Freeware presentation tools

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webfork
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Freeware presentation tools

#1 Post by webfork »

Does anyone have a freeware presentation tool that they use? I'm a huge fan of both Writer and Calc components of LibreOffice, but I've worked extensively with the Impress program for two recent presentations (one for this site). It's great for basic work but difficult for something more polished.

It's a place where the database doesn't really have a good option. There's no "Presentations" option in the category list for a reason. The closest we have is "Office Suites," which is a short list: https://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?sc=96.

The closest program I have is Notzy (which borders on portable) but it hasn't been in development for some time.

Anyway, ideal would be something that's not web-based but I'm keen to find out what people are actually using.

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Other options
  • ONLYOFFICE isn't bad but still insists on chasing the never-stable Microsoft Office format for all it's files (just check out their changelog for all the effort they're putting into DOCX and XLSX compatibility). I'm not excited about saving files to an unstable format, but maybe I'm just being obstinate.
  • FreeOffice does have a presentation editor ... but I get the sense that it's mostly the same program from 10 years ago.
  • PhotoFilmStrip - limited feature set versus similar tools and hasn't been updated in some time but it is open source and portable
Related
  • Marp - Markdown for presentations

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juverax
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Re: Freeware presentation tools

#2 Post by juverax »

Notzy is no longer available at Softpedia: the download link is broken bcz it points to the Notzy web site that no longer exists, and the Waybackmachine says: "Sorry.
This URL has been excluded from the Wayback Machine".
However Notzy is available at: https://download.cnet.com/Notzy/3000-20 ... 71393.html
The latest version is for Win8 but works fine on Win10.

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webfork
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Re: Freeware presentation tools

#3 Post by webfork »

A few more presentation tools:
  • Open Sankore - classroom/whiteboarding software with some presentation capabilities (this appears to have been replaced with "Open Board")
  • Zoomit - a great program to help can make screen sharing and screen recordings much more dynamic.
This list would be incomplete without pointing to Microsoft's own discussion of free options for playing PowerPoint files.

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juverax wrote: Sun Sep 20, 2020 7:33 pm Notzy is no longer available at Softpedia: the download link is broken bcz it points to the Notzy web site that no longer exists, and the Waybackmachine says: "Sorry.
This URL has been excluded from the Wayback Machine".
However Notzy is available at: https://download.cnet.com/Notzy/3000-20 ... 71393.html
The latest version is for Win8 but works fine on Win10.
Very helpful, thanks -- should I move that over to the Notzy thread?

freakazoid
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Re: Freeware presentation tools

#4 Post by freakazoid »

Some other markdown presentation-based tools to consider:
  • Remark - https://github.com/gnab/remark
    No dependencies. Use your browser to view the presentation. Use your text editor to write your slide content in Markdown.
  • Fusuma - https://github.com/hiroppy/fusuma
    Backslide - https://github.com/sinedied/backslide
    Both are CLI tools to write a presentation. Uses Markdown for slide content. Depends on npm to run the local server to view the presentation.

    Fusuma looks to be more popular based on the number of stars on Github.
    Backslide actually uses Remark to power the slides.
is it stealth? ;)

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Re: Freeware presentation tools

#5 Post by webfork »

Another presentation tool -- it's only tacitly connected, but it's an open source teleprompting system. Reading from a script may sound pointless outside of a live broadcast, but having all the text written down can mean more polished content, better documentation (written from the script or from some other content), and enables easy translation.

Home: https://imaginary.tech/teleprompter/

Status: Untested but it's Electron so it's enormous, memory-intensive, and unlikely to be portable.

https://imaginary.tech/teleprompter/
https://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-to ... pter.shtml

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Re: Freeware presentation tools

#6 Post by webfork »

webfork wrote: Sun Sep 20, 2020 4:53 pm FreeOffice does have a presentation editor ... but I get the sense that it's mostly the same program from 10 years ago.
Update on this: Definitely not the same program -- really pleased with the software. I got to test it along with a retest of the install process.

FreeOffice Presentation Analysis

The available defaults are fairly simple vs. MS Office (as you'd expect), but there's quite a bit of functionality and definitely the best free presentation tool I've yet tested.

Features
  • Generally simple and accessible
  • Good window management, view tools, and slide views
  • Document controls like read-only, write only, or read/write based on password
  • Really sharp themes (see bottom of entry for a screenshot)
  • Lots of available animation functions
  • Mirrors the Microsoft Office look for familiarity and not like an angry copy-paste the way WordPerfect feels

Wishlist
  • Shapes - Really need to update the objects and shapes feature. There's a good selection of tools and options, but all the really nice views are under a right-click Properties menu and then you can sort through several tabbed items. There's no way I could see to quickly apply something like shadows or glow edges to multiple objects without quick a few steps.
  • Nested outline - Needs nested outline numbering e.g.

    1. Root topic
    a) Subtopic
    i.Sub-subtopic
Compared to LibreOffice impress, Softmaker has:
  • A more basic word search/replace
  • No spellcheck (didn't appear to function - may have needed to configure something)
  • No macro functions
  • Not much available customization
  • Tiny selection of supported formats, either import or export (basically Softmaker or MS Office), very few audio import formats
Despite the negatives above, the program is smaller, faster, and more responsive, and I preferred the programs' available animation tools. It's definitely a very useful program.

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Screenshot with one of the very slick themes:

Image

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vevy
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Re: Freeware presentation tools

#7 Post by vevy »

webfork wrote: Fri Oct 16, 2020 6:48 pm No spellcheck (didn't appear to function - may have needed to configure something)
Options > Language > Use background spell-checking

If still not working, make sure hunspell files are extracted (from the installer) to \inst\hunspell\{lang_name}

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Re: Freeware presentation tools

#8 Post by webfork »

vevy wrote: Fri Oct 16, 2020 8:01 pm
webfork wrote: Fri Oct 16, 2020 6:48 pm No spellcheck (didn't appear to function - may have needed to configure something)
Options > Language > Use background spell-checking

If still not working, make sure hunspell files are extracted (from the installer) to \inst\hunspell\{lang_name}
Thanks, I'll retest with that -- Freakazoid noted a possible fix to my process in the FreeOffice thread.

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Re: Freeware presentation tools

#9 Post by webfork »

It's taken me quite a while to get back to this topic so I'll just share the tools I had on my list to dig into the next time I came back to it ...

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Slidelab - An Electron presentation tool - probably not portable but still might be worth it just because there are no pptx alternatives right now. Free with registration.
https://slidelab.io/ [site offline but still downloadable from Softpedia]
https://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-to ... eLab.shtml

Quelea - aimed at churches, but open source and likely has many uses
https://quelea.org/
https://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedi ... elea.shtml

Live Presentations - Requires Adobe Air so also no likely to be portable, but looks to have some interesting features:
https://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-to ... ions.shtml

Deck.js - http://imakewebthings.com/deck.js/ - idea to put out presentations: just import your format look and then spit out presentations WAY faster. Maybe do a howto video on it.

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Re: Freeware presentation tools

#10 Post by webfork »

A few more tools:

Focusky - freemium - a possible option for freeware presentation tools. Unfortunately it's basically a demo from what I'm seeing on the pricing page.
http://focusky.com/pricing.php

Canva - web-based slideshow program that a bunch of people I know have been raving about. The free version seems more than adequate but I haven't had a chance to test it yet.
https://www.canva.com/
https://www.canva.com/pricing/

Texts - Markdown editor that includes an export-to-presentation component.
http://www.texts.io/samples/

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Article on the various options out there, including some detail on Canva and Prezi.
https://www.techradar.com/best/free-pre ... n-software

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Re: Freeware presentation tools

#11 Post by webfork »

webfork wrote: Sat Sep 11, 2021 9:19 am Canva - web-based slideshow program that a bunch of people I know have been raving about. The free version seems more than adequate but I haven't had a chance to test it yet.
https://www.canva.com/
Update here: I understood Canva as a PowerPoint alternative but it's become an impressive alternative to a host of graphics tools. I was reluctant to dig into this after getting burned several times on web-based software, but this is turning into quite the toolset.

That being said, while there is a downloadable version of the program, there's not much to see.

Requirements: Both a login and an active internet connection. I'm a little confused why you would even use this program rather than just running the whole program inside a browser. It's basically a simple accessory for the web application.

Status: Not portable, writes like most Electron-based applications to the AppData folder.

Resources: Electron based so it's very heavy. 186 megs (uncompressed), RAM: 200 megs across 8 processes.

Related:
License: registerware, liteware

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Re: Freeware presentation tools

#12 Post by webfork »

Got two new ones to add to the list:

Freeshow - Open source and feature-rich but probably not portable.
https://github.com/vassbo/freeshow
https://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-to ... Show.shtml


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VideoPsalm - A religiously oriented option is available with a portable option mentioned right on the home page
https://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/
https://www.softpedia.com/get/Others/Ho ... salm.shtml

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