Best Add-ins for Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint, with its billion-strong user base, stands as the world’s most widely used presentation software.

While PowerPoint presentations are crucial in business settings, creating impactful slide decks can be time-consuming. To avoid dull presentations and maximize impact on clients and managers, slides need to focus on visual effectiveness. Here are 45+ add-ins, plugins, and apps that will enhance your PowerPoint capabilities and streamline your workflow.

What is a PowerPoint Add-in?

PowerPoint add-ins are software extensions that integrate directly with Microsoft PowerPoint, introducing new custom features to users. These tools can significantly boost productivity and expand the functionality of PowerPoint, offering capabilities that go beyond the standard features.

Top PowerPoint Add-ins

1. Power-user

Power-user is an “all-in-one” tool designed for heavy users in consulting, marketing, and finance, featuring over 100 tools that enhance productivity and the quality of PowerPoint presentations.

• A rich library of 700 beautiful PowerPoint templates

• 350 editable maps

• 7,000 vector icons and flags

• 1+ million high-quality pictures

• Waterfall, Mekko, Sankey, Tornado, and Gantt charts

• An agenda builder for automatic Table of Contents updates

• Dashboard tools like gauges and traffic lights

• Excel-PowerPoint links

• Various diagram types and powerful formatting tools

Power-user also supports Excel and Word, offering utilities that save considerable time across applications.

2. iSpring Suite

iSpring Suite transforms presentations into online courses, enhancing educational content with quizzes, narration, and interactive elements. It’s compatible with 150+ learning management systems and works on PowerPoint versions 2007–2021.

3. Web Viewer - Free

Web Viewer lets you display live web pages in your presentation, allowing real-time content refresh without leaving your slideshow. It is compatible with PowerPoint 2013 and later.

4. vMap

vMap offers colorful, customizable vector maps for PowerPoint presentations. This add-in provides over 200 country vector maps and 3,000 USA maps that can be resized and colored using Excel data.

5. Participoll

Participoll facilitates audience interaction through online polls, allowing unlimited participants to vote without the need for physical clickers. It works with PowerPoint 2007 and later.

6. Modern Charts

Ideal for presentations requiring numerous charts, Modern Charts enables the creation of infographic-style charts through an extensive library. Compatible with PowerPoint and Excel 2013 or higher.

7. Inpres

Inpres helps engage audiences through interactive features such as polls, surveys, and file sharing. It works with PowerPoint 2013, 2016, and 2019.

8. Project Timeline - Free

This add-on allows you to build Gantt charts and project timelines, effectively managing tasks and milestones directly in your presentation. It supports PowerPoint 2010 and later.

9. Power Mockup

Power Mockup allows you to create user interface prototypes with drag-and-drop elements. Compatible with PowerPoint 2007–2016 on Windows.

10. Circlify: PC and Circlify: Mac

Circlify enables the creation of 2D or 3D circle diagrams that can be animated, compatible with both PC and Mac.

11. NXPowerLite Desktop 8

NXPowerLite compresses PowerPoint, Excel, and Word files, optimizing them for screen and print. It works on Windows but not on Mac.

12. Office Timeline Plus Edition

The Plus Edition of Office Timeline allows for the creation of Gantt charts and timelines, providing advanced features like connectors and progress tracking.

13. TeamSlide

TeamSlide facilitates content sharing within PowerPoint, allowing users to search and download slides easily. It is compatible with PowerPoint 2007 and later.

14. SlideDynamic

SlideDynamic enhances presentations by providing quick access to slide miniatures during a presentation, allowing real-time keyword searches.

15. OfficeOne Animations

OfficeOne Animations offers tools to create engaging animations and transitions for your slides, enhancing audience engagement.

16. ToDo List Pro - Free

This plugin enables the creation of to-do lists within PowerPoint presentations, helping keep track of tasks directly.

17. PowerTOC

PowerTOC allows users to create customizable tables of contents from slides, making navigation within presentations easier.

18. Pro Word Cloud - Free

Pro Word Cloud generates visual word clouds from your presentation text, helping emphasize key concepts.

19. Adobe Sign

Adobe Sign enables sending documents for e-signature directly from PowerPoint, streamlining the approval process.

20. PPTools Resize

PPTools Resize converts PowerPoint presentations between standard and widescreen dimensions without distorting content.

21. HTML5Point

HTML5Point converts PowerPoint presentations into HTML5 format, making them accessible on mobile devices while preserving animations.

22. Office Tabs - Free

Office Tabs creates a tabbed interface for easy navigation between open documents in PowerPoint, Excel, and Word.

Nota Bene: Similar functionality is available in Power-user’s Tab Explorer feature.

23. ActivePrez (formerly ActivePresentation Designer)

ActivePrez allows for the creation of multi-level menu bars in presentations, enhancing navigation and usability for clients.

24. Web Video Player - Free

This app lets you embed YouTube or Vimeo videos directly into your PowerPoint slides, enriching your presentations.

25. Sub-titling Text Add-in for Microsoft PowerPoint (STAMP) - Free

STAMP adds closed captions to your presentation’s audio and video files, improving accessibility.

26. PP Timer

PP Timer inserts a timer directly into your slides, helping manage presentation time effectively.

27. G-tools

G-tools offers various design tools for PowerPoint, including shape alignment and color palette creation.

28. Oomfo - Free

Oomfo helps create colorful charts and specialized visualizations connected to Excel data.

29. Advanced Contact Bar

This plugin creates a contact bar in your presentation, promoting your details and social media links.

30. Quick Animator

Quick Animator allows for the mass application of animations or transitions across slides, simplifying the design process.

31. vIcons

vIcons provides access to a library of 600 vector icons that can be scaled and edited without loss of quality.

Nota Bene: Power-user includes over 4,000 vector icons for similar functionality.

32. Speech-over 5 Cool

Speech-over converts text to voice narration, enhancing presentations with audio.

33. Slide Show Duo

This add-in allows displaying two slides simultaneously, catering to specific presentation needs.

34. Read My Document - Free

This add-in reads your documents aloud, providing an auditory option for presentations.

35. Digital Clock for PowerPoint

This plugin adds a digital clock and timer to your slides, useful for managing time during activities.

36. Flevy Tools - Free

Flevy Tools simplifies diagram creation by allowing users to customize shape diagrams for presentations.

37. Visualbee

Visualbee automatically designs presentations by applying templates and animations to your content.

38. Power BI Add-in - Free

This add-in integrates Power BI reports into PowerPoint, facilitating live data analysis during presentations.

39. Emoji Keyboard - Free

This app makes it easy to find and insert emojis into your presentations, enhancing visual communication.

40. QR4Office - Free

QR4Office generates QR codes in your slides, making your presentations interactive.

41. ConceptDrop - Free

ConceptDrop connects users with professional designers for quick presentation enhancements.

42. Template Chooser

This add-in manages templates stored in the cloud, facilitating consistent branding across presentations.

43. ToDo List Pro - Free

Manage to-do lists within PowerPoint and Excel with this add-in, ensuring tasks are tracked.

44. Handy Calculator - Free

This tool adds a handy calculator next to your documents, simplifying on-the-fly calculations.

45. TOGlic Word Game - Free

Designed for educational purposes, TOGlic helps children improve language skills through interactive word games.

Conclusion

PowerPoint presentations are essential in professional settings and require significant effort to be effective. The add-ins listed above can help save time and enhance the quality of your presentations, allowing you to focus on making a lasting impact.