Top replacements for PowerPoint

Impress

Impress is part of the free OpenOffice.org suite of business software. The user interface is amazingly similar to PowerPoint 2003. If you can use PowerPoint, you'll be up and running with Impress in minutes. Like PowerPoint, Impress offers master slides, layout options, object inspection via right-clicking, animation, transitions, and plenty of toys.

Prezi

If you're looking for a cloud-based presentation app, check out Prezi.com. It uses Adobe Flash to quickly create edgy animated presentations. There are no slides. Instead, you store everything on a huge canvas and then choreograph the show. To create a new Prezi, supply a name and description, as shown here.

Prezi

Once you've supplied a name and description, choose a blank Prezi or a template.Here's a blank Prezi, ready for text and graphics. You can even convert PowerPoint slides to a Prezi.

Prezi's zooming nature gives it a bit of a contemporary edge, but it won't be right for every presentation. When it is right, it'll be just the right tool. You can play in the cloud free, but all your Prezis are public. You can, however, download them and present offline. A private subscription is $59 a year, and for $159 a year, you can add full support to your subscription.

Google Presentation

Google recently revamped the app and it's got a lot more to offer than before. Just pull up Google.com and choose Documents from the More menu. If you don't have an account, you'll need to create one. Once you're in, click Create and choose Presentation.

This Web-based app requires a recent version of Internet Explorer or Chrome to tap into its newest features. Google Docs is free, but you're working in the cloud.

SlideRocket

Another Web-based presentation app, SlideRocket, offers some impressive and advanced animations and transitions. It's a good choice for creating a Web presentation.  You'll spend most of your time working in the Editing window, shown here. It's probably the most comprehensive alternative, when compared to PowerPoint. But the free version lets you publish only as a Web URL -- you can't view your work offline. For $24 a month (per user), you can download your presentation as a PowerPoint or PDF file.

Flair

Wildform's Flair is a desktop app that produces Flash-based presentations, but you don't have to know Flash to benefit from its pizazz. That's Flair's biggest plus. And even at a pricey $199, it's still cheaper than Flash, so it's probably worth it to the right buyers. Its strength lies in its built-in video and audio recording capabilities, making it a reasonable option for e-learning products.