PowerPoint vs. Keynote – The Solution for You.
Our latest blog entry will discuss the pros and cons of using each presentation platform and if we have time, we may go over some online options that are making headway in the industry.
The first step to choosing the best platform for you would be to understand which software works with Windows and Mac. Microsoft PowerPoint is available for both PC and Mac while Keynote is an Apple specific application. There are certain workarounds to be able to use Keynote on a PC which are explained here.
An important deciding factor for which software will fit your needs is the type of presentation you will be creating. If you will be using photos and videos within the presentation, our suggestion would be to go with Keynote if you have an Apple computer. This software handles video video playback much better than powerpoint. There is nothing worse than getting into a decent flow of your presentation only to click the advance button and wait for a video to load. On the other hand, if you will be using graphs, charts, or tables for your content we would suggest PowerPoint for this purpose as the design of the interface is more user friendly for this task.
In addition to PowerPoint and Keynote, we would like to introduce you to Prezi. This online platform is a whole new take on presentation creation. Also, this software now offers an offline application for showing your content when you do not have internet available. Instead of creating individual slides with builds and transitions, you work from a canvas that zooms to each location during your presentation. The platform really grabs the viewers attention and makes for a captivating user and viewer experience.
Here is a great example of Prezi in action. The platform stands out from the competition in a unique way. We recommend using Prezi for marketing content or content that is geared for a younger audience. As for video playback, the platform holds it’s own, but we would still recommend Keynote over this.
Another great feature of PowerPoint is the ability to open files on both Mac and PC. The cross-platform interoperability has never been so good! We still recommend checking all of your content before presenting if you will be using a different operating system, but in our experience these issues have been solved. Fonts transfer correctly and placement of images and videos remain consistent. If you will be using custom fonts, you will need to transfer these over to the computer you will be using for them to work properly. Here is a guide to the process for both Mac and PC.
One last point we would like to make is about slide formatting. For this, I would like to use an example: Gone are the days of standard definition tube televisions, we are past the age of (HD) high-definition and quickly moving into the (4K) Ultra High Definition age. With this being said we would advise you to delete that old presentation template from the 1990’s and update to a new 16×9 aspect presentation format. We still do see the old 4×3 presentations on occasion, but most of our content is in the 16×9 aspect ratio.
16x9 Slide Example
4x3 Slide Example
As you can see in our examples above, the slide on with the beautiful photograph would be considered the standard formatting now, while the slide with the bar graph would have been acceptable up until a few years ago.
Thanks so much for checking out our blog and please feel free to email us if you have any questions!