Giving Google Presentations a try
Catherine Farman September 18th, 2007
I am a devoted evangelist of free office applications that chip away at the hegemony of Microsoft Office. Last week while on duty here in the New Media Lab, a fellow student asked me if I knew where she could get the new Microsoft Office for her Mac- and I encouraged her to instead try a couple of these free, open source office programs. On a college campus, where the faculty and staff use Microsoft Office and the students who interact with them cannot or do not want to pay for such expensive software, free programs such as OpenOffice (for Windows and Mac) and my personal fave, NeoOffice for the Mac, are vital for those sharing projects, papers, and presentations inside and outside of class.
I have used Google Documents for about a year now, and find it has many advantages over desktop applications- I can backup my papers there; create documents quickly for notes on-the-go; convert files quickly online to PDF, Word, and other file types; and I have found it useful for filling out forms or writing reports for projects and professors that I wish to share immediately through email. I’ve even helped friends write resumes and papers through the sharing features; I read and mark up places for change, and the other person sees it immediately as a revision. In short, I love Google Docs- so when I saw today that Google Presentations had just been introduced, I gave it a try to see if it would win me over just as Docs has done. I’ve presented my findings in- what else?- a Google ‘powerpoint’ file that I am now sharing here in this blog. The first few slides are me messing around, seeing what I can do with the app- and the last couple list what I found to be the strengths and weaknesses in the app.
The coolest feature I’ve found is something anyone reading this can use right now: integrated Google Talk, right alongside the presentation. Viewers and the presenter(s) can interact online as the powerpoint unfolds. You can join in just by viewing the presentation- so go there now and let me know your thoughts.
Very nice! When was that released? We should get a free/open advocacy group going on campus.
-Doug
[...] you want to know more read this post from Bryn Mawr college, and check out the sample [...]
Now if Safari and Google Docs would just play together nicely, or at all for that matter.
[...] Giving Google Presentations a try [...]
I have been using safari to write a text document, make a spreadsheet and a presentation. Only issue is that I cannot write any text in the presentation. All other features worked.