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Sway

Microsoft Sway Links to an external site.

Basic Information

Sway is a presentation program that allows users to combine text and media in a simple flexible layout for online viewing.

Primary Use:

  • [General] Present information with different types of content (text, photos, multi-media) in a flexible layout to share online
  • [Faculty] Reports, Presentations, Newsletters
  • [Students] Presentations, Stories

Key Features

  • Online presentation or digital canvas tool
  • Imports content from others resources (MS Word, Powerpoint, Youtube, Facebook…)
  • Document elements (cards) can be moved around like titles for different layouts
  • Can be viewed vertical or horizontal
  • Embedded within website page or standalone online
  • Viewers can convert to PDF or share link

What is Sway – Office Sway Vision Video


Category: Presentation Tool
Keywords: Presentation, Microsoft Office, Storytelling

Detailed Information

Full Description:

Sway is a digital storytelling and presentation program that is a part of Microsoft Office. It is an alternative to Powerpoint. The purpose of Sway is to convey concepts quickly, easily and clearly. Unlike PowerPoint, it is primarily for presenting ideas onscreen rather than to an audience. Tutorials, topic introductions and interactive reports are the sort of things to which it lends itself. Sway presentations are backed up to the cloud, and can be easily shared or embedded in websites. The Sway interface is based around a storyline, into which users add a series of cards. These cards are then filled with content, with different cards available for different types of content, and which can be grouped together into sections. Content intended to be the user’s narrative can be easily added, removed, edited or reordered. This flexibility should allow stories created in Sway to be much more free-flowing than presentations created in PowerPoint.

Advantage/ Disadvantage:

Unlike PowerPoint, there’s no option for creating content in Sway itself. It must be uploaded into the software as it’s intended to be used or it can be pulled in directly from a variety of different sources from within Sway. This helps to simplify the creation process, too, and minimizes the amount the time spent on producing a Sway. Current sources include YouTube, Facebook and Flickr.

Good for Teaching:

Consider using Sway as a digital portfolio tool where students can offer highlights of their written and visual work on the web. Liven up a lab report by having your students import charts, graphs, and images from their latest lab into Sway, and then have them enter their written responses in between. Have your students create digital storybooks, drafting the story on paper and then drawing or searching for appropriate images to illustrate their story. They could even use the device’s camera to snap a photo of their drawing and insert it into their presentation. In an ELA class, use Sway to illustrate a text you’re reading in class. Students can import passages from a short story, novel, or play and then include images and video to tell the story visually.

Good for Learning:

Once you get the hang of it, Sway can be a lot of fun. Creating visually stunning stories by plugging text and images into the app’s template is empowering. Though the template’s pretty simple, it’s terrific that you can easily toggle its format (such as changing a story that scrolls vertically to one that scrolls horizontally) and its functionality (such as changing a swipeable stack of photos to a static gallery). Those little changes can help you make slick, sophisticated presentations that are totally your own. There are a couple of odd things about the iOS app specifically, though. The detailed instruction guide is written with the web and Windows 10 in mind, so a few of the features described in the how-to text don’t work exactly as they’re described or appear where it says they’ll appear.  Sways are easy to share online, and viewers can scroll through at their own pace, taking their time to explore the text and images and ponder how they’re related. As a tool for learning, that self-paced experience is nice, and it would be even better if there were features to make that viewing experience more active, such as tools for annotation or commenting.

Examples:

Tutorial Guides

Templates

If you are interested in starting with a template, which often have background, color theme, and fonts, it may save time and highlight new design elements.

Lesson

To learn the tool in a comprehensive manner, please see public and internal lessons below. It does not cover every features but highlights the main features.

Product Support

If you are having technical issues with the software itself (not working properly) please contact the support link below.