Google kicks PowerPoint in the fondleslab

Google has launched a new iOS app for Apple's iThings that takes aim at Microsoft's Office for the iPad and a swipe at Apple's productivity software. The Chocolate Factory has made the new mobile Slides app available via iTunes. The files are then synced across Android gadgets and Apple iPhones and iPads. You can also …

[Dale Vile, Freeform Dynamics]

It's less about utility...

The big requirement for many when considering the use of alternative Office tools is ease of exchange with MS Office users (they must be able to open/render your documents properly, and vice versa), along with round trip fidelity when working collaboratively with across different toolsets. You could argue that a lot of problems of this nature already exist when multiple versions of MS Office are involved, so what the hell, go for it.- but a lot of users will take a "better the Devil you know" attitude, no matter how good the alternatives are reported to be.

Wondering if breaking the MS Office habit on mobile devices will disrupt the stronghold on the Windows desktop, but I am not going to hold my breath for that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It's less about utility...

The big requirement for many when considering the use of alternative Office tools is ease of exchange with MS Office users (they must be able to open/render your documents properly, and vice versa)

Not really the case when you prepare a slideshow based presentation. You project it on a screen, and give them a "hard" soft-copy (eg, PDF).

What I care about is: ease/speed of use, and will I be able to retrieve and present it on any machine? (you never know what might happen)

[Fluffy Bunny]

Re: It's less about utility...

"will I be able to retrieve and ... on any machine?"

This is why most office workers (pardon the pun) will use the majority product. I once tried to get my users to use an equivalent Unix product (quite pricey, too). But it couldn't read/write microsoft files properly. Result, zero take-up.

[Charlie Clark]

Re: It's less about utility...

…round trip fidelity …

Given the complexity of the MS Office formats it's almost impossible to get real fidelity but you can usually get close enough. There's no doubt that for the next couple of years Microsoft has got the corporate market for the reasons you give. But long term I think ODF might just win out as a file format. Microsoft still has a chance because a lot of people like its products, but it will have to work hard to compete as the playing field levels.

[Thomas Whipp]

Re: It's less about utility...

For presentations, fidelity needs to be 100% - but as others have said there can be issues between versions of powerpoint (and in some cases between the media codecs for embedded video). Frankly for anything more than simple slides at present I only want to use the laptop I authored the presentation on.

[MyffyW]

Re: It's less about utility...

Personally speaking I could live with a few incompatibilities, because I try to make my presentations support a conversation, not be the only focus of the meeting.

That said, I've worked with some real format fascists, who will slate you for daring to use the wrong font to deliver the party line.

[Slx]

Keynote's genuinely very good.

Keynote on OS X is actually one of the best presentation apps out there but it is Apple-only so it doesn't really get much exposure in the business world where Microsoft Office still sets a dull and dated standard. It's in a whole other league in terms of graphics and ease of use compared to PowerPoint or Google Slides.

You can produce minimalist, visually interesting slides that (with a bit of effort) look more like the kind of thing you'd expect on a TV 'news wall' behind the presenter rather than PowerPoint quality. I always think if you're going to make a presentation using a slideshow, at least don't torture people with slide after slide of text and dodgy looking clip art.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Keynote's genuinely very good.

Keynote makes creating something that looks good not only easy, but also efficient.

There are, however, a couple of interesting alternatives I'm looking at right now: Powtoon and Haiku Deck. Haiku Deck is even more minimalistic than Keynote and is all about visual impact, thus good for good audience presentations where the attention is on you rather than the slides, and Powtoon is good for sharing data, methods and numbers as it has many tools to make them visually interesting.

Having said that, to knock up something quickly I still prefer Keynote - also because I can write stuff without having to be online.

[Anonymous Coward]

its program solves problems that the ordinary user didn't even know they had

I have this problem all the time, and it's why I think that Google Docs totally destroys Microsoft and Apple's offerings (which they both seem to still believe people will pay for)

[Dan 55]

Re: its program solves problems that the ordinary user didn't even know they had

Apple stopped believing people will pay for iWork about the same time that they stopped believing that people will pay for Mavericks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: its program solves problems that the ordinary user didn't even know they had

I have this problem all the time

You can't have been searching hard for a solution then, sorry.

[Anonymous Coward]

"its program solves problems that the ordinary user didn't even know they had outside the office"

Those I routinely solve with my Surface, Windows Phone and Office? Maybe that's why I don't know I have them outside the office, because I never had them.

Also with Office Remote is very nice to run your presentation using the phone as a remote control with slides notes, previews and "laser" pointer... (also, spreadsheet and document navigation)

In the Office space, Google has still a very long way to go...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "its program solves problems that the ordinary user didn't even know they had outside "

You forgot to start your comment with "Honestly?"

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "its program solves problems that the ordinary user didn't even know they had outside the of

I don't know I have them outside the office

Perhaps that's because you use Office.

When I use Office for anything non-work related, I get the sinking feeling you get on Sunday evenings - "oh.. work".

That's the trouble with Office - it's only good for the office

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "its program solves problems that the ordinary user didn't even know they had outside the of

That's the trouble with Office - it's only good for the office

This seems to suggest that your problem isn't technical, but more in your head.

[Anonymous Coward]

Meanwhile, it severly lacks in other areas (Docs)

Insert table in Docs. Try to merge cells. Discover that you cannot. Wonder why, oh why, anyone can consider this a serious alternative to any other half competent Office suite. What is more puzzling is that you can actually merge cells in the spreadsheet component.

Check the support forums, apparently in the past you could merge cells in Docs by hand editing the doc in HTML mode. That was before HTML edit mode was removed from Docs. Note that it is actually a feature of cloud software: it updates itself without you having to do anything to lose features.

Check support forums again. The feature was requested first back in... 2009 and acknowledged by Google. I think it is safe to assume that it won't happen at least in another 5 years. Mind you, having executives and middle managers updating their slide shows in their iPads is higher priority. Totally understand it.

Launching LibreOffice. Happily Merging cells in tables.

Last time I checked O365 the in browser editing was so bad that wanted you to actually use Google Docs. Maybe in 5 years Google Docs or some other cloud alternative it will be workable. Currently it isn't unless you don't want to write more than documents with the equivalent sophistication of Windows Write. Or a bit less perhaps.

[Pascal Monett]

"You’re on the subway with no reception "

If that is the case then I fail to see where Google is going to help.

Unless, of course, you answer that you can make the modification locally and it will be automatically synchronized as soon as you get a connection again.

In which case I know several other products that can bring me to the same result without giving all my data to The Google.

[channel extended]

Power Point Prison.

PP is for those people who either can't read or can't think. I've sat through to many meetings where some PP genius takes an hour to show what could fit on two sheets of paper single sided and take three minutes at most to understand. What is sad is that they think all of their effort is impressive.