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2024 Reveal | Interactive PowerPoint | How to Make One for Free

2024 Reveal | Interactive PowerPoint | How to Make One for Free

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Anh Vu 27 Mar 2024 5 min read

How to make PowerPoint interactive? Making a presentation exciting is a science, and science speaks volumes. So, is it difficult to make a PowerPoint for free? Like an Interactive PowerPoint? Yes.

In several experiments, Salescrunch found that while the average engagement level for a presentation is 78%, that can increase to 92% with audience interaction.

The problem? Somehow, Interactive PowerPoint is yet to realise that. Its handful of interactive tools is limited almost entirely to its app integrations, which cost money and require downloads.

Overview of Interactive Powerpoint

Who owned PowerPoint?the Microsoft Corporation
Who did Microsoft buy PowerPoint from?Forethought Inc
How much was PowerPoint back in 1987?14 mil USD (36.1 mil as present)
Who renamed MS Powerpoint?Robert Gaskins
Overview about Interactive Powerpoint Presentations

What if I told you there’s a way to make an interactive PowerPoint without downloads and for 100% free?

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Get started in seconds..

Sign up for free and build your interactive PowerPoint from a template.


Try it free ☁️

Table of Contents

PowerPoint to Interactive PowerPoint

Make Presentation Interactive Even Better with AhaSlides – Interactive PPT

AhaSlides is a free online tool that helps presenters get more audience engagement. In the simplest terms – it’s like PowerPoint but interactive. So, of course, you can create interactive quiz powerpoint with AhaSlides!

You can import your PowerPoint presentation in one go to AhaSlides. After that, fit it with interactive slides in which your audience can contribute to a spinner wheel, word clouds, brainstorming sessions, and even an online quiz creator!

🎉 Learn more: Extension For PowerPoint

Here’s how it works…

How to Create Interactive Powerpoint?

Signing up to AhaSlides

01

Sign up for Free.

Get a free account with AhaSlides in seconds. No card details necessary.

02

Import your PowerPoint

On a new presentation, click the 'Import' button to upload a PDF, PPT or PPTX file. Once uploaded, your presentation will be separated into its Powerpoint questions slides in the left column.

How to make an interactive presentation with the import feature on AhaSlides.
Embedding interactive slides into an interactive PowerPoint presentation using AhaSlides.

03

Add Interactive Slides

Create an interactive slide in your PowerPoint presentation. Place a poll, word cloud, Q&A, quiz, or any of the 11 interactive slide types into your presentation when you want interaction.

04

Present!

Press the 'Present' button and take your audience through your presentation. Your audience joins your presentation on their phones and submit their answers to your interactive slides.

Presenting an interactive presentation to an audience.

5 Tips for Making a Great Interactive Powerpoint

Tip #1 – Use an Ice Breaker

All meetings, virtual or otherwise, could do with a quick activity or two to break the ice. This could be a simple question or a minigame before the real meat of the meeting gets underway.

Here’s one for you. If you’re presenting to an online audience from all over the world, use a word cloud slide to ask them ‘How do you say hi in your native language?’. When audience respond, the most popular answers will appear larger.

A word cloud of different ways to say hi in audience members' native languages.
There are lots of types of PowerPoint presentation! AhaSlides offers Word cloud PowerPoint template free

Tip #2 – End with a Mini-Quiz

There’s nothing that does more for engagement than a quiz. Quizzes are greatly underused in presentations; flip the script to raise engagement.

A quick 5 to 10-question quiz can work at the end of a section to test what your audience has just learned, or as a fun sign-off at the end of your interactive PowerPoint presentation.

Using a pick answer slide type in a quiz on AhaSlides
Alternative to Interactive Powerpoint – A quiz on AhaSlides with live audience participation.

On AhaSlides, quizzes work the same way as other interactive slides. Ask a question and your audience compete for points by answering fastest on their phones.

Tip #3 – Try Variety

Let’s face facts. Most presentations, through lack of creative thinking, follow the exact same structure. It’s a structure that bores us senseless (it even has a name – Death by PowerPoint) and it’s one that could really use a kick of variety.

There are currently 11 interactive slide types on AhaSlides. Presenters looking to avoid the dreaded monotony of the standard presentation structure can poll their audience, ask an open-ended question, gather ordinal scale ratings, ellicit popular ideas in a brainstorm, visualise data in a word cloud and so much more.

Check out how a variety of interactive slides could work for your presentation. Click below to dive into an interactive presentation on AhaSlides 👇

Tip #4 – Space it Out

While there’s certainly a lot more room for interactivity in presentations, we all know what they say about having too much of a good thing…

Don’t overload your audience by asking for participation on every slide. Audience interaction should just be used to keep engagement high, ears pricked up, and information at the forefront of your audience members’ minds.

Spacing out the audience participation slides in an interactive PowerPoint presentation made on AhaSlides.

With that in mind, you might find that 3 or 4 content slides to each interactive slide is the perfect ratio for maximum attention.

Tip #5 – Allow Anonymity

Have you ever wondered why you’re getting muted reactions even with a premium presentation? Part of the social psychology of crowds is the general unwillingness, even amongst confident participants, to speak up in front of others on a whim.

Allowing audience members to anonymously respond to your questions and suggest their own can be a great remedy for that. Just by giving your audience the option to provide their names, you’ll likely receive a higher level of engagement from all types of personalities in the audience, not just the introverts.

Allowing audience members to submit questions anonymously during an interactive PowerPoint.
AhaSlides Q&A – Alternatives to Q&A Slides on PowerPoint question and answer slide

Of course, you can add more slides to PowerPoint, PowerPoint quizzes, Q&A slides in PowerPoint or Q&A images for ppt… in any way you like. But, it would be much easier if your presentation was on AhaSlides.

Were you looking for more interactive PowerPoint ideas?

With the power of interactivity in your hands, knowing what to do with it is not always easy.

Need more interactive PowerPoint presentation samples? Luckily, signing up for AhaSlides comes with unlimited access to the template library, so you can explore lots of digital presentation examples! This is a library of instantly downloadable presentations chock full of ideas for engaging your audience in an interactive PowerPoint.

Or, be inspired with our interactive PowerPoint template free!

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Get started in seconds..

Sign up for free and build your interactive PowerPoint from a template.


Try it free ☁️

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did Microsoft buy PowerPoint?

Bill Gates need to accelerate generating cash fast, as he said that Microsoft would definitely be in the presentation market one way or another.

Which company developed PowerPoint from Dell Microsoft Apple or IBM?

Forethought, Inc, and released by the Apple Macintosh in 1987, with the name of Presenter.

Is Microsoft owned PowerPoint alternative?

Yes, its name is Microsoft Sway, a PowerPoint alternative. However, the UI and principle is very different, as users might not be able to tell that the same company made it.

How to make slides more interesting?

Start by writing out your ideas, then get creative with the slide design, keep the design consistent; make your presentation interactive, then add animation and transitions, Then align all objects and texts throughout all the slides.

What are the top interactive activities to do in a presentation?

There are lots of interactive activities that should be utilised in a presentation, including live polls, quizzes, cloud brainstorming, creative idea boards or hosting a Q&A session