How to present from the browser without installing PowerPoint

A deck that lives in a file has a predictable set of failure modes:

• Versions multiply. The one you presented is on your laptop, a newer one is in someone's downloads folder, and the one on the shared drive is older than both. Nobody is sure which is current.
• Fonts travel badly. A deck that looks right on your machine can reflow on someone else's, because the font it was designed around is not installed there.
• The other side needs the software. Opening a .pptx requires something that opens .pptx — an installed copy of Office, or a viewer that has to be fetched first.
• Sharing is a transfer. Sending a large file means waiting for an upload and then for a download on the far end, and mail systems sometimes refuse it outright.

None of these are about the content. They are costs of the file being the unit of delivery.

You upload a document, choose a slide count and a visual style, and get back a link to an HTML deck. Presenting is: open the link, press the right arrow. The arrow keys, or the on-screen arrows, move between slides, and the full-screen button in the top-right expands the deck so the audience sees slides rather than a browser window. Every slide also carries a short speaker note summarising the point it makes.

To give the deck to someone else you send the link. Nothing is installed on either machine, and there is no version to reconcile, because there is one deck and both of you are looking at it. If the link would be buried in a busy chat, share the image card instead: it is a 1200×630 preview with a QR code back to the live deck.

You do not need an account, and short decks — up to five slides — are free. Longer decks are paid for one at a time: a single payment per deck, with no subscription and no prepaid credits to top up. Most decks are ready in 30–60 seconds, so you can test the workflow before the meeting rather than during it.

The honest list:

• No .pptx and no PDF export. The deck is HTML, presented in the browser, so there is no editable file to hand over. If someone needs to keep working on it in PowerPoint, this is not a substitute for PowerPoint.
• No pixel-level layout control. You pick one of the built-in visual styles, and the arrangement of the content on each page comes from the model. There is no drag-and-drop editor.
• Only what was in your text. No images, charts or video are generated.
• You need a connection. The page loads its slide engine from a CDN, so there is no offline mode.
• A link has a retention clock that your own file does not. Anonymous decks and order records are kept for up to 30 days, which is the retention policy the privacy policy describes. A file saved on your own machine is not subject to it.

• An internal update or project review, where the content already exists and the audience is in the room or on a call.
• A class, workshop or technical talk — present from the deck tab, with the speaker notes on the same slide.
• A talk you drafted as notes first, in Markdown or Word, so the outline is written already.
• The slot you were asked to fill at short notice, where the alternative is an hour of manual slide design.

pastedeck is a content tool rather than a design tool, and the about page says so plainly: it organises material you already have. If a deck has to carry bespoke visual design, or has to be handed over as an editable file, use a design tool instead.

Take a document you already have, choose a slide count, and present the result from the browser. Decks of up to five slides are free and need no account, so you can walk the whole path — upload, generate, present, share the link — from the home page before deciding anything.

For the sharing options in detail, read link or image sharing without attachments. For the broader timing and workflow question, read what 30–60 seconds actually means.