In the post-COVID world where so much is done remotely I’m utterly amazed with the absence of a decent app for making slides. I recently went through a long and honestly very disappointing journey for finding the one and only app that fits my needs. And… yeah… there is none. Here are the requirements I have, and I can elaborate more on why exactly I need each of these. So, my perfect presentation making must:

  • have interactive UI, where you can drag elements around with your mouse/trackpad;
  • support dragging and dropping images AND videos and repositioning them;
  • support latex (or at least something similar);
  • work on all major OS-s: windows/macos/linux.

That’s it. That’s all I need. Nothing more, nothing less. I’m even willing to pay money to have the app (not as a subscription though)!

I admit that my needs might not be the most common ones, but I also don’t think they’re totally unreasonable.

Here are the apps/frameworks I tried, and where they succeeded and failed (all graded on the scale of 5), starting from the most popular ones.

(a) Microsoft PowerPoint (4.0/5):

+ (4/5) has nice interactive UI and allows for good configurability;

+ (5/5) supports all the major video encodings as well as images and GIFs;

? (4/5) does not support latex, but kinda has its own equation engine which is good-enough;

− (3/5) has no linux counterpart;

− comes bundled with the Office Suite, the majority of apps from which I’ve never used.

(b) Keynote (3.9/5):

+ (4.5/5) has by far the best UI and the collection of tools (perhaps the only thing it lacks is the ability to crop videos);

+ (5/5) same as PowerPoint, supports most of the formats that I typically use;

+ (5/5) has full support for latex equations;

− (1/5) no windows and no linux implementation;

− Mac-only, and the cloud version doesn’t support most of the functionality – so really, fuck you Apple.

(c) Google Slides (2.5/5):

+ (3/5) has a decent UI, but oftentimes feels very clumsy with the overly padded bounding boxes;

? (2/5) supports images and gifs, but fails miserably with videos, which it’s only able to embed over youtube (or google drive);

− (0/5) no latex support, although I’m aware that some paid plugins allow for it;

+ (4/5) it’s web-based, so works essentially on any platform;

− obviously, because it’s web-based, you can’t do anything offline.

(d) LaTeX Beamer (3.3/5):

− (0/5) no UI at all, and getting things line just right is quite a headache;

? (3/5) getting videos is kind of a nightmare really, as it compiles into a pdf, and not all pdf engines support videos;

+ (5/5) no comment;

+ (5/5) no comment, although you have to install an 8 GB-worth latex suite on your system, or do it on a website like overleaf.

(e) LibreOffice Impress (3.3/5):

+ (3/5) the UI is very reminescent of the Google Slides, so is kinda clumsy, although you can get used to it I guess;

+ (4/5) kinda of supports all the major image/video formats, but I’ve had trouble with some of the encodings;

− (1/5) no latex (although third-party plugins can enable it, but they never really worked well for me);

+ (5/5) supported no all major OS-s.

(f) Marp/Slippr/Cafe-Pitch/Reveal.js (3.5/5):

− (0/5) no UI;

+ (5/5) because they all use js-based engine (like electron), you can make any format work with them;

+ (4/5) same here, although some don’t have latex out of the box, it’s relatively straightforward to enable a MathJax or Katex support;

+ (5/5) takes some npm magin, but you can run it on frigging toaster.

(g) Slides.com (3.5/5):

+ (4/5) it basically uses the proprietary version of the reveal.js as a backend, and adds UI (a bit clumsy to my taste, but works ok);

− (2/5) same as above, but adding videos is paywalled;

+ (5/5) there is a full latex support out of the box;

+ (3/5) web-based, but you’ll need an account, and lots of perks are paywalled.

(h) Figma (3.3/5):

+ (5/5) surprisingly good UI (it was made for vector design, so not surprising);

− (2/5) videos paywalled;

+ (3/5) some plugins add latex support, but still quite clumsy;

+ (3/5) has an app and offers a cloud-based web app, but you need to have an account etc.

I also tried other things, like Wolfram Mathematica (yes it can do presentations, although equations look kinda weird), Adobe Illustrator/Inkscape (i mean, why not at this point?), Prezi.com (more fancy, less functional). There are tons of web-based solution (e.g., visme), most of which have a subscription program, which I am not willing to try (I’m ready to pay once, but subscription programs go against my mental stability).

It seems that any solution I try falls short of what I would consider a pretty reasonable list of requirements. At this point I’m mostly using MS PowerPoint, but its lack of linux support really drives me mad. I’m interested to hear your thoughts and your experiences with presentation-making software? What are some of things I should try?

  • popcar2@programming.dev
    23·
    9 months ago

    Good read, and I think you might want to look at OnlyOffice. It’s open source and while it is kindof a shameless Microsoft Office clone, it does seem to support LaTeX when adding equations. Not sure how well it works as I don’t use it though. The slides app is pretty decent, the only bone I have to pick with it is that there aren’t many animation types and most of them are very basic. Otherwise, might be what you’re looking for.

    Screenshot of OnlyOffice's LaTeX option

    Edit: I just tried it and it seems to work pretty well. Select LaTeX, type your equation, then select professional in the dropdown menu and it’ll show the equation.

    A LaTeX equation shown in onlyoffice

    • hayk@lemmy.mlOP
      7·
      9 months ago

      i tried openoffice, and it’s actually quite decent! the video support is kinda clumsy, because it has no preview at all (the video is basically black unless you make a slideshow, and it also has black boundaries make it square, and you have to manually crop it every time). i also don’t quite like their pushiness about making an account with them and running things on the cloud. but otherwise looks pretty good. i mean the main advantage over powerpoint i guess is the ability to run on linux (and the fact they’re free, which is a huge kudo!)

      • daddybutter@lemmy.world
        14·
        9 months ago

        Not sure if that was a typo but OP mentioned OnlyOffice, not OpenOffice. I don’t think OnlyOffice has ever tried to get me to make an account or do things on the cloud. I keep both Only and Libre installed. I like the UI of Only better, but Libre is more functional, at least as far as spreadsheets go which is my main use.

        • hayk@lemmy.mlOP
          3·
          9 months ago

          Sorry yes, i meant onlyoffice. Like i said, it’s indeed quite similar to power point, except for the weirdly looking video embedding. (And of course the fact that it’s free, although i’ve never paid for the powerpoint either :) )

    • testingtesting123
      3·
      9 months ago

      I combine OnlyOffice with its DrawIO plugin. Drawio is also cool standalone app for diagrams I can recycle) that also has tex typesetting for formulas.

      Onlyoffice Is a bit annoying sometimes with sizes when going back and forward to powerpoint (common computer for presenting) but is more compatible than libreoffice in my experience. Biggest drawback is the lack of master slide mode, but I typically use the standard one.