Essential PowerPoint add-ins for consultants to boost productivity
January 16, 2025 | 3 min read
Creating impactful presentations involves balancing multiple elements like charts, content, design, templates, and more. Did you know over 30 million PowerPoint presentations are created every day? Yet, only a fraction truly stand out. For consultants, presentations are not just slides, they’re tools to influence, persuade, and deliver insights. But crafting them can be time-consuming and tedious. PowerPoint add-ins can revolutionize this process by enhancing efficiency, improving quality, and saving valuable time.
This blog categorizes the top add-ins based on the specific aspects of presentation creation they enhance.
Key challenges faced by consultants during presentation creation
1. Time constraints: Consultants often work on tight deadlines, juggling multiple projects. Crafting a presentation from scratch can consume valuable time.
2. Data visualization: Communicating complex data effectively is essential but can be challenging without advanced visualization tools.
3. Maintaining brand consistency: Ensuring every slide aligns with brand guidelines is critical, especially when collaborating with multiple stakeholders.
4. Managing large presentations: Handling large decks with multiple slides, images, and charts often leads to formatting inconsistencies and bloated file sizes.
5. Audience engagement: Consultants need tools to create interactive and visually engaging slides to keep audiences interested.
How PowerPoint Add-ins save the day
PowerPoint add-ins tackle these issues head-on. They automate repetitive tasks like formatting and alignment, enable advanced data visualization, and ensure brand consistency across slides. By enhancing professionalism and saving time, these tools free consultants to focus on delivering impactful presentations that captivate audiences.
We have sorted the add-ins list in different categories to cover different aspects of presentation creation:
- Charting and Data visualization
- Proof-reading and Content enhancement
- Slide design and Formatting
- Templates, slide library, and visual elements
- Slide management
1. Charting and Data Visualization
Accurate and compelling data presentation is critical for consultants. These add-ins simplify data visualization with advanced tools:
Think-Cell
This Add-in helps you create stunning charts in minutes, boosts your slide layout and automates your regular reports. And all this with a single PowerPoint add-in.
Key Features:
- Create 40+ chart types in a few minutes
- Waterfalls, Gantts, Marimekkos and Agendas
- Dozens of data-driven visual annotations
Pricing: $24.90/month covers 1 – 4 user.
Zebra BI
Helps create actionable reports, dashboards, or slide decks in seconds and convert boring numbers into real insights immediately.
Key Features:
- Professional-quality data charts and tables.
- Live Excel data integration.
- Customizable dashboards for KPIs.
Pricing:
Free – $0/month covers 1 user
Starter – $62/month covers 10 users
Business – $290/month covers 50 users
Office Timeline
Creates visually appealing timelines and Gantt charts for project management.
Key Features:
- Customizable timeline templates.
- Integration with Excel and MS Project.
- Drag-and-drop editing.
Pricing: Pro – $13/month.
2. Proof-reading and Content enhancement
Quality content forms the backbone of effective presentations. These add-ins streamline text generation and refinement:
Grammarly
Ensures your writing is grammatically correct and professional for slides.
Key Features:
- Real-time grammar and spell checks.
- Style improvement suggestions.
- Tone detection to match audience preferences.
Pricing: Free version available; Pro starts at $12/month.
3. Slide Design and Formatting
These add-ins help consultants create professional, on-brand, and visually appealing slides:
Empower
It is a software suite designed for Microsoft 365. It consists of three solutions that support the entire Office document creation and distribution process. They can be used separately, but most clients use the entire empower® Suite to maximize productivity and brand compliance.
Key Features:
- Centralized access to templates and assets.
- Ensures compliance with brand guidelines.
- Streamlines team collaboration.
Pricing: Lite – € 9,99/month per user
Power-user
Offers templates, icons, and tools for consistent formatting and efficient slide design.
Key Features:
- Access to 500+ templates and icons.
- Automated chart creation.
- Tools for consistent formatting.
Pricing: Starts at $20/month per user.
Ampler
Automates repetitive formatting tasks, ensuring consistent and polished slides.
Key Features:
- One-click alignment and formatting tools.
- Slide design optimization.
- Batch formatting for faster workflows.
Pricing: € 15 / month.
MLC PowerPoint Add-in
Provides advanced formatting options to create polished, professional slides.
Key Features:
- Advanced table formatting tools.
- Smart alignment and spacing adjustments.
- Customizable shortcuts for efficiency.
Pricing: $77.97/year per user.
4. Templates, slide library, and visual elements
Templates and visuals play a crucial role in engaging audiences. These add-ins provide ready-to-use resources:
SlideModel
Provides thousands of professional, editable templates to save time on slide creation.
Key Features:
- Templates tailored to various industries and purposes.
- High-quality graphics and diagrams.
- Easy customization to fit presentation needs.
Pricing: Unlimited downloads at $199.90/year.
Pexels
Offers a library of royalty-free, high-quality images for enhancing slides.
Key Features:
- Access to a vast library of stock photos.
- Drag-and-drop functionality for easy use.
- Seamless PowerPoint integration.
Pricing: Free.
Install by searching in the Add-ins in PowerPoint
Pickit
Provides curated images and icons to add visual appeal to presentations.
Key Features:
- Regularly updated content library.
- Drag-and-drop access to visuals.
- Ensures legal compliance with image usage.
Pricing: Starts at $299/month.
Install by searching in the Add-ins in PowerPoint
The conclusion: Don’t work harder, work smarter
By categorizing PowerPoint add-ins by their core elements, consultants can quickly identify tools tailored to their needs.
Whether it’s visualizing data, creating engaging content, or streamlining workflows, these add-ins ensure professional and impactful presentations every time.
Start exploring these tools today to transform how you work!
You may also like
We use storytelling and design to build high impact presentations for leading brands
PowerPoint design
services and outsourcing
Enterprises, analysts, consultants
Investor pitches
and fundraising narrative
Founders, fund managers
Sales presentations, proposals, and collaterals
Sales & marketing teams
PowerPoint template and visual slide bank
Enterprises, advisory & research firms
CXO presentations
and thought leadership
IT-BPO services & consulting firms
Financial, ESG,
and annual reports
Financial services, large enterprises
Training – PowerPoint design and visualization
Sales team, analysts, consultants
Conference and event presentations
Keynote speakers, event managers