Presently... Your Presentations Might Be Free

 

Situation: You need a free substitute for PowerPoint.

Google just launched Presently, adding to its basic set of desktop tools that offer the core functionality of the MS Office Suite.  On the one hand, you get what you pay for and all of these apps are decidedly low end compared to their Microsoft brethren.  As with any Google Docs apps, you might be concerned about security as your files are stored on the google site, versus on your computer.  That's somewhat helpful if you need to collaborate with others (see video).  

However, if you're collaborating with others who use MS Office regularly (most of the busines world), you'll run into the hidden cost of these apps - compatibilty.  Going from MS to Google apps (like pulling a ppt into Presently) is pretty easy if you don't mind dumbing down your document.  However, going the other way -- not so easy. 

 

However, free is good and the argument for these tools is pretty strong for many - they give you what you really need (since most people don't need much) for free and make collaborating easy for small groups. 

Things you can do:
- Upload Powerpoint presentations into Presently (disabling some features)
- Cut and paste text from MS Office docs into Presently.
- Embed video and any of the other typical media types into a Presently slide.
- Use their predefined themes (not terrific, but ok)
- Decide to share the presentation (or not).
- Maintain versions of the presentation (happens automatically)

Things you can't do:
- Cut an paste graphics out of your Powerpoint files into Presently.  You have to save them off and insert them.
- Create your own themes
- Use cool transitions
- Save the file to your desktop