The trouble is, what should you use it for? Microsoft Planner is part of the Microsoft 365 platform and serves as a to-do list app rather than a legitimate project planning software due to its lack of project management features. We select and review products independently. Copyright Windows Report 2023. One of the disadvantages of Google Slides is that it is lack of features that fulfil users need. But when youre sitting with a blank Sway sheet in front of you, its not entirely clear what youre meant to use it for. Ana ivkovi (Serbia, @teacherka) is an English as a second language (ESL) teacher in Serbia. The text or content of Sway is now displayed in a vertical manner so that the readers can focus on only one part of the content at a time. With all the amazing features of Office 365, there are a few downsides to consider. Note: Sway is free to use for anyone with a Microsoft account (Hotmail, Live, or Outlook.com). For adding images, click on the image holder and a panel will open on the right side. This feature provides a clearer view of the content. Cons No complex navigation options like that offered by website builders. When you buy office 365, youll have to renew it periodically, typically every year. After the troubleshooter is finished, check if the problem is still there. Sway is a Microsoft 365 app that helps you and your co-workers express ideas using an interactive, web-based canvas. You can choose between horizontal or vertical scrolling. Sway enables you to place the texts beside images, videos, or GIFs the way you want. But unlike websites, Sways are completely linear: You move through them without the option to branch off to different areas the way you can with a website built in Squarespace, Weebly, WordPress, and the rest. Instead, concentrate on communication and storytelling, and choose software based on the storyline you wish to tell. You can also chose different themes/styles which come with different fonts, colours, layouts and backgrounds. Office 365 offers integration for communication tools such as Skype for Business and Outlook, so you can stay in touch with coworkers and colleagues from anywhere. An important thing to keep in mind when comparing PowerPoint and Sway is that PowerPoint is a slideshow application whereas Sway is a presentation application. It is a powerful app that can change the way you work and learn with innovative tools for collaboration, communication, content management, and more. Well, this cloud-enabled platform has the answer for you. Users are able to add content from various sources into their Sway presentations. Sways automatically adjust to suit the dimensions of the device they are displayed on. Updated September 2019, Create dynamic visual presentations on flexible storytelling platform, Arts, Communication & Collaboration, Creativity, Assessment, Creating Media, Media Literacy, Presentation. Highlight a Row Using Conditional Formatting, Hide or Password Protect a Folder in Windows, Access Your Router If You Forget the Password, Access Your Linux Partitions From Windows, How to Connect to Localhost Within a Docker Container. Your subscription has been confirmed. It's a fluid and easy-to-control interface; pretty much everything is also drag-and-droppable. As part of the Office 365 suite, Microsoft Teams pulls together several functional tools from Office 365 to produce a distinct and . This means you dont need to install anything on your computer, tablet, or smartphone; its all stored online so it can be accessed regardless of where you are. With the help of this option, you can put all the slides and content pages in a loop. Hit the button again or use theback arrow. Thats not entirely fair, because you can produce brilliant presentations in PowerPoint. The most common cause of Sway not working is issues relating to Microsoft servers; Microsoft Sway may be down. You can also pay an annual rate or even a one-time fee if your budget requires it. Select Backgrounds to add a background image. Duplicating the Sway fixed the problem. Mobile App Accessibility and Ease of Use, 8. And while it really is easy to figure out, there's no help aside from an explanatory video. In addition, you have flexible navigation and integrations with multiple apps like Microsoft Sway. In case of Microsoft Sway app isnt working, you can always use the Sway website as a workaround. Students can import passages from a short story, novel, or play and then include images and video to tell the story visually. Microsoft Sway - Sway is a powerful tool for e-newsletter creation that allows you to blend audio, video, and more into a rolling view that works on any device. 6) Security and Privacy One of the most important concerns for people using today's technology is the safety aspect of the applications in question. It includes features such as the ability to protect against malware and intrusions and recover data quickly. When you turn the accessibility view on, the following happens: This is another important feature. A brief 1-2 sentence summary of your posting. Microsoft Presentation Translator: Does it work. Disadvantage #2: No App for Windows Users All without registration and send SMS! In this tutorial, I will show you how to use Microsoft Sway for beginners. One of the main differences between these two is that Sway is web-based and free to use, while PowerPoint is a licensed desktop product. At the time of writing, they are roughly equal. In order to facilitate easy reading, the content changes to black and white color and this ultimately leads to higher contrast reading. The format wows crowds with its fluid motions, and I found it fairly intuitive to use. This Sway would work really well as an updateable, do-it-as-you-go-along tool. It also integrates with email, calendar, and other Microsoft tools to make it easy to communicate with customers or clients. Compared to Powerpoint, your design options in Sway are limited. Disadvantage #1: Fewer Export Options On the flip side, Keynote doesn't let you export your presentations in as many formats as PowerPoint does. Another unique feature of Office Sway is its closed captioning feature. It will sit alongside the regular Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote apps as a . Sway: Whats the Difference? Sway does a great job of combatting that with its easy navigation view. Just how versatile is Sway and what should you use it for? But while PowerPoint centers around the slideshow format, Sway's. There is a Start From a Topic option which will bring up a topic selector from which to choose. [9] The Sway feature blog has not received an update since April 2017. If youve ever worked in an office environment, you most likely associate PowerPoint with shiny-suited salespeople and managers with no public speaking skills. Slick presentation: A major issue with PowerPoint presentations is that they can seem unprofessional or lack finesse. Starting Up You get started with Sway by hunting it down in the Windows Store, Microsoft's answer to Apple's Mac App Store. 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. 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. Teachers and students log in with their Office credentials and follow the short tutorial to get oriented on how to add text and images and then how to customize the way users will scroll through a story --layouts include Horizontal, Vertical, and Slideshow. Email doesnt do justice to how thrilled I am with this work - its beyond all expectations so a huge, huge, thanks!!! In the top right of the Design page is a Styles option, which gives you access to layout options and the ability to remix your design. Although you can use Sway on a PC or laptop, its true bedfellow may really be tablets. Office 365 offers a variety of document management tools such as Delves to give you a better idea of whats happening in your organization. Since we last reviewed Sway (5 years ago! This is a newly-added paid feature, but definitely worth mentioning. Bottom Line: A seamless transition from design to presentation makes Sway a great fit for presenting carefully curated content. Benefit from faster and secure navigation that assures accesability for various applications. Updated tutorials would help inspire users to discover Sway's potential. Alluring Exhibition. Sign up for Lab Report to get the latest reviews and top product advice delivered right to your inbox. How would you know if a particular tools closed captioning feature is turned on or not? This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. If what youre writing about doesnt appear here, or youre just stuck on what to put in your presentation, Sway can help you build an outline. Although the sample presentations are outdated, the features are intuitive, and it's easy to get started with your own creations. As part of the full package with Microsoft 365, it has a monthly fee. Of course, it can be difficult to know if what youve chosen will look good to others, and there are plenty of options to choose from, so Sway gives you a Remix button which will apply a random design to your Sway. Platform. Refer to the "Share your Sway from an Organizational Account" section.) Microsoft Planner is a task management software that's equipped with kanban boards and to-do lists. Rob Woodgate is a writer and IT consultant with nearly 20 years of experience across the private and public sectors. Sway comes with a lot of design templates and engines that can help you with your presentation. Here I will explain the 10 advantages of Microsoft Office 365. Please enable javascript before you are allowed to see this page. There are many others available; you just need to choose one most suited to your preferences. https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/microsoft-sway-for-windows-10, $8.25 Per User Per Month with Annual Commitment, How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad, How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill, How to Convert YouTube Videos to MP3 Files, How to Record the Screen on Your Windows PC or Mac, Read Our Squarespace Website Builder Review, Read Our Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 Review, The Best Project Management Software for 2023, Document Editing on the Cheap: How to Use Microsoft Office for Free on the Web, Easy Collaboration: 35 Must-Know Tips for Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Once the troubleshooter starts, follow the instructions on the screen. Supporting English Language Learners With Digital Storytelling, Digital Citizenship Resources for Families, Workshops for Middle and High School Families, Best Classroom Tools for Presentations and Slideshows. With its REST APIs, you can use Office 365 tools to create innovative workflows such as automating data entry or tracking project status. PCMag supports Group Black and its mission to increase greater diversity in media voices and media ownerships. Common Sense Media. The iOS application is no longer under active development, and is not . View an example. The biggest negative about Sway is that it's template-based and the templates are really inflexible. There is no offline editing or viewing function, but sites can be accessed using apps for Windows 10 and iOS. There has been a lot of misinformation about the Sway service from Microsoft being a replacement for PowerPoint. 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. All you have to do is add content. Its simply brilliant. Microsoft Sway isnt the only software tool that you may use to create and share interactive personal stories and presentations. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. It is true that Microsoft already had presentation software in the form of PowerPoint, but the concept of Sway is different because it is online software. Is It Good for Learning? Lets take a look at some of the main disadvantages of Microsoft Office 365. This means that theyre read as part of a narrative, not individual elements. The easiest place to start is by adding some photos not only can you upload your own pictures, but you can pull them from a wide selection of websites, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 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. 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. Sway is an online presentation and storytelling app that's free to use for anyone with a Microsoft or Office 365 account.This software is perfect for schools, businesses, consumers, and anyone looking to create consistent presentations, newsletters, and other communications, in a hurry. (If you are not sure how to get the link, read this document. Various Text Placement Styles. if you have a business, you need to make sure you have the right package. Although Office 365 is only a fraction of the cost of purchasing Microsoft Office licenses outright, it is still expensive and many companies arent able to afford those fees. Also Read: 15+ Cool Features of MS Office You Should Know in 2022. And you can Customiseyour Sway by editing the Colour inspiration, Colour palettes, font, Animation emphasis and Text size (small, medium, large). [3][4], Sway was developed internally by Microsoft. For instance, as a Sway user, you will be able to lock your documents and presentations securely by using passwords. What is SSH Agent Forwarding and How Do You Use It? Microsoft + + Learn More Update Features. and Sway will generate a new style for you. Microsoft released it for general use in August 2015, enabling people with Microsoft accounts to mix media andtextto create a visually appealing website. Help students find their voices with these vibrant apps. Plus, renewal fees can get very expensive. It can help you easily organize documents and access data from all over. Let's take a look at some of the main disadvantages of Microsoft Office 365. If this is not the case, you should try the other solutions recommended in this article. This feature has been introduced at the request of Microsofts Education customers and has proven to be quite effective for a more advanced mode of presenting interactive reports. Ive attended trade shows of Microsoft, Google, and Apple and written about all of them and their products. Additionally, regular problems causing your browser to glitch may also affect how Sway works. Weve used Google Chrome as an example. View Content With Clarity One of the obvious limitations of mobile is that it has a smaller surface area to display items, which can make things crowded and confusing when trying to get the big picture of your presentation. Obviously there are no animations and you cant create elements of your own, so the pictures and text will have to do the heavy lifting. Teachers can take advantage of Sway's easy design templates and simple creation platform, too. Sway is an easy-to-use digital storytelling app for creating interactive reports, presentations, personal stories and more. The link to your Sway. Sway almost reminds me more of Tumblr than PowerPoint, though unlike Tumblr, you create self-contained multi-elements sites in Sway, whereas in Tumblr it's an ongoing feed of one-element posts. But, in August 2015, Office Sway was introduced as an alternative to PowerPoint. While there are advantages to using visual presentations such as PowerPoint, there are also setbacks and traps even the most seasoned presenters can easily fall into. Which in turn reflects poorly on your business. Not thrilled with your design? 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. Links and embedding get around this a little, but the basic Sway site structure is a single track. It suggests art with Creative Commons licenses, advising you that "you are responsible for respecting others' rights." The accessibility feature loads the entire content of Sway into the memory. Also, it is very important that students themselves use this tool to benefit their learning because they become creators. Presentation Approach. However, the outside wheel's grip increases LESS than the grip lost by the inside wheel, so the net grip goes DOWN at that axle. Cons: The navigation is a bit outdated, and classroom-friendly options are lacking. So this is not a situation you should be faced with often. No downloadable/transferable files. InEnglish language arts (ELA), use Sway to illustrate a text you're reading in class. One caveat was that one time when I opened and edited a Sway on an iPhone and then in the Windows 10 app, I got an error message with a long correlation error code. The list of supported embedding sites on this Sway support page(Opens in a new window) includes a nice range of options. In most cases, it could be a server-side error; you can only wait until Microsoft fixes it. 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. The program also provides native integration with other services, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Mixcloud, and Infogram.[10]. Please let us know if you found our article useful by leaving a comment below. Known as Sway, he is known for hosting music, news, and culture programming. The browser has built-in malware, tracking, and privacy protection and doesnt send your data to Google. Thankfully Microsoft has recognized this, and theyve gone to great lengths to prevent this fear with Sway. Therefore, Assistive Technology can take over, access all your content and simplify the working experience with the application. They Have Different Intents. Do you have a presentation to host and you dont want to display that the presentation was created in Office Sway? It can help you work and learn more efficiently while saving time and money. Microsoft doesnt always get things right, but with Sway, theyve created something handy, at the best possible price. 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 PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering lab-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. Microsoft Sway is an online presentation tool that lets you create what are effectively sliding web pages that can hold your videos, links, text and pictures. In conclusion, Microsoft Office 365 is a great productivity suite. One of the best features in Office Sway is its ability to work across different platforms. The lack of image editing is very frustrating. Presentations can, therefore, be accessed from anywhere or with the mobile app. This format is put to use by a number of different web browsers for closed captioning purposes. Office 365 is a cloud-based application that can be accessed on a computer or mobile device with an internet connection. A gallery of teacher-created lessons would be a great addition as well. You can add various content blocks and chose how much emphasis that section of content is given. You need an internet connection to use Sway at the moment which most of us have. The Sherweb Blog is just one example of how we make this happen, and our team members frequently collaborate on content to ensure it's as beneficial as possible for our readers. Office 365 can be integrated with other productivity software applications and tools to help streamline your work processes. Sway may not offer as many design templates, clip art items, animations, and editing tools as PowerPoint, but it makes up for this with the ease with which it lets you create beautiful Web documents. Students can also collaborate on presentations via a shared URL. What are the disadvantages of sway? You can also grab a card's handle to move it up or down. There's great potential for exploring storytelling and presentation skills, from writing clearly to choosing the sequence of text and images effectively. And, if it had basic editablity (nudge, nudge Microsoft), this would definitely be our recommended go-to program for any kind of education project. You can click Remix as many times as you want, and it will be quite a while before it starts repeating designs. Microsoft bought the Presenter for $14 million in 1987 and renamed it PowerPoint. For instance, if you are in the middle of a presentation and need to check something in the first few segments, you can do so by selecting the right numbered tile. Office 365 can be accessed on iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, and other mobile devices. In such cases, sway.office.com would have refused to connect. You also have choices for object groupings in stack, comparison, slideshow, and grid. If you are having troubles fixing an error, your system may be partially broken. But we at BrightCarbon do presentations, so its only right to try and use Sway for that purpose. Despite not really knowing what to use it for, Sway forces me to think outside the box in the way that I present information. According to Statista, the number of daily active users of Microsoft Teams has increased from about 32 million users in March 2019 to about 75 million in April 2020. Users can pull content locally from the device in use, or from internet sources such as Bing, Facebook, OneDrive, and YouTube. Theres a chance that you will be downloading a version of Office 365 that is not compatible with your computer. How do you make sure your presentations are clear and compelling when you're not face-to-face? It might look suspicious to some users. Microsoft PowerPoint was developed by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin in the company named Forethought, Inc. This feature has been added to help you see how many people looked at your file. For example, if you have a meeting on Skype for Business or iPad, you can just share the document with others and it will be displayed along with them. In fact Id go as far to say that it has a lot of potential. By submitting your email, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Welcome to Microsoft Community. As such, this is a powerful system for teachers and students to use in the classroom and beyond. But Sway is really an exampleof a new class of software that lets you create "stories," similar to the iPad-only Adobe Slate. On the other hand, Microsoft Sway uses a new approach for delivering the content. 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. Teachers of the world, give this a go too! My kingdom for the alignment tools! You can add groups of images in a slideshow or side-by-side comparison. We have everything you need to succeed. 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. Its part of the Microsoft Garage Experimental Project, so you can imagine its not perfect yet, but it promises big. Is Microsoft Sway like PowerPoint? I only noticed that selecting Web images and videos took over the whole window, compared with the app's side panel. Optimize resource usage: your RAM memory is used more efficiently than in other browsers, Enhanced privacy: free and unlimited VPN integrated, No ads: built-in Ad Blocker speeds up loading of pages and protects against data-mining, Gaming friendly: Opera GX is the first and best browser for gaming. You can kind of see what its trying to do, but the jury is still out on whether it achieves it. Both give you a simple way to craft your words and images into a well-designed, easily and appealingly navigable presentation that can be viewed on the Web. 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Its unusual and should whet their appetite for a bit more information. For example, you can show the design tools at the left, the editing area in the middle, and a preview on the right, or devote the whole window to just the editing area or the preview. It offers 360 degrees of text placement options like left-aligned, right-aligned, scroll texts over an image, and so on. This software helps inproducing interactive reports and presentations with a number of customizations like narrations and audio recordings. Though it may prove a little inconvenient in the short term, its probably a way of Microsoft showing theyve got their eye on the end-game. Another advantage of using Office 365 is its collaboration tools such as Skype for Business and Sway. Turn your classroom into a laboratory for creative thinking. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time. The downside of that is that you can't take it to another site for hosting, though that's par for the course in today's Tumblr and Facebook world. In late 2014, the company announced an invite-only preview version of Sway and announced that Sway would not require an Office 365 subscription. Whether youve got your phone, tablet or laptop, your Sway will look good. But dont worry; even if youre not a storyteller, the professional presentation tools will give you everything you need to shine. Microsoft has released Presentation Translator, a translation tool for PowerPoint. It's a 62MB download, and I had it running on mySurface Pro 3 ($779.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) in a jiffy. If you are creating a data-driven presentation with lots of graphs and charts, PowerPoint will be the ideal choice. As it is, Sway may not become a go-to presentation tool, but it's a great way to create stylish presentations that are visually appealing and super simple to navigate. PowerPoint, on the other hand, is a desktop application. When you go to enter an image or video card, Sway pops up relevant Web media based on text you've entered, you can change the top in the search box. With an Office 365 subscription, you get one year of updates and 30 days of technical support. For example, Block I Lab 1 will have one link (to your first Sway post) and Block I Lab 2 will have the link to your second Sway post. At first, Microsoft Teams took direct aim at Slack. Hundreds of companies use Axero to communicate . It is software in which you are creating documents. This is important because it allows you to understand the viewership on your deck. Microsoft has a history of building solid and dependable tools. There are six basic layout theme classes, with 50 choices within each group sporting different fonts and colors. Advanced PowerPoint and presentation skills training. The Remix! If Microsoft Sway is not working, the issue may be related to Microsoft and their server, not your PC. Save my name and email in this browser for the next time I comment. After 7 th grade literature classes at her school and a partner school in Mexico both studied Antoine de Saint-Exupry's "The Little Prince," they made artwork, animated film and live action videos to bring the narrative to life and outline its lessons. You can't resize pictures so you have to guess where Sway will put them so that it doesn't look awful; you can't align them with each other either. Those little changes can help teachers create original, slick, sophisticated presentations to share withstudents orcolleagues. The lack of editability hints that Sway is aimed at people who dont have a design eye but still want to create something slick and stylish. Viewing Sway on the Web works at any screen resolution, but creating and editing Sway requires a minimum screen width of 600 pixels or larger. You deserve a better browser! If this still doesnt solve your problem, check our other solution below. The most common cause of Sway not working is issues relating to Microsoft servers; Microsoft Sway may be down. Office 365 also offers Business Continuity capabilities that allow organizations to continue operations in the event of a disaster. Pros and cons of MS Word Let me discuss some of the pros and cons of MS Word:- Advantages of Microsoft Word Spell check: If . Related Products Axero. When we talk about Sway, Microsoft has things organized in this department. Javascript is required. You can make a video or audio call, work on files without leaving a chat, and schedule a meeting or share a task with people from a channel. So, its good to think about all the features that come with office 365 and weed out what you arent using before committing.