Almost every person in their life comes across the need to make a presentation. Although when the matter concerns the presentation software, PowerPoint is the first thing that comes to mind for most users, there are many available and free analogs. To date, such applications as Google Slides, Canva, and Prezi are gaining popularity. These tools let people create bright and impressive artwork; nevertheless, none of them is perfect, with both advantages and disadvantages, suiting one situation more than another.
Considering that there are so many lovers of Google Slides, Canva, and Prezi, these programs have more merits than others. All these programs are easy to learn and can be used for free. Moreover, Google Slides and Prezi allow consumers to work on a presentation together with colleagues in real-time. Spencer (2020) claims that “Google has helpful online documentation as well as Help documentation within each office tool” (para. 23). People can place texts, photos, videos, and other kinds of information on their slides. Simultaneously, despite their options and the consumer’s ability to use them on different platforms, these applications are not without drawbacks. Sometimes, making presentations in Prezi, people face various errors and difficulties with data structuring because of its animation style. The format of Canva is not capable of combining with PowerPoint. Google Slides cannot offer many templates, and often consumers do not manage to avoid loading delays (Graw, 2021, para. 6-7). Nevertheless, in terms of frequency of use, these tools are at the top, which indicates that their advantages outweigh their drawbacks.
Each of type of software has its purpose and can be of more benefit in a particular situation. Thus, Google Slides, with its collaboration, built-in group chat, and ability to show slides in presenter mode and save material in the cloud storage, is needed for different business goals. Prezi, which abandons the usual format and turns the presentation into a vast map, is ideal for those who want to present their ideas creatively (Graw, 2021, para. 7). Canva, with its wide range of fonts and templates, is designed to make a simple but stylish work. For instance, it is often used to design stories on Instagram or to make a short report for the lesson. Hence, the choice of the tool directly depends on the consumer’s purpose.
Although all people can make slides, not all of them can create presentations. For example, every student has faced PowerPoint at least once in their life, but not all their works were quality enough. Although any software allows creating a vivid, informative, and “really shine” report, many pupils do not use it (Graw, 2021, para. 5). They open a slide and type several paragraphs on it, which does not generate any interest in the speaker’s topic. Even if the presentation is of an academic style and pictures are not appropriate, the user should add diagrams or graphs to it and write not more than seven lines of text per slide. Any type of such tools lets people be designers and creators if they are ready for it.
Google Slides, Canva, and Prezi are some of the most widespread types of presentation software. It would be wrong to claim that one of these tools is better than the others. Each of them has its peculiarities, merits, and demerits, allowing users to create different slides according to their theme and purpose. They help people form a well-composed, stylish, informative, and attention-grabbing presentation, which is the key to high-quality memorization and understanding of the information.
References
Graw, M. (2021). TechRadar’s list of the best free presentation software. Web.
Spencer, L. (2020). The 15 best free online presentation software tools for 2020. Web.