create a sway presentation

• Skip to main content Microsoft Sway Home

How-To Geek

How to use microsoft sway.

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Quick Links

Getting started on sway, create the storyline, design your sway, play, share, or tweak your sway.

Are you a Microsoft Office user who's interested in quickly creating a web-based presentation, interactive report, or personal portfolio? PowerPoint can be intimidating to learn and put to use, so consider using the lighter alternative , Microsoft Sway.

With Sway , you can create a presentation without design skills or creative experience. The application provides you with cards, or blocks, for a structured way to build your content. You can easily insert text, images, and videos, give your Sway an attractive appearance with subtle animations, and share it easily.

Visit the Sway website and sign in with your Microsoft account. You then have a few different ways to create your Sway.

Create New : Start with a blank document where you add all sections and design elements.

Start From a Topic : Enter a search term and Sway creates an outline of sections for you.

Start From a Document : Upload a document such as an outline or article and Sway inserts your content into sections.

Start From a Template : Use one of the templates for a jump start on your project. Topics range with options for a newsletter, resume, portfolio, announcement, story, and business presentation.

After you pick one of these options, you'll see two main areas on the top left for building your Sway: Storyline and Design.

As you build your presentation, your Sway is saved automatically.

Select "Storyline" on the top left to build the sections, add the cards, and insert your content. This is a central point for building your Sway.

The card at the very top is your Title card and can include both text and an image background.

To add the next card, click the plus sign at the bottom of the previous one. You'll then see Suggested options, or you can pick Text, Media, or Group specifically.

When you select a Heading card and add your text, this appears large and highlighted in your Sway. As you can see in the screenshot below, Etymology and Taxonomy are headings.

This is a sample style; you can change the colors, font, and layout.

Headings are good ways to divide your Sway into sections. You can then include the cards you need below each heading.

Insert a text card to add paragraphs, bullet points, or a numbered list. Enter your text in the box and use the options in the toolbar to format it or add a link. On the right of the toolbar, use the boxes to set the emphasis and the trash can to remove the card.

Media Cards

You can insert an image, video, or audio file as well as embed 3D content or tweets or upload an item from your device.

Each type of media has its own options. For example, you can include a caption for an image or record your own audio.

To add an image or video using a web search, click the spot in the card for the image or video to open the sidebar. Use the tabs or search at the top to locate the media. Then, select it and choose "Add" or drag the item onto the card.

Check the box at the top to look for Creative Commons images.

You can also use the emphasis options in the toolbar for media. Choose from subtle, moderate, or intense to display that item differently in your presentation.

For images, you can also use the Focus Points tool to zero in on a specific part of the image.

Group Cards

You can group images in a handful of unique ways in Sway.

• Automatic : Let Sway decide the best layout.
• Grid : Places images in a grid layout.
• Comparison : Place two images side-by-side.
• Stack : Place images in a pile you can click through.
• Slideshow : Move through each image just like a slideshow using one of three views.

To change the layout after you add the images, select "Group Type" in the toolbar. Then, pick the new layout on the right side.

You can work on the design portion at any point in your Sway creation. Select "Design" on the top left next to Storyline.

Depending on the option you selected to create your Sway, you may see a default style. To choose a different one, click "Styles" on the top right.

You'll then see the layouts for the entire Sway at the top. You can pick Vertical, Horizontal, or Slides depending on the direction you want your Sway to flow on the screen.

Next, you'll see a collection of Styles you can pick from with different colors, shapes, and backgrounds. Use the arrows along the right to see all options within a style.

Once you pick a style, use the Customize button near the top to change the color inspiration or palette, font style, animation emphasis, and text size. Animations are what you see when the elements of your Sway appear on the screen.

One other option for designing your creation is to let Sway do it for you. Select "Remix!" at the top of the Styles sidebar to see what Sway comes up with for you.

You can undo any change you make easily by selecting the Undo button above the Styles sidebar. Plus, you have a Redo button if you change your mind.

On the top right of the Sway screen, you'll see a Play button. Select that to view the presentation as your audience will.

Select the icon in the bottom right corner of the Play view to jump to a particular section of your Sway. Then, click "Edit" to return to the Storyline and Design screens.

Select the Share button to obtain a text or visual link to your Sway, share it on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, or get the embed code . You can also set the permissions for those viewing your presentation, require a password, or include Share buttons.

To duplicate your Sway, save it as a template, print, or export your presentation, select the three dots on the top right and pick an option.

You'll also see Settings for This Sway in the above menu which allows you to choose a language, show direction buttons, adjust the view settings, and autoplay your Sway.

For an easy way to create an eye-catching, web-based presentation , check out Microsoft Sway.

Related: The Beginner's Guide to Google Slides

• Microsoft Office

• Apple iPad 6 Mini Deal Alert!
• Get Halloween Spooky Tunes FREE

How to Create a Microsoft Sway Presentation

Create and share interactive reports, stories, presentations, and more

• Pima College

What to Know

• Go to Sway online or to the Sway desktop app. Select Create New . Enter a title on Title card. Select Backgrounds to add a background.
• Select + to add a Text, Media, or Group card, and add content to the card. Repeat for additional cards.
• Rearrange cards if needed. Select Play to view.

This article explains how to create a Microsoft Sway presentation using the the Sway desktop version in Windows 10 or the online version of Microsoft Sway. Additional information for using templates, adding text and images, and sharing and collaborating on the Sway is included.

You can create an array of content types using Microsoft Sway, the digital storytelling app available online or with Microsoft 365 . While there are some differences between the versions, making a basic presentation is essentially the same whether you use Microsoft Sway on your desktop or online.

Once you log in to or open the Sway app, you can start from scratch or base your design on one of the many templates provided.

Go to sway.office.com and log in with your Microsoft account to use Sway online. Type sway into the Windows Search box and select the Sway app to open Sway on your desktop if you have it installed.

Select a template that corresponds with the presentation you want to make, such as Business Presentation . Then choose Start Editing This Sway . A new presentation template opens.

Alternatively, select Create New to open a new, blank Sway.

Work With Cards in the Storyline

The Storyline is what makes Sway unique. Unlike other Office applications, Sway uses cards in which you create or import a variety of content. A card is a container that holds content within a Sway presentation, similar to a placeholder in PowerPoint.

The arrangement of the cards determines the appearance of your Sway presentation. You can easily rearrange the cards whenever you want to modify the way your Sway looks.

Open Sway and select Create New .

Enter a title into the Title card.

Select Backgrounds to add a background image.

Select the + button to add a new card.

Select the type of card you want to add. Options include Text , Media ,  or Group .

Choose the subtype of the card to add, such as Heading , Image , or Grid . Sway also suggests cards.

Add content to the new card. Continue adding cards and content until you have completed your Sway.

Select a card to see more options. For instance, on some cards, you can select focus points. On others, you can set the emphasis for the entire card.

Rearrange cards if desired. Select a card and drag it to the position you want it to appear.

Select Play to view your Sway at any time.

Use Templates in Sway

Like other Microsoft applications, Sway offers built-in templates you can use to make polished presentations quickly.

Open Sway and select a template under Start from a Template .

Select Start Editing This Sway . Wait for the template to prepare. It opens as a new Sway with sample content in place.

Select the Design tab in the upper-left corner and then choose Styles in the upper-right corner.

Change the Sway layout by choosing between Vertical , Horizontal , and Slides in the right pane.

Choose the Customize button to select custom colors, typography, or textures.

Select an alternative style or variation at the bottom of the Styles pane.

Select the Remix button at the top of the pane to let Sway change the design and layout for you. Keep selecting Remix to view more options.

Select the Undo button or press Ctrl + Z to go back to a previous option.

View or share the Sway when you're ready.

Text and Images

Enter the text and photos or graphics you want to use to create the bones of your Sway presentation. You can enhance your Sway by incorporating a range of content types from numerous sources.

Select the template title and replace it with the title you want to give your Sway presentation. The title you give your Sway is the first thing others see when you share your presentation.

Select the + button at the bottom of any card to add content such as text, images, or videos.

Select the Background area of a card to open the content pane. Search for public domain images and videos to insert in your presentation.

Alternatively, select the Insert tab in the upper-right corner to find content.

If you use Sway as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription, you see additional options in the content pane, such as OneDrive.

Rearrange cards by dragging and dropping a card.

Preview and Edit

Give your Sway presentation a good look before you share it with others. Customize the appearance further by changing the style.

Select the Design tab to preview your Sway presentation.

Select Play in the upper-right corner to preview how it will appear to others.

Select the Settings icon in the upper-right corner to choose a different layout.

Select Edit to return to the Storyline.

Choose Styles to view alternate styles. Select a style to apply it to your presentation.

Share Your Sway

You can share your design with others on a variety of platforms using numerous methods.

Select Share in the upper-right corner to view sharing options, including:

• A shareable link.
• A visual link with a preview of the Sway.
• Direct share to Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), or LinkedIn.
• An embed code.

Collaborate on a Sway Presentation

Microsoft Sway is ideal for collaborative designs. Whether you need to pitch in with classmates on a school project or work with colleagues on a company report, everyone involved can work together on a Sway presentation. It doesn't matter where they are located, provided they have internet access.

One of the sharing options is to Add an Author . When you use this feature, Sway generates a unique link. You can share this link by email, social media, or any other way you want with the people you want to collaborate with on the presentation. They can view the Sway using this link, and they can edit the file.

Suppose you change your mind. You can manage editing permissions on any Sway presentation.

Open the Sway presentation on which you want to collaborate with someone else.

Select Share in the upper-right corner.

Select the Edit button next to Invite People to. Sway generates an edit link.

Select More Options .

Choose Require a Password to View or Edit This Sway if you want to protect the presentation with a password.

Select Viewers Can See Share Buttons if you want other users or viewers to be able to share the Sway.

When you want to revoke access to your Sway, select Reset the Share Settings in the Share menu. The web address of your Sway is permanently changed, so the link you shared previously won't work for anyone. You can create a new link to reshare with whomever you choose.

Other Sway Presentation Features

Microsoft Sway isn't just another version of PowerPoint or Google Slides . PowerPoint is best suited for offline, static content such as graphs, flowcharts, and bullet points. Sway is ideal for dynamic, online content.

Like Google Slides, Sway lives online. But unlike Google Slides, Sway allows you to embed other Office files, such as Word , Excel , and PowerPoint documents, and individual charts and tables from Excel. 

Sway has other features and tools that might be beneficial when you want to enhance a presentation.

• Record narration or other audio to any Audio card. Select the Record button and give Sway permission to use your microphone to begin recording. Press the Stop button when done and then choose to Add an Audio File .
• Access Navigation View by selecting the Navigation button in the lower-right corner while in Design view.
• Autoplay for users with a Microsoft 365 subscription. Select the ellipses in the upper-right corner of the window and choose Settings for This Sway to turn on Autoplay.

Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day

• What Is Microsoft PowerPoint?
• What's New in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010?
• Converting PowerPoint Slides to Word Documents
• How to Create a Timeline in PowerPoint
• How to Use Portrait and Landscape Slides in the Same Presentation
• How to Add an Excel Chart to a PowerPoint Presentation
• Loop a PowerPoint Slide Show
• Create a Default Presentation Template in PowerPoint
• How to Add Animation to PowerPoint
• How to Make a Poster in PowerPoint
• The 10 Most Common PowerPoint Terms
• The Definition of a Slide (or Slides) in a PowerPoint Presentation
• What Is Microsoft PowerPoint and How Do I Use It?
• How to Insert PDF Files Into PowerPoint Presentations
• How to Use Microsoft's Free PowerPoint Viewers
• The 8 Best Free PowerPoint Alternatives

The 8 Best Features of Microsoft Sway for Creating Interactive Reports and Presentations

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Sway is a web-based Microsoft app that enables you to create personal stories, presentations, and interactive reports. You can include your own texts, images, and videos or search for related content online right from the Sway app.

Sway lets you present information or ideas in an interactive, appealing, and modern way without any design skills. You can also share your creative content securely with the masses.

This article introduces you to the vital Sway features that you can use to go creative with Sway.

1. Multiple Document Layouts & Styles

Your creative content doesn’t need to follow the styles and layouts of the tool on which you create. Sway lets you create your presentations, newsletters, or stories in three different layouts, like Horizontal, Vertical, and Slideshow. You can change the layout anytime during creation or even after publishing the content.

Related: The Best Free Email Template Builders for Freelancers

Sway content layouts are also compatible with left-to-right or right-to-left languages. Sway’s intelligent design program automatically adjusts the text alignment depending on the language.

Sway also has seven preset styles that you can apply in your slideshows or websites. The styles give you various designs for content layout, decorative elements, color, textures, and image captions.

For example, you might use the second style if you prefer elegance and cleanliness in your creative content. Select the fifth style if you want rich background textures and a bold design attitude.

2. Style Customizations and Remix

You can customize Sway content styles to enhance the visual quality of your creative content. You’ll see the Customize button once you choose a preset style from Sway.

The customize pane lets you change several attributes of the style. For example, you can modify the Font Choices , Color palettes , and Color inspiration . You can also change the Text size and Animation emphasis of some of the styles.

If you’re looking for quick content, Sway has just the right tool. Sway's automatic styling and layout feature keep offering you various content designs.

Add your texts, videos, images, and links, and then hit the Remix! button on the Design tab. Do you see anything you like? Keep that and publish your work. It’s that simple.

3. Live Content and Rich Visuals

Sway has in-built apps that feed relevant images, videos, and social media content. You can fetch third-party content from Flickr , Bing Images , YouTube , Pickit , and Twitter . You can also upload your own images or videos from OneDrive or local drive.

The following are the file size guidelines for Sway:

• Up to 20 MB of PDF, Excel, PowerPoint, or Word file.
• Up to 100 MB of a compatible audio file.
• Not more than 768 MB of video content.
• Images should be within 256 MB.

4. Edit the Grid for Image Groups

If you’re creating a Sway page with many photos or photo albums, you can make use of its photo grid or groups feature. You can choose from three groups: Automatic , Stack , and Grid .

There is a special option that turns your photo album into a slideshow. You can choose from three different styles of slideshows.

In the Storyline tab, add multiple images to see the card selection option. The Group menu will show up if you select more than one image card.

5. Simple Text Formatting

Sway offers simple text formatting options. Therefore, you don’t have to invest time in complex settings. You can introduce beautiful styling by using the style remix feature.

For the Heading Card, you get formatting options like Emphasize , Accent , and Link . Emphasize gives you a bold font, while Accent italicizes the text. You get a bit more text formatting choices for the Text Cards.

In addition to Emphasize , Link , and Accent , you get Bullets and Numbers . Therefore, you’ll find it easy if you need to list items for your services or portfolio websites.

The Link button lets you add Display Text and Web Link . You can modify the content style from the Design tab to change the font.

6. Various Text Placement Styles

Sway enables you to place the texts beside images, videos, or GIFs the way you want. It offers 360 degrees of text placement options like left-aligned, right-aligned, scroll texts over an image, and so on.

Sway also has intelligent text placement programming. Let’s say you need to add a long text with many paragraphs and a relevant image in a vertical layout content. Sway will automatically pin the image on the right side.

Now, if you scroll the website, the texts will scroll while the images will stay fixed in one place. Here, you can also get the text scrolling over an image effect if you choose Intense emphasis on the Image card.

7. Custom Backgrounds for Heading

Sway lets you customize your heading background the way you want. Let’s consider that you need more focus on the heading of your website or presentation in Sway.

To achieve that, add a solid color background behind the heading. Choose a contrasting color for effortless visualization of texts. You can upload or find a solid background image online on Sway.

Related: The Best Features of Prezi to Create Meaningful Presentations

You can also make more impact on the audience by adding high-resolution images as heading backgrounds. Choose an image with enough negative space so that the heading text stays visible.

Images as a website or report heading are perfect for branding a product or service that you offer.

8. Responsive and Interactive Online Document

Sway pages are responsive for most devices, like desktops, laptops, tablets, or smartphones. You can email the link to the Sway page to your mobile or tablet to see how it looks. Another way is to resize the website browser on which you’re working.

Sway will automatically adjust the website to best fit as you minimize or maximize the browser window.

You can also embed live Power BI charts and graphs in your Sway presentation or reports. Interactive charts and tables visualize the same way in Sway as they do in Power BI.

Flaunt Your Creativity With Sway

You can create amazing presentations, stories, websites, newsletters, reports, and photo albums by using the above-mentioned features of Sway. You can also easily brand your content the way you like it.

Sway helps you take your brand to the global audience effortlessly for free. Before portraying your stories on Sway, you can take some help from storyboarding apps to get them right.

• Productivity

• Presentations

Sway: Designing Appealing Presentations

This course provides basic knowledge on working with Microsoft Sway.

Sway is a web app that allows you to quickly create online presentations such as newsletters, portfolio presentations or blog posts. Sway is particularly suitable for presentations that are not held in front of an audience, but rather integrated into a website.

• Videos with Audio Narration and Closed-Captions
• Practice Interactive Exercises
• Tips and Printable PDF's
• Chapter Tests
• Personalized Learning Recommendations
• Comprehensive Final Test with Certificate
• Compatible with Desktop and Mobile Devices
• SCORM and xAPI Support for LMS Deployement

Introduction

• What is Sway?
• Sway vs. PowerPoint

Creating and editing Sway presentations

• Creating a new presentation in Sway
• Content types in Sway
• Formatting content in Sway
• Editing design in Sway
• Sharing a Sway

Quick Links

• Training Courses for Microsoft 365
• Training Courses for Microsoft Office 2016 / 2019
• Microleanring for Microsoft Applications
• Receive a Quote
• Legal Notice
• Privacy Policy

The Tech Edvocate

• Advertisement
• Home Page Five (No Sidebar)
• Home Page Four
• Home Page Three
• Home Page Two
• Icons [No Sidebar]
• Left Sidbear Page
• Lynch Educational Consulting
• My Speaking Page
• Newsletter Sign Up Confirmation
• Newsletter Unsubscription
• Page Example
• Privacy Policy
• Protected Content
• Request a Product Review
• Shortcodes Examples
• Terms and Conditions
• The Edvocate
• The Tech Edvocate Product Guide
• Write For Us
• Dr. Lynch’s Personal Website
• The Edvocate Podcast
• Assistive Technology
• Child Development Tech
• Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech
• EdTech Futures
• EdTech News
• EdTech Policy & Reform
• EdTech Startups & Businesses
• Higher Education EdTech
• Online Learning & eLearning
• Parent & Family Tech
• Personalized Learning
• Product Reviews
• Tech Edvocate Awards
• School Ratings

Best Business Books for College Students

Aws data center latencies, visualized, data centers will have to make minimum power payments in ohio, ask hn: website with 6^16 subpages and 80k+ daily bots, why i’m leaving openai and what i’m doing next, how to watch lyon vs. besiktas online for free, how to watch the 2024 motogp thailand grand prix online for free, how to watch pakistan vs. england 3rd test online for free, download thousands of free mystery e-books on stuff your kindle day, you can get a lifetime license to microsoft office 2019 at a crazy discount right now, how to create a microsoft sway presentation.

Microsoft Sway is a powerful presentation tool that allows you to create engaging and interactive presentations quickly and easily. Whether you’re creating a presentation for work, school, or personal use, Sway makes it easy to create dynamic, visually stunning presentations that are sure to impress your audience.

In this article, we’ll take a look at the step-by-step process for creating a Microsoft Sway presentation.

Step 1: Sign in to Sway

First, you’ll need to sign in to your Microsoft account and navigate to the Sway website. If you don’t already have a Microsoft account, you can create one for free.

Step 2: Choose a Template

Once you’re signed in, you’ll be prompted to choose a template for your presentation. Sway offers a variety of templates to choose from, including business, education, and personal themes. Once you’ve selected your template, you can start customizing it to fit your needs.

Step 3: Add Content

With your template selected, it’s time to start adding content to your presentation. Sway makes it easy to add text, images, videos, and other multimedia elements to your presentation. You can also add interactive elements, such as quizzes, polls, and surveys, to engage your audience.

Step 4: Customize the Design

Once you’ve added your content, you can customize the design of your presentation to make it look exactly the way you want. Sway offers a wide range of customization options, including fonts, colors, and layouts. You can also choose from a variety of pre-made design styles to give your presentation a professional look and feel.

Step 5: Preview and Share Your Presentation

Once you’ve finished creating your presentation, it’s time to preview it and make sure everything looks the way you want. When you’re ready, you can share your presentation with others by sending them a link or embedding it on your website or blog.

Creating a Microsoft Sway presentation is a simple and straightforward process that anyone can do. With its intuitive interface and powerful features, Sway is a great tool for creating engaging and interactive presentations that are sure to wow your audience. Give it a try today and see how easy it is to create a stunning presentation with Sway!

Troubleshooting Graphics and Display Issues on Your ...

Vava va-lt002 4k uhd ultra-short throw laser ....

Matthew Lynch

Related articles more from author.

How to Fix a Surface Pro Keyboard That’s Not Working

How to Open WordPad in Windows

How to Free Up Storage Space on Your Samsung Phone

Is Your Windows 10 Slow After an Update? Here’s How to Fix It

How to Enable 5.1 Surround Sound on YouTube TV on Google TV, Android TV, and Roku

How to Change Your Disney+ Password

What is Microsoft Sway and How Can it Be Used to Teach? Tips & Tricks

Microsoft Sway is a presentation tool that works really well for teaching

Microsoft Sway is the company's alternative to PowerPoint as a presentation tool that embraces collaborative working. As such, this is a powerful system for teachers and students to use in the classroom and beyond.

The idea behind Sway is to offer a super simple setup that allows anybody to create presentation slideshows. This makes it good for both younger students and teachers for in-class or online-based presenting.

Thanks to the online nature of this tool there is a lot of rich media integration, allowing for plenty of visually engaging content to be incorporated. Using this collaboratively, for example in a student group, is an option both for in class as well as from home.

So is Sway the next presentation tool for your classroom?

What is Microsoft Sway?

Microsoft Sway at its most basic is a presentation tool. It uses slides to create a story flow that can be presented to a class or individual, or scrolled through by the viewer at their own pace. That makes it ideal for in-class presentations as well as at-home learning.

Sway integrates with the Microsoft Office suite so it can be used easily in schools that already operate on the Microsoft Office platform, putting another creative tool at your disposal. But for those not paying, it won't matter as this is now freely available to all.

Thanks to the use of templates and tutorials it's easy to get started, even for those less technically abled people. It's also very straightforward to collaborate with online storage and link-based sharing available as standard.

Tech & Learning Newsletter

Tools and ideas to transform education. Sign up below.

How does Microsoft Sway work?

Microsoft Sway is online-based within the Office suite so you can login and use the tool from within a browser. It's also available for free so anybody can head to the website and start using this tool without even needing to create an account.

As such, this is available on a lot of devices including laptops, smartphones, and tablets. Since storage can also be online, as well as local, students can start a project on a school computer and continue working on it using their own device when at home.

Since Sway uses templates it's possible to get started right away in a very easy-to-use way. Pick the template and then it's just a matter of adding text and media as needed in the spaces provided. You can also make amends to personalize it more but that more complex functionality isn't required.

There is a tab section at the top with Storyline on one, in which you can edit and add in text and media. The Design tab allows you to preview how the end result looks, live, as you work – a very helpful option for students who want to see results as they play with this tool.

Once a presentation is built, there is a share button in the top right that allows a URL link to be created so sharing is super simple. Others can then visit that link and view the slideshow from any device they are using.

What are the best Microsoft Sway features?

Microsoft Sway is very simple to use making it great even for total beginners. Sharing is digital, which is easy, and there is also the option to export into Word or PDF format, making the process even more robust. 

Usefully, this can be shared digitally with certain people or groups, or with anyone sent the link. The person sharing can decide if others simply view the presentation or if they can have the option to edit also – helpful for creating a collaborative project that groups of students can work on together.

That share button option can also be selected as sharable. This means a teacher can create a template then duplicate it and allow students to share it. Students are then able to make amends as needed, perhaps to input a science project with graphs and charts, before sharing with others in their work group to add their input.

Photos can be added in stacks that can be set to be used as swipeable, to flip through the selection, or to be static when viewed strictly as a gallery. Also available is the option to vary how the presentation is navigated, either vertically or horizontally – ideal if you are targeting smartphone screens or laptops, for example. 

Plenty of rich media can be imported easily, from using web images, GIFs, and videos to pulling in saved content from OneDrive that's cloud-stored. It's also easy to place links in the text so that anyone viewing the presentation can learn more as needed from third-party sources.

How much does Microsoft Sway cost?

Microsoft Sway is available as free to use online via a web browser, so anyone can use it on most devices without paying anything or even signing up with personal details such as an email address.

The tool is also available on iOS and Windows 11 in app format, which is also free.

For anyone already using the Microsoft Office suite there are going to be more options available in terms of admin controls. But, that said, payment isn't required to still get the most out of this useful online-based presentation tool.

Microsoft Sway best tips and tricks

Lab report Have students use Sway to present a lab report, individually or as a group, in which they create charts and graphs to show their findings in a visually striking way.

Present back Set a presentation task to individuals, or groups, and have them either present in class or share digitally what they've found so they learn to use the tool and others learn from what they're creating.

Portfolio Use this visually engaging tool as a way to build portfolios for students, either as a teacher or as done by the students themselves. This can be a place with all their work for the year, easily viewed and shared from one place.

• What is Padlet and How Does it Work?
• Best Digital Tools for Teachers

Luke Edwards is a freelance writer and editor with more than two decades of experience covering tech, science, and health. He writes for many publications covering health tech, software and apps, digital teaching tools, VPNs, TV, audio, smart home, antivirus, broadband, smartphones, cars and much more.

ThinkCERCA: How to Use It to Teach

AI Starter Kit for Teachers

Using Legos To Build a Better World: The Lego Build the Change Initiative

Most Popular

• 2 ThinkCERCA: How to Use It to Teach
• 3 AI Starter Kit for Teachers
• 4 EdTech Week 2024: Sights and Sounds
• 5 AI-Assisted Characters Help Students Learn From TV, According to Harvard-Led Research

• Tips and guides
• Microsoft 365

Sway design tips and new templates

• The Microsoft 365 Marketing Team

Sway just passed its one-year mark, and we are very inspired to see millions of users from all over the globe using Sway in their work and personal lives. We hope to serve even more people by delivering on our promise to make it effortless to create and share content with colleagues, family and friends.

First, let’s begin with our new Portfolio template as a sample Sway. Sway templates start you off with a color palette, layout and sample content. If you like the first combination you see, you can move on to the other tips below. But if you were looking for something different, click the Remix button on the top navigation bar and Sway will give you various combinations to select.

Here is a sample of different combinations you can get by pressing the Remix button a few times:

As you can see, the color scheme, font and layout all dynamically change and the differences become more apparent when you scroll through the Sways. The idea here is similar to having a designer by your side who whips up various styles options without you having to do a lot of work on your part.

If you want to be more deliberate in the way you change your Sway’s style, you can also click the Design button on the top navigation bar. This opens up a Design pane that shows you a preview of the various style combinations you can select. Styles in the same row differ in small ways, like font and background, while styles in different rows change more substantially, such as in layout and structure.

Customize (in Design)

Once you find a style that works for you, the Customize button in the Design pane offers you the ability to fine-tune specific elements in your Sway. For instance, you can change just the color palette—keeping the rest of the Sway format intact. You can also customize font styles, font size and degree of animation.

The last major style element you can modify is your Sway’s layout. The Portfolio template we started from employs a Vertical layout, where the document moves from top to bottom, much like how most web pages work today.

You can easily switch the way your Sway flows. Simply select Layout on the top navigation bar and then select either vertically scrolling layout (top icon), horizontally scrolling layout (middle icon) or screen-by-screen, optimized for presentation layout (bottom icon).

Here is how the same Sway looks in Horizontal layout:

As with all the other functions, Sway makes it easy for you to change your Layout in just a few clicks. The app does all the work of reformatting everything else—so you won’t need to spend hours moving around your sections, text boxes, images and other content.

Undo/Redo and Duplicate

As you work on getting to your ideal Sway, don’t forget to use the Undo and Redo buttons on the top navigation bar in case you change your mind about some style changes. And if you want to use a particular style for all your Sways, you can use the Duplicate this Sway function in the … section to create a copy for future use.

As a bonus, these last few tips are easy ways to make sure your photos show up great. First, you can set how Sway displays your photo by clicking on the image or image card, selecting Focus Points and then selecting the parts that are most important to you.

You can mark specific areas in the photo that you want Sway to highlight or select The entire image is important checkbox. Sway automatically adjusts how your photo shows up and emphasizes certain areas based on your selection.

Second, you can select different sizes for your photos by clicking the image card and then selecting either Subtle , Moderate or Intense . Subtle will use the smallest image size, Moderate the medium image size and Intense the largest image size that will still look good with the rest of your Sway.

Lastly, you can Group your text, photos and other Sway cards when you want them to show up together in specific ways. In the example below, we first picked the photos we wanted to group together by selecting the checkboxes at the lower right of the cards. Next, we clicked the Group button, which opened up the Group Type pane, and selected the second Slideshow from the pane. The Sway preview shows you how the photos are instantly grouped together in a left-to-right Slideshow, with a preview bar at the bottom.

New Sway templates

We recently released several new templates to help you get started on your Sway. They’re currently available on the My Sways page in the Sway web app. Some of our favorites are featured on our new Land your dream job site. We partnered with careers expert Maxie McCoy to create a free resume , portfolio and blog post templates to help aspiring job hunters, artists and writers land their dream jobs—or simply have another great way to showcase their work.

We hope you find our tips useful and have learned a bit more on how to make the most of your Sway.

—The Sway team

• Skip to main content Microsoft Sway Home