Sway

Office 365 is a cloud-based subscription service that brings together tools to help people work together. By combining best-in-class apps like Excel and Outlook with powerful cloud services like OneDrive and Microsoft Teams, Office 365 lets anyone create and share anywhere, on any device.

Microsoft Sway comes in two forms[1]. The free version, which is available for anyone with a Microsoft Account (Hotmail, Live, Outlook.com etc), and Office 365 Sway, which is bundled in with Office 365 licenses[2]. It helps you and your colleagues express ideas using an interactive, web-based canvas. It lets you quickly and easily produce great interactive designs including images, text, documents, videos, maps, and more. Sway is great for use across multiple browsers and devices, with responsive layouts that adapt to whatever screen a presentation is being viewed on.

Isn’t Sway just the same as PowerPoint?

You might think that, as they’re both presentation tools – but there are some key differences between the two.

1. Sway is free (there’s a free version) and based online, while PowerPoint is licensed and available as a desktop app;
2. Sway is better suited to integrating online content, while PowerPoint is better for offline use, featuring static media such as charts and graphs and including printout options;
3. Sway has a mobile application and is easier to use if you’re making something such as a short presentation (it’s great for presentations in school for example), while PowerPoint has a long-running experience and has business audiences on its side.

That’s not to say these two products are new/old, online/offline, though. They’re very much designed to be complementary to each other, with each covering the other’s shortcomings. Basically, you don’t have to choose – you just need to know when to use one and when to use the other. If you’re creating data-intensive presentations, PowerPoint is more the way you’d want to go, with a range of predefined templates designed to make these stats pop. If your presentation includes a lot of videos or other web-based content, consider giving Sway a try.

Alright, I’m sold. How do I get it?

Well, as mentioned above, if you’re already an Office 365 user or have a Microsoft Account, you already have it! You can access Sway from your Office 365 portal by clicking on the waffle icon in the top left of your screen and choosing it from the app list.

You can talk to us about your Office 365 requirements by emailing us at sales@burstfire.net or calling us on 020 7127 4922.

_{[1] Click here to view the differences in content limits per Sway between the free and Office 365 versions
[2] Click here for a full list of licenses that include Office 365 Sway}