Bottom Line: A seamless transition from design to presentation makes Sway a great fit for presenting carefully curated content. In that sense, Sway shares traits of website creators like Squarespace and Weebly, though creating with it is much simpler. Please keep in mind that comments are moderated according to our comment policy. What is Microsoft Sway, and What Can I Do with It? The iPad app is also intuitive and, of course, supports finger input for selecting content and swiping through templates and options. PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering lab-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. According to the website, it is a PowerPoint add-in that allows you to add live subtitles to your presentation, and it will translate the text in your PowerPoint document. The content types available far outnumber what's possible in Adobe Slate, which is limited to photos, text, links, and slideshows. Microsoft Presentation Translator: Does it work. I have done, I don't know, a billion or so PowerPoint decks. Here are a few pros and cons: Sway is hip. Different rates and plans are depending on which package you choose, but typically you can expect to pay a yearly fee. One of the disadvantages of Google Slides is that it is lack of features that fulfil users need. Disadvantage #2: High Cost The second disadvantage of PowerPoint is the ongoing cost of the Microsoft 365 Office Suite. The designs created by Sway are indeed beautiful, and responsively designed (meaning they resize based on the screen size of the viewing device). These presentations can be used for lectures, seminars, and webinars. The answer is very simple. Enter Sway, which is Microsofts attempt to provide a lightweight, cloud-only, story-telling application that is easier to use than PowerPoint and provides more narrative devices than simply slide after slide of bullet points. Microsoft Office 365 is one such productivity suite. After spending time with the lead of the Sway team at the recent Microsoft MVP Summit, I came away with a much clearer understanding of how Sway differs from PowerPoint and when you might use each product. Once students completetheirdesign, theycan share a public or private link to it online via the Sway website or just keep their Sway local on the device. Though making a PowerPoint or Google Slide often seems like the obvious next step in sharing information with a group at work, you may want . When youve finished your Sway, or you want to see what it looks like so far, there is a Design option to help you with the finished product. With one of this applications new features, you can create a lot more shareable content and at the same time conceal the software you used. But recently, as video conferencing took off because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft has added Zoom to its gunsights. Office 365 also offers Business Continuity capabilities that allow organizations to continue operations in the event of a disaster. Don't like it? There is a multitude of different cards to choose from, such as text, video, grid, or heading, and each one is tailored to a specific kind of information. Everyone can check in with your Sway to see your progress you can put in tweets and you can do a little log if you wanted. Easy migration: use the Opera assistant to transfer exiting data, such as bookmarks, passwords, etc. What is Microsoft 365 and why do businesses need it? Microsoft PowerPoint was developed by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin in the company named Forethought, Inc. Keynote, like the worldwide pattern, is lower but a steady constant. Microsoft has a history of building solid and dependable tools. Add To Compare. If you have something to present or just want to share an experience, whether you think of it as a blogging tool, a site builder, a presentation creator, or something else, Sway offers an appealing way to get your message out. This is one of the biggest disadvantages of office 365, but it is important to understand. Learn more on how you can use Office 365 to grow your business with Sherweb! The application is free to download and works on even iPads, and iPhones. This is a small but subtle distinction; PowerPoint feels like a series of steps but Sway feels like a journey, so its easier to follow the flow as if youre reading naturally. Microsoft put a limit to send or receive per day. Read more As part of Microsofts push towards cloud and mobile apps, it has invested in several cloud-only additions to the old Office apps with which youre familiar. This make users hard to make their slides if it's for serious work. There is a wider choice of languages and this can be selected based on the preferences of the user. By default, a sway is vertically arrangedyou scroll down, but the Navigation menu gives you a couple more choices: Horizontal scroll and Optimized for Presentation. Guiding you with how-to advice, news and tips to upgrade your tech life. We select and review products independently. Of course, this depends on your privacy settings and who you share your presentation with. Lets take a look at some of the main disadvantages of Microsoft Office 365. Currently, Sway is available for Office 365 Business and Education subscribers as a paid version. While working with this application, you have the option to add running voice commentary and narrations according to your own requirements. The browser has built-in malware, tracking, and privacy protection and doesnt send your data to Google. So, after doing some of my own extensive research, here are the most common reasons why PowerPoint crashes and what you can do about it. PowerPoint, on the other hand, is a desktop application. Sway is a new app from Microsoft Office that makes it easy to create and share interactive reports, personal stories, presentations, and more. If this is not the case, you should try the other solutions recommended in this article. You should note that to perform actions like edits, you must be logged in. Microsoft's Sway offers a simple, yet powerful, way to create Web-based presentations. Disadvantage: In planning the strategies to create a captivating content, the presenters often compromise on the factual . It includes features such as the ability to protect against malware and intrusions and recover data quickly. This is a newly-added paid feature, but definitely worth mentioning. The Remix! To use the free version with the full accessibility, you may login to Sway.com with your Microsoft account. There are some differences between the free version and the Office 365 version, but these are mainly on the admin side and let you do things like password protect a Sway (oh yeah, Sway documents are called Sways) or remove the footer. In addition, you have flexible navigation and integrations with multiple apps like Microsoft Sway. It puts the slides in the correct order and they keep playing on their own. Plus, renewal fees can get very expensive. This is only possible if your system supports the microphone. Version 2.0 was available for both Windows and Mac . Sway is an easy-to-use digital storytelling app for creating interactive reports, presentations, personal stories and more. With integrated apps and tools, professionals can work on documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and more from one app that is always accessible and up-to-date on your computer, tablet, or mobile device. Theres also a decided emphasis on storytelling, rather than presenting. Sway is certainly an attention-grabber, but you dont want prospective customers looking at the means by which youre showing your presentation, rather than the presentation itself. In such cases, sway.office.com would have refused to connect. Whenever you are viewing a file with a CC symbol on the bottom right corner of the screen, it indicates that the closed captioning feature is on. Teachers can easily address multimodal learning preferences by accompanying simple captions with multimedia content. On our site you can easily download! If theres one thing more intimidating than staring at a blank Word document wondering what to write, its staring at a blank PowerPoint presentation wondering what to add. In late 2014, the company announced an invite-only preview version of Sway and announced that Sway would not require an Office 365 subscription. Button thrusts another option onto your Sway. The Office Online version of Sway is remarkably similar to the installed Windows 10 app. When you buy office 365, youll have to renew it periodically, typically every year. Its jam-packed with features to help you with the difficult design bits so you can focus on the content and best of all its free. You cant resize pictures so you have to guess where Sway will put them so that it doesnt look awful; you cant align them with each other either. Anyone in education who doesnt have the design eye can create something that looks polished just by inputting bits of content and letting Sway do its magic. The design engine of Sway does a pretty good job of making its presentations look coherent and optimizes the design for viewing across different devices (we used the Windows 10 app for the. This issue is not unrelated to other problems you may face with the service. Bottom Line: A seamless transition from design to presentation makes Sway a great fit for presenting carefully curated content. The templates are built to look like one continuous page with different . Those little changes can help teachers create original, slick, sophisticated presentations to share withstudents orcolleagues. Sway Overview Video Sway Watch on Sway & the SAMR Model At the time of writing, they are roughly equal. If you are creating a data-driven presentation with lots of graphs and charts, PowerPoint will be the ideal choice. Cons: The navigation is a bit outdated, and classroom-friendly options are lacking. What you cant do is drag and drop content blocks in the designed Sway Sway decides where everything goes and there are no text or image editing tools. and Sway will generate a new style for you. They can be viewed and edited from any web browser through Office on the web. This format is put to use by a number of different web browsers for closed captioning purposes. [9] The Sway feature blog has not received an update since April 2017. If the Microsoft Sway app isnt working, you might fix it by using the Microsoft Store app troubleshooter. Depending on your privacy settings, the viewers can see your Sways online, without having to sign up for anything or having to download the deck. In fact, you can download the software as an application on popular platforms like Windows and Apple. No downloadable/transferable files. Sway comes with a lot of design templates and engines that can help you with your presentation. Your email address will not be published. When I visited a Sway created by another account and then chose "Duplicate this Sway," the Web version of Sway opened, but the duplicated Sway was also now in my app's My Sways page. Interface Sway's interface could hardly be simpler: You see a mostly blank screen with a few big tiles, one calledCreate New, and a few sample Sway projects, including one called Creature that sports a Nautilus image. This storage limit applies across all OneDrive accounts created under the same Microsoft account. The list of supported embedding sites on this Sway support page(Opens in a new window) includes a nice range of options. Join 425,000 subscribers and get a daily digest of news, geek trivia, and our feature articles. The most common cause of Sway not working is issues relating to Microsoft servers; Microsoft Sway may be down. But. Despite not really knowing what to use it for, Sway forces me to think outside the box in the way that I present information. Is It Good for Learning? Microsoft doesnt always get things right, but with Sway, theyve created something handy, at the best possible price. PCMag, PCMag.com and PC Magazine are among the federally registered trademarks of Ziff Davis and may not be used by third parties without explicit permission. So, no matter how much content you put in your file, the details will stay secure and intact. It is a powerful app that can change the way you work and learn with innovative tools for collaboration, communication, content management, and more. 2. As such, this is a powerful system for teachers and students to use in the classroom and beyond. Some Other Disadvantages of Microsoft Excel. You can plug in your content, scroll through some of the different layouts, and create something that looks nice, but without having to figure out alignment or anything more complex. Time-saving software and hardware expertise that helps 200M users yearly. Are We Swayed? For easy, full-capability site building, our Editors' Choice is Weebly. Sway handles the rest once youve added your text and images and searched for and imported pertinent material from other sources. Can Power Companies Remotely Adjust Your Smart Thermostat? You can choose whether your Sway scrolls horizontally or vertically (and yes, even as individual slides if you want to), the color theme, the background, and a few other things as well. It comprises of numbered tiles. This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. It also means that Office 365 automatically updates so you always have the latest version. Here are a few pros and cons . Google Slides enjoys amazing popularity in the U.S., generally running ahead of PowerPoint and Keynote. This Sway would work really well as an updateable, do-it-as-you-go-along tool. Teachers can take advantage of Sway's easy design templates and simple creation platform, too. Just how versatile is Sway and what should you use it for? Microsoft Planner is a task management software that's equipped with kanban boards and to-do lists. Sway is designed for a narrative structure that flows, either left to right or up to down, and the presenter (or reader) can use a mouse wheel to move through it rather than a button or a click. (aka Project Moca), How to Get New Office 365 Features Up to Six Months Sooner, How to Watch UFC 285 Jones vs. Gane Live Online, 2023 LifeSavvy Media. Theres a lot of potential for this tool in education. It removed grid lines and stacks in order to give the readers a bigger and clearer space for the content. I added a quote as a Text content block, but it was just floating text, so I set it as a Heading instead and it looks quite nice. If you are having troubles fixing an error, your system may be partially broken. The lack of image editing is very frustrating. How Can I Teach with This Tool? The interface of Sway is based on the principle of "drag and drop" and aims to allow a user to add to its web panel varied content (videos, maps, tweets, interactive graphics, graphics and G You should note that to perform actions like edits, you must be logged in. On the other hand, Microsoft Sway uses a new approach for delivering the content. One of the more powerful card types you can add is Embed. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); If you have a tech problem, we probably covered it! You'll also see a three-line (hamburger) menu at top left, and tapping this reveals five options: My Sways, Feedback, Create New, Open, and your user name. Microsoft bought the Presenter for $14 million in 1987 and renamed it PowerPoint.