When I first saw Microsoft's new Sway app for Windows 10, I wasn't sure whether it should be considered a website builder, a photo-album creator, or something else. Many have pigeonholed Sway as a lightweight, consumer version of PowerPoint, and there's some validity to that. But Sway is really an example of a new class of software that lets you create "stories," similar to the iPad-only Adobe Slate. 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. In that sense, Sway shares traits of website creators like Squarespace and Weebly, though creating with it is much simpler. 

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Starting Up

You get started with Sway by hunting it down in the Windows Store, Microsoft's answer to Apple's Mac App Store. It's a 62MB download, and I had it running on my Surface Pro 3 in a jiffy. You don't need an Office 365 subscription to get going, but you'll need a Microsoft account (easily obtained by signing up for an Outlook.com email account), and the app will automatically use the account of any logged-in Windows 10 user.

Interface

Sway's interface could hardly be simpler: You see a mostly blank screen with a few big tiles, one called Create New, and a few sample Sway projects, including one called Creature that sports a Nautilus image. It's always a good idea to see a sample finished product to give you an idea of an authoring application's possibilities. 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.