So, as I mentioned in this thread, I’ve pretty much given up on getting ProPresenter to work on Windows…
So I’ve been looking at Google Slides as an option, as discussed in this thread:
However, I haven’t been entirely happy with the Slides solution (though the monetary savings are attractive) so I’ve also begun exploring Microsoft PowerPoint. I was hoping to hear from you:
Are you using PowerPoint and how is it working for you?
If you moved away from PowerPoint why?
What tips or tricks you might have for using PowerPoint?
Thus far I’m pretty happy with the solution. It “just works”, is a familiar UI, and I can greatly simplify the UI for use on Sundays by turning off a number of menu ribbons, so volunteers don’t have to sort through clutter to play a slideshow.
If you are looking for a ProPresenter replacement, try OpenLP. I use it for our school, and have found it quite stable (and free). Another alternative for PowerPoint could be LibreOffice Impress.
You would find Google slides quite limited, not the full features of PowerPoint, plus the need to be online to use it.
Running Google Slides would mean higher dependence on the internet connection. Might be more reliable to use a local non-web solution. I had a church volunteer once who used Google Slides for a service and the lag was very noticeable. Took about 5-15 seconds to load for each page due to bad wifi at a temporary service venue.
Through Techsoup, Powerpoint would only cost $29 which is part of the Office Standard bundle. And with Office365 OneDrive, you can share a read only powerpoint url with your volunteers which can display through the browser or download to the local machine to use.
Once you kick off presentation mode, it caches the slide deck locally - but it’s still going to be dependent on having a usable network connection. On a quality fiber line, it’s not an issue - but is that a dependency you want in service? Probably not. Classrooms? Probably fine.
The only downside I have found with PowerPoint is that it is written for a max of two monitor setup. We have three monitor setup in all our multi purpose rooms which is why we use Propresenter in those rooms. You can have more than two monitors as long as the computer running PowerPoint thinks any additional monitors are just one monitor(one output) from the computer.