Online Presentation Software
The best free presentation software available



There is a ton of online presentation software available, but there's only one radically different program out there. A full list plus some thoughts on what is available.

I suppose it always depends on what you're after, but I was quite underwhelmed when I looked at what's available. As a minimum I expected to see several different ways of presenting ideas.

What I saw was slides, slides and more slides! Powerpoint really has dominated the industry to such an extent, that some providers even market themselves as "like Powerpoint, only better!"

Of course it's convenient if your web-based presentation software can import your old Powerpoint slide-shows. Most of them can.

In the highly connected Web 2.0 world, it's also useful for some people to be able to easily share their presentations online and to collaborate on them. Again, with most of them you can.

On the web these days it's important you can use these programs for free. Again with most of them you can.

But ... it's still mostly slides, slides and more slides.

Except for Prezi.

It's the only one doing something quite different. Click here for my video review of the Prezi presentation software

Other Online Presentation Software

Here's the rest of the most widely available programs out there, with some brief comments.

To test them I simply tried to create a simple one slide presentation with one picture uploaded from my PC, then save it and publish it. Surely they should all handle that easily right? Hmmm ...

  • Zoho Show. Very easy and fast to join and start creating presentations. Easy to share over the web, or keep private.

  • ThinkFree Presentations. Similar to Zoho but didn't run as well on my PC with Firefox. Had trouble inserting a picture which is pretty basic stuff!

  • Spresent. Got this message (in August!). Registration and Sign-In are closed. We plan to resume in June.

  • Google Docs - Presentations. As you'd expect, quick and easy. No problems. Basic.

  • Thumbstacks. Unable to connect. Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at www.thumbstacks.com. Oh no!

  • Empressr. A bit slow and not quite as intuitive to use as Zoho or Thumbstacks but got there in the end.

  • AjaxPresents. Got a huge error message which started like this java.io.IOException: Couldn't create dir:

  • BrinkPad. Looks pretty, but way too hard to use. Couldn't even upload an image. Sorry.

  • Preezo. Doesn't even work!

  • PresentationEngine. Designed for corporates and priced accordingly.

  • PreZentit. The best so far. Nice and easy to use.

  • SlideRocket. Good, but the free version has limited functionality and storage space. You'll pay for more.

  • Vcasmo. Not really suited to making slideshows.

  • IBM's Symphony Office Suite. 197Mb to download an entire suite of Office products. No thanks.

  • slideshare. Can't create presentations. Just share existing Powerpoint and Keynote ones.

  • ClearSlide. Looks very salesy. Can't try it for free online.

  • GoToMeeting. Webconferencing app so you'd create your presentation in something else first.

  • DimDim. Webconferencing.

  • Glance. A good way to share what's on your computer screen with someone else over the internet. Not for creating presentations.

I hope that helps you find something you can use. Let me know if you come across anything exciting.



Return from Online Presentation Software to Public Speaking

Return from Online Presentation Software to the Fear Of Public Speaking Home Page






© Copyright 2009 no-fear-public-speaking.com

SBI
SBI!