Who Needs Office Now Google Docs Does Presentations?

Recently Office suites have been in the news again. Yahoo has acquired Zimbra for $350 million and OpenOffice 2.3 has been released. The biggest news though is Google releasing the presentations application for Google Docs.

Google Does Powerpoint

Google Docs PresentationsIf you log into Google Docs now and start a new document you will see there is a new option for presentation. So now as well as a word processor and spreadsheet, you can also create neat slideshows.

Creating one of these presentations will be familiar to Microsoft Powerpoint users, it is very similar. You can even upload a .PPT file to work on. I’m not sure exactly how much of the functionality will remain, probably very little from the original, but it has to be a useful tool for anyone who needs to edit a file but doesn’t want to take up the space or expense of Powerpoint or compatible alternative.

Google Docs PresentationsSaving files means storing your document online or exporting a .zip containing all your content to be viewed in a browser. It is a shame that I can not see an export as .PPT option.

As with other presentation packages you can go wild with the aesthetics. You can style up your slides, use pre-built themes, edit fonts and alignment etc, and of course preview as a slide show. Everything is very intuitive and built in an immediate feedback AJAX desktop-like style.

When viewing a presentation you can use mouse clicks or keyboard to navigate the slides as you would expect.

Google Docs PresentationsBasing the application on the web means a new, more collaborative way of working is possible.

One feature that I think will be very useful in educational contexts is the addition of a chat room for each presentation when shared online.

Each presentation when published is provided a unique URL for you to invite others to view, plus it is possible to embed these presentations in your own site using Iframes.

The Threat to Microsoft

Up until now I have been on the fence about these online office applications. Most of my uncertainty has been around relying on a web based app, and all that entails. Well now my days rely on internet connectivity anyway, and these applications have matured to a point where you are not missing many features. I’m not going to be using them full time but I do now think Google is on to a winner. As Tris says

If MSFT and OpenOffice/Sun don’t adapt to the new desire for light apps, well I think they are going to find themselves in a world of hurt.

We know that Google is going after the corporate environment, pushing their suite through with the help of Capgemini. These online apps contain the core functionality we use day to day, without any of the more fancy rarely used features. Many businesses will be seriously considering this functionality and wondering if it is worth the license cost for the extra.

More Coverage

What Do You Think?

Have you tried it out? Think this is the end of Microsoft or have Microsoft got a counter strategy still to play? Let us know in the comments …

Posted on September 18, 2007 by Chris Garrett 
Filed Under Office 2.0, Web 2.0

Comments

6 Responses to “Who Needs Office Now Google Docs Does Presentations?”

  1. Scott Sehlhorst on September 18th, 2007 5:23 pm

    Very cool. There are definitely some not-ready-for-prime-time issues with presentations.

    I just created a quick 8 slide presentation with an “animation” that builds out a complex diagram. To do that, I uploaded multiple images, one per slide, with each image duplicating and adding to the content. A common trick in Powerpoint.

    There are two problems with making this work. First, there is no grid/snap/alignment capability for making sure the images precisely overlay the previous images. This is distracting when flipping through the slides, as the image appears to jump around. Second, the images are resized as raster images when viewing the slide shows.

    The resizing algorithm in powerpoint seems to handle resizing much better – diagonal lines don’t become jagged, and text (in the image) does not become blocky.

    I use this technique a lot in presentations. Until Google allows me to align images and use SVG vector graphics or otherwise make scaling better, I’ll have to pass.

    Thanks for telling us about it!

  2. Yoav Ezer on September 18th, 2007 5:41 pm

    Hi Chris,

    I’ll take Scott’s point one step further. The real anchor Microsoft has in the corporate environment are the existing documents/spreadsheets/presentations.

    A lot of businesses rely on these documents that incorporate some of the “heavy” features for some serious stuff. This is especially true for Microsoft Excel. There are millions of spreadsheets that contain sophisticated formulas/charting/vba. And until Google/any other web app vendor supports those functions fully they will not be able to uproot Microsoft.

    In the last excel conference I attended I met an Excel MVP that could do the most amazing things with formulas. When he was asked why he wastes his time with such advanced stuff he said … “you call this a waste of time but I call it job security.” And this is exactly where Google/Yahoo face the biggest challenge.

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  4. Chris Garrett on September 19th, 2007 11:25 am

    @Scott – I see what you mean, SVG and better alignment tools would definitely improve it

    @Yoav – Yeah, I have had clients who have totally used the different apps in ways I could never imagine, using Excel as a database and Word as a spreadsheet! Apparently Google is using open office on the backend for conversion so perhaps the translation might get better between apps?

  5. The End of the Desktop Application? : Codswallop on September 27th, 2007 8:20 am

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  6. plowman.ken on February 24th, 2008 12:32 pm

    people with basic VBA and excel worksheet knowledge are driving the use of spreadsheets in business. for google get on board or ms – finally might look after these people

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