long ago, I decided it was time for a change.”

My presentations continue with the rest of my story. I highlight the autonomy I’ve enjoyed since leaving news reporting.  How I’ve lost weight and felt better. The better work/life balance I’ve had, and quality time with my children.

Then I stay with the structure, deliver my second key message and illustrate that with a personal story. Likewise for the third key message.

Finally, I summarise and round things off.  A good conclusion is simply the introduction restated. Don’t be afraid to use the same phrasing. It reaffirms your message.

“ So in conclusion my aim here today was to inspire you to quit your very safe day job and pursue your dream of owning your own business.  How did I go?  Hands up If I’ve got you thinking. Now there’s three reasons why everyone should live life without a safety net and pursue this dream.  The first is autonomy.  Having complete control over your own life – imagine that.  The second is job satisfaction.  Having your clients hug you, when they adapt your ideas and it changes their lives.  And the third is financial freedom.  No longer just working for wages, but tasting some profit as well. Thanks for having me.”

Stand back and enjoy the applause.

No power point, no notes, just a purpose and three key messages illustrated with personal examples.

You’ll notice that there is a lot of repetition.  This is what helps your audience to remember what you say. Reaffirming things helps them resonate.  Give them the same messages at the start, in the middle and at the end.

Make it emotional, tell stories and you will never be forgotten.

At Good Talent Media, we want you to be memorable in the boardroom for all of the RIGHT reasons.  You can find out more about our presentation training services here .

If you’ve got some presentation stories to share, leave us a comment.  Maybe it was a memorable presentation for all the wrong reasons.

Tony Nicholls

Tony Nicholls

Founder and Director of Good Talent Media

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  • Start the presentation and see your notes in Presenter view Article
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  • Record a slide show with narration and slide timings Article
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how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

Create a self-running presentation

You can use a self-running presentation to run unattended in a booth or kiosk at a trade show or convention, or you can save it as a video and send it to a client.

Your browser does not support video. Install Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Flash Player, or Internet Explorer 9.

On the Slide Show tab, click Set Up Slide Show .

Under Show type , pick one of the following:

To allow the people watching your slide show to have control over when they advance the slides, select Presented by a speaker (full screen) .

To present your slide show in a window, where control over advancing the slides is not available to the people watching, select Browsed by an individual (window) .

To loop your slide show until the people watching press Esc, select Browsed at a kiosk (full screen) .

shows self-running powerpoint dialog box

Rehearse and record slide timings

When you choose the following show types: Presented by a speaker (full screen) and Browsed at a kiosk (full screen), you’ll want to rehearse and record timings for effects and slides.

On the Slide Show tab, click Rehearse Timings .

Note:  The presentation timer begins immediately when you click Rehearse Timings .

The Rehearsal toolbar appears and the Slide Time box begins timing the presentation.

shows recording timings box for powerpoint

Figure: The Rehearsal toolbar

While timing your presentation, you can do one or more of the following on the Rehearsal toolbar:

To move to the next slide, click Next .

To temporarily stop recording the time, click Pause .

To restart recording the time after pausing, click Pause .

To set an exact length of time for a slide to appear, type the length of time in the Slide Time box.

To restart recording the time for the current slide, click Repeat .

After you set the time for the last slide, a message box displays the total time for the presentation and prompts you to do one of the following:

To keep the recorded slide timings, click Yes .

To discard the recorded slide timings, click No .

Slide Sorter view appears and displays the time of each slide in your presentation.

Add narration or sound

To record a narration, your computer requires a sound card and a microphone, and a microphone connector if the microphone is not a part of your computer.

On the Slide Show tab, in the Set Up group, click the arrow on the Record Slide Show button.

Shows record slide show button in powerpoint

Select one of the following:

Start Recording from Beginning

Start Recording from Current Slide

In the Record Slide Show dialog box, select the Narrations and laser pointer check box, and if appropriate, select or deselect the Slide and animation timings check box.

Click Start Recording .

To pause the narration, in the Recording shortcut menu in Slide Show view, click Pause . And to resume your narration, click Resume Recording .

Pause recording narration

To end your slide show recording, right-click the slide, and then click End Show .

The recorded slide show timings are automatically saved and the slide show appears in Slide Sorter view with timings beneath each slide.

You can record a narration before you run a presentation, or you can record it during the presentation and include audience comments. If you do not want narration throughout your entire presentation, you can record separate sounds or comments on selected slides or objects. For more details, see Record a slide show with narration and slide timings .

To present your slide show in a window, where control over advancing the slides is available to the people watching, select Browsed by an individual (window) .

Note:  Selecting this option automatically selects the Loop continuously until 'Esc" check box and causes your slide show to run in a loop.

Show type options

Set up slide transitions

If you want a slide show to run automatically at a kiosk, you can control when and how the slides advance. To do this, you can apply the same transition to all slides in the presentation and set the transition to automatically advance after a certain time interval.

On the Transitions tab, click the transition that you want.

Options on the Transitions tab

Do the following on the Transitions tab:

To set the amount of time that each slide is displayed, select After and enter the number of seconds you want.

To set the duration of each transition between slides, enter the amount of time in the Duration box.

Click Apply to All .

Slide transition settings

Export a presentation to video

You can export a presentation as a movie file. See Save a presentation as a movie file for more details.

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How to Open a PPT File Without Powerpoint: Easy Alternatives

Opening a PPT file without PowerPoint is a breeze if you know the right tools to use. You can utilize alternative software like Google Slides, OpenOffice Impress, or online converters to access and view the content of your PowerPoint presentations without the need for Microsoft PowerPoint.

After completing the action, you’ll be able to view and potentially edit your PPT file using the alternative method you’ve chosen. This allows for flexibility and convenience, especially if you don’t have access to PowerPoint or prefer using different software.

Introduction

When it comes to presentations, PowerPoint has been the go-to for years. But what happens when you don’t have access to it? Maybe you’re on a different computer, or perhaps you just don’t want to pay for the Microsoft Office suite. Does that mean you’re stuck with a PPT file you can’t open? Absolutely not!

In today’s world, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, or in this case, open a PPT file. It’s important because not everyone has the luxury of accessing PowerPoint at all times. This article is relevant to anyone who finds themselves in need of accessing a PPT file without PowerPoint, whether that’s a student, a professional, or just someone trying to view a friend’s presentation.

How to Open a PPT File Without PowerPoint Tutorial

The following steps will guide you through the process of opening a PPT file without needing PowerPoint.

Step 1: Choose an Alternative Software

Select an alternative software like Google Slides, OpenOffice Impress, or an online converter.

Choosing an alternative software is the first and crucial step. Google Slides is a part of the free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google. OpenOffice Impress is a part of Apache OpenOffice suite, which is a free and open-source office suite. Online converters, on the other hand, allow you to convert your PPT file to a different format that can be opened without the need for specific presentation software.

Step 2: Upload or Open the File

Upload your PPT file to the chosen software or open it directly if the software provides such an option.

For Google Slides, you can upload your PPT file to Google Drive and then open it with Slides. OpenOffice Impress allows you to open a PPT file directly from the software. Online converters require you to upload your file to their platform, after which you can download the converted file in a different format.

Step 3: View or Edit the File

Use the features of the alternative software to view or edit your PPT file.

Once your PPT file is opened in the alternative software, you can view the content as you would in PowerPoint. Most of these alternatives also provide editing features, although they may not be as comprehensive as those in PowerPoint. With Google Slides, you can even collaborate with others in real-time, making it a great option for team projects.

Additional Information

When considering how to open a PPT file without PowerPoint, it’s important to note that the alternative you choose may impact the final output. For instance, while Google Slides is incredibly user-friendly and offers cloud storage, it may not support some of the more advanced animations and transitions present in PowerPoint. Similarly, OpenOffice Impress is a robust alternative but may alter the formatting of your original file. When using online converters, be cautious of the security of your file, especially if it contains sensitive information.

An additional tip is to always save a backup of your original PPT file before attempting to open it with alternative software. This ensures that you have an untouched version to return to if the need arises.

  • Choose alternative software like Google Slides, OpenOffice Impress, or an online converter.
  • Upload or directly open your PPT file using the chosen software.
  • View or edit the file using the features provided by the alternative software.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can i edit a ppt file using these alternative methods.

Yes, most alternative software offers editing capabilities, although they may not be as advanced as PowerPoint’s features.

Will my formatting change when using alternative software?

It’s possible that some formatting may change due to compatibility differences, especially with animations and transitions.

Is it safe to use online converters for my PPT files?

Generally, yes, but always make sure to use reputable online converters and be wary of uploading sensitive information.

Are these alternative methods free?

Many alternative software options have free versions available, but some may offer additional features for a price.

Can I collaborate with others using these alternatives?

Some alternatives, like Google Slides, offer excellent collaboration features that can be used in real-time with others.

Opening a PPT file without PowerPoint is not only possible, but it’s also quite easy once you know your way around. Whether you opt for Google Slides, OpenOffice Impress, or an online converter, you have the power to access and edit your presentations with ease.

Remember, while alternative software can be a lifesaver, always be mindful of potential formatting changes and ensure you’re using secure platforms, especially when handling sensitive data. Happy presenting!

Matthew Burleigh Solve Your Tech

Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read over 50 million times.

After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.

His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.

Read his full bio here.

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AI presentation maker

When lack of inspiration or time constraints are something you’re worried about, it’s a good idea to seek help. Slidesgo comes to the rescue with its latest functionality—the AI presentation maker! With a few clicks, you’ll have wonderful slideshows that suit your own needs . And it’s totally free!

how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

Generate presentations in minutes

We humans make the world move, but we need to sleep, rest and so on. What if there were someone available 24/7 for you? It’s time to get out of your comfort zone and ask the AI presentation maker to give you a hand. The possibilities are endless : you choose the topic, the tone and the style, and the AI will do the rest. Now we’re talking!

Customize your AI-generated presentation online

Alright, your robotic pal has generated a presentation for you. But, for the time being, AIs can’t read minds, so it’s likely that you’ll want to modify the slides. Please do! We didn’t forget about those time constraints you’re facing, so thanks to the editing tools provided by one of our sister projects —shoutouts to Wepik — you can make changes on the fly without resorting to other programs or software. Add text, choose your own colors, rearrange elements, it’s up to you! Oh, and since we are a big family, you’ll be able to access many resources from big names, that is, Freepik and Flaticon . That means having a lot of images and icons at your disposal!

how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

How does it work?

Think of your topic.

First things first, you’ll be talking about something in particular, right? A business meeting, a new medical breakthrough, the weather, your favorite songs, a basketball game, a pink elephant you saw last Sunday—you name it. Just type it out and let the AI know what the topic is.

Choose your preferred style and tone

They say that variety is the spice of life. That’s why we let you choose between different design styles, including doodle, simple, abstract, geometric, and elegant . What about the tone? Several of them: fun, creative, casual, professional, and formal. Each one will give you something unique, so which way of impressing your audience will it be this time? Mix and match!

Make any desired changes

You’ve got freshly generated slides. Oh, you wish they were in a different color? That text box would look better if it were placed on the right side? Run the online editor and use the tools to have the slides exactly your way.

Download the final result for free

Yes, just as envisioned those slides deserve to be on your storage device at once! You can export the presentation in .pdf format and download it for free . Can’t wait to show it to your best friend because you think they will love it? Generate a shareable link!

What is an AI-generated presentation?

It’s exactly “what it says on the cover”. AIs, or artificial intelligences, are in constant evolution, and they are now able to generate presentations in a short time, based on inputs from the user. This technology allows you to get a satisfactory presentation much faster by doing a big chunk of the work.

Can I customize the presentation generated by the AI?

Of course! That’s the point! Slidesgo is all for customization since day one, so you’ll be able to make any changes to presentations generated by the AI. We humans are irreplaceable, after all! Thanks to the online editor, you can do whatever modifications you may need, without having to install any software. Colors, text, images, icons, placement, the final decision concerning all of the elements is up to you.

Can I add my own images?

Absolutely. That’s a basic function, and we made sure to have it available. Would it make sense to have a portfolio template generated by an AI without a single picture of your own work? In any case, we also offer the possibility of asking the AI to generate images for you via prompts. Additionally, you can also check out the integrated gallery of images from Freepik and use them. If making an impression is your goal, you’ll have an easy time!

Is this new functionality free? As in “free of charge”? Do you mean it?

Yes, it is, and we mean it. We even asked our buddies at Wepik, who are the ones hosting this AI presentation maker, and they told us “yup, it’s on the house”.

Are there more presentation designs available?

From time to time, we’ll be adding more designs. The cool thing is that you’ll have at your disposal a lot of content from Freepik and Flaticon when using the AI presentation maker. Oh, and just as a reminder, if you feel like you want to do things yourself and don’t want to rely on an AI, you’re on Slidesgo, the leading website when it comes to presentation templates. We have thousands of them, and counting!.

How can I download my presentation?

The easiest way is to click on “Download” to get your presentation in .pdf format. But there are other options! You can click on “Present” to enter the presenter view and start presenting right away! There’s also the “Share” option, which gives you a shareable link. This way, any friend, relative, colleague—anyone, really—will be able to access your presentation in a moment.

Discover more content

This is just the beginning! Slidesgo has thousands of customizable templates for Google Slides and PowerPoint. Our designers have created them with much care and love, and the variety of topics, themes and styles is, how to put it, immense! We also have a blog, in which we post articles for those who want to find inspiration or need to learn a bit more about Google Slides or PowerPoint. Do you have kids? We’ve got a section dedicated to printable coloring pages! Have a look around and make the most of our site!

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6 Simple Parts for Beginners to Create a PowerPoint Presentation

Last Updated: December 19, 2022 Fact Checked

Creating a New PowerPoint

Creating the title slide, adding a new slide, adding content to slides, adding transitions, testing and saving your presentation.

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Darlene Antonelli, MA . Darlene Antonelli is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. Darlene has experience teaching college courses, writing technology-related articles, and working hands-on in the technology field. She earned an MA in Writing from Rowan University in 2012 and wrote her thesis on online communities and the personalities curated in such communities. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 4,311,008 times. Learn more...

Do you want to have your data in a slide show? If you have Microsoft 365, you can use PowerPoint! PowerPoint is a program that's part of the Microsoft Office suite (which you have to pay for) and is available for both Windows and Mac computers. This wikiHow teaches you how to create your own Microsoft PowerPoint presentation on a computer.

Things You Should Know

  • Templates make it easy to create vibrant presentations no matter your skill level.
  • When adding photos, you can adjust their sizes by clicking and dragging in or out from their corners.
  • You can add animated transitions between slides or to individual elements like bullet points and blocks of text.

Step 1 Open PowerPoint.

  • If you don't have a Microsoft Office 365 subscription, you can use the website instead of the desktop app. Go to https://powerpoint.office.com/ to use the website version.
  • You can also use the mobile app to make presentations, though it's easier to do this on a computer, which has a larger screen, a mouse, and a keyboard.

Step 2 Select a template.

  • If you don't want to use a template, just click the Blank option in the upper-left side of the page and skip to the next part.

Step 3 Select a theme if possible.

  • Skip this step if your selected template has no themes available.

Step 4 Click Create.

  • If you're creating a PowerPoint presentation for which an elaborate title slide has been requested, ignore this step.

Step 2 Add a title.

  • You can change the font and size of text used from the Home tab that's in the orange ribbon at the top of the window.

Step 3 Add the subtitle.

  • You can also just leave this box blank if you like.

Step 4 Rearrange the title text boxes.

  • You can also click and drag in or out one of a text box's corners to shrink or enlarge the text box.

Step 1 Click the Insert tab.

  • On a Mac, you'll click the Home tab instead. [1] X Research source

Step 2 Click New Slide ▼.

  • Clicking the white slide-shaped box above this option will result in a new text slide being inserted.

Step 3 Select a type of slide.

  • Title Slide
  • Title and Content
  • Section Header
  • Two Content
  • Content with Caption
  • Picture with Caption

Step 4 Add any other slides that you think you'll need.

  • Naturally, the title slide should be the first slide in your presentation, meaning that it should be the top slide in the left-hand column.

Step 1 Select a slide.

  • Skip this step and the next two steps if your selected slide uses a template that doesn't have text boxes in it.

Step 3 Add text to the slide.

  • Text boxes in PowerPoint will automatically format the bulk of your text for you (e.g., adding bullet points) based on the context of the content itself.
  • You can add notes that the Presentation will not include (but you'll still be able to see them on your screen) by clicking Notes at the bottom of the slide.

Step 4 Format the slide's text.

  • You can change the font of the selected text by clicking the current font's name and then clicking your preferred font.
  • If you want to change the size of the text, click the numbered drop-down box and then click a larger or smaller number based on whether you want to enlarge or shrink the text.
  • You can also change the color, bolding, italicization, underlining, and so on from here.

Step 5 Add photos to the slide.

  • Photos in particular can be enlarged or shrunk by clicking and dragging out or in one of their corners.

Step 7 Repeat this for each slide in your presentation.

  • Remember to keep slides uncluttered and relatively free of distractions. It's best to keep the amount of text per slide to around 33 words or less. [2] X Research source

Step 1 Select a slide.

  • Slide content will animate in the order in which you assign transitions. For example, if you animate a photo on the slide and then animate the title, the photo will appear before the title.
  • Make your slideshow progress automatically by setting the speed of every transition to align with your speech as well as setting each slide to Advance . [3] X Trustworthy Source Microsoft Support Technical support and product information from Microsoft. Go to source

Step 1 Review your PowerPoint.

  • If you need to exit the presentation, press Esc .

Step 5 Make any necessary changes before proceeding.

  • Windows - Click File , click Save , double-click This PC , select a save location, enter a name for your presentation, and click Save .
  • Mac - Click File , click Save As... , enter the presentation's name in the "Save As" field, select a save location by clicking the "Where" box and clicking a folder, and click Save .

Community Q&A

Community Answer

  • If you save your PowerPoint presentation in .pps format instead of the default .ppt format, double-clicking your PowerPoint presentation file will prompt the presentation to open directly into the slideshow view. Thanks Helpful 5 Not Helpful 0
  • If you don't have Microsoft Office, you can still use Apple's Keynote program or Google Slides to create a PowerPoint presentation. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

  • Your PowerPoint presentation (or some features in it) may not open in significantly older versions of PowerPoint. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 1
  • Great PowerPoint presentations avoid placing too much text on one slide. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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Create a Powerpoint Handout

  • ↑ https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=DBDCE00C929AA5D8!252&ithint=file%2cpptx&app=PowerPoint&authkey=!AH4O9NxcbehqzIg
  • ↑ https://www.virtualsalt.com/powerpoint.htm
  • ↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/set-the-timing-and-speed-of-a-transition-c3c3c66f-4cca-4821-b8b9-7de0f3f6ead1#:~:text=To%20make%20the%20slide%20advance,effect%20on%20the%20slide%20finishes .

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How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation (Step-by-Step)

  • PowerPoint Tutorials
  • Presentation Design
  • January 22, 2024

In this beginner’s guide, you will learn step-by-step how to make a PowerPoint presentation from scratch.

While PowerPoint is designed to be intuitive and accessible, it can be overwhelming if you’ve never gotten any training on it before. As you progress through this guide, you’ll will learn how to move from blank slides to PowerPoint slides that look like these.

Example of the six slides you'll learn how to create in this tutorial

Table of Contents

Additionally, as you create your presentation, you’ll also learn tricks for working more efficiently in PowerPoint, including how to:

  • Change the slide order
  • Reset your layout
  • Change the slide dimensions
  • Use PowerPoint Designer
  • Format text
  • Format objects
  • Play a presentation (slide show)

With this knowledge under your belt, you’ll be ready to start creating PowerPoint presentations. Moreover, you’ll have taken your skills from beginner to proficient in no time at all. I will also include links to more advanced PowerPoint topics.

Ready to start learning how to make a PowerPoint presentation?

Take your PPT skills to the next level

Start with a blank presentation.

Note: Before you open PowerPoint and start creating your presentation, make sure you’ve collected your thoughts. If you’re going to make your slides compelling, you need to spend some time brainstorming.

For help with this, see our article with tips for nailing your business presentation  here .

The first thing you’ll need to do is to open PowerPoint. When you do, you are shown the Start Menu , with the Home tab open.

This is where you can choose either a blank theme (1) or a pre-built theme (2). You can also choose to open an existing presentation (3).

For now, go ahead and click on the  Blank Presentation (1)  thumbnail.

In the backstage view of PowerPoint you can create a new blank presentation, use a template, or open a recent file

Doing so launches a brand new and blank presentation for you to work with. Before you start adding content to your presentation, let’s first familiarize ourselves with the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint interface

Picture of the different parts of the PowerPoint layout, including the Ribbon, thumbnail view, quick access toolbar, notes pane, etc.

Here is how the program is laid out:

  • The Application Header
  • The Ribbon (including the Ribbon tabs)
  • The Quick Access Toolbar (either above or below the Ribbon)
  • The Slides Pane (slide thumbnails)

The Slide Area

The notes pane.

  • The Status Bar (including the View Buttons)

Each one of these areas has options for viewing certain parts of the PowerPoint environment and formatting your presentation.

Below are the important things to know about certain elements of the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint Ribbon

The PowerPoint Ribbon in the Microsoft Office Suite

The Ribbon is contextual. That means that it will adapt to what you’re doing in the program.

For example, the Font, Paragraph and Drawing options are greyed out until you select something that has text in it, as in the example below (A).

Example of the Shape Format tab in PowerPoint and all of the subsequent commands assoicated with that tab

Furthermore, if you start manipulating certain objects, the Ribbon will display additional tabs, as seen above (B), with more commands and features to help you work with those objects. The following objects have their own additional tabs in the Ribbon which are hidden until you select them:

  • Online Pictures
  • Screenshots
  • Screen Recording

The Slides Pane

The slides pane in PowerPoint is on the left side of your workspace

This is where you can preview and rearrange all the slides in your presentation.

Right-clicking on a slide  in the pane gives you additional options on the slide level that you won’t find on the Ribbon, such as  Duplicate Slide ,  Delete Slide , and  Hide Slide .

Right clicking a PowerPoint slide in the thumbnail view gives you a variety of options like adding new slides, adding sections, changing the layout, etc.

In addition, you can add sections to your presentation by  right-clicking anywhere in this Pane  and selecting  Add Section . Sections are extremely helpful in large presentations, as they allow you to organize your slides into chunks that you can then rearrange, print or display differently from other slides.

Content added to your PowerPoint slides will only display if it's on the slide area, marked here by the letter A

The Slide Area (A) is where you will build out your slides. Anything within the bounds of this area will be visible when you present or print your presentation.

Anything outside of this area (B) will be hidden from view. This means that you can place things here, such as instructions for each slide, without worrying about them being shown to your audience.

The notes pane in PowerPoint is located at the bottom of your screen and is where you can type your speaker notes

The  Notes Pane  is the space beneath the Slide Area where you can type in the speaker notes for each slide. It’s designed as a fast way to add and edit your slides’ talking points.

To expand your knowledge and learn more about adding, printing, and exporting your PowerPoint speaker notes, read our guide here .

Your speaker notes are visible when you print your slides using the Notes Pages option and when you use the Presenter View . To expand your knowledge and learn the ins and outs of using the Presenter View , read our guide here .

You can click and drag to resize the notes pane at the bottom of your PowerPoint screen

You can resize the  Notes Pane  by clicking on its edge and dragging it up or down (A). You can also minimize or reopen it by clicking on the Notes button in the Status Bar (B).

Note:  Not all text formatting displays in the Notes Pane, even though it will show up when printing your speaker notes. To learn more about printing PowerPoint with notes, read our guide here .

Now that you have a basic grasp of the PowerPoint interface at your disposal, it’s time to make your presentation.

Adding Content to Your PowerPoint Presentation

Notice that in the Slide Area , there are two rectangles with dotted outlines. These are called  Placeholders  and they’re set on the template in the Slide Master View .

To expand your knowledge and learn how to create a PowerPoint template of your own (which is no small task), read our guide here .

Click into your content placeholders and start typing text, just as the prompt suggests

As the prompt text suggests, you can click into each placeholder and start typing text. These types of placeholder prompts are customizable too. That means that if you are using a company template, it might say something different, but the functionality is the same.

Example of typing text into a content placeholder in PowerPoint

Note:  For the purposes of this example, I will create a presentation based on the content in the Starbucks 2018 Global Social Impact Report, which is available to the public on their website.

If you type in more text than there is room for, PowerPoint will automatically reduce its font size. You can stop this behavior by clicking on the  Autofit Options  icon to the left of the placeholder and selecting  Stop Fitting Text to this Placeholder .

Next, you can make formatting adjustments to your text by selecting the commands in the Font area and the  Paragraph area  of the  Home  tab of the Ribbon.

Use the formatting options on the Home tab to choose the formatting of your text

The Reset Command:  If you make any changes to your title and decide you want to go back to how it was originally, you can use the Reset button up in the Home tab .

Hitting the reset command on the home tab resets your slide formatting to match your template

Insert More Slides into Your Presentation

Now that you have your title slide filled in, it’s time to add more slides. To do that, simply go up to the  Home tab  and click on  New Slide . This inserts a new slide in your presentation right after the one you were on.

To insert a new slide in PowerPoint, on the home tab click the New Slide command

You can alternatively hit Ctrl+M on your keyboard to insert a new blank slide in PowerPoint. To learn more about this shortcut, see my guide on using Ctrl+M in PowerPoint .

Instead of clicking the New Slide command, you can also open the New Slide dropdown to see all the slide layouts in your PowerPoint template. Depending on who created your template, your layouts in this dropdown can be radically different.

Opening the new slide dropdown you can see all the slide layouts in your PowerPoint template

If you insert a layout and later want to change it to a different layout, you can use the Layout dropdown instead of the New Slide dropdown.

After inserting a few different slide layouts, your presentation might look like the following picture. Don’t worry that it looks blank, next we will start adding content to your presentation.

Example of a number of different blank slide layouts inserting in a PowerPoint presentation

If you want to follow along exactly with me, your five slides should be as follows:

  • Title Slide
  • Title and Content
  • Section Header
  • Two Content
  • Picture with Caption

Adding Content to Your Slides

Now let’s go into each slide and start adding our content. You’ll notice some new types of placeholders.

Use the icons within a content placeholder to insert things like tables, charts, SmartArt, Pictures, etc.

On slide 2 we have a  Content Placeholder , which allows you to add any kind of content. That includes:

  • A SmartArt graphic,
  • A 3D object,
  • A picture from the web,
  • Or an icon.

To insert text, simply type it in or hit  Ctrl+C to Copy  and Ctrl+V to Paste  from elsewhere. To insert any of the other objects, click on the appropriate icon and follow the steps to insert it.

For my example, I’ll simply type in some text as you can see in the picture below.

Example typing bulleted text in a content placeholder in PowerPoint

Slides 3 and 4 only have text placeholders, so I’ll go ahead and add in my text into each one.

Examples of text typed into a divider slide and a title and content slide in PowerPoint

On slide 5 we have a Picture Placeholder . That means that the only elements that can go into it are:

  • A picture from the web

A picture placeholder in PowerPoint can only take an image or an icon

To insert a picture into the picture placeholder, simply:

  • Click on the  Picture  icon
  • Find  a picture on your computer and select it
  • Click on  Insert

Alternatively, if you already have a picture open somewhere else, you can select the placeholder and paste in (shortcut: Ctrl+V ) the picture. You can also drag the picture in from a file explorer window.

To insert a picture into a picture placeholder, click the picture icon, find your picture on your computer and click insert

If you do not like the background of the picture you inserted onto your slide, you can remove the background here in PowerPoint. To see how to do this, read my guide here .

Placeholders aren’t the only way to add content to your slides. At any point, you can use the Insert tab to add elements to your slides.

You can use either the Title Only  or the  Blank  slide layout to create slides for content that’s different. For example, a three-layout content slide, or a single picture divider slide, as shown below.

Example slides using PowerPoint icons and background pictures

In the first example above, I’ve inserted 6 text boxes, 3 icons, and 3 circles to create this layout. In the second example, I’ve inserted a full-sized picture and then 2 shapes and 2 text boxes.

The Reset Command:  Because these slides are built with shapes and text boxes (and not placeholders), hitting the  Reset button up in the  Home tab  won’t do anything.

That is a good thing if you don’t want your layouts to adjust. However, it does mean that it falls on you to make sure everything is aligned and positioned correctly.

For more on how to add and manipulate the different objects in PowerPoint, check out our step-by-step articles here:

  • Using graphics in PowerPoint
  • Inserting icons onto slides
  • Adding pictures to your PowerPoint
  • How to embed a video in PowerPoint
  • How to add music to your presentation

Using Designer to generate more layouts ideas

If you have Office 365, your version of PowerPoint comes with a new feature called Designer (or Design Ideas). This is a feature that generates slide layout ideas for you. The coolest thing about this feature is that it uses the content you already have.

To use Designer , simply navigate to the  Design tab  in your Ribbon, and click on  Design Ideas .

To use Designer on your slides, click the

NOTE: If the PowerPoint Designer is not working for you (it is grey out), see my troubleshooting guide for Designer .

Change the Overall Design (optional)

When you make a PowerPoint presentation, you’ll want to think about the overall design. Now that you have some content in your presentation, you can use the Design tab to change the look and feel of your slides.

For additional help thinking through the design of your presentation,  read my guide here .

A. Picking your PowerPoint slide size

If you have PowerPoint 2013 or later, when you create a blank document in PowerPoint, you automatically start with a widescreen layout with a 16:9 ratio. These dimensions are suitable for most presentations as they match the screens of most computers and projectors.

However, you do have the option to change the dimensions.

For example, your presentation might not be presented, but instead converted into a PDF or printed and distributed. In that case, you can easily switch to the standard dimensions with a 4:3 ratio by selecting from the dropdown (A).

You can also choose a custom slide size or change the slide orientation from landscape to portrait in the Custom Slide Size dialog box (B).

To change your slide size, click the Design tab, open the slide size dropdown and choose a size or custom slide size

To learn all about the different PowerPoint slide sizes, and some of the issues you will face when changing the slide size of a non-blank presentation,  read my guide here .

 B. Selecting a PowerPoint theme

The next thing you can do is change the theme of your presentation to a pre-built one. For a detailed explanation of what a PowerPoint theme is, and how to best use it,  read my article here .

In the beginning of this tutorial, we started with a blank presentation, which uses the default Office theme as you can see in the picture below.

All PowerPoint presentations start with the default Microsoft Office theme

That gives you the most flexibility because it has a blank background and quite simple layouts that work for most presentations. However, it also means that it’s your responsibility to enhance the design.

If you’re comfortable with this, you can stay with the default theme or create your own custom theme ( read my guide here ). But if you would rather not have to think about design, then you can choose a pre-designed theme.

Microsoft provides 46 other pre-built themes, which include slide layouts, color variants and palettes, and fonts. Each one varies quite significantly, so make sure you look through them carefully.

To select a different theme, go to the  Design tab  in the Ribbon, and click on the  dropdown arrow  in the  Themes section .

On the Design tab you will find all of the default PowerPoint templates that come with the Microsoft Office Suite

For this tutorial, let’s select the  Frame  theme and then choose the third Variant in the theme. Doing so changes the layout, colors, and fonts of your presentation.

Example choosing the Frame PowerPoint theme and the third variant of this powerpoint presentation

Note: The theme dropdown area is also where you can import or save custom themes. To see my favorite places to find professional PowerPoint templates and themes (and recommendations for why I like them), read my guide here .

C. How to change a slide background in PowerPoint

The next thing to decide is how you want your background to look for the entire presentation. In the  Variants area, you can see four background options.

To change the background style of your presentation, on the Design tab, find the Background Styles options and choose a style

For this example, we want our presentation to have a dark background, so let’s select Style 3. When you do so, you’ll notice that:

  • The background color automatically changes across all slides
  • The color of the text on most of the slides automatically changes to white so that it’s visible on the dark background
  • The colors of the objects on slides #6 and #7 also adjust, in a way we may not want (we’ll likely have to make some manual adjustments to these slides)

What our PowerPoint presentation looks like now that we have selected a theme, a variant, and a background style

Note: If you want to change the slide background for just that one slide, don’t left-click the style. Instead, right-click it and select Apply to Selected Slides .

After you change the background for your entire presentation, you can easily adjust the background for an individual slide.

You can either right-click a PowerPoint slide and select format background or navigate to the design tab and click the format background command

Inside the Format Background pane, you can see you have the following options:

  • Gradient fill
  • Picture or texture fill
  • Pattern fill
  • Hide background

You can explore these options to find the PowerPoint background that best fits your presentation.

D. How to change your color palette in PowerPoint

Another thing you may want to adjust in your presentation, is the color scheme. In the picture below you can see the Theme Colors we are currently using for this presentation.

Example of the theme colors we are currently using with this presentation

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own color palette. By default, the Office theme includes the Office color palette. This affects the colors you are presented with when you format any element within your presentation (text, shapes, SmartArt, etc.).

To change the theme color for your presentation, select the Design tab, open the Colors options and choose the colors you want to use

The good news is that the colors here are easy to change. To switch color palettes, simply:

  • Go to the  Design tab in the Ribbon
  • In the Variants area, click on the  dropdown arrow  and select  Colors
  • Select  the color palette (or theme colors) you want

You can choose among the pre-built color palettes from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

As you build your presentation, make sure you use the colors from your theme to format objects. That way, changing the color palette adjusts all the colors in your presentation automatically.

E. How to change your fonts in PowerPoint

Just as we changed the color palette, you can do the same for the fonts.

Example of custom theme fonts that might come with a powerpoint template

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own font combination. By default, the Office theme includes the Office font pairing. This affects the fonts that are automatically assigned to all text in your presentation.

To change the default fonts for your presentation, from the design tab, find the fonts dropdown and select the pair of fonts you want to use

The good news is that the font pairings are easy to change. To switch your Theme Fonts, simply:

  • Go to the  Design tab  in the Ribbon
  • Click on the  dropdown arrow  in the  Variants  area
  • Select  Fonts
  • Select  the font pairing you want

You can choose among the pre-built fonts from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

If you are working with PowerPoint presentations on both Mac and PC computers, make sure you choose a safe PowerPoint font. To see a list of the safest PowerPoint fonts, read our guide here .

If you receive a PowerPoint presentation and the wrong fonts were used, you can use the Replace Fonts dialog box to change the fonts across your entire presentation. For details, read our guide here .

Adding Animations & Transitions (optional)

The final step to make a PowerPoint presentation compelling, is to consider using animations and transitions. These are by no means necessary to a good presentation, but they may be helpful in your situation.

A. Adding PowerPoint animations

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust animations engine designed to power your creativity. That being said, it’s also easy to get started with basic animations.

Animations are movements that you can apply to individual objects on your slide.

To add an animation to an object in PowerPoint, first select the object and then use the Animations tab to select an animation type

To add a PowerPoint animation to an element of your slide, simply:

  • Select the  element
  • Go to the  Animations tab in the Ribbon
  • Click on the  dropdown arrow  to view your options
  • Select the  animation  you want

You can add animations to multiple objects at one time by selecting them all first and then applying the animation.

B. How to preview a PowerPoint animation

There are three ways to preview a PowerPoint animation

There are three ways to preview a PowerPoint animation:

  • Click on the Preview button in the Animations tab
  • Click on the little star  next to the slide
  • Play the slide in Slide Show Mode

To learn other ways to run your slide show, see our guide on presenting a PowerPoint slide show with shortcuts .

To adjust the settings of your animations, explore the options in the  Effect Options ,  Advanced Animation  and the  Timing  areas of the  Animation tab .

The Animations tab allows you to adjust the effects and timings of your animations in PowerPoint

Note:  To see how to make objects appear and disappear in your slides by clicking a button,  read our guide here .

C. How to manage your animations in PowerPoint

You can see the animations applied to your objects by the little numbers in the upper right-hand corner of the objects

The best way to manage lots of animations on your slide is with the Animation Pane . To open it, simply:

  • Navigate to the  Animations tab
  • Select the  Animation Pane

Inside the Animation Pane, you’ll see all of the different animations that have been applied to objects on your slide, with their numbers marked as pictured above.

Note: To see examples of PowerPoint animations that can use in PowerPoint, see our list of PowerPoint animation tutorials here .

D. How to add transitions to your PowerPoint presentation

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust transition engine so that you can dictate how your slides change from one to the other. It is also extremely easy to add transitions to your slides.

In PowerPoint, transitions are the movements (or effects) you see as you move between two slides.

To add a transition to a slide, select the slide, navigate to the transitions tab in PowerPoint and select your transition

To add a transition to a PowerPoint slide, simply:

  • Select the  slide
  • Go to the  Transitions tab in the Ribbon
  • In the Transitions to This Slide area, click on the  dropdown arrow  to view your options
  • Select the  transition  you want

To adjust the settings of the transition, explore the options in the  Timing  area of the Transitions tab.

You can also add the same transition to multiple slides. To do that, select them in the  Slides Pane  and apply the transition.

E. How to preview a transition in PowerPoint

There are three ways to preview a transition in PowerPoint

There are three ways to preview your PowerPoint transitions (just like your animations):

  • Click on the Preview  button in the Transitions tab
  • Click on the little star  beneath the slide number in the thumbnail view

Note:  In 2016, PowerPoint added a cool new transition, called Morph. It operates a bit differently from other transitions. For a detailed tutorial on how to use the cool Morph transition,  see our step-by-step article here .

Save Your PowerPoint Presentation

After you’ve built your presentation and made all the adjustments to your slides, you’ll want to save your presentation. YOu can do this several different ways.

Click the file tab, select Save As, choose where you want to save your presentation and then click save

To save a PowerPoint presentation using your Ribbon, simply:

  • Navigate to the  File tab
  •  Select  Save As  on the left
  • Choose  where you want to save your presentation
  • Name  your presentation and/or adjust your file type settings
  • Click  Save

You can alternatively use the  Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut to save your presentation. I recommend using this shortcut frequently as you build your presentation to make sure you don’t lose any of your work.

The save shortcut is control plus s in PowerPoint

This is the standard way to save a presentation. However, there may be a situation where you want to save your presentation as a different file type.

To learn how to save your presentation as a PDF, see our guide on converting PowerPoint to a PDF .

How to save your PowerPoint presentation as a template

Once you’ve created a presentation that you like, you may want to turn it into a template. The easiest – but not technically correct – way, is to simply create a copy of your current presentation and then change the content.

But be careful! A PowerPoint template is a special type of document and it has its own parameters and behaviors.

If you’re interested in learning about how to create your own PowerPoint template from scratch, see our guide on how to create a PowerPoint template .

Printing Your PowerPoint Presentation

After finishing your PowerPoint presentation, you may want to print it out on paper. Printing your slides is relatively easy.

The print shortcut is control plus P in PowerPoint

To open the Print dialog box, you can either:

  • Hit Ctrl+P on your keyboard
  • Or go to the Ribbon and click on File and then Print

In the Print dialog box, make your selections for how you want to print your PowerPoint presentation, then click print

Inside the Print dialog box, you can choose from the various printing settings:

  • Printer: Select a printer to use (or print to PDF or OneNote)
  • Slides: Choose which slides you want to print
  • Layout: Determine how many slides you want per page (this is where you can print the notes, outline, and handouts)
  • Collated or uncollated (learn what collated printing means here )
  • Color: Choose to print in color, grayscale or black & white

There are many more options for printing your PowerPoint presentations. Here are links to more in-depth articles:

  • How to print multiple slides per page
  • How to print your speaker notes in PowerPoint
  • How to save PowerPoint as a picture presentation

So that’s how to create a PowerPoint presentation if you are brand new to it. We’ve also included a ton of links to helpful resources to boost your PowerPoint skills further.

When you are creating your presentation, it is critical to first focus on the content (what you are trying to say) before getting lost inserting and playing with elements. The clearer you are on what you want to present, the easier it will be to build it out in PowerPoint.

If you enjoyed this article, you can learn more about our PowerPoint training courses and other presentation resources by  visiting us here .

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Don’t Present Without These 16 PowerPoint Dos and Don’ts

Don’t Present Without These 16 PowerPoint Dos and Don’ts

Table of Contents

Have you ever struggled to hold your audience’s interest during a presentation? Painstakingly created slide after slide only to be met with bored, disengaged faces? 

Even the most confident speakers can falter when it comes to crafting compelling PowerPoint decks. Without proper slide design best practices, it’s easy to lose your audience in a sea of dense text, chaotic graphics, and disorganized content.

You don’t have to suffer through presenting lackluster slides anymore. In fact, following simple PowerPoint best practices can totally transform your deck from meh to marvelous.

In this post, we’ll share 16 PowerPoint dos and don’ts to level up your presentations and captivate audiences. These tips will help you create professional, visually striking slides your viewers will remember.

A man presenting on stage

16 Dos And Don’ts Of Powerpoint Presentations

Here are some important 16 presentation dos and don’ts you need to keep in mind while creating slides and presenting them.

PowerPoint Dos

Let’s start with the best practices and strategies to implement when designing PowerPoint presentations . What techniques should you use to create memorable, polished slides?

1. Keep It Simple With Minimalist Design

Let’s start with a common mistake – overcrowded, distracting slide design. We get the temptation to tart up slides with fancy backgrounds. But resist the urge! Fancy templates with complex colored patterns or photos unrelated to your content just make it harder to digest key information.

Instead, embrace the power of simplicity. Stick to minimalist templates and avoid template themes with extra decorations. Use neutral backgrounds and empty negative space to let your content shine. Remember, your audience came for your message, not for clip art kittens. Keep slides clean and attention stays where it should be.

2. Cut the Clutter – Follow the 6×6 Rule

Now for another slide buzzkill – mammoth blocks of dense text. You may be tempted to pack slides with long sentences and paragraphs. Don’t give in! Text-heavy slides are guaranteed to lose audiences fast.

For easy-to-digest nuggets, follow the handy 6×6 rule. Limit slides to just 6 lines of text maximum, with each line containing 6 words max. Anything more turns into an overwhelming wall of words.

Stick to concise phrases, short sentences, and bulleted lists. Use just keywords and supporting stats – leave nonessential info out. With this less is more approach, key points will stick better.

SlidesAI is a text-to-presentation add-on tool that converts walls of text into beautiful slides. It does this automatically generate condensed phrases and bullet points from your text ensuring clutter-free slides throughout your presentation.

3. Boost Engagement With Quality Visuals

Speaking of key points sticking better…you know what helps even more? Quality graphics and visuals!

Research shows we process images 60,000 times faster than text. So reinforce your points with strong visuals. Use high-resolution photos, charts, illustrations, and infographics. But avoid clipart or random stock photos – ensure every graphic clearly supports your narrative.

Well-designed visuals make presentations more memorable and engaging. Just remember to optimize graphics for high-resolution viewing and include alt-text (alternative text) descriptions for accessibility. Then watch those visual aids boost information retention and audience interest.

SlidesAI has a library of 1.5M high-quality premium stock images that you can select and include in your slides.

4. Create Brand Consistency With Formatting

Imagine a presentation where every slide had a totally different layout, colors, and font… no visual consistency at all. It would look sloppy and amateurish, right?

Formatting matters – big time! Brand your presentation by using consistent design elements throughout all your slides.

Pick one professional font combination and stick to it. Limit your color palette to 2-3 colors max. Maintain alignment and space elements consistently.

With unified branding, your deck will feel polished, intentional, and visually pleasing. Bonus – consistent branding also boosts memorability as the audience becomes familiar with your “look”.

SlidesAI ensures complete branding consistency across all presentation slides by applying your color schemes , fonts, etc to designs through artificial intelligence.

5. Check Accessibility Settings

Speaking of memorability, if some audience members can’t actually view your slides, they certainly won’t remember your message.

Ensure your presentation is inclusive and accessible to all by checking key settings. Use color contrast and legible fonts so those with visual impairments can still grasp the content. Optimize images with alt text descriptions. Verify videos are captioned.

It may take a bit more effort up front but making your presentation accessible opens your message to a wider audience. It also demonstrates corporate responsibility.

6. Create Custom Icons and Illustrations

Most PowerPoint templates come with generic icons. However, you can amplify brand personality and memorability by creating custom icons and simple illustrations.

Don’t just use a generic checkmark when you can insert your own branded indicator relevant to your company. Design illustrated characters to represent concepts. Even use emojis strategically to inject fun and improve recall.

Handcrafted visuals, even if basic in style, make presentations stand out and drive home key points better than generic clip art ever could.

7. Use Subtle Animations – But Not Too Many!

Animations, when used well, can help guide the audience’s eye and transition between ideas smoothly. Emphasize key points and important transitions with subtle animations.

Entrance and exit effects can focus attention while builds and motion path animations can demonstrate processes dynamically. Use sparingly and subtly for the best impact.

But avoid going animation crazy with sounds and excessive movement. That becomes more distracting than engaging. Limit animations so they enhance content rather than detract.

8. Pace Your Delivery

Creating stellar slides is an excellent start but don’t stop there. The live delivery is just as crucial. Invest time practicing your presentation with your slides.

Rehearse the flow and pace of your narrative. Refine and memorize transitions between slides . Nail your timing to keep the audience engaged. Get so comfortable delivering your content that the slides become natural visual aids.

With great slides and honed delivery skills, your audience will hang on to your every word from the introduction to a powerful conclusion.

A woman presenting traditional advertising

PowerPoint Donts

Just as important as the dos are the don’ts. What pitfalls should you avoid when designing PowerPoint presentations?

9. Don’t Use Distracting Backgrounds

Remember our tip to embrace minimalism? Well, the opposite is using distracting backgrounds. Avoid loud colors, complex patterns, or images totally unrelated to your content. At best, they are distracting. At worst, they make key info harder to comprehend.

Stick to simple, neutral backgrounds. If using an image, ensure it directly reinforces your narrative. Anything extra risks your message getting visually lost. Keep backgrounds clean so content remains the focal point.

SlidesAI avoids using distracting backgrounds like crowded templates or unrelated images in the presentations. It focuses on simple, clean backgrounds to keep attention on your key content.

10. Don’t Overwhelm With Walls of Text

We covered the 6×6 text limit rule earlier. But even with 6 lines and 6 words, slides can become text walls without good visual breakdown. Big blocks of text are tiring to read and make retainment tough.

Instead, thoughtfully chunk text into concise sections. Use headers, subheaders, and bullet points to organize key bits. Align text left for easier scanning. Supplement with supporting imagery. Breaking up text improves comprehension drastically.

11. Don’t Rely On Boring Bullets

Speaking of bulleted lists, bullet overkill is another issue that turns slides into snore fests. Slides crammed with back-to-back bullet points lose audiences fast. The endless text blurs together with minimal memorability.

For memorable content, limit bullets to key takeaways only. Then reinforce each point visually – a photo, icon, chart, etc. Quality visuals boost memorability way more than a slide stuffed with 11 bullet points ever could.

12. Don’t Use Inconsistent Formatting

Remember, formatting matters! Shifting layouts, fonts, and color schemes appear disjointed and sloppy. The mismatched design screams amateur hour.

Establish a visual style and stick to it slide to slide. Use the same fonts, limit your color palette, and space elements consistently. Most importantly – maintain alignment across all slides. With unified branding, your presentation will look polished and professional.

SlidesAI ensures your presentation formatting stays consistent slide to slide by applying your preferred color palette, fonts, etc through its intelligent algorithms.

13. Don’t Include Unnecessary Animations

Animations can be great for guiding the viewer’s eye and demonstrating motion. But avoid going overboard. Excessive animations, sounds, and movement become more distracting than engaging.

Use animations subtly and intentionally . Emphasize only key points and important transitions with simple builds or entrance effects. Anything superfluous, whether flying text or whooshing sounds, pulls attention away rather than enhancing content.

Keep it simple and purposeful. Let smooth, minimal animations work behind the scenes rather than take center stage away from your narrative.

14. Don’t Use Unsupported Graphics

Only include images, photos, charts, etc that directly support the ideas and messaging in your presentation. Don’t insert fluffy visuals that have no clear tie to your content.

Every visual aid you present should clearly reinforce your narrative rather than derail tangents. Unsupported graphics quickly become distractions. They also undermine your credibility if audiences can’t grasp the connection.

Keep it focused. Be intentional about every visual you include. Remove anything superfluous that doesn’t serve a purpose.

15. Don’t Plagiarize Content

While it’s fine to find inspiration from other presentations, copying chunks of text or visuals without proper attribution is unethical. Never pass off someone else’s hard work as your own.

Always credit sources directly within your presentation if incorporating external ideas, quotes, charts, images, etc. Also, avoid violating copyright laws by inserting visuals without licensing them appropriately first.

Your presentation should showcase your unique ideas, voice, and message. Ensure you create original content or properly cite anything derived from others. Your integrity depends on it.

16. Don’t Wing Your Speech

With great slides completed, don’t just wing it on presentation day. The live delivery is just as crucial. Invest time to refine your pacing, transitions, slide timing, and flow.

Practice your speech thoroughly with the deck so your narrative and movements feel natural. Nail down transition phrases between slides. Get 100% comfortable presenting your content.

With stellar slides and a well-rehearsed delivery, your presentation is sure to wow audiences from start to finish.

A girl student presenting in front of class

There you have it – 16 PowerPoint dos and don’ts for creating memorable, professional PowerPoint presentations. Apply the dos to make high-impact slides, and avoid the don’ts for mistake-free presentations.

Put these PowerPoint best practices into play and watch your ordinary slides transform into extraordinary visual stories. Your audiences will be engaged from start to finish.

But even with these tips, crafting stunning presentations can be time-intensive. Instead, let SlidesAI do the work for you using the power of AI.

SlidesAI integrates with Google Slides and PowerPoint (coming soon) to instantly generate professional presentation decks from your content. Simply input your text – SlidesAI will turn them into visually cohesive slides designed for audience engagement.

SlidesAI saves tons of time by handling slide layouts, formats, graphic design, and branding tailored to you. The AI delivers presentation-ready slides in seconds.

Take your Presentation skills from amateur to pro – try SlidesAI for free today!

What are the dos and don’ts of PowerPoint presentations?

Key PowerPoint dos include simple designs, concise text, quality visuals, consistency, accessibility, custom icons, subtle animations, and practice. Don’ts involve distracting backgrounds, walls of text, boring bullets, inconsistent formatting, excessive animations, irrelevant graphics, plagiarism, and winging it.

What is the 5 by 5 rule in PowerPoint?

The 5 by 5 rule recommends having no more than 5 lines of text per slide and 5 words per line. This keeps each slide focused and text easy to digest. Too much text overwhelms audiences.

What is the 7 rule on a PowerPoint presentation?

The 7 rule states that your slides should have no more than 7 bullet points. Like the 5 by 5 rule, this maintains simplicity for the audience. More than 7 bulleted items become hard to retain.

What are the 5 rules of PowerPoint?

5 key rules are: don’t cram slides with too much text, minimize slides for emphasis, utilize quality visuals, stick to a consistent format, and limit animations. Following these makes presentations professional, clean, and engaging.

Frequently Asked Questions

Key PowerPoint dos include simple designs, concise text, quality visuals, consistency, accessibility, custom icons, subtle animations, and practice. Don'ts involve distracting backgrounds, walls of text, boring bullets, inconsistent formatting, excessive animations, irrelevant graphics, plagiarism, and winging it.

5 key rules are: don't cram slides with too much text, minimize slides for emphasis, utilize quality visuals, stick to a consistent format, and limit animations. Following these makes presentations professional, clean, and engaging.

Save Time and Effortlessly Create Presentations with SlidesAI

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how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

How To Use Microsoft PowerPoint Without Subscription? (Here Are the Best Solutions)

Are you looking for a way to use Microsoft PowerPoint without having to pay for an expensive subscription? If so, you’re in the right place! In this article, we’ll be exploring the best solutions for using Microsoft PowerPoint without a subscription.

We’ll also discuss the benefits and features of Microsoft PowerPoint, as well as how to create a presentation without subscription.

Plus, we’ll cover some great alternatives, free templates and themes, and tips for enhancing your presentation.

Finally, we’ll talk about how to share your presentation.

So, let’s get started!

Table of Contents

Short Answer

Microsoft offers a free version of PowerPoint called PowerPoint Online.

It is available on the web and you can use it without subscribing to any version of Office.

It has all the basic features of PowerPoint, such as creating and editing presentations and sharing them with others.

You can also store and access your presentations from OneDrive, and you can even collaborate with others in real-time.

Benefits of Using Microsoft PowerPoint Without Subscription

Microsoft PowerPoint is a powerful presentation software that is used by many professionals in various industries.

Though a subscription is required to access all of its features, there are still many ways to use Microsoft PowerPoint without a subscription.

For starters, you can create presentations, access templates and themes, and share your presentation across multiple platforms without having to pay a subscription.

Additionally, you can use other free and open source tools to enhance your presentation.

Using Microsoft PowerPoint without a subscription comes with several benefits.

The most important is that you dont have to pay to use the software.

This can be especially beneficial for small businesses or individuals who have limited budgets.

Additionally, you can access high-quality templates and themes that you can use to make your presentation look more professional.

You can also easily share your presentation with other users, regardless of their platform.

Another benefit of using Microsoft PowerPoint without a subscription is that you can access additional tools that will help you create a stunning presentation.

For example, you can use open source tools such as Prezi or SlideShare to enhance your presentation.

These tools can help you add animation, transitions, and other features to your presentation that would otherwise require a subscription.

Finally, using Microsoft PowerPoint without a subscription allows you to be more creative with your presentation.

You dont have to stick to the same templates and themes that come with the software.

Instead, you can get creative and come up with a unique presentation that stands out from the crowd.

In conclusion, there are several benefits to using Microsoft PowerPoint without a subscription.

Not only is it free, but you can access high-quality templates and themes, share your presentation across multiple platforms, and use additional tools to enhance your presentation.

Additionally, you can be more creative and come up with a unique presentation that will make your presentation stand out from the crowd.

Overview of Microsoft PowerPoints Features

Microsoft PowerPoint is one of the most popular presentation software programs available, and its used by professionals and students alike.

It is a powerful presentation platform that allows you to create stunning visuals, animations, and multimedia presentations.

Microsoft PowerPoint also offers a wide range of templates and themes to choose from, making it easier to get started with making a presentation.

However, if you want to access some of the more advanced features of Microsoft PowerPoint, youll need to subscribe to the software.

Subscribing to Microsoft PowerPoint will enable you to access additional features such as collaboration tools, the ability to host online meetings, and access to the latest updates and security features.

Although you need to subscribe to Microsoft PowerPoint to access all of its features, there are still many ways to use Microsoft PowerPoint without a subscription. Here are some of the best solutions for creating a presentation without subscribing to the software:

Create presentations without a subscription You can use Microsoft PowerPoint to create an effective presentation without a subscription.

You can access the basic tools and templates to create your presentation.

You can also use the free version of Microsoft PowerPoint to create and share presentations online.

Access free and open source tools There are a number of free and open source tools that can be used to enhance your presentation.

These tools offer additional features and capabilities to help you create a professional-looking presentation.

Share your presentation across multiple platforms Microsoft PowerPoint allows you to share your presentation across multiple platforms, including social media, email, and other collaboration tools.

This allows you to reach a wider audience and get your message out to more people.

By using the solutions above, you can create a stunning presentation without a subscription to Microsoft PowerPoint.

With a little creativity and the right tools, you can create a professional-looking presentation without a subscription.

How to Create a Presentation Without Subscription

Creating a presentation without a subscription to Microsoft PowerPoint may seem like a daunting task, but with the right tools and a little creativity, it’s quite simple.

One of the best ways to create a presentation without a subscription is to use free and open source tools.

These tools allow you to create stunning presentations from scratch or work with existing templates and themes.

You can also access a wide variety of features such as text formatting, image manipulation, and animation tools.

One popular open source tool for creating presentations is LibreOffice, which is a free and open source office suite.

It features a comprehensive suite of office applications, including a powerful presentation maker.

LibreOffice also provides a wide selection of templates and themes to help you create your presentation quickly and easily.

Additionally, you can access a range of features such as text formatting, image manipulation, and animation tools.

Another popular tool for creating presentations is Google Slides.

This free online tool allows you to quickly and easily create stunning presentations.

Google Slides also provides a wide selection of templates and themes to choose from.

Finally, if you are looking for more advanced features and options, you can use other open source tools such as Inkscape or GIMP.

Inkscape is a powerful vector graphics editor that can be used to create stunning presentations.

GIMP is a free and open source image manipulation program that can be used to create impressive images for your presentation.

By using free and open source tools, you can create a stunning presentation without a subscription to Microsoft PowerPoint.

With a little creativity and the right tools, you can create a stunning presentation without a subscription to Microsoft PowerPoint.

Microsoft PowerPoint Alternatives

When it comes to creating presentations, Microsoft PowerPoint is still the most popular choice. But, if you dont want to commit to a subscription, there are plenty of alternatives that you can use without breaking the bank. Here are some of the best options for creating presentations without a subscription to Microsoft PowerPoint:

1. Google Slides: Google Slides is a free and easy-to-use alternative to PowerPoint. It offers a range of templates and themes, plus the ability to collaborate with others. You can also import and export files from PowerPoint, making it a great tool for those already familiar with PowerPoint.

2. Prezi: Prezi is a cloud-based presentation tool that offers a range of templates and themes. Its easy to use and has a great selection of features, including the ability to collaborate with others.

3. OpenOffice Impress: OpenOffice Impress is a powerful open source alternative to PowerPoint. It has a range of features and is compatible with other popular presentation software, making it a great choice for those who dont want to pay for a subscription.

4. Keynote: Keynote is a presentation tool from Apple. It has a range of features and is easy to use. Its available on Mac and iOS devices, making it a great choice for those who dont want to use a Windows-based program.

5. Canva: Canva is a great alternative for creating stunning presentations. It has a range of templates and themes as well as the ability to customize your presentation.

These are just a few of the alternatives to Microsoft PowerPoint.

With a little bit of creativity and the right tools, you can create a stunning presentation without the need for a subscription.

Free Templates and Themes

When it comes to creating a professional-looking presentation without a subscription to Microsoft PowerPoint, one of the best solutions is to use free templates and themes.

Many websites offer a selection of free templates and themes that are compatible with PowerPoint.

These templates can be used to create stunning presentations without the need for a subscription.

For example, Microsoft Office offers a selection of free templates for PowerPoint that can be downloaded from their website.

These templates are designed to be professional and attractive, making them perfect for creating presentations without a subscription.

Additionally, there are a number of other websites such as SlideModel and PresentationGO that offer free templates and themes for PowerPoint.

Using free templates and themes is a great way to create an engaging and visually appealing presentation without the need for a subscription.

The templates and themes provide a base for your presentation, allowing you to customize it to your exact needs.

Additionally, they can help to save you time and effort as you dont have to create all the slides yourself.

With the right template, you can create a stunning presentation without a subscription.

Tips for Enhancing Your Presentation

When it comes to creating a stunning presentation without a subscription to Microsoft PowerPoint, there are several tips that you can use to enhance your presentation.

First, you can use an online image editor to enhance your slides.

There are several free and open source tools that you can use to add text, shapes, and other elements to your slides.

This can help make your presentation more visually appealing and engaging.

Second, you can use video to add an extra layer of interest to your presentation.

For example, you can use a video editor to create short videos that you can add to your slides.

This will help to keep your audience engaged and provide more information in an entertaining way.

Third, you can add interactive elements to your presentation.

For example, you can create polls and quizzes that your audience can participate in.

This will help to add some fun to your presentation and keep your audience engaged.

Finally, you can use animation to add some extra impact to your presentation.

For example, you can use a tool like Keynote to animate your slides and make them more dynamic.

This will help to keep your audience interested and make your presentation more memorable.

By using these tips, you can create a stunning presentation without a subscription to Microsoft PowerPoint.

With a little creativity and the right tools, you can create a presentation that will wow your audience and keep them engaged.

How to Share Your Presentation

Sharing your presentation without a subscription to Microsoft PowerPoint is easy. All you need is a computer or mobile device with an internet connection. There are two main ways to share your presentation without a subscription: through file sharing services or through presentation hosting websites.

File sharing services allow you to upload your presentation to a cloud storage platform, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or iCloud.

Once the file is uploaded, you can share the file with anyone by sending them a link.

This link can be shared via email, social media, or other messaging services.

Presentation hosting websites are an alternative to cloud storage services.

These websites allow you to upload your presentation and share it with an audience.

Some of the most popular presentation hosting websites include SlideShare, Prezi, and Haiku Deck.

These services allow you to customize your presentation with themes, animations, and more.

In addition to these options, you can also share your presentation via video conferencing tools such as Skype, Zoom, and Google Hangouts.

These tools allow you to share your screen and give a presentation to your audience in real-time.

With these tools, you can easily share your presentation without a subscription to Microsoft PowerPoint.

Whether youre sharing with a small group of friends or a large audience, you can be sure that your presentation will be seen and heard.

Final Thoughts

Using Microsoft PowerPoint without a subscription is a great way to create stunning presentations.

With a little creativity and the right tools, you can access powerful features, templates, themes, and more.

Alternatives like OpenOffice Impress and Canva offer additional options for creating presentation slides.

With these tools, you can create beautiful slides, enhance your presentation, and share it with a wide audience.

Now you have all the information necessary to create a presentation without a subscription to Microsoft PowerPoint.

So get creative and start building your presentation today!

James Wilson

James Wilson has extensive knowledge in the information technology industry.His second love, besides dealing with computers, is smart home technology. He is continually updating information to better comprehend this problem and has a deep understanding of the apartment’s support system.

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How-To Geek

How to make a microsoft powerpoint presentation read-only.

You can set your PowerPoint presentation to "read-only" to discourage others from making edits to your content. Here's how.

If you want to discourage others from making edits to your Microsoft PowerPoint presentation or let them know the file you sent is the final version, you can do so by making it read-only. Here's how it's done.

While making your PowerPoint presentation read-only is a good deterrent from having others edit your content, it's easy to unlock a read-only presentation . It's by no means un-editable.

Open the presentation  that you want to make read-only, then click the "File" tab.

File tab in PowerPoint

Next, in the left-hand pane, select "Info."

Info option in left-hand tab

You'll now see a "Protect Presentation" section, which lets you (to an extent) protect against any editing of your presentation. Click "Protect Presentation."

Protect presentation option

Once selected, a drop-down menu will appear with these four options:

  • Always Open Read-Only:  This asks the reader to opt-in to edit the presentation. This prevents accidental edits.
  • Encrypt with Password:  This  password protects your presentation.
  • Add a Digital Signature:  This adds an invisible digital signature to your presentation.
  • Mark as Final:  This lets the reader know that this is the final version of the presentation.

Protect presentation drop-down menu

All of these options are good for protecting the integrity of your Microsoft PowerPoint, but the two we'll need here to make the presentation read-only are (1) Always Open Read-Only and (2) Mark as Final.

Selecting either option will prevent the reader from editing the presentation--unless they opt-in to do so.

If you chose the Always Open Read-Only option, the reader will see this message when opening the presentation:

"To prevent accidental changes, the author has set this file to open as read-only."

Read-only note

If you chose the Mark as Final option, the reader will see this message:

"An author has marked this presentation as final to discourage editing."

Mark as final note

In either case, your Microsoft PowerPoint presentation is now set to read-only. However, in both cases, all the reader has to do to edit the presentation is click the "Edit Anyway" button.

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How to Use Text to Speech With Different Voices

Are you nervous about using your voice to narrate PowerPoint presentation? Not to worry, you can use a cool voice generator to narrate your slides in various voices and accents. This can be a great way to add some personality to your presentation and make it more engaging for your audience. This post will discuss how to narrate PowerPoint without using your voice.

How to Narrate Powerpoint

Do you want to narrate PowerPoint presentation but don’t want to use your voice? Are you worried that your voice won’t engage your audience? Are you thinking about adding voiceover to powerpoint ? Don’t worry, there are ways to narrate a presentation without using your voice. Of those ways, advanced text-to-speech software is the most effective.

There are many benefits to narrating a PowerPoint without using your voice. Here are some of the most notable ones:

  • You can add more personality to your presentation by choosing different voices and accents for the text-to-speech software.
  • This can be a great way to engage your audience and make your presentation more attractive.
  • It can also be helpful if you’re not comfortable speaking in front of a large group of people.

radio microphone

Fortunately, some of the best advanced text-to-speech software programs can help make your presentation sound amazing! Best of all, PowerPoint has a narration feature that lets you add audio or voiceovers on slides or the whole production. Below we will discuss how to upload your PowerPoint audio on a Mac or a PC.

PowerPoint Narration For PC And Mac

The processes for PowerPoint narration for PC and Mac are similar. Here are the steps for each method.

PowerPoint Narration for PC

  • First, open a new or existing presentation in PowerPoint.
  • Using the top toolbar, select the “Insert” option.
  • Scroll to the far-right side of the menu and select “Audio.” Using this option, you can insert voiceover audio from a reliable advanced text-to-speech software app.
  • After adding the voiceover, a microphone icon will appear, indicating that the PowerPoint narration was successful.

PowerPoint Narration For Mac

  • Open a new or existing presentation for PowerPoint for Mac.
  • Find and select the “Insert” option in the top toolbar.
  • Like the PC version, navigate to the far-right side and click “Audio.”
  • Once again, you can use your favorite voiceover app to create the most engaging PowerPoint audio for your presentation.

voiceover preparation

Typecast – An Advanced Text-to-Speech Software For a PowerPoint Presentation

Typecast is an advanced text-to-speech software for narrating PowerPoint presentations. With Typecast, you can create fantastic audio for your PowerPoint slides in minutes. The software is simple to use, just paste your text into the app and click “Play.” Typecast will generate high-quality audio you can download and use for your PowerPoint presentation. 

Typecast is also great for creating audio for eLearning courses, training materials, and marketing videos. If you need to create a narrated PowerPoint presentation for the office or a potential client, Typecast is the best text-to-speech software to use! Business owners can even hype up their presentations by adding the movie announcer voice to their audio.

Typecast offers many benefits, including:

  • A wide range of voices and accents to choose from (over 260 and counting!)
  • Quick and painless audio creation – just paste your text and click “Play!”

Typecast is the best advanced text-to-speech software for narrating pitches for small business owners looking to create more engaging content, launch a new product, or open a new business in their franchise. With Typecast, you can easily create audio for your PowerPoint slides in minutes without using your voice! Try it out today.

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Tech Advisor

How to get Microsoft PowerPoint for free

Need to create a digital presentation? There are loads of options to choose from.

Google Slides, Apple Keynote, Canva and Prezi are all worth considering, but there’s one app that probably comes to mind first.

Microsoft’s PowerPoint remains the go-to for many people, combining ease of use with an excellent range of features.

But there’s one big problem: you usually need to pay to access the app. This starts $149.99 / £119.99 for a standalone version alongside other Office apps, or £79.99 / $99.99 per year as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription.

However, the good news is that there are three totally free (and legal) ways to use PowerPoint totally free of charge. Here’s what you need to know.

Option 1 – Web version

Accessing Microsoft PowerPoint and other core Office programs is free via the web, and all you’ll need is a Microsoft account.

Head over to office.com and click ‘Sign in’ to enter your details. If you don’t yet have an account, choose ‘Sign up for the free version of Office’ and follow the instructions.

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Once that’s complete, you’ll be taken to your main office homepage. From the left pane, choose ‘Create’ then ‘Presentation’ to open a new PowerPoint document.

As you can see, there’s also the option to create documents in Word and PowerPoint here, alongside Outlook and a free version of Microsoft Teams. These are all ‘Web Apps’, meaning you can only use them via your browser and not a desktop app. When you work on a file here, it will be saved to OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage service.

In fact, you probably have Google to thank for this software being available in web app form. Its free Docs, Sheets and Slides software and their integration with Google Drive made it difficult for Microsoft to keep asking users to pay.

Check out our guide to the best cloud storage services to see how both compare to the rest of the competition.

The web version of PowerPoint is a more stripped-back version of the software, so the comparison to Google Slides is more reasonable than the full desktop program. Nonetheless, both services should provide everything a casual user is looking for.

Option 2 – Use on mobile

Perhaps again in response to Google, Microsoft’s Office mobile applications are completely free and available across modern mobile devices.

You can download the Microsoft PowerPoint app for Android and iOS . While Microsoft understandably reserves some premium features for its Office 365 subscription, the mobile apps are still very capable and offer integration with OneDrive.

Option 3 – Check if your school or workplace gets it free

Many employers offer Microsoft 365 apps to their employees free of charge. Even if your work email address ends with the name of the company you work for, it may still be used to sign into a Microsoft account. Of course, you may be working in an office job where Excel and the like are already the defaults.

If your school has signed up to Microsoft 365 Education, all staff and students should be able access Office apps for free. To check, enter your education email address on the Microsoft website .

But if your school isn’t yet signed up and you’re in a position to change that, compare plans and begin the sign-up process here .

Learn more in our separate article: Do students get Office 365 for free?

Related articles

・ How to get Microsoft Word for free

・ How to get Microsoft Excel for free

・ Microsoft 365 buying guide

How to get Microsoft PowerPoint for free

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  1. 3 Ways to Make a PowerPoint Presentation Without PowerPoint

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  2. 3 Ways to Make a PowerPoint Presentation Without PowerPoint

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  3. How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation Without PowerPoint

    how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

  4. 3 Ways to Make a PowerPoint Presentation Without PowerPoint

    how to make a powerpoint presentation without powerpoint

  5. 3 Ways to Make a PowerPoint Presentation Without PowerPoint

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  6. 3 Ways to Make a PowerPoint Presentation Without PowerPoint

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COMMENTS

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    How to create a presentation without Powerpoint Open Canva Open up Canva and search for "Presentation" to create your own design. Find the right template

  2. Make a Better Presentation Without PowerPoint (+Top Alternatives

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  3. How do I do a PowerPoint presentation without PowerPoint available

    8 Answers Sorted by: 2 You can : export the presentation from PowerPoint to a self contained presentation use Google docs use a tool like Prezi ( my recommendation, never looked back to PowerPoint) Share Improve this answer Follow answered Nov 15, 2011 at 12:06 Nasreddine 763 7 19

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  19. How to Open a PPT File Without Powerpoint: Easy Alternatives

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  25. How to Make a Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation Read-only

    Always Open Read-Only: This asks the reader to opt-in to edit the presentation. This prevents accidental edits. Encrypt with Password: This password protects your presentation. Add a Digital Signature: This adds an invisible digital signature to your presentation.

  26. How to Narrate Powerpoint Without Using Your Voice

    PowerPoint Narration for PC. First, open a new or existing presentation in PowerPoint. Using the top toolbar, select the "Insert" option. Scroll to the far-right side of the menu and select "Audio.". Using this option, you can insert voiceover audio from a reliable advanced text-to-speech software app. After adding the voiceover, a ...

  27. How to get Microsoft PowerPoint for free

    Anyron Copeman / Foundry. As you can see, there's also the option to create documents in Word and PowerPoint here, alongside Outlook and a free version of Microsoft Teams.