Google Presentation - Google's PowerPoint app goes live

Filed under: Business, Design, News, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Office, Productivity, Web services, Google, Microsoft, Freeware, Social Software, Beta

Google Presentation - Google's PowerPoint app goes live

by Jason Clarke Sep 18th 2007

Google's long-rumored and eagerly anticipated PowerPoint clone has finally shipped. Although we've only had a chance to have a first look, here are some impressions:

What it does have or do

Importing PowerPoint files
Exporting HTML file
15 built-in themes
Text formatting
Basic image manipulation functionality (adding, resizing)
Versioning
Collaboration
Online presentation sharing

What it doesn't have or do

Animations of any kind
Advanced image manipulation
Advanced text formatting
Sound
Video
Exporting PowerPoint files

Google has done a very good job of making this new Presentation application (based on code from Zenter) fit in with Docs and Spreadsheets. It looks right at home, and the functionality is about what you would expect from another Google App. File versioning and collaboration functions work exactly like they do for Docs and Spreadsheets, which is to say just fine.

Probably the most surprising and yet most obvious feature is the ability to share your presentations online. Simply click "Start presentation", then email the link provided to your audience. A chat box opens to the right of your maximized presentation view, and you can walk through the slides. Although the chat box bears a strong resemblance to Google Chat, no voice functionality appears to be present currently, though it does seem like an obvious direction for them to go.

Presentation File Menu

Creating a new presentation is dead simple, and although a lot of the advanced features of PowerPoint are missing, rarely do those features actually contribute to a better presentation. Google has provided everything that you need to get your point across in a matter-of-fact way, and nobody is going to argue with the price.

If there's one feature that's glaringly missing, it's the ability to export your presentation as a .PPT file. While you can import them (with varying levels of accuracy depending on the complexity of the PowerPoint file), the only export option available is to export as a zip file containing HTML pages for your presentation. This is clearly not preferable, but works in a pinch if you need to give someone a copy of your presentation offline.

Interestingly, although it has been reported that Google Apps for Your Domain is a fork of the code for the regular Google Apps that you get with a typical Google account, Presentation is already available in both versions.

Tags: Docs-and-Spreadsheets, Google-Apps, Google-Docs, Google-PowerPoint, Google-Presentation, PowerPoint, Presentation

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Chris Gilmer said 1:33AM on 9-18-2007

yah Google!
So how many users will now wave byebye to MS Office forever?

Mark Whiting said 5:54AM on 9-18-2007

Another thing they do not have is a grid for placing things like images and text in the center of a slide. There seems to be no snapping at all.

james 42 said 10:02AM on 9-18-2007

Chris, very few. MS Office has too many power features to trade for Google Apps. I doubt there are many business people who could go for more then a week with missing some critical feature. Open Office is a much more reasonable choice for replacing MS Office.

That said, this looks great, especially for those of who have cut the cord from MS Office and for those just starting out. Though still not a replacement for Open Office for me, like the other apps, I bet I will be using this more then I can image right now.

Robert H. Goretsky said 12:10PM on 9-18-2007

Seems that this starts to cross into the domain occupied by WebEx for running live presentations over the net... I wonder if a 'share desktop' feature similar to WebEx's version isn't far behind?

Comment by Robert H. Goretsky of Hoboken, NJ

rumple said 12:15PM on 9-18-2007

Doesn't replace Powerpoint. However it does fill a NICE gap. It has all the collaboration tools that Powerpoint tries to have but does so poorly.

eBooksBay said 12:34PM on 9-18-2007

Very cool, Thanks Google.

http://ebooksbay.org

Brent said 12:36PM on 9-18-2007

Actually the lack of animations should be considered a feature. I can't sit through another presenation where there is crap flying all over the screen.

Greg said 2:49PM on 9-18-2007

Microsoft is trembly in fear!

Chris Moroz said 8:53PM on 9-18-2007

So I'll be the first (and maybe only) to say that it's horrible. Not only is it impractical, it's ridiculously slow. Yeah, it's beta, but that doesn't mean it has to be useless - ok that's an exaggeration. The feature set is so limited I can't see this really being of any use to anyone. I suppose the ability to view the resentation online is interesting, but how useful will really be? Businesses will want something with more features (like webex), and Joe and Tom will quickly tire of "sharing" their homemade "shows" within a week.

I hope I'm wrong though, the rest of Google Docs is fantastic.

Karl said 7:12PM on 9-19-2007

This is nice for collaborating for very simple presentations but not much after that. It doesn't support graphics (circles, shapes, lines, etc.), charts, vertical text to make charts or anything that would let you convey a minimally graphical concept. Think how difficult it would be just to annotate a screenshot (have an arrow point to a button) It cannot be done. It would have to be done in a desktop app. But it can be created and updated in Powerpoint in seconds. I spend a huge chunk of my time creating and adjusting graphics and to use this app would mean still having to run a desktop app.

Oh...and are you willing to use this for offline presentations. Professional ones in front of 100s of people? It doesn't have a full screen mode...

Paul said 7:44AM on 9-22-2007

As a Mac user I am disappointed that Safari is not yet supported, (and not in the spreadsheet app either, even though it has been out for quite a while now), but on the other hand, I have already jumped off the PowerPoint bandwagon for Apple's Keynote, which is a bargain to boot, included in the $79 iWork suite with Pages and Numbers, which is also good enough for my purposes.

Like most, I will have to hang on to the MS Office suite for files sent to me by others who use features not in iWork, (or Google Docs), but I'll never generate another file in MS Office again.

Apres Ski said 11:12PM on 9-23-2007

This is good for those moments you have a hot idea for the boss or that promotion and you need someplace to just jot down that idea before it runs off.

Now you can sit down, open Google's PPT, and start working on that promotion even earlier than you thought!!

PTC said 10:35PM on 9-25-2007

Thats great (and quite as expected too).
The only problem with Google Apps (as all know) is that large organizations can't opt for it over Microsoft Office suite as the content is stored of Google owned servers. Hope Google does something about that too soon.

jgskumar said 6:29AM on 9-27-2007

iam a BCA student in correspondance, pls guide me

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