5 Best Presentation Software Tools for Creativity and Decision Making

A truly great presentation is a powerful thing. It can inspire, sell a product, motivate, and even change the way the audience sees their world. It can be the reason behind a decision. Often what separates an average presentation from a “game-changer” is creativity. While PowerPoint and Keynote are tried and tested means of delivery, they’re unlikely to win you any prizes for innovation.

So, if you have a problem presenting your data in an engaging way or you’re looking for something a little more stimulating to get your point across and help decision makers see the wood from the trees, what are the options available to you?

Here we look at five of the best creative presentation tools on the market.

1. SharpCloud

SharpCloud was created with creativity and clarity in mind. Businesses often need to communicate complex concepts, initiatives, and projects, to facilitate informed decision-making, but this doesn’t mean the story should have to suffer.

SharpCloud combines the utility of a program like PowerPoint with the ability to create engaging visual stories. By collecting information from different data sources in one place, users can quickly create a dynamic presentation.

Thanks to embedded images, video, documents, and discussion, users can tell the story behind issues while providing a visually inspiring and interactive experience. What's more, your data-driven SharpCloud story updates automatically and seamlessly, keeping your presentation up-to-date and equipped with the latest information throughout. 

What really sets a SharpCloud story apart from a presentation, is its ability to adapt and flow with the course of the discussion. Less a presentation, more a forum, SharpCloud allows your team to add comments and actively participate as you go, creating a shared understanding.

SharpCloud's truly creative and collaborative experience can empower your team or audience to reach their own conclusions and make informed business decisions.

Create your presentation in SharpCloud for free 

2. Prezi

Cloud-based Prezi is probably the most well-known alternative on our list. Like other cloud-based solutions, Prezi is accessible and able to be synced from multiple devices, making it good for on the go editing and real-time collaboration.

But what really sets Prezi apart is its rejection of the tired slide-to-slide format. Instead, it allows users to pan across and zoom in and out of the canvas, drawing attention to specific points. When coupled with the use of images, text and video, this allows users to create a truly interactive canvas.

Like any cloud-based product, Prezi can be hamstrung by its dependency on a good internet connection, but this isn’t likely to be a problem for most modern businesses.

Users may also find that Prezi isn't a "use straight out of the box" presentation tool: while it doesn't require design skills per se, many of the customization tools can take a bit of practice to master. For example, although we agree that Prezi's dynamic movement is a welcome improvement on traditional, linear display; we found that inexperienced users of Prezi tend to overuse the zoom feature, which can result in dizzying and confusing presentations, whereas SharpCloud provides clarity from the first moment.

Don't settle for limited design capabilities and dizzying animations. Create rich, data-driven presentations with SharpCloud

3. Haiku Deck

For Haiku Deck, creativity is driven by personalization. While most presentation apps allow personalization to some extent, Haiku Deck takes it up a notch. The app comes with access to 40 million free images from Creative Commons and a range of themes to choose from. A nice touch is that these themes are categorized into different industries and use cases, allowing users to choose a professionally designed theme regardless of the subject.

Haiku Deck also offers a variety of different fonts, layouts and filters to help you create a visually impressive presentation. This includes the ability to re-purpose images for graphs and other presentation content, freshening up the stale stock charts available in traditional programs.

One slight downside is that most of the app’s features require an internet connection, but this isn’t something that should hold most users back. Haiku Deck is accessible over the Web, on iPhone, or the Haiku Deck iPad app.

4. Powtoon

Undoubtedly the most left-field candidate on our list, Powtoon is a hybrid tool that allows users to create animated presentations and videos. Instead of using expensive animation software or hiring an animator, Powtoon gives businesses all the tools needed to create the best animated presentation content.

The downside to this is that it’s far from a complete presentation tool. Designed with creativity and “stealing the show” in mind, it’s unlikely to appeal to businesses for whom day-to-day utility is a priority. Nor is it likely to be suitable for more complex presentations or topics. To give an example; a data driven topic such as risk management is unlikely to be accurately communicated using animation alone and Powtoon isn't renowned for its ability to incorporate or present complex data. 

That said, it's a lot of fun, and for businesses looking for something a little different from their presentations it could be perfect.

5. SlideDog

Like the previous entry, SlideDog is geared towards creating a truly distinctive presentation experience. Users can combine almost any type of media including PowerPoint presentations, graphics, PDF files, Prezi presentations, web pages, pictures, videos and movie clips. The finished result can then be dragged into customisable playlists and shared with or displayed to an audience.

Users can remotely control their presentations and playlists from a smartphone, a secondary computer or the web. Audience members can even view slides from their own devices by following a link, an excellent feature for any organisation looking to create a truly immersive presentation experience.

However, SlideDog can feel a little limited. It’s designed to work alongside Prezi or MS PowerPoint, which should tell you that although it's a great add-on, it doesn’t function well as a standalone platform for building presentations and is subject to the drawbacks of either product.

The right presentation software

These 5 presentation tools all offer ways for you to inspire your audience. By unlocking your creativity with the right tool, you can ensure your point is heard in a way that brings light to areas that impact decisions and stays with the listener for a long time to come.