PowerPoint alternative

Does anyone know how well Impress (the Open Office PowerPoint alternative) works?

Is there another OS/FOS alternative to PowerPoint that works well?

Thanks,

Sasha

It's not a bad tool, not as slick as the newer PPTs but quite useable and fine for many users.

Maybe have a look at Google Docs Presentation tool- the advantage of this one is that it's dead easy to share it with other folks and have it live on the web for anyone who you want to share it with. Not as sophisticated once again but if you don't use the fancy features it's great. Allows you to export as PDF or PPT files too.

Thanks, SpikeGIS,

The Google Docs Presentation looks like a good option. Appreciate the good steer.

Sasha

I've used Google Docs Presentation before as well and it works pretty well, especially if you're creating a shared presentation between users in different places. It's a lot easier to create it there, even if you plan to use MS PPT for the final presentation since you can capture revisions and export it into PPT format from Google.

There are some differences that may be available but I haven't been able to figure them out yet, like how to write notes to correspond with slides in Google. In a regular PPT, you can write notes to yourself for each slide that are not visible externally. I had to create a separate Google doc to share notes for one we created in Presentation. I've also not tried to do any animation or timing within Google Presentation so I don't know if those are similar functions or not.

Hope it helps!

Hi Sasha--

Another alternative to consider is Goldmail. I found it to be incredibly easy to do audio visual presentation with and the nice thing is you can embed it easily in any webpage/email. There's a free 30-day trial & TechSoup Stock offers this product as well.

Best,

Megan

Thanks, Becky, Megan,

In this case, I am just looking to make a PowerPoint, with no bells or whistles, just get it done and looking OK with the content I need. Oddly, my MS Office didn't come with it. I don't have any experience making them, but have been asked to have one for a conference I am speaking at. I think that I can just take my lap top and run it on that. or that they have that thing which projects it on a screen... hmmm... technology learning curve here.

I do remember looking at Goldmail in the past. A colleague showed me the site because she thought they did such a good job of selling their product.

Sasha

Sasha, you could also check out Zoho's Show for another freebie option to create presentations. I've had really good luck with Zoho overall but haven't used their presentation tool personally yet. Worth checking out for comparison either way.

If you are just looking to present an existing power point and you don't need to make changes, you can use the power point viewer from microsoft.  They also use to have a pack and go option that would pack your power point in an executable you put on CD or USB flash.

In a pinch you could use pdf creator to make jpegs of the pages and use a slide show viewer.

Dave

dwelp:

In a pinch you could use pdf creator to make jpegs of the pages and use a slide show viewer.

Thanks, Dave. Good tip on creating jpegs to make a slide show. What it does is really help me to demystify what a powerpoint is.

Best wishes,

Sasha