Powerpoint Review – In-Depth Overview, FAQs, Tips & More

In this post, we’ll look at all Powerpoint has to offer to determine whether it’s suitable for an online course creator like you. We’ll also provide some alternatives for you to check out too.

Quick Summary of the Main Product

Microsoft Powerpoint has been the benchmark for presentation programs for decades now. 

Moreover, Microsoft has only improved upon its formula over the recent years and have added the ability to add 3D objects, elegant animations, and even voice-over narrations. 

Microsoft Powerpoint is available on most operating systems and devices including Windows, Mac, iPhones, iPads, and Android phones. 

You can drag and evenly space objects within your slides and format them accodingly. Moreover, Powerpoint also allow you to quickly move objects around with the help of their arrow keys.

Features and Benefits

Collaboration 

This was a long time coming but Microsoft has finally added real-time collaboration capabilities to Powerpoint. 

With the help of it, multiple can open the same presentation file and edit it simultaneously. There’s also a chat box available so you can talk to your collaborators during simultaneous editing sessions. 

As an online course creator, this may not be of much use to you unless you develop an online course with a team. 

Morph Transitions 

Morph transitions may seem like an insignificant feature but seeing it in action really emphasizes how much of an impact it can have on your audience. 

Basically, if you have a single object such as an arrow in the first slide and you have a similar arrow in the next slide but in a different position, you can choose to apply a morph transition on it. 

This transition will move the arrow between those two positions as you forward to the next slide. 

It can serve to be an engaging sight for your students when used appropriately. 

Design Ideas

Design ideas is a significant recent improvement that provides you with feedback and suggestions on how to build your slide. 

As you add images and text, you may be presented with a Design Ideas button. When you click on it, you will be presented with a suggestion that you can choose to follow or not. 

Wide Library of Templates 

As with all Microsoft tools, Powerpoint comes equipped with ready-to-use design templates that you can simply apply and add content into. 

These templates are completely customizable too. 

Factors to Consider Before you Decide to Buy Microsoft Powerpoint

Pricing

You can buy Powerpoint as a standalone app for a one-time fee of $109.99. 

On the other hand, you can choose to get a personal subscription to Microsoft 365, which costs $69.99 per year (about $6 per month). 

This is fairly cheap as you not only get access to Microsoft Powerpoint but other great tools as well such as Word and Excel. 

Ease of Use

While Microsoft Powerpoint is fairly simple to use if you want to create basic lecture slides, however, if you want to add specific transitions or animations, it can get a bit confusing. 

The interface is fairly cluttered and you may need some time to adjust to it if you choose to create intricate lecture slides.

Template Library

As mentioned earlier, Powerpoint has a wide array of design templates to choose from. 

You can simply apply these and start to add content for your online course or you can customize them a little according to your preferences before you get started.

Advantages and Disadvantages

What we liked	What we didn’t like
• Wide array of templates • Great transitions and animation effects • Contains a presentation coaching tool • Supports easy collaboration • Integrated with other Microsoft tools such as Word and Excel	• Can be confusing due to the sheer number of features available • Relatively expensive as a one-time purchase

Social Proof

Powerpoint has amassed a loyal customer base over the years and all of them praise its endless customizability and how it allows them to be creative with their presentations. 

Most love its wide library of templates as well as how easy it is to animate certain objects according to their preferences. 

Here are some of the reviews we found online: 

Similar to Microsoft Powerpoint (Recommendations)

#1: Best Online Presentation Program – Canva Review

Canva has been making waves in the graphic design industry thanks to its ease of use and a huge library of templates. 

Its simple drag-and-drop editor lets you create engaging presentations with a few simple clicks. 

Factors to Consider Before you Decide to Buy Canva

Pricing: 

You can use Canva’s free version if you want to create simple slides with images and infographics. If you want more sophisticated features such as custom templates and a background remover, then you can go for the Pro plan which costs $12.95 per month. 

Ease of Use: Canva prides itself in being user-friendly and it’s aimed at individuals that don’t have much experience with graphic design. 

Template Library: Canva’s pro plan gives you access to 420,000+ templates and 75 million+ stock images, videos, and graphics. Furthermore, this library is constantly updated and all templates are fully customizable.

What we liked	What we didn’t like
• Easy to use • Wide library of templates • One-click background remover for images • Resizing tool for objects and images • Allows you to upload your own fonts and logos	• Free version is fairly limited • Needs a working internet connection

Best Online Presentation Program

The best online presentation program is Canva thanks to its user-friendliness and useful tools such as the background remover and resizer. You can choose from thousands of templates to find the one that works best for you.

#2: Best Beginner-Friendly Presentation Program – Prezi Present Review

Prezi Present is a part of Prezi’s package which features three tools: Present, Design and Video. 

Prezi Present is highly powerful thanks to its specifically designed templates for different scenarios.

These templates feature a whiteboard with text which transitions into different sections on the whiteboard every time you move onto the next slide.

It’s an innovative and engaging way to create lecture slides for your online course.

Factors to Consider Before you Decide to Buy Prezi Present

Pricing: Prezi’s prices can get fairly confusing as it has 11 different price plans ranging from $3 to $59 per month. All of these are billed annually and as a single person creating online courses, you can expect to choose a plan that costs between $3 to $7 per month. 

Ease of Use: As mentioned earlier, Prezi Present is specifically geared towards individuals that don’t have a lot of experience with creating presentations. 

Template Library: While the template library is not as extensive as Canva’s, it’s still enough to provide you with a skeletal structure that you can customize to create compelling presentations for your online course.

What we liked	What we didn’t like
• Unique presentation style • Cheaper plans are adequate enough for online course creators • Helpful and fully customizable templates • Lightweight and fast • Beginner-friendly	• Confusing pricing plans

Best Beginner-Friendly Presentation Program

The best beginner-friendly presentation program is Prezi Present thanks to its easy-to-follow templates and unique whiteboard presentation style.

Guide to Buy

Before you decide to buy any presentation program, there are some things that you need to be aware of as an online course creator. 

You should think about certain factors before you purchase a presentation program that can help you choose the best one possible. These factors are: 

Pricing

As an online course creator that currently works on their online business, you will typically not have a lot of money to work with. 

Chances are that you may also already pay for other tools and software as well. 

Thus, we recommend that you go for a presentation program that has a price tag of below $70 if it’s a one-time purchase and below $15 if it has a monthly subscription. 

Ease of Use

We say this for pretty much every tool and it’s quite an obvious factor but it needs reiterating: your presentation program has to be easy to get the hang of and use. 

If you have to spend a lot of time learning how to use the program, this will be a lot of time spent that could’ve been used to make improvements to the actual content of your course. 

Thus, aim for a tool that is easy to pick up and use instantaneously. 

Template Library

It’s definitely handy to have a presentation program that comes with a wide array of design templates, icons, objects, animations, etc. 

The more of these you have to choose from, the more dynamic your presentations will be. 

Thus, you can use the templates at your disposal to make your lecture slides more engaging. 

Wrapping Things Up…

This brings us to the conclusion of our Powerpoint review. 

Microsoft Powerpoint has stayed on top when it comes to presentation programs for decades now and it’s clear why: there’s no other tool out there with quite as many features packed into a single program. 

Over the years, they’ve fixed their most problematic issues such as formatting and crashes. As a result, they’ve created a program that is immaculate on almost all fronts. 

Let us know which tool(s) you use to create lecture slides for your online courses.