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Can Google Kill PowerPoint?
theodp writes "Far from a PowerPoint killer, Slate's Paul Boutin finds Google's online presentation tool Preso more like a PowerPoint commercial — a half-baked app that shows how powerful Microsoft's program really is. But if you have your druthers, Boutin suggests ditching both and opting for Apple's Keynote, which helped snag an Oscar for Al Gore and inspired this Dear-PPT-Letter. 'The first hurdle ... You can't use it on a plane. Google Preso only works if you've got a live, high-bandwidth Internet connection. You can save the finished product to an HTML presentation on your laptop, but you can't edit the saved version or upload it back. The Splunkers would need to finalize their presos early in the morning in a rented conference room, where both Wi-Fi and Verizon wireless cards have been known to fail. That would kill the presentation.'"
I just wish something would kill Powerpoint, already. It's a worthless app designed around an ineffective method to distribute information. Slide-based presentations are boring as hell and don't help viewers absorb a damn thing. It's a total waste of time. In school, the use of Powerpoint by a teacher/professor usually indicates that they're a crappy instructor.
I wish people would respect their audience's time and make an effort instead of giving half-assed lectures with Powerpoint.
...And when students/employees are given the task of making and giving PPT presentations... UGH. What, you're so lazy that you have to delegate your already-subpar work to your subordinates?
One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces.
This whole article is a troll. It's an ad for an Apple product that likely requires Apple hardware. It's a waste for 95% of the world who doesn't use Apple, and isn't likely to adopt one just to replace PowerPoint -- which is hardly a killer app.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
You guys bitching about the presentation software dont understand big picture -- Presentations (that include a powerpoint-like slideshow) are a means to COMMUNICATE an idea or information in general. If used properly these can work to your advantage (remember 1picture==1000 words!) .. imagine trying to explain PageRank to a non-mathematical audience without a network diagram.
Further, IMO, experienced listeners (in the given domain) generally dont have problem in filtering out the "bells and whistles" from the actual CONTENT.
So stop whining, go to your mothers basements and write your kernel code.
By default the slides are hi-res, someone was referring to an inability of Office to print using various quality. You can print in full quality. Your layout issue is not a problem as you can export the Powerpoint presentation to Word and do you layout however you see fit. The integration of the apps started in 97 and has only gotten better with each release. Embedding single slides or multiple slides in Word is no problem, same with worksheets and charts.
I think the problem in the past is that people looked at Powerpoint and thought they knew how to use it, same with Word, Excel, and Access. To their credit that was largely due to an interface design issue. With Office 2007 though that problem has flown the coupe and all these features are out in the open readily available to those that want them. It's remarkably friendly which is partially the reason I learned about all these features. Once I found them in 2007 I knew what to look for in 2003 and XP. Some of the features go all the way back to 97 although most definitely not all of them.