60 Second Briefing: What is Sway?

Sway is a presentation tool that is designed to help the user create and share a storyline. It can be used to present various things such as tutorials, interactive reports, assignments and projects. There are certain features within Sway that can be compared to PowerPoint, however there are some clear differences.

Sway has the ability to create quick, easy and clear presentations, without the hassle of formatting and designing the final look and feel of the content. These presentations are better suited for presenting ideas onscreen, rather than to a physical audience.

Save time with Sway.

With Sway, you simply upload your content and the design engine formats the ‘cards’ (slides) by selecting pre-set themes and fonts. This may come across as limiting for the user, but this function ensures that a presentation can be put together easily within minutes and the content, consequently, flows a lot better. Another useful aspect, is the fact that you can import a word document or PowerPoint presentation, straight into Sway. Note: if the user has to stick to branding guidelines for the presentation, Sway may not be the best tool to use.

The presentations generated by Sway are optimized for any kind of device and can be shared extremely easily for co-authoring and collaboration. The app saves the presentation to the cloud and creates a link that can be viewed on a web browser and shared with anyone – regardless of whether or not they are a Sway user. If the user wishes to keep the presentation private, this can also be done in the settings (as shown in the image below).

Overall, Sway is great for any user who wants to focus on content rather than the design of the presentation. Its simplicity and ability to turn content into a sleek presentation within minutes, makes it a great option for those who are pressed for time.