Checking Out SlideRocket

The good folks at SlideRocket hit me up on Twitter a few weeks back after reading a blog post I wrote about Acrobat.com Presentations offering me a look at their product.

PowerPoint presentations are just asking to be put online via a service like SlideRocket and Acrobat.com Presentations so I was more than happy to check out their product.

SlideRocket offers online presentation software that enables organization's to put their presentations online. It competes against the likes Google Presentations and the upcoming Acrobat.com Presentations. SlideRocket comes in the following versions:

• Free. The Free version supports unlimited presentations , 250 MB of online storage, and a limited feature set when compared to the Individual and Business versions.
• Individual. The Individual version supports unlimited presentations, an offline player and 1 GB of online storage.
• Business. The Business version of SlideRocket includes a number of features that aren't available in the Individual and free versions. Businesses can take advantage of collaboration enabling teams to work on the same SlideRocket presentation in real-time. The Business version also includes an offline player, collaboration, Web meetings, presentation analytics, and administration tools.

You can try either the Individual or Business version through a 30 day trial before you commit to paying for the service.

Inside SlideRocket

Logging into SlideRocket takes you to a home page where you can access the rest of SlideRocket's features.

SlideRocket does a good job of managing home page real estate including offering What's New? announcements at the bottom of the page.

While some design and productivity pundits  will disagree, I must say the move to dark page backgrounds on services like SlideRocket and Acrobat.com make me feel like I am looking out  a window into a dark and stormy night. I find it distracting and even cornea searing but then again I wear bifocals. Web 2.0 services that insist on having a black background offer a lighter background option for users .

My expectation of an online presentation service is a platform for rich media presentations--that meet or exceed what can be done in Microsoft PowerPoint. SlideRocket is definitely more media centric than Google Presentation and Acrobat.com Presentations and offers tools to manage media assets.

The SlideRocket Marketplace is a novel part of SlideRocket because it lets SlideRocket users purchase and download media assets from third parties to enhance their SlideRocket presentations.

Importing PowerPoint Slides into SlideRocket

Importing a Microsoft PowerPoint (*.pptx) was a simple process. However, the import process seemed to hang up in the final stages.

Smooth compatibility with both PowerPoint 2003 (*.ppt) and PowerPoint 2007 (*.pptx) is a must and SlideRocket had no issues importing a simple slide presentation I created using PowerPoint Mac: 2008. Although, I do plan running an import with a more complex PowerPoint presentation at some point.

Creating a New Presentation with SlideRocket
My vision for online presentation services like SlideRocket is a rich media experience with features that compete with and even rival their desktop cousins and SlideRocket definitely makes inroads to my vision.

However, I'd like to see some more intuitive controls over themes and backgrounds in SlideRocket that don't require a shopping trip to the SlideRocket marketplace.

SlideRocket brings a mature toolset to the table but there were a few instances when creating a new presentation or modifying an existing presentations wasn't exactly fluid including when I click on the New Presentation button under the Presentations tab and nothing happens. My expectation was that I could click on the button to start creating a new SlideRocket presentation. I plan to spend some more quality time with these SlideRocket features because while I don't have any immediate client or project requirements for SlideRocket, I ran the service as worthy to follow as it develops and matures.

Sharing SlideRocket Presentations
Putting presentations online is all about sharing them with other viewers. Each version of SlideRocket includes the capability to share presentations but only the creator can share the presentation if it resides in a folder.

Presenting with SlideRocket Business Plan
SlideRocket really has some value adds with their business plan and where I think SlideRocket really distinguishes itself as a online presentation service. The business plan's remote meeting feature is a natural extension on an online presentation service.

My SlideRocket Experience
When it comes to presentation and Office productivity it is too easy to look towards already established industry leaders for a solution and disregard all others. SlideRocket brings some new elements to the game making it worth your while to give it a trial run. However, like many Web Office productivity services, it is important to understand that these services follow an iterative development process meaning you have to be a vocal user in order to contribute to the service's maturation.

Comments

[Tracy Frey]

Thanks for the nice review, Will! We're very excited about both how far we've come as an online presentation tool, and how much more potential there is in this space.

Some of the features of SlideRocket that we think set us apart that we'd love for you to check out are our collaboration tools - allowing an entire team to work on presentations and slides in a new way, and our analytics - giving you insight into how effective your presentations are, and if you are reaching the right people.

As to the specific challenges you encountered, I believe Nat is following up with you on those so we can be sure to understand what you saw. Of course, please keep letting us know your thoughts and ideas, and thanks again for your post!

Take care,
Tracy

Tracy Pizzo Frey
Senior Director of Community and Product Marketing
www.sliderocket.com
www.twitter.com/sliderocket