I'm doing a lot of teaching and I've been using PowerPoint. I recently saw some people use Prezi and liked what they were able to do to map concepts visually to make them easier to understand. Unfortunately, it looks like a lot of the features that made Prezi powerful have been neutered in Prezi Next and isn't able to do a lot of what I'm looking for (no path editing, no infinite canvas, etc). What alternatives are there?<p>Some requirements for me:<p>* WYSIWIG editor
* Tutorials
* Infinite canvas/Path editing
<a href="https://slides.com/" rel="nofollow">https://slides.com/</a><p>Is a commercial SaaS GUI for reveal.js: <a href="http://lab.hakim.se/reveal-js/#/" rel="nofollow">http://lab.hakim.se/reveal-js/#/</a><p>I’m a paying customer, and find it useful. Where possible, I create slides using standard open source reveal.js (or often some markdown format that compiles to it) but sometimes I’ll want to do something that’s easier with a GUI, or just run out of time/interest for <i>design-from-the-command-line</i>.<p>It’s easy to export decks to HTML, and the auto-generated code is pretty clean and sane, as these things go.<p>Additionally, the CEO of the company is the maintainer of reveal.js, so buying the product saustains his work in the open source library. You can also write to him with bugs and requests, he’s keen to listen and responsive. Thanks, Hakim!
Is anyone thinking beyond slides? We need to demand more from our presentational tools. I'd like to have these features:<p>Interactive slide elements like simulations, parametrized graphs, shells for SSH and interpreted languages.<p>Mobile interface served for audience so they can participate in quizzes, voting and interactive experiments.<p>Branching flows of presentation, so you can dive into more details on one branch, or skim through it on other branch (without running through slides franticly).<p>Free style presentation where some presenter zooms in and out of tree representation of our knowledge of the presentation subject.<p>Support for separate presenter's user interface - presenter should be able to easily cue the laughing track, or theatrically raise music volume, or see audience feedback.<p>Both Prezi and reveal.js and some other tools I've seen, add too much design fluff and fail to deliver any fresh approach. PowerPoint is stagnating for a looong while. Which is really the shame, because we could engage our audience so much better with right tools.
org-mode with beamer output. For me there are a couple of large benefits:<p>- You can include LaTeX directly in documents and preview LaTeX inline in Emacs. This is not restricted to LaTeX math, but any kind of LaTeX environment. I often use this for including TikZ figures.<p>- You can include snippets of code in your document, execute them inline and include the results in your presentation. For instance, you can use this to include graphs using gnuplot, R, or matplotlib. Moreover, you can use tables org-mode tables as input to these code fragments.<p>- You can use tags for headers/slides. I often use this to generate two different slide decks: one that I put on the website before the lecture and a second one with solutions for me to use during the lecture.<p>- org-mode is a markup language that is similar to Markdown, so it is generally less work to write than LaTeX.<p>- Like LaTeX and Markdown, you can put everything under version control.
After some googling, I found out how one can enable Prezi classic on an account that only has Prezi Next.<p>Make sure you're logged into your Prezi account, then go to this link: <a href="https://prezi.com/instant-prezi" rel="nofollow">https://prezi.com/instant-prezi</a>
An editor or a 404 page may appear. Either way, Prezi classic is now enabled. You can access your dashboard again on the top right and switch between the two products in a drop down on the left.<p>Source: <a href="https://prezibase.com/activate-prezi-classic-account/" rel="nofollow">https://prezibase.com/activate-prezi-classic-account/</a>
If you're demonstrating any code, I find RISE to be magnificent. It's a plugin for Jupyter Notebooks that lets you present your code via reveal.js<p>Project: <a href="https://github.com/damianavila/RISE" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/damianavila/RISE</a>
Original demo at PyCon: <a href="https://youtu.be/rBS6hmiK-H8" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/rBS6hmiK-H8</a>
Keynote for iCloud (the web-based version of iWork's Keynote) has close-to-feature-parity with the macOS/iOS versions.<p>Additionally, Keynote Live allows you to play a presentation and have viewers join via a URL, where they can view the presentation in sync on any device (macOS/iOS/Web), with feature parity to normal Keynote presentations.<p><a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206205" rel="nofollow">https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206205</a>
I don't know if this satisfies your infinite canvas requirement, but I've used <a href="https://slides.com/" rel="nofollow">https://slides.com/</a> quite a bit. Similar to reveal.js.<p>edit: as pointed out elsewhere in the thread, "slides.com is a front-end for reveal.js, made by the authors of reveal."
How about Sozi? its an extension for inkscape - <a href="http://sozi.baierouge.fr/" rel="nofollow">http://sozi.baierouge.fr/</a>
Figma (<a href="https://www.figma.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.figma.com</a>) is probably a perfect fit for your use case. It's an interface design tool but it can also be used for presentations. Benefits:<p>* Free for individual use<p>* Completely cross-platform (browser-based)<p>* Has an infinite canvas<p>* Has advanced path editing<p>* Has a presentation mode for slides (the play button)<p>* Supports simultaneous real-time editing if you need to work with someone else
While it does not solve your use case, others here might find it interesting: I built a domain-specific language for designing slides (<a href="https://github.com/ruuda/pris#readme" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/ruuda/pris#readme</a>). It is superficially similar to LaTeX/Beamer/TikZ, but it has first-class graphics that are reusable. More motivation in this blog post: <a href="https://ruudvanasseldonk.com/2017/04/27/a-language-for-designing-slides" rel="nofollow">https://ruudvanasseldonk.com/2017/04/27/a-language-for-desig...</a>. It is still basic, but I have used it a few times to do slides nonetheless.
I remember seeing this on product hunt a while back and it looks awesome: <a href="https://ludus.one/?ref=producthunt" rel="nofollow">https://ludus.one/?ref=producthunt</a>
BigPicture might be what you're looking for: <a href="http://bigpicture.bi/demo" rel="nofollow">http://bigpicture.bi/demo</a><p>* Infinite canvas<p>* Infinite zooming<p>* WYSIWIG<p>* Demo<p>* Opensource: <a href="https://github.com/josephernest/bigpicture.js" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/josephernest/bigpicture.js</a><p>If you zoom on some vegetables here <a href="http://bigpicture.bi/Legumes" rel="nofollow">http://bigpicture.bi/Legumes</a> you'll find the recipe :)
There's Strut, which is WYSIWIG and has path editing: <a href="http://strut.io/" rel="nofollow">http://strut.io/</a><p>I'm running a fork with some very minor improvements at <a href="https://www.airbornos.com/demo#open=strut" rel="nofollow">https://www.airbornos.com/demo#open=strut</a>. If you make an account there, they're saved in the cloud.
If you want LaTex, then take a look at this tool
@ LucidChart LaTex support- <a href="https://store.office.com/en-ca/app.aspx?assetid=WA104380118&sourcecorrid=095ef28a-a06c-4e6a-8396-6900a894e26d&searchapppos=5&ui=en-US&rs=en-CA&ad=CA&appredirect=false" rel="nofollow">https://store.office.com/en-ca/app.aspx?assetid=WA104380118&...</a> - Word (free & paid)
Lucidchart is an HTML5-based visual collaboration tool that makes drawing diagrams fast and easy. Easily create and insert flowcharts and other diagrams in Office documents. One of the supported “chart types” is LaTex equations.<p>I've only played with it a little and was really impressed.<p>I've been reading about Tableau, have not tried it
<a href="http://www.clearlyandsimply.com/clearly_and_simply/tableau/" rel="nofollow">http://www.clearlyandsimply.com/clearly_and_simply/tableau/</a><p>How about Sway? It is still very much in development. And the last I heard it has one serious shortcoming. The sway files must stay on the internet,no downloading. (that may have been fixed ...?)<p>Office Sway is a presentation program and is part of the Microsoft Office family of products. Generally released by Microsoft in August 2015, Sway allows users who have a Microsoft account to combine text and media to create a presentable website. Users can pull content locally from the device in use, or from internet sources such as Bing, Facebook, OneDrive, and YouTube. More at "Wikipedia"<p>Take a look at Ellen Finkelsteins site. She does some amazing stuff with PowerPoint
<a href="http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/" rel="nofollow">http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/</a> - Ellen Finkelstein is a PowerPoint MVP<p><a href="http://www.pptalchemy.co.uk/Hidden_pivots.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.pptalchemy.co.uk/Hidden_pivots.html</a>
Have you looked at MS Mix?
<a href="https://mix.office.com/en-us/Home" rel="nofollow">https://mix.office.com/en-us/Home</a><p>Since you talk about teaching, are you aware of the MS Education offering? It includes subsites specific for teachers. That would be a good place to ask your question<p>OFFICE 365 EDUCATION / STUDENT ADVANTAGE - LEARN
<a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education" rel="nofollow">https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education</a>
This is home site for ongoing contact/training/features of Office 365 Education for:
• School leaders
• Educators
• Students
• Products
• Training & Events
• Stories
• How to Buy<p><a href="https://products.office.com/en-us/student/office-in-education" rel="nofollow">https://products.office.com/en-us/student/office-in-educatio...</a> - Home Page / FAQ
Check if you can get Microsoft Office for free by trying out your valid school email address at the Office for Students page.
<a href="https://products.office.com/en-us/academic/office-365-education-plan#ProplusQuestion" rel="nofollow">https://products.office.com/en-us/academic/office-365-educat...</a> – Describes the Education plan and how to get it
<a href="https://products.office.com/en-us/academic/office-365-education-plan" rel="nofollow">https://products.office.com/en-us/academic/office-365-educat...</a> - Home page
Hope you take a look at <a href="https://www.breakdown-notes.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.breakdown-notes.com</a><p>It has a pretty big map (though not infinite) for you to add shapes and text to, has support for adding and editing paths, plenty of tutorials and you can make slides in the paid version (free 2 week trial).
Disclaimer: I made Breakdown Notes
As others have said in this thread, reveal.js is good. I've used it via slides.com where I put an overview presentation about my xtopdf Python toolkit for PDF generation from other formats:<p><a href="http://slides.com/vasudevram/xtopdf" rel="nofollow">http://slides.com/vasudevram/xtopdf</a><p>S5 by Eric Meyer is good too - web-based, uses HTML, CSS and JavaScript:<p><a href="https://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/s5/" rel="nofollow">https://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/s5/</a><p>Online S5 intro / demo using S5 itself:<p><a href="https://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/s5/s5-intro.html" rel="nofollow">https://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/s5/s5-intro.html</a><p>Edit:<p>Sorry, missed seeing your requirements for the tool, not sure if S5 has them, but leaving my comment up since I think S5 is interesting and definitely a presentation tool.
I've put together Slide Show (S9) [1] that lets you use plain text with markdown formatting convetions for putting together your slides / talks. Incl. a starter tutorial / repo. For infinite canvas (prezi-style) you can use the impress.js theme/template pack [2], for example. For wysiwig use your (visual) markdown editor of choice :-)<p>[1] <a href="http://slideshow-s9.github.io" rel="nofollow">http://slideshow-s9.github.io</a>
[2] <a href="https://github.com/slideshow-templates/slideshow-impress.js" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/slideshow-templates/slideshow-impress.js</a>
Some more ideas:
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Here's a radical thought: don't use a presentation deck! Hand out a collection of images, printed or via pdf file, give the student a couple of minutes to quickly become familiar with it, then just talk about each of the major figure in the handout. This was my solution to 'powerpoint hell' when sharing results in grad school, I don't know if it really applies to your case (non-expert students), but it may be worth a shot. Hell, its better than reading off slides! Good luck!
Lucidchart has a slides/presentation mode, along with mind maps, a wysiwig editor, tutorials, and an infinite canvas.<p>(Disclaimer, I used to work there, and helped build the presentation mode.)
I want to suggest that WYSIWYG is a really bad formula for presentations.<p>For my part, I really like Hovercraft (makes impress.js using RST): <a href="https://github.com/regebro/hovercraft" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/regebro/hovercraft</a><p>If all you are looking for out of WYSIWYG is ease, then I think something like this is just as easy.
I just started using GitPitch.com which is backed by reveal.js It integrates seemlessly with GitHub, GitLab, etc. Feed it markdown and graphics and it produces beautiful slideshows. The author is incredibly responsive (I just commented on a feature I needed and it was done in < 12 hours and done right). Freakin' amazing!
I work in Powerpointing and even Prezi is just too obscure for most of our clients. Nobody wants to learn a new tool or download anything just because the new tool has a few silly layout improvements. But if you don't need others to work with it, it probably doesn't really matter.
I recently discovered Vizzlo (<a href="https://vizzlo.com" rel="nofollow">https://vizzlo.com</a>). Those guys are going to develop smart templates for all common concept charts. Pretty fast, pretty slick. Basically, the opposite of Prezi but worth a trial.
<a href="https://infinitekind.com/syncspace" rel="nofollow">https://infinitekind.com/syncspace</a> is an infinite canvas app, though I’m not sure how well it works for sharing/teaching usecases
Crosses some reqs (tho doesn't have full features object editing), handy if you want interactive presentations <a href="https://awwapp.com/" rel="nofollow">https://awwapp.com/</a>
Take a look at <a href="https://www.mindmeister.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.mindmeister.com</a> - it is mainly for mind maps (and is very good at that), but also has a presentation mode.
Reveal.js used with R's version of markdown makes for a really nice setup. Fully contained html if you want, online/offline. Lot of support from community and slick features.
<a href="https://tiled.co" rel="nofollow">https://tiled.co</a><p>We've built Tiled to be a versatile presentation tool with a focus on interactivity and analytics.
just created an awesome repo for presentation libraries as there doesn't seem to be one yet: <a href="https://github.com/Dowwie/awesome-presentation-libs" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/Dowwie/awesome-presentation-libs</a>
Reveal-MD: write in markdown, compile/output a good looking reveal-js HTML presentation.<p>Demo: <a href="https://mankash.bitbucket.io" rel="nofollow">https://mankash.bitbucket.io</a>
Reveal-MD source: <a href="https://github.com/webpro/reveal-md" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/webpro/reveal-md</a>