PowerPoint vs. Sway: What’s the Difference?
Perhaps as a business owner, you have been wondering which programs may be a better fit for your current and future business ventures. Well one such pair of programs you are looking at a comparison between, may include the software applications Sway and PowerPoint. While PowerPoint is more well-known at this time, Sway is more relatively new – therefore posing the question – which program is better?
While some features will overlap or likely to be similar in nature, here are some of the features that will differentiate these two programs, allowing you to decide which one you may want to opt for in terms of your go-to presentation-design program.
PowerPoint versus Sway: How much ‘say’ does the user have during the creation of presentations?
Content and Design
While presentations can be created with both, in many cases, PowerPoint still appears to be the most favourable choice of the two. The main reason being is that PowerPoint entitles the user to having more control over what can be included in the presentation. On the other hand, Sway will limit this degree of choice, and while certain content decisions are still left up to the user, these however are slightly more rigid.
For example, PowerPoint allows its users to decide which design they will apply across multiple categories including fonts, colours, locations for images and content. Whereas, the Sway design is what it is – meaning less personal choice is left up to users. Sway however, does excel when it comes to using personalized images in the background. So in this respect, this can be the area where Sway can provide some more personalized touches, since it may lack this type of freedom in other areas.
In terms of web content, this can be utilized in both programs, Sway actually enables this function with more ease then PowerPoint. With that being said, PowerPoint still appears to have Sway beat when it comes to copying and pasting content from various programs such as Word, Excel, etc. – with Sway offering more limitations in this area, requiring that these documents be imported instead.
With Sway being more web and social media savvy, it can provide some more options in this domain, as this type of content needs to be manually added into PowerPoint frames. Lastly, as most businesses may want to be able to maintain their own corporate brand in the creations, this can only be done using PowerPoint, not Sway – so int this regard this can mean some businesses man be more likely to lean more towards good old PowerPoint as their number one presentation software.
PowerPoint versus Sway: Which devices are they available on?
Desktop and Mobile App
If you are looking for device versatility, Sway may be the better choice here. While Sway can more consistently be used across computers, tablets, and mobile devices, PowerPoint does not yet offer the same degree of flexibility. This is not to say that PowerPoint does not support a mobile platform – it does, this just means however that it is more appropriately suited for PCs, laptops and tablets.
What users are more likely to find when attempting to engage in mobile PowerPoint services, is that not all the features will be available – and therefore, the desktop may still be the ideal place for any power point creation. This reality may limit PowerPoint’s scope when it comes to being as flexible with device choice.
PowerPoint versus Sway: Which program is the better collaborator?
Collaboration and Sharing
If part of your business requires that you are able to collaborate with fellow employees, then using PowerPoint might prove to be a bit more of a challenge. In this capacity, unless you have the Office 365 version, PowerPoint is typically used via the desktop and this means only one person can edit a presentation at a time. Collaboration can be achieve with PowerPoint in the instance that one individual can access it from the desktop and the other can use it at the same time while online. Alternatively, Sway provides an easier approach to collaborating, as multiple users can work and edit the presentation simultaneously – with it’s web-centric capabilities enabling this type of interaction.
Again, sharing is made a little more straightforward via the Sway program, as well as offering various methods of doing so. For instance, users can easily share presentation links and information through Twitter and Facebook. Sway also allows users to adjust settings as needed, in order to grant or revoke sharing privileges.
For PowerPoint, it helps to have the Office 365 program at your disposal as more sharing options are then available. With this 365 subscription, emailing and links can then be used to share among colleagues. Now with that being said, sharing files may be a bit less straightforward and must be done through more commonplace saving and emailing methods – often taking a little more time to complete.
As you can see, each of these programs maintain their own strengths and specialties. Therefore, in the end it really is a matter of which one you believe will best align with your specific business needs.
In some cases, one program may be a better choice for your presentation strategies and preferences. Just knowing, however that there are various programs that in the long run, allow you to operate your business to the best of your abilities, even allowing you to take your business to that next level is a very assuring prospect. At Jaguar IT, we can help you optimize your productivity across all Office 365 products. Get in touch with us today to learn more…