EXPERTISE | Our design blog

Powerpoint, Keynote, or Google Slides—which makes the most sense for you?

August 1, 2022

While you probably have access to all three presentation programs, which makes the most sense to use for your pitch deck?

There are benefits to each…

PowerPoint is an industry leader—a standard for any Microsoft Office user. It works well across Macs, PCs, and tablets and has been around the longest of any presenting program. PowerPoint offers smooth transitions and effects, along with video integration and a robust presenter view with notes and a timer. Saving PowerPoint documents is easy to computers, external storage, or on any cloud services as long as you have access to internet.

A barrier to entry for PowerPoint can be that it does not come as standard on most computers as it is part of the Microsoft Office Suite. If you’re already utilizing Microsoft products across your company, it is an easy choice and widely used. While the program works well, be sure to double-check and allow for time to adjust your presentation when working between Macs, PCs, and tablets so that text or transitions function properly after the transition. 

Keynote is a great program but works exclusively for Mac users and like PowerPoint, has historically been saved on external drives for transfer between devices but can now be saved on your cloud platform of choice. If your organization does use Macs across the board, Keynote can offer impressive transitions and animations, much like PowerPoint, but with its own style and flair. Keynote comes standard on Apple devices without any extra cost and shares most of the primary functionality. It’s got some special effects unique to this program that your presentation designer can utilize when putting together your pitch deck.

Last but not least, Google Slides has the least barrier to entry as you only need a free Gmail account to be able to utilize this online presentation software. Google Slides also allows for a seamless transition between computers and remains easily accessible anywhere that you have internet access. Google Slides can also be taken with you on a plane or off the grid as long as you remember to click “Make available offline” under the File menu. Team members can work together on a project easily and avoid multiple versions or drafts that are easy to mix. up when saving hard copies. Google Slides allow for importing of Powerpoint .PPT and .PPTX files, but generally, the functionality is not as seamless as using the native PowerPoint application.

If you have a strong affinity for one program over the other, your presentation designer will be happy to utilize your choice. If you aren’t sure which makes the best sense to use, we are also happy to make a recommendation based on your unique situation.

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