TOP 100 TOOLS 2009
PowerPoint

PowerPoint, presentation software is part of the Microsoft Office suite.
 

Website	PowerPoint
Cost	Commercial
Free trial	Yes
Availability	Download
Platform	Windows/Vista and Mac
2007 ranking	5
2008 ranking	8
2009 ranking	Vote for your choice

Comments from those who selected PowerPoint as one of their Top 10 Tools in 2009

• excellent for creating slideshows and presentations for teaching  Marco Salas
• Having used PowerPoint for years, I can do it with my eyes closed. It may be a while before I move to Google presentation software. This is the only tool I have listed that does not operate via Firefox. I think all I need is a machine that runs Firefox.  Brian Mulligan
• The latest version of this ubiquitous tool is a big step forward as far as I’m concerned. Not only is it essential to my presentation work, I export from here into Articulate, Camtasia and to all the major web conferencing packages. I'm now also experimenting with Prezi and FreePath.  Clive Shepherd
• that’s my everyday tool and I am still waiting for something better  Jochen Robes
• Microsoft Office is still a staple in my work. I use Word and PowerPoint often and Excel and Outlook less so. I have a ton of documents and spreadsheets 'in the cloud' but still find my desktop a better place for non-collaborate writing projects that are still works-in-progress. Janet Clarey
• in it purest multimedia form of image, smooth transitions, words to nudge a thought or fire a synapse. Haven't the bullet-point-readers have given it a bad image? It's a super fast way to compose a picture for other places - make slide and save as jpeg. Mags Amond
• Slide shows for presentations are still very popular learning resources both among teachers and students. Power Point is very comprehensive although it is easy to use. I do not know better tool for making slide shows. Vaclav Friedrich

Comments from those who selected PowerPoint as one of their Top 10 Tools in 2008

• "Very easy to use but with enough features to allow the creation of more elaborate learning resources"  Karl Goddard
• "for manipulating images and creating podcasts" Bill Miller
• "Having used PowerPoint for years, I can do it with my eyes closed.  It may be a while before I move to Google presentation software.  This is the only tool I have listed that does not operate via Firefox.  I think all I need is a machine that runs Firefox" Brian Mulligan
• "At my work I don't have OpenOffice. I guess this is the main reason why I do hardly use OpenOffice for presentations etc. Powerpoint is easy to use. I also use it for re-structuring thoughts. So when I want to write a paper."  Wilfred Rubens
• "Although I wish I could say otherwise, I tend to use PowerPoint as my main design and development platform. Much of the work I do is on the front end Analysis and Design phases, with limited forays into development. Since this requires a lot of interfacing with customers and clients, who typically all have Office but probably do not have other programs, I have found it easier to simply stick with Office. Nevertheless, I welcome better methods."  John Schaffer
• "PowerPoint 07: The latest version of this ubiquitous tool is a big step forward as far as I’m concerned. Not only is it essential to my presentation work, I export from here into Articulate, Camtasia and to all the major web conferencing packages."  Clive Shepherd
• "that’s my everyday tool and I am still waiting for something better" Jochen Robes 
• "I continue to use PowerPoint to add a visual touch to my online classes, but the real power lies in coupling PowerPoint with other tools such as SlideShare or Camtasia, adding narrative to the slide deck."  Britt Wattwood
• "presentations. I give lots of talks, so I need a standard tool (though I'll begin exploring Keynote)"  Clark Quinn
• "My primary tool for presenting information at educational workshops both face-to-face and online is PowerPoint"  Janet Clarey
• " quick, easy e-learning - add as much or as little as you want...get it out to a huge variety of people...easy to update, easy to share... "  Michelle Gallen
• "no comment"  Laurent Janolin
• "A much maligned tool.  When people say 'death by PPT' - what they should say is 'death by inappropriate use of PPT'. PPT is an easy win when trying to bring my teaching colleagues on board with 'e'. They can already use the tool - they just need showing how to use it wisely."  David Sugden
• "while I loathe being subjected to what some people delight to call PowerPoint presentations ;-) I love what PowerPoint enables me to do. I can use it for look and feel and it is a powerful tool by means of which to get my ideas across to the production team, and to test the client's reaction to my ideas before starting the actual build work."  Karyn Romeis
• "Although, some instructional designers might hate it, it is still the most widely used tool by educators to prepare their lecture/tutorial presentations (and also use as e-learning content). Why? It enables you to do amazing stuff without much effort or skills. Also, with plug-ins like Adobe Breeze and Articulate you are empowered to construct dynamic multimedia audio-based Flash-light presentations. The only sucker with this tool is that it is not free. Also, Apple dudes would probably argue that Apple's presentation software is better (Since I have not tried it, I cannot comment)."  Zaid Alsagoff
• "Only because I have to use it at work."  Benjamin Hamilton
• "The foundation of all rapid development. Everybody has this, and it just works.  When converting from ILT to WBT, the tool forces you to rethink what's really important and teach to it rather than produce volumes of paper training manuals."  Ed Lamaster
• "Very simple tool to use for presentation creation"  Karen Ver
• "This tool can be highly effective if used correctly. It does have some interesting features and functionality. However, if used incorrectly…it is deadly boring. See Avoiding death by powerpoint for some tips"  Karl Kapp
• "Depending on the project requirement, I use either Microsoft Word or Powerpoint for developing the storyboards for e-learning courses. I am impressed with the look and feel of Microsoft Office 2007." Sathish Narayanan
• "Even though I reduce the amount of slides and text, I still find it very useful to illustrate my ideas and capture them for later use and sharing "  Andrea Back
• "This may be the only authoring tool you’ll ever need. PowerPoint can be so much more than a presentation tool for those willing to exercise some creativity: try it for building interactive quizzes and simulations. Intuitive and familiar. Great e-learning is about design, not software."  Jane Bozarth
• "I use it to create better presentations to my clients."  Alexandre Bobeda
• "Drawing tools and Image creation have been upgraded."  Bruce Richards
• "I enjoy creating Powerpoint slideshows for presentations and sharing them on Slideshare. It is important for me to give back to this brilliant resource." Elaine Talbert
• "Although I want to start using different tools for presenting, my students still use powerpoint all the time."  Kris Stanhope

Comments from those who selected PowerPoint as one of their Top 10 Tools in 2007

General comments about Office

• "Unlike many of my colleagues I have never been a Microsoft hater. I use Office so much that it has to be on the list. I really like the 07 suite with its new interface and wouldn't swap it for any cheaper alternative. I particularly like the RSS feeds facility in Outlook."  Clive Shepherd
• "On an average day I spend a large proportion of my time in either Outlook for emails, PowerPoint for creating storyboards or Word for documents.  Never thought of going anywhere else.  Some features of it drive me mad but it would be daft now to start again somewhere else." Vaughan Waller
• MS Office XP and Outlook 2003. Grouped together because they are so interconnected. These tools are chosen for me by my employer, but I have no complaints - they do the job and I think Excel is the finest application Microsoft ever produced."  Karyn Romeis
• "I can’t imagine my work without Word, Excel and PowerPoint"  Jorge Goncalves
• "For creating.  The basic tools to help conceive, plan, design, build learning products.  Have been the standard for me for 10 years"  David Meaney
• "For writing, collating, preparing presentations, tracking, reporting – online and offline – I still haven’t found a way to avoid these tools"  Andrea Barrett

Specific comments about PowerPoint

• "I am used to it and find it reliable" Ilpo Halonen
• "because it's a simple and quick way to create graphics. (The presentation part is secondary for me.)"  Jay Cross
• "Not only do we have the 'death by PowerPoint' phenomenon, we also have the 'software produced by the Borg' phenomenon. At the same time, I cannot deny having produced more than a hundred PowerPoint presentations and having found nothing that lets me present an outline of my thinking as easily as PowerPoint. This is the tool I use to prepare my talks, and that makes it central in my work."  Stephen Downes
• "Yes, there's lots of groaning about PowerPoint. But I like to use it as a simple wireframe tool. I can't program to save my life, but I can create a course flow mockup using PowerPoint that gets my ideas across to those who can make it look really good."  Cammy Bean
• "Great for creating so much more than “presentations”, like interactive quizzes and simulations with branching decision-making. Short learning curve and ‘free’ in the sense that most of us already have it. May be the only authoring tool you’ll ever need: remember, good training is about design, not software"  Jane Bozarth
• "Because still there is no viable alternatives."  Anol Bhattacharya
• This tool can be highly effective if used correctly. If used incorrectly…it is deadly boring. See Avoiding death by powerpoint for some tips"  Karl Kapp
• "At my work I don't have OpenOffice. I guess this is the main reason why I do hardly use OpenOffice for presentations etc. Powerpoint is easy to use. I also use it for re-structuring thoughts. So when I want to write a paper."  Wilfred Rubens
• "A much maligned tool.  When people say 'death by PPT' - what they should say is 'death by inappropriate use of PPT'. PPT is an easy win when trying to bring my teaching colleagues on board with 'e'. They can already use the tool - they just need showing how to use it wisely."  David Sugden
• "I do not use XLS or DOC, out of principle <- and only use PPT because it plugs into Articulate"  David Flanders
• "what I use for all my presentations"  Lisa Neal
• "Is there anyone in the Universe who doesn’t use it? I create handouts, story-boards, presentations, etc., etc"  Phil Green
• "Not a hype tool, but still very important to me"  Michael Prophet
• "To help explain the flow (or other aspects) of the simulators we make to the sometimes more than a hundred international collaborators. Also a great prototyping tool"  Ulrik Juul Christensen
• " Although, some instructional designers might hate it, it is still the most widely used tool by educators to prepare their lecture/tutorial presentations (and also use as e-learning content). Why? It enables you to do amazing stuff without much effort or skills. Also, with plug-ins like Adobe Breeze/Presenter and Articulate you are empowered to construct dynamic multimedia audio-based Flash-light presentations. The only sucker with this tool is that it is not free. Also, Apple dudes would probably argue that Apple's presentation software is better (Since I have not tried it, I cannot comment)."  Zaid Alsagoff
• "I was using Harvard Graphics before PowerPoint was developed, so I have always used visuals in my teaching.   They add an important component to the online learning community."  Britt Watwood
• "Powerpoint as mindmap much more often than for presentations. I described my favorite (simple) techniques here, and the relationship to concept maps and real mind maps here."  Matthias Melcher
• "Basic tool for generating online content. Most of my PowerPoints end up being converted to Flash, etc via Articulate"  Mike Taylor
• "most people don’t know its capabilities, it seems like I learn more about it every time I use it"   Tom Winterstein
• "You can't get away from PowerPoint... (I encourage the use of Impress in OpenOffice.org, but Breeze does not allow me to convert Impress files to Breeze files.)" Susan Quinn

Reading List

• PowerPoint reading list

Directory of Learning Tools

• Presentation tools