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Google launches presentations, but shouldn't have

Summary: Along with its new name (Google Docs & Spreadsheets is now just Google Docs), users are now free to upload Powerpoint presentations or start a new presentation by starting from scratch. That said, I am wondering why Google released such an incomplete product?

Garett Rogers

By Garett Rogers for Googling Google |

Along with its new name (Google Docs & Spreadsheets is now just Google Docs), users are now free to upload Powerpoint presentations or start a new presentation by starting from scratch. That said, I am wondering why Google released such an incomplete product? It's basically useless for business users who want to make professional looking presentations. This is so far away from a Powerpoint killer that it's embarrassing I thought it might have had a chance.

Where do I start? Well, first off, there is no support for exporting a document to Powerpoint or as .odp (the open document format for presentations). I guess this isn't truly a complimentary service to other office suites anymore like they have repeated over and over. Uploading Powerpoint presentations is basically useless too -- it butchered the one I tested with.

Most companies have their own Powerpoint template they use to make sure presentations all have the same look and feel. And with that said -- don't bother trying to use it. There is no way to create your own template or upload one that already exists. If you have images that make up your template, you can add them to each slide but they have to be less than 2MB otherwise you will be out of luck. Oh, by the way, your presentation can't exceed 10MB either.

How about those awful transitions and sounds that your boss likes to use? Well, you will be glad to know that Google Docs doesn't support transitions or sound at all. There will be no more bouncing text, no fading images, and no screeching sliding text if your company decides to use Google Presentations. In fact, that might actually be a selling feature?

Oh, and bulleted points are sometimes nice to do one at a time -- but you can't do that either. You have to create a copy of the previous slide and add an extra point to emulate click events -- who has time to do that?

It baffles me that they decided to launch this product without support for any of the most common features in most presentation software. What do you think? Will this tool useful for anybody?

Topic: Google

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18 comments
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  • I pretty much agree

    I tried to upload one of my .ppt files and the result was awful. After that I was quite upset to keep on testing, I made an effort and went looking for animations. Not there. After all the noise made around presently I was expecting something better than this. No doubt that in whole Zoho.com Apps are far better.
    tassaramar
    Reply Vote

  • Useful for SOMEBODY

    You end by asking "Will this tool [be] useful for anybody?" Well sure, it will be useful for SOMEBODY -- mostly for non-corporate users who don't own a copy of PowerPoint (it doesn't come with the low-end versions of Office) and aren't using OpenOffice, or don't have a laptop to take with them on the road.

    As recently as a two years ago I had to use an old version of PowerPoint that didn't support revealing bullet points one at a time -- I had to build five slides to reveal my five bullet points, as you describe. It's tedious, but not impossible -- and seamless to the users (as long as you don't include the incomplete slides in any printouts or electronic copies you distribute).

    It doesn't look very mature yet, and probably won't get much use at first -- but do you really think they'll leave it this limited for long?
    eborah@...
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Google launches presentations, but shouldn't have

    I completely agree. This program will never be used in an enterprise environment because other things that were not mentioned - such as text style changes cannot be made, unless its bolded, underlined, or italized.

    The only export function that is given is exporting into a ZIP file, which is just a bunch of HTML files - cmon Google!

    Google is turning into what Microsoft used to be famous for - vaporware - but, at least, Google DOES release something, even if 90% of the features that would make it useful are not included.

    Oh wait!

    I forgot!

    Google Documents/Presentation is in beta that justifies it.

    Yea right.
    explorer5
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Google launches presentations, but shouldn't have

    What do I think? I think this blogger needs to do some research before spewing off at the mouth. The Google Presenations, Docs and Spreadsheets are all in late Alpha , early beta and will not receive all the features and options for a long time to come. This is just the start to their beta, which usually last years in testing (aka Gmail...which was lambasted early on for lack of features, but praised upon release with all of it's features).

    Finally, Google never stated this was the MS Office killer (nor designed for Enterprise). If he would have saw the Google blog video on the new presenation release, he would have seen the example they used was a SOHO example, with people working out of their home (not some skyscraper in NY).

    All these "bloggers" claim fame to credibility, when in actuality, they are just voicing their uneducated opinions in a blog format.
    The Hedon
    Reply Vote

  • I say good for Google to get it out the door. Sure, this will need more

    features to be really useful, but they can start collecting feedback. And, for guys like me that only need simple spreadsheets, it will be perfect. Well, not until they enable the export, but I am sure that will be soon. Also, this will be a perfect application to make work offline as it is a lot simpler than docs or spreadsheets.

    But, Garett IS right to give them sheeet about it!! That will motivate them to finish out the details.
    DonnieBoy
    Reply Vote

    • Yeah, let people see it so they never look again.

      Hmmm, mayber GM should start selling cars without the body, you know, just to get feedback. Buwahahahahaha

      Do you even know what the word "marketing" is?
      No_Ax_to_Grind
      Reply Vote

      • Give it a break, anybody with an IQ in double figures understands this is a

        first version and that Google will be adding features. It is also extremely easy for Google to roll out upgrades, the user hits the refresh button and there you have it. Get used to it, companies will be rolling out versions early and often. That is the advantage of the SaaS.
        DonnieBoy
        Reply Vote

  • I just tried it out, and there are things I like.

    You can instantly do an online slide presentation.
    It is simple and does the trick.
    You slides sharable and available anywhere NO CHARGE.

    But, they need to at least have one exportable format, say PDF, so I can carry my slides with me for a presentation where there may or may not be Internet. But, this will be a great application for Google to offline enable first with Google Gears.

    Of course they eventually need PPT and ODP export.
    DonnieBoy
    Reply Vote

    • The only thing I seen I liked

      was that I could close the browser tab...
      No_Ax_to_Grind
      Reply Vote

      • Give it a break, even at this early stage, it has features that Power Point

        does not have. You can do real-time collaboration without buying, maintaining, and managing servers. You can do do a slide show over the internet with people all over the world joining in. Your files are all available from any internet connected computer. And, best of all it is free of charge. PowerPoint is baroque and bloated. I personally hate the flashing, moving, jumping slide shows with stupid content. Sometimes, less is more.
        DonnieBoy
        Reply Vote

      • Now THAT was funny...

        LOL.
        heres_johnny
        Reply Vote

      • seen what?

        The only thing I seen from your post was that your grammar is horrendous.
        suedelock
        Reply Vote

  • Impressed: translated the ppt (almost) perfectly

    I was impressed -- although maybe I set the bar low. I uploaded an existing, 40-slide, graphics-heavy, complex-diagram presentation created in powerpoint and was very impressed how well it was translated -- it was instantly sharable without any changes at all, and fixing the minor cosmetic issues would only have take a couple of minutes.
    timoelliott1
    Reply Vote

  • I thought Google Presentations was in beta?

    Garett,

    Can you find the link to provide feedback to Google? Make sure you tell them what they've been saying all along...your online apps aren't Microsoft killers!

    TaDaH
    TaDaH
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Google launches presentations, but shouldn't have

    You haven't mentioned the fact that unlike Powerpoint one can share presentations and trace who changed what.
    Presentation may not have the bells and whistles Powerpoint has but sharing and tracing changes are way superior, in my opinion, in terms of professional output than the features you seem to miss.
    le_lapin
    Reply Vote

    • Tracking changes

      You can do that in MS's Office 2007 suite.

      It's one of the majorly-advertised features. It's a powerful feature, that tracks date, time, and content of changes as well as the username of the person who did it.

      I can't recall if it's included in 2003 or not. I think you can, but it's not as powerful but I can't swear to that, it may be totally new (I've been using 2007 for a while now, and have almost forgotten the previous apps as a result). I think I can recall having to restore a previous version of a spreadsheet in 2003 and had to utilize the tracking feature to get the right one....but just can't recall clearly.

      It's actually a huge feature for business. The inclusion into the Google Presentations program indicates that they are intending to make a move for business. Truthfully, such a feature is basically worthless to a home-user. Some may use it, but it's real use is in a corporate setting where multiple people may be changing the document.

      If they are wanting businesses to pick it up, they will have a lot to add before the final release version, or they'll never pull people away from Office, free or not. It's all about features, and at this time, you do tend to get what you pay for (nothing).

      Give them time, though. It's just a beta.
      laura.b
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Google launches presentations, but shouldn't have

    We are forgetting that this product isn't for power users. All of the things you mentioned are necessary features for the power user, but the whole Google office suite is aimed that the beginner who wants a free, easy solution. Yea, it may be a stripped down basic slideshow, but it's useful to a lot of people.

    Also, other free office suites are out there so they want to have something out. Notice they have already begun to promote this on the homepage.
    suedelock
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Google launches presentations, but shouldn't have

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    tanmy
    Reply Vote
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