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Create visually striking newsletters, presentations and documentation in minutes with Microsoft Sway.
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ITTA offers a Microsoft Sway catalogue with the Sway – Get Started course. It covers creating narrative web presentations (storylines), adding text, images, videos, embeds and data, automatic styles and themes, online publishing and sharing, Microsoft 365 integration, and the right use cases compared to PowerPoint. Audience: communicators, trainers, marketers, HR and pedagogical profiles seeking a responsive web presentation format. Sessions delivered in Geneva, Lausanne and interactive virtual classroom.
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Create visually striking newsletters, presentations and documentation in minutes with Microsoft Sway.
Microsoft Sway is Microsoft’s narrative presentation tool, designed as a web and responsive alternative to classic PowerPoint presentations. Where PowerPoint offers a sequence of 16:9 slides, Sway offers a storyline format (visual narrative) that automatically adapts to the screen (desktop, tablet, mobile) and is published as a web page shareable by link or embed. Launched in 2014 and progressively enriched, Sway has positioned itself on a very different use from PowerPoint: less pixel-perfect control, more narrative fluidity, ideal format for interactive reports, internal newsletters, pedagogical files, light marketing presentations, biographies, portfolios, event brochures.
Sway is available free with a Microsoft account (consumer), and included in Microsoft 365 subscriptions (enterprise and education). It requires no installation: it is a pure web tool, accessible from the browser, that synchronises with OneDrive for content storage. Sway offers automatic designs (themes), intelligent layout suggestion (Design Ideas), an enhanced accessibility option (Immersive Reader), and compatibility with external sources (YouTube, Twitter, Bing search, Flickr, OneDrive).
Sway and PowerPoint meet distinct needs. Choosing Sway is relevant when content must be consultable on mobile as easily as on desktop (responsive page), shareable by link without file sending, embeddable in SharePoint or Teams via embed, easily updatable after publishing. PowerPoint remains preferable for presentations given live before an audience with a slide logic, transitions, complex animations, precise visual control (graphic charter, pixel-perfect alignments), and clean PDF/print export. Many organisations use both tools depending on context: PowerPoint for commercial pitches in meetings, Sway for internal reports, onboarding files, team newsletters.
The term “alternative” is important: Sway was never designed to replace PowerPoint. Microsoft positions both tools complementarily, with a distinct philosophy (web narrative vs projected slides).
The Sway – Get Started course is designed to enable rapid Sway adoption. The programme covers creating a Sway (empty or from a Word, PDF document, or template), structuring in sections (text, title, paragraph), adding multimedia content (images, YouTube videos, audio, polls, OneDrive embeds, Bing search), formatting via automatic designs (themes, styles), animation and scroll options (vertical, horizontal, slides), Excel data and Bing search integration, creating a pedagogical file or internal newsletter, publishing (public link, restricted link, embed), enterprise sharing (with Microsoft 365), and the right use cases compared to PowerPoint. A section is dedicated to audience-side change management (learning to read a Sway rather than waiting for a slide).
Sway fits in the Microsoft 365 suite and complements classic presentation tools. The Microsoft PowerPoint publisher is the reference tool for live presentations, complementary to Sway. The Microsoft 365 publisher covers the complete environment where Sway integrates (publishing via OneDrive, link sharing, embed in SharePoint). The visual presentation sub-domain regroups training on visual communication (PowerPoint, Sway, slide design, presentation principles). For more advanced collaborative uses (interactive group presentation), the Microsoft Teams publisher is complementary.
Narrative format with sections (highlights, key figures, projects, agenda), Excel table embeds, event photos, short videos. Internal link sharing, easy monthly update.
Responsive web format for course supports, with integrated videos, polls, external links. Link sharing to the group. Widely used in secondary and higher education.
Narrative visual format with full-page photos, quotes, social network links. Public sharing if needed.
Welcome Sway with team presentation, org chart, first practical info, welcome videos. Private link sharing to the new collaborator.
Sway evolves more slowly than PowerPoint and Teams, but remains actively maintained. Microsoft 365 integration has strengthened (SharePoint sharing, Teams embed), automatic designs have enriched, and accessibility support (Immersive Reader) remains a strong point. Microsoft has not pushed Sway at the same pace as other tools, but has maintained it due to pedagogical and communication usage. So Sway should be seen as a stable and useful tool in specific contexts, rather than as a product in full expansion.
Does Sway replace PowerPoint?
No, Sway and PowerPoint are complementary. PowerPoint remains the tool for live meeting or conference presentations. Sway is rather designed for responsive web narrative reports, pedagogical files, newsletters, link sharing.
Is Sway free?
Sway is available free with a personal Microsoft account (consumer). It is included in Microsoft 365 enterprise and education subscriptions. Advanced features (premium templates, some integrations) may depend on the subscription.
Can a Sway be printed?
Sway offers a PDF export, but the print render is less controlled than a PowerPoint or Word. For high-quality print supports (brochures, reports), a DTP tool or Word remains more suitable. Sway excels on responsive web.
What profile to follow this course?
Internal communicator, communication officer, trainer, marketer, HR officer, teacher, manager wanting to modernise team reports. Basic Microsoft office productivity proficiency is enough.
Our Sway – Get Started sessions are scheduled in Geneva, Lausanne and interactive virtual classroom with a live trainer. The format is short (typically half-day to one day), practice-oriented with creation of a Sway relevant to the participant’s context (report, newsletter, pedagogical file). For organisations engaged in modernising communication supports, we offer in-house sessions calibrated on your use cases (monthly team report, internal communication, training support). Material modalities communicated by the education team in advance.
ITTA offers a coherent Microsoft 365 catalogue covering presentation and internal communication tools: PowerPoint for live, Sway for web narrative, Forms for questionnaires, SharePoint for distribution. This integrated vision helps choose the right tool according to context rather than using PowerPoint by default. Our trainers are professionals active on Microsoft 365 projects in French-speaking Switzerland, able to illustrate best practices with concrete examples of Sway in production. Sessions in Geneva, Lausanne and interactive virtual classroom, in-house and inter-company.
Sway gives a large place to automatisms (themes, designs, smart layout). However, a few simple rules significantly improve the rendering: limit long text blocks (favour short paragraphs plus visuals), use titled sections for structure, choose high-resolution images for full pages, keep chromatic coherence across the Sway. On sharing, the organisation-link option is generally more appropriate than the public link for internal reports. The course addresses these responsive web design best practices.
Monday to Friday
8:30 AM to 6:00 PM
Tel. 058 307 73 00
ITTA
Route des jeunes 35
1227 Carouge, Suisse
Monday to Friday, from 8:30 am to 06:00 pm.