Alternatives to Power Point

[Nana111]

HI there

I am a newbie here ,and I want to offer some help.But I am a begginer of powerpoint.I found it is more convenient if there is a powerful powerpoint processing program.So I am looking for a powerful powerpoint program.

I know there are many third party program for powerpoint.But I want to get a free trial package before I decided to purchase it.It would be perfect if it supports to convert powerpoint effectively.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Bobbsy]

Power Point is a proprietary name for presentation software from Microsoft.

 

One possible option for you would be the Open Office suite of programmes HERE. It's open source freeware and one part of the suite (Impress) has a fair degree of compatibility with Powerpoint in that it can open and play most presentations done in PP.

 

I'm sure others will have other suggestions.

[top-cat]

If you have a mac, I know a lot of AV techs who prefer Keynote. It's made by Apple, IMO it's functionality is similar, but it's a much more aesthetically pleasing program... the visuals just look so much 'nicer' (I hate the word nice but I can't think of a better one), if a little more casual. Sort of like a holiday brochure more than a formal document.

[richardash1981]

It depends on what you are trying to do. PowerPoint (and LibreOffice / OpenOffice Impress) are generalists - and so give you relatively little automation or help. Once you get into a narrower field, there are specialist programs with more automation (but less flexibility), which can be a lot quicker to use if they fit your need.

 

An example is for projecting words for congregations to sing in church - a search will produce loads of specialist programs, both free and paid. All of them do the same kinds of things (database of content, automatic formatting etc.) aimed to minimise the time spent constructing slides, whilst still looking reasonable. I'm sure there will be other packages in other domains.

 

The fundamental problem with general presentation packages is that you spend a lot of time building up content from primitives - templating, except that you can't use themes as much as you might like to. They also aren't very good at things like video playback, which may be important to you.

[gibbothegreat]

An up and coming one seems to be Prezi. People I know whose business is doing presentations swear by it. It is created in the cloud so ideally needs an internet connection for the presentation. However, if this is not possible, it can be saved as a Flash file.

 

If you have a mac, I know a lot of AV techs who prefer Keynote.

It is indeed a nice programme, the only issue is that it means that the playback machine is highly likely to be

made by Apple

which means having a toolkit full of adapters to your input of choice on your projectors from whichever generation of video connectors MACs were wearing the week this particular machine got made...

[Pete McCrea]

Which isn't really that big an issue - either MiniDVI or Thunderbolt/MiniDisplayport. I'd rather have that and be able to use keynote.

[David Lee]

But would you buy a Mac purely to run keynote - seems an expensive option :)

 

My vote would be (in no particular order) Open office for cheapness, Powerpoint for compatibility and Keynote if you already have the Mac.

 

Prezzi just makes me sick - try skipping through slides and you can get motion sickness as it is all zooms and pans.

[gibbothegreat]

Which isn't really that big an issue - either MiniDVI or Thunderbolt/MiniDisplayport. I'd rather have that and be able to use keynote.

That's not all the options by a long way. There's also micro DVI, HDMI, Micro hdmi, Lightning, and DVI (list of options for machines - not including tablets, which are a whole other can of worms - from the last 5 years from Apple's website, which has actually made me realise I haven't got all options covered as I thought I had. ) And even assuming you do have the right option, you might find (as happened to us recently) that the machine decides there are HDCP issues, and the only way you can get the stuff out is via an Apple TV box.

 

Whereas with just about any other laptop, I plug in the VGA. Job done.

[Pete McCrea]

There might be the myriad but to be honest, as a rental house, we've not found having the right adapters to be a problem. We have a stock of usual suspects in our production cases, and are generally going to VGA or DVI, so I can't say we've ever come unstuck.

 

And again we hold MacBooks and Mac Mini's in rental stock, so would rather use them than the Windows machines we also have in stock.

 

But then I am biased in that I've been using Apple's OS as my preferred OS since version 9.2...

[chelgrian]

us recently) that the machine decides there are HDCP issues, and the only way you can get the stuff out is via an Apple TV box.

 

HDCP is not Apple's fault and is present on the DVI output of Windows based laptops as well where it causes just as many problems. Blame Hollywood.

 

Whereas with just about any other laptop, I plug in the VGA. Job done.

 

VGA is becoming scarce on Windows laptops as well especially thing and light ones due to the bulk of the connector. However the corporate world still castrates their projectors by only running VGA extensions in meeting rooms so some made for business laptops like the Lenovo T series still market having VGA as a feature.

 

The biggest reason for not using Macs for Powerpoint is nothing to do with output formats it's down to font rendering. OS X and Windows do sub pixel aliasing differently and people used to Windows font rendering might perceive OS X font rendering as blurry. Note neither Windows nor OS X's approaches are wrong they just have different goals.

 

However given the majority of people viewing will be used to Windows rendering so it's best to give them what they are used to.

[Peter F]

 

 

HDCP is not Apple's fault and is present on the DVI output of Windows based laptops as well where it causes just as many problems. Blame Hollywood.

 

 

HDCP is a problem on Apple machines because it is always on. It doesn't need to be. It's just a lazy implementation. To maintain compliance, it should be on when outputting HD copyright marked material, not everything that comes out of the monitor port.

 

It is an inconvenient pain.

 

Cheers,

Peter

[mac.calder]

Whereas with just about any other laptop, I plug in the VGA. Job done.

 

Until it falls out 20 seconds later because VGA was not designed to stay plugged in under the weight of it's own connector without being screwed in. I guestimate 90% of laptops being produced with VGA connectors at the moment do not have VGA binding posts - Huge liability on a show. MDP at least tends to stay in fairly well. The only locking digital connector out there at the moment seems to be display port (you can get HDMI with a binding screw, but the added height means we will probably never see one on a laptop).

 

Apple has been using MDP since April 2010. It is very rare to see a laptop that needs anything other than MDP now.

[revbobuk]

Until it falls out 20 seconds later because VGA was not designed to stay plugged in under the weight of it's own connector without being screwed in.

That's so true. I've added hook and loop fastener to the underside of my presentation laptop, and I have a small piece of aluminium sheet with the 'other half' stuck to it. Then a small square stuck to the VGA (HD15) connector - and that makes sure that the assembly stays in one piece.

 

HDMI is very, very common on Windows-based laptops, and that seems more secure than unsecured HD15. But, as chelgrian points out, very few venues have anything other than VGA supported in infrastructure.

[chelgrian]

HDCP is a problem on Apple machines because it is always on. It doesn't need to be. It's just a lazy implementation. To maintain compliance, it should be on when outputting HD copyright marked material, not everything that comes out of the monitor port.

 

It is an inconvenient pain.

 

By its very nature its only on when it is negotiated between the sink and the source. You could insert a device which does not support HDCP and it would negotiate to off.

 

I'd much rather know up front that it's not going to work when I first plug in the device rather than get error messages out of Windows when it tries to enable the Protected Media Path the first time something requests it. I very much suspect that rather than 'lazy implementation' enabling HDCP all the time if it is supported is a conscious design decision to reduce switching time and to avoid display blanking at runtime due to HDCP negotiation.

 

HDMI is very, very common on Windows-based laptops, and that seems more secure than unsecured HD15. But, as chelgrian points out, very few venues have anything other than VGA supported in infrastructure.

 

Certainly in theatre, rather than business, there is likely to be some coax patch. If it's of good quality then SDI can be run down it assuming projectors with SDI inputs. The very fact of having a HDMI->SDI converter would cause HDCP to negotiate to off as SDI doesn't support it.

[Peter F]

The very fact of having a HDMI->SDI converter would cause HDCP to negotiate to off as SDI doesn't support it.

 

In my experience, HDMI>SDI converters do not pass any signal if the input has HDCP on.

This is definitely the case with Black Magic and AJA converters.

Panasonic mixers with HDMI inputs also refuse to pass HDCP content with no option to bypass the protection.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter