How does KeySlides compare to BrandIn?

I am an avid listener of The Presentation Podcast. In episode #233 Jamie Garroch and Hannah Harper from BrightCarbon were guests to discuss BrandIn, 'the app for PowerPoint and Word that gives you and your teams the building blocks for beautiful, on-brand content, right at your fingertips'.

BrightCarbon is of course a very well known name in the presentation industry. I think that almost every agency that builds PowerPoint templates and presentations, and a lot of end users, use their free add-in BrightSlide, a tremendous and much appreciated (did I mention it is free?) productivity tool for PowerPoint. So 'everybody' knows BrightCarbon, and in comparison 'nobody' knows KeyScript, a small Dutch ISV, with for the biggest part local clients. KeyScript has a PowerPoint add-in KeySlides, but also creates bespoke software for Office applications, so you can have a Word add-in with a similar look and feel, tailored to your business needs and your corporate identity.

The main features of BrandIn are very similar to KeyScript's PowerPoint add-in KeySlides. Both products help users create on-brand presentations from centrally managed, curated content.
But there are design decisions that make a huge difference on where you can use the extension, make a difference where you can store your content, and also impact the user experience. In this blog I will explain these differences. My knowledge of BrandIn is limited to what I have heard on the podcast, Troy Chollar's blog posts part 1 and part 2 on The PowerPoint ® Blog, and the short demo clip on the BrightCarbon website, so I hope I tell the truth. If not, let me know and I will update this blog.

When this blog was written (November 2025), both products are relatively new and will receive regular updates, so by the time you read this, the information may be outdated.

Where will it run?

BrandIn use the OfficeJS API and will run on the desktop versions of PowerPoint on Windows and Mac as well as in PowerPoint online. Of course, this is a big plus.

The OfficeJS API is now more than ten years under development. When I started developing KeySlides, the limitations were much bigger than they are now, so I felt that is wasn't even worth considering then. But even if I would start today, I think that I would make the same design decision.
KeySlides uses Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO), a .NET Framework based API. This means that you have to install KeySlides with an MSI (so you need your IT department) and you can use it only with the Windows desktop version of PowerPoint.
But because I think I can deliver a better experience on this platform, and Windows desktop still has the largest user group, I decided to accept this limitation.

Flexibility of content storage location

As a modern JavaScript based add-in, BrandIn does not have access to the local file system. All content is stored on SharePoint (even if you manage it in Teams, the files are still stored on SharePoint). Support for OneDrive for Business will be added. I wanted to offer more flexibility in the location of the content. I have clients that still use network shares and I wanted to support that scenario too.

But almost all my clients create a SharePoint communication site with a document library where they store the content. Similar to BrandIn, a few users are contributors and can manage the content, most users are viewers and only use the content.

KeySlides is an add-in running on the desktop, so the content must be available on the local machine to achieve good performance. Most of my clients use OneDrive sync client to synchronize the document library locally. If it is not allowed to use OneDrive Sync client, KeySlides has its own synchronization mechanism. But having OneDrive synchronize content in the background is a much smoother experience.

Because KeySlides uses the local file system, network drives (drive letter or UNC path) or stand alone setups are also supported.

Offline use

Having the data locally means the KeySlides can also be used offline. Although this is not so important as it used to be, there are cases where this is a life saver.

User interface

OfficeJS based add-ins like BrandIn use the side panel in PowerPoint for their user interface.
I think this is a serious limitation. Often, a (resizable) popup window is more intuitive and more flexible because you have more screen real estate at your disposal.

Compare the side panel in a 'modern add-in' with the popup window I can use and hopefully you'll understand what I mean.

Inserting slides

Like BrandIn, KeySlides is very flexible in how you structure your content, but the approach is different.

BrandIn lets you connect multiple libraries for different clients or projects. KeySlides uses one content library, but it lets you 'connect' example slides and photo folders to templates.
You can use this for different brands, but also tofor different types of presentations (for example screen presentations, social media posts and proposals), or to support different languages versions of the same type of template.
For example, when you create a presentation for an English proposal, you only see the slides and photos associated with that template to choose from.
You can associate multiple example slide files to a template and you can associate an example slide file to multiple templates.

When inserting slides, section in the example slide file are used as tabs in the preview window to categorize the slides.

Also (and I think BrandIn does not have that option), you can choose if you want to create a section (to structure the presentation in the slide sorter view, or to create a section zoom) and/or if you want to include the example content, or want to insert an empty slide based on the slide lay-out of the selected example.

In KeySlides, you can configure a file with example slides to be available in the 'Insert presentation' menu to insert it directly into your presentation, and/or to be available in the 'Insert slide' menu, where you browse preview images of the slides per section and insert all slides in the section, your selection of one or more slides from a section, or an empty slide based on the slide lay-out of a single selected example slide.

Other things I think I could not do with OfficeJS

Integrated cropping tool

I paid a lot of attention to the photo library tool in KeySlides. I saw some of the competitors where inserted pictures are not placed in the selected placeholder, or even are inserted as a stand alone image on the slide. From the demo it looks like BrandIn inserts an image in the selected placeholder, although with only one free placeholder visible on the slide in the demo I cannot be sure.
KeySlides always inserts the photo in the selected placeholder, whether it already contains an image or not. The placeholder also retains its position in the Z-order. I have seen other add-ins where the new image will be on top of the stack. I assume BrandIn works in a similar way as KeySlides. For both, you do not use the button in the image placeholder, so there is no issue if it is hidden by another object (you have probably seen templates with instructions next to the slide to apply 'Send to back' to objects?).
I heard from clients that a lot of users do not bother to use the PowerPoint cropping tool (or know that it exists). As a result, if you insert a photo with a different aspect ratio than the placeholder, the result often is not the best you can achieve for the photo. KeySlides tries to encourage users to think about the cropping. If the selected photo has a different aspect ratio, an intuitive cropping tool opens where you can zoom and pan to select the relevant part of the photo. By integrating this process into the workflow of inserting a photo, the result is often better. I am talking about the average user; of course I do not mean that you don't use the cropping tool.
And if your picture placeholder is not rectangular, you can define an overlay (I often use 50% black) to mask the part of the picture that you will not see on the slide while you are cropping the photo.

Applying text styles

KeySlides lets you define buttons to apply list levels to selected text in a text or content placeholder on a slide.
The user does not have to Tab/Shift-Tab or to click the increase/decrease list level buttons multiple times to change the text formatting (if it is even known that multiple text styles are supported and how to use them). Instead, clearly labelled buttons on the KeySlides tab let you apply the style in one click.

Icons in theme colors

SVG icons have the advantage that you can easily change their color. KeySlides integrates that into your workflow.
Note that the icon is inserted in the selected placeholder, even if it already contains an image. Not all similar add-ins have that capability.
KeySlides retrieves the colors from the theme and lets you select the color you want, so you do not have to right click the icon and change the color in a separate step.
Oh… and one of the cons of BrandIn that Troy Chollar mentioned in his blog post: although icons are shown on a white background by default, you have the option to set a different background color. I encountered a project where we had white icons, and it was easy to implement. I am sure BrandIn will support this as well pretty soon.

Variables

When KeySlides is used to create proposals, clients often need to include the name of the prospect or the name of services or products on different slides in the presentation. KeySlides lets you use arbitrary variable names in double curly braces in your example slide. The 'Variables' button lets the user assign values to these variables. When you close the window, the values are applied to all occurrences of the same variable in the presentation. But from then on, these values are associated with the presentation. Every time you insert a slide with known variables, the values are inserted without any further action from the user.

Conclusion

I think both BrandIn and KeySlides can help users to quickly create on-brand presentations from centrally managed, curated content. The main features are comparable, and they both have features that the other lacks.

The environment where you can use these products differs. BrandIn supports more platforms, KeySlides only supports windows desktop. BrandIn is restricted to SharePoint (and will add support for OneDrive for Business), KeySlides offers more flexibility where you can store the content and also works offline.

The companies behind the products are different, the pricing is different.

If you work for or own a design agency: KeyScript also has a partner program for design agencies. Contact me for details.