Microsoft PowerPoint for Android brings the presentation power of Microsoft’s time-honored application to your Android device. Microsoft PowerPoint for Android complements Microsoft Word for Android and Microsoft Excel for Android which allow you to take the most important elements of the Microsoft Office suite anywhere on your Android device.
PowerPoint for Android has a familiar look and feel for anyone who has used the desktop version and comes with much of the same functionality, albeit designed with touch screens in mind.
Get to the point
PowerPoint for Android is suitable for creating professional presentations, or if you just need to make quick edits to presentations on-the-go. PowerPoint for Android preserves all the original formatting and you won’t lose any slides, text, images or other formatting when you move switch devices or go back to editing on desktop. You can call upon your PowerPoint documents in the cloud wherever you are and Word for Android supports a wide variety of online storage solutions.
It’s by no means the only on-the-go presentation suite for business out there. For example, iPresent allows you to serve up high impact to wow your customers during face-to-face meetings. There’s also ClickMeeting, which has functions for delivering effective sales presentations online.
Looks and feels just like PowerPoint for desktop
The look and feel of Microsoft PowerPoint for Android is almost exactly the same as the desktop version but of course it has been adapted to work with touch screens so accessing certain features is different to the way you would do it on desktop. However, it still retains the familiar navigation and menu options in the ribbon to help you get started and get familiar with how it works.
PowerPoint for Android allows you to easily insert text and text boxes into presentations.
All the same features you will recognize from PowerPoint such as Images, charts, animations, transitions are included in the PowerPoint app and all been optimized for touch devices. PowerPoint has been designed so that you can create presentations with one hand. The app lets you compose presentations as quickly as possible on-the-go in PowerPoint with lots of templates to choose plus the ability to add charts, texts and tables with just a few swipes. And if you don’t like the template you’re using, you can switch it at any stage.
Microsoft PowerPoint for Android allows you to access your recent files from any Android device and go back to it later on another device and PowerPoint will remember where you left off (although this is only possible with an Office 365 subscription).
Present from anywhere
You can save PowerPoint documents created in PowerPoint for Android in OneDrive, One Drive for Business, SharePoint, Google Drive, Box, and Dropbox. You can also share documents via all of these online storage solutions from within PowerPoint. Alternatively, you can share your documents with others by simply emailing a hyperlink or attachment. PowerPoint for Android also allows you to edit in portrait or landscape mode including support for rich formatting, charts, animations, transitions and speaker notes. In addition, auto-zoom makes it easy to insert, move, edit charts and text boxes with a swipe of your screen.
You can easily create business presentations with PowerPoint for Android including different forms of charts.
Video no-no
The main problem you might experience with Microsoft PowerPoint for Android is the way it handles video content. Unfortunately, PowerPoint for Android doesn’t handle embedded video or audio very well, and you may struggle to get it to appear in your presentations. Managing images and text can also be cumbersome on the mobile version and isn’t as easy on PowerPoint for desktop.
Although downloading Microsoft PowerPoint for Android is free to use for viewing, creating and editing docs on devices with a screen size of 10.1 inches or smaller, you must purchase an Office 365 subscription to unlock all editing functionality. Office 365 is also required to create or edit on tablets with a screen larger than 10.1 inches. If you don’t have a subscription, you can buy Office 365 Home or Office 365 Personal from within the application. An Office 365 subscription not only gives you Word but also entitles you to Word, PowerPoint and PowerPoint experience on Android, iPad and iPhone. It also allows you to install Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote on PCs or Macs.
Conclusion
For anyone that uses PowerPoint regularly and needs to edit their presentations on the move, Microsoft PowerPoint for Android is an essential tool. The application is well designed and very responsive. Despite the ubiquity of PowerPoint by no means the only option though for delivering presentatons from anywhere, and it’s also worth considering lesser-known alternatives such as Prezi, iPresent, or Knovio.
