Ask HN: What alternative presentation formats to PowerPoint are there?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8746114

by JacobEdelman • 12 years ago

14 17 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

If I want to use some sort of cool presentation format other than PowerPoint to make me look "hipster" what should I use? Not something like LibreOffice's alternative, something that will stand out.

mtmail• 12 years ago

Have a look at https://prezi.com/vvbk0zjisuqa/what-is-prezi/. The presentation will be Adobe Flash though.

ColinWright• 12 years ago

I've seen Prezi used to amazing effect - way better than "PowerPoint" and equivalent. Effectively PowerPoint is computerized OHP transparencies, plus transitions. Prezi really uses much more of the potential of a computer-based presentation.

https://prezi.com/

JacobEdelman2• 12 years ago

I've seen Prezi, it is quite nice but it seemed a bit too mainstream.

kayamon• 12 years ago

Darn hipsters.

GFischer• 12 years ago

As the other two replies said, there's Prezi:

https://prezi.com/

It can be used to do much cooler things than PowerPoint, but it takes time.

There are some cool sample presentations that show what you can do:

http://prezi.com/explore/staff-picks/

http://prezi.com/explore/popular/

ht_th• 12 years ago

I like to generate my presentations with the LaTeX package "beamer", offering well-typeset symbols, text, and figures (through Tikz) that all fit together nicely. It might not be flashy of hipster-y, but it certainly is different from you run off the mill powerpoint presentations.

fundamental• 12 years ago

For the more professional presentations I tend to stick to beamer, but for a quick presentation the deckjs backend for asciidoctor allow for a very fast setup.

jcchin41• 12 years ago

My favorite alternative: Reveal.js http://lab.hakim.se/reveal-js/#/ Simple HTML slides with snazzy transitions

Warning: A common pitfall of "flashy" presentations is that even if you can avoid making it look gimmicky, the audience is too busy watching the effects and not listening to you. Is your intention to dazzle people, or optimize the amount of information your audience absorbs? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meBXuTIPJQk

percept• 12 years ago

If you're interested in HTML-based options, there's a roundup here:

http://www.sitepoint.com/5-free-html5-presentation-systems/

I used Deck.js for a recent presentation, mainly because it seemed the quickest to get up and running at the very last minute, and seemed to have the least jarring/motion sickness-inducing transitions (among the various options offered by each tool).

JacobEdelman2• 12 years ago

Oh, nice. I'll definitely look at this.

DanBC• 12 years ago

Adam Buxton[1] used photoshop layers in his BUG[2] talks. I think this will show him switching the layers. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gx-WBaSNrTQ

I'm not sure what you mean by "hipster" - wouldn't that be whatever was available on Windows2000?

[1] Adam, from Adam and Joe. Joe Cornish went on to direct "Attack the Block". They started in a public access tv experiment; had a tv show; had a BBC Radio Six show (which is probably available online somewhere).

[2] BUG - http://adam-buxton.co.uk/ad/what-is-bug/

He does a bit where he voices-up Youtube comments, which is funny. http://youtube.com/watch?v=gx-WBaSNrTQ

thenomad• 12 years ago

I've used Photoshop as a presentation tool recently - it's surprisingly good.

seekingcharlie• 12 years ago

For HTML5 / JS animations: Hype App

For just a better PowerPoint interface: Sketch. Keynote is also good.

jac0204• 12 years ago

Still in preview, but Sway may be of interest to you. https://sway.com

I have been fiddling with the preview. Only basic features are available right now, but it may grow to be what you need.

philippnagel• 12 years ago

I use http://www.decksetapp.com which is based on using Markdown.

krmmalik• 12 years ago

Have you considered HaikuDeck? It's about as hipster as you can get.

1971genocide• 12 years ago

I use the CGP grey / Minute Physics way to do my presentations these days, They have won the evolutionary youtube game in disseminating most knowledge in the shortest period of time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3WrAk52e68

Note: It takes about 1 hour for each minute of video footage, but its worth it.

Ask HN: What alternative presentation formats to PowerPoint are there?

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