Keynote vs Powerpoint: Presentation Tools Compared

  1. Ordinary versions
  2. Cloud services
  3. Conclusions

Ordinary Versions

Keynote vs Powerpoint! There are a lot of different software programmes for creating presentations, and there’s no ideal tool among them. Each one will cope with its task in its own way. So use the one that you like the most, as one of the key issues that users must face when choosing presentation software is how suitable it will be for their specific needs. To help to answer this question, let’s compare two of the most popular rivals, Apple Keynote and Microsoft PowerPoint.

Considering that the graphics component is of primary importance in presentation software, the interface of Apple’s product is a little more manageable. Both applications are equally convenient for creating presentations. However, Keynote interacts with the slides better. You can draw and make notes on the slides directly in the presentation mode. As for compatibility, when importing MS Office files, the only thing that can happen is the lack of supported fonts in macOS, which will be automatically replaced with macOS equivalents.

All other elements, including backgrounds and diagrams, should be displayed correctly. The documents created in iWork suite are also successfully opened by MS Office applications.



Cloud Services

In addition to ordinary applications, each company offers a web version of their office packages to work with documents in the cloud. In general, they are very similar. Apple’s web office suite is named iWork for iCloud. Anyone who has an Apple ID account can use this online service. Microsoft has a web office suite called Office Online. To enter the Office Online you need to have a Microsoft account. Apple’s iWork suite is completely free. Keynote for iCloud supports hotkeys and all basic tools for working with slides. This program can be used when you need to work with slides directly from the browser capability. However, the capabilities of the Microsoft product are a lot more extensive.

Weak collaboration opportunities make iWork unsuitable for business users. One of the problems is the fact that when you want to share a document with another user, any person who has the link can make edits. Unfortunately, he will be able to do it anonymously because this Apple service doesn’t require authorization to view and edit. Moreover, when someone updates your files, the changes he makes are immediately synchronized with the iPad application, even if you don’t want it to happen. The level of compatibility with Microsoft formats is about the same as in ordinary applications.

The interface of the online version is slightly different from the latest Windows version and is more similar to PowerPoint 2013 for Windows. You should make sure that the recipient of the link to the file has a Microsoft account for editing or viewing it. In addition, unlike the Windows application, design studio WordPress themes in the online version for quick creation of many types of documents.

The functions here are even greater than in the Windows version.


presentation tools

Conclusion: keynote vs powerpoint

PowerPoint is a classic software for creating presentations.

  • Pros: A familiar interface. If you know how to use MS Word then you can handle PowerPoint as well. Documents created in MS Office are compatible with Google Drive. The program allows you to automate most of the actions; you just need to configure a few templates and then just copy the styles from them. Can save files to PDF.
  • Cons: Too many tools inside, most of which are very rarely used by most people, so the required function can be difficult to find. To make a neat slide you’ll have to get used to this software and be prepared to do some extra work.

Keynote is a lightweight rival of PowerPoint for macOS.

  • Pros: Only the necessary editing tools are present, which an average person is more likely to use. So, in Apple’s software, you definitely won’t be lost in the interface. Can save the result in the Microsoft format, so it will open on any computer. However, in this case, the formatting may look a bit different. Plus, Windows may not have the required fonts, so the text will look different too. And in Keynote it’s definitely easier to make slides because its functionality is reduced to the absolute minimum. PowerPoint is overloaded and requires two or three clicks per action instead of just one in its rival. It seems that it does not take a long time at first, but when you have several dozen slides, the amount of time lost is considerable.
  • Cons: Online version is less functional. Offline version works only on macOS.

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Anton Vosko

Being a part of the TemplateMonster team is a great pleasure. I write about templates, marketing secrets, presentation tips, and different CMS. Hope my articles will be useful to you. If yes - please leave me a comment. Besides that, you can also meet me on Quora.

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