Using Google Presentations in the Real World

I just wrapped up a speaking tour where I created all of my presentations using Google's new web based presentations application. This is a look at how that worked.

As a preface, the presentations I created were screen show heavy with only an occasional use of text.

What worked well:

1. Creating slides. This was as easy as clicking New Slide and importing an image for the slide from my computer. My general workflow was to grab a screenshot of a website (or part of website) which auto-copied as a .PNG to my desktop. I'd then browse and select the image which would import it into the presentation. Most common image formats can be imported.

2. Sorting Slides. Moving slides around within a presentation is much like PowerPoint. You have to be a bit more careful about where you click to select a slide, but the workflow is the same.

3. Transitions. I'm not a big fan of slide transitions. Google Presentations doesn't offer any slide transitions options, so that's easy to avoid. If you're someone who's addicted to sliding bulletpoints onto the screen or using Scooby Doo effects between slides, this is not for you.

4. Presentation Export. Presenting directly from the web can be risky since you can't always count on Internet connections. Google offers an option to export the presentation as a .PDF which works great for presenting. I'm using a Mac, where the default PDF viewer is Preview. That program pulled up a navigational menu on the screen every time I advanced a slide, so I switch to Acrobat Reader to solve this problem.

What Didn't Work

I only ran into one critical issue, but it was a big one.

With each speaking stop, I'd copy the previous presentation to start a new one, modify it, then export the revisions as a .PDF for the presentation. I ran into an issue where the .PDF export didn't work. The presentation would export but the file was corrupt and couldn't be opened with Acrobat or Preview on my Mac. I couldn't figure out how to troubleshoot it, so I rebuilt my presentation in time to present it.

Themes: This wasn't a big one, but I couldn't figure out how to upload a custom theme / background for my presentation. It wasn't a big deal for me, since I find logos on every slide distracting, but I could see this being a big issue for many presenters.

Overall, I was impressed with the service. Based on how I build presentations, it worked great for me.

Jrome, good point about the amazingness of the application. However, as far as it goes, I think Google Presentations is closer to replicating PowerPoint than Google's alternatives to Word, Excel, or Access.

I spoke at a company event and used Zoho's presentation tool and it worked great. One of the reasons I went with Zoho is that my co-presenter lived in a different state and it made it much easier to have a common, networked version than an emailed version.

They have an HTML export that works well on the client - but we went with the 'live' connected version.

The reason we went with Zoho is that we wanted to embed a video in the presentation and Google didn't seem to have the ability to easily display video.

My main issue with Zoho or Google Docs is the lack of outline tools. I like PowerPoint's outlining capability because it helps me get the ideas out fast. But based on my experience, I will use Zoho or Google Docs again.

Comments

1. Posted by: Jrome on March 14, 2008 5:45 PM:

"For now", you can't upload a Google Presentation theme, but with a right-click directly on your slide, you can "change background" and upload your image. You can also apply the new background to all your slides. Easy, uh?

A great app, but the least amazing of the Google Suite.

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember personal info?

Comments:

HTML Tags you can use in your posts:
<b>Bold</b> = Bold
<i>Italicized</i> = Italicized
<a href="http://www.othersite.com">Link to Other Site</a> = Link to Other Site

Please keep comments on-topic. Contact authors or other commenters
directly for off-topic conversations.

Notify me of future comments via e-mail

Technology Evangelist Digest - Free Newsletter

Sign up for the free Technology Evangelist Digest to receive daily updates, editorials, and practical advice on emerging technology trends in hardware, software, webware, marketing and beyond.

Technology Evangelist Digest will keep you up to date on the technology trends that will help make you more productive and efficient both in business and your personal life.

Let's face it: If you made it to this line, you must have found something valuable on this page, right? Think about how cool it would be to have something free and interesting to read every day from Technology Evangelist by signing up today.

1. Fill in your email below,
2. Then click on the confirmation email you receive.
3. That's it. Your first Technology Evangelist Digest will arrive within 24 hours.