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Microsoft PowerPoint for iPad

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PowerPoint for iPad, with its well-chosen feature set and clear interface, is powerful enough to let you leave your laptop behind when you make presentations on the road. - iPad Apps
4.5 Outstanding

The Bottom Line

PowerPoint for iPad, with its well-chosen feature set and clear interface, is powerful enough to let you leave your laptop behind when you make presentations on the road.

Pros & Cons

    • Well-designed, easily navigable interface.
    • Essential subset of the desktop version's features.
    • Presenter View includes options to add notes.
    • The Draw feature converts some line-drawings into geometric shapes.
    • No timer in Presenter View.
    • Fine-tuning of effects must be done in the desktop version.

Presentation powerhouse PowerPoint is the first office app that very nearly seems more at home on a tablet than on a laptop or desktop—especially when it's running on the spacious and vivid screen of the iPad ProSee it at Amazon UK. Microsoft gave the iPad app almost all the features you might want to use in a presentation app, all within an interface that makes those features easier to find and manage than on any other platform—including the PC.

The built-in limitations of a tablet are far less limiting in graphic-centric apps like presentation software than they are in text-and-number apps like word processors or spreadsheets. I do a lot less typing when making a presentation than when editing a document in Word or a spreadsheet in Excel, and so the awkward on-screen or attached keyboard on a tablet doesn't cause as many problems. And the vast processing power and vivid graphics on the iPad Pro makes a graphic-centric app like PowerPoint look better than I've seen it on any other mobile device. It's a strong candidate for the title of best office app available for the iPad, period.

I find that I don't miss the advanced features that Microsoft left out of mobile PowerPoint the way I sometimes miss the advanced features left out of the iPad versions of Word and Excel. If I use a transition effect or animation at all—and I tend to think they distract from the content of a presentation rather than enhancing it—I don't much care about fine-tuning the effect. The default settings for speed and duration are perfectly adequate, and the default settings are all you get in the mobile version of the app. If I want to waste time on fine-tuning, I can open the presentation in Windows or OS X, but it's probably better for me and my audience if I don't.

PowerPoint's iOS version lets you select themes but not modify existing ones or create new ones. It also lets you insert tables, videos, shapes, text boxes, and pictures—including a toolbar button that lets you snap a picture with the tablet's camera. The latest upgrade adds a Draw toolbar that lets you draw lines by touching the screen with a finger or the Apple Pencil£103.01 at Amazon UK, with an option to convert your rough drawings into shapes like triangles or rectangles. The Convert to Shapes option isn't able to convert a roughly drawn five-pointed star into a neat geometric shape the way it can with triangles and circles, but you can easily add a five-pointed star from the Shapes button on the Insert menu if you want.

Microsoft PowerPoint (for iPad)

Final Thoughts

PowerPoint for iPad, with its well-chosen feature set and clear interface, is powerful enough to let you leave your laptop behind when you make presentations on the road. - iPad Apps

Microsoft PowerPoint for iPad

4.5 Outstanding

PowerPoint for iPad, with its well-chosen feature set and clear interface, is powerful enough to let you leave your laptop behind when you make presentations on the road.

About Our Expert

Edward Mendelson

Edward Mendelson

My Experience

I've been writing about software and hardware for PCMag for more than 40 years, focusing on operating systems, office suites, and communication and utility apps. I've specialized in everything related to word and document processing, including format conversion, OCR, and PDF apps. In my spare time, I build apps for Macs and Windows PCs that make it easy to run legacy operating systems (such as old versions of macOS and Windows) and work with legacy documents.

I've also written about technology for non-technical publications, such as The New York Review of Books. Before joining PCMag, I reviewed music and sound equipment for audio magazines. In my other career, I'm the Lionel Trilling Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University and write books about modern literature.

The Technology I Use

For work, I use a Lenovo ThinkCentre M901s desktop (one at home, one in the office) and a Lenovo ThinkPad X13 laptop. For everything else, I use an M4 MacBook Air and an M4 MacBook Pro. I also have an iPad Air and a closet full of obsolete ThinkPads and Macs that I use for testing and nostalgia. I still use an iPhone 13 mini because it's the smallest iPhone that Apple still supports.

My speakers are a mix of Bang & Olufsen and Sonos models, driven by a mix of tube-based and solid-state electronics and a WiiM Pro streamer.

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