I recently had a need to add a couple of powerpoint presentations to another web site I’m working on. I wanted to be able to embed the powerpoint and retain transistions and animations as well as embedded audio or video. A quick search didn’t reveal any definitive answers so I’m going to compare the options I did find. One of the keys with using powerpoint online is to remember that not everyone has powerpoint (but the viewer is free 2003 version & 2007 version and openoffice will also open powerpoint files with some loss in functionality)

I’m going to to look at a number of features across all options including: compatibility with pptx files, ease of use, privacy controls, embed, email, social network links, commenting, registration, downloading of original file, and licensing. To make the comparison equal across all options I’m using the same powerpoint file for all services and embedding it here. This is a powerpoint that I used in spring 2008 and it has several animations, transitions, video, and audio embedded. You can see the original by downloading it - I’ve included the ppt and pptx in the zip file (27.5mb). The options I’m looking at are:

• slideshare | jump link
• authorstream | jump link
• zoho show | jump link
• google docs | jump link
• 280 slides | jump link
• scribd | jump link
• Slideboom | jump link
• iSpring | jump link (free) | jump link (pro)
• slideboom & ispring integrated
• conclusion

Not all slideshow players are showing up in bloglines (and possibly other RSS readers) - visit my site to see everything.

Learn about each of these options in the extended entry.

Slideshare

Before starting this post I was only aware of slideshare and google docs for presentation embedding and sharing on the web. I used slideshare once, but was not satisfied due to the lack of transitions and inability to embed audio or video. let’s take a look at how slideshare holds up now.

pros

• no registration required
• privacy controls
• add tags to your presentations
• privacy settings including a secret url
• comments
• transcript
• download as ppt - control by owner
• choose licencing (various creative commons licenses or all rights reserved
• submit to social networks from slideshare

cons

• no transitions
• no animations
• no audio
• no video
• transparent png renders with white background
• Whole slide by default - no line by line

summary

slideshare works for basic slides. It’s easy to use, and registration is not required to share your presentation. Slideshare is simple and easy to use but if you want transitions, animations or media this is not the right choice.

Author Stream

pros

• privacy controls
• add tags to your presentations
• categories
• privacy settings
• download as ppt - control by owner
• animations
• ipod/video conversion if narrated (automatically)
• thumbnail url generated automatically

cons

• no transitions
• animations work, but not perfectly
• registration required
• no audio
• no video
• cannot choose embed size

note
please check the comments for further clarifaction by Dinesh, a representative of AuthorStream.

summary

Due to not being able to choose the embed size the player is breaking the layout of my blog (a big minus). I realize that I can change the player size inside the code and it’s relatively easy if you understand code, but for many people looking through code is like talking to aliens and besides it really should be easier. This is a big minus, though this is offset somewhat by the other features. Animations are supported allowing for partial reveals of slides which is a big feature that the other options do not have (excepting ispring free & pro). If you make a lot of slideshows to share there is an embeddable widget which will show all of your slideshows.

I have chosen not to modify the size of the player to demonstrate the necessity of having this built into the user controls.

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by eflgeek

Zoho Show

pros

• privacy controls
• login with google or yahoo id
• privacy settings
• tags
• online editor
• export as HTML, ppt, pps, odp, pdf
• ipod/video conversion if narrated (automatically)
• choose embed size: small med large
• upload file and choose read/write or read only
• choose border color for embeds & show related

cons

• no transitions
• no animations
• registration required
• no audio
• no video
• no submit to social networks buttons

summary

The medium and large embed size were too large for this blog, but the small embed size is a little too small. The multiple export option is a big selling point as are the advanced options on embed including; allow right click, show related, and set border color. Online editing is also a nice feature. For a web2.0 application I think the best option is the ability to use yahoo or google logins (one less login to remember) at least until open id really catches on.

Unfortunately there are no transitions, animations, audio or video and that is a severe, though common, limitation.

Google Docs

pros

• privacy controls
• login with google id
• privacy settings
• collaborate with others
• online editor
• export as ppt, pdf, txt or print
• embed video (youtube)
• choose embed size 410px, 555px, 700px
• incremental reveals
• share document types other than slideshows

cons

• no transitions
• no animations
• registration required
• no audio
• can only use youtube video
• no submit to social networks buttons
• no support for pptx

summary

animations are partly supported but not on text that is imported with a pre-existing presentation that is uploaded. To get text to reveal a bit at a time you need to add it to the slideshow after import (this won’t be an issue for those starting from scratch) and then choose incremental reveal. Ability to use youtube videos is a major plus (though I didn’t upload my videos to youtube, I could have and then embedded in my slideshow).

If you are working on a slideshow with multiple people, who are geographically distant, the option to collaborate is big selling feature and one I would take advantage of if I needed it. However the lack of support for pptx is a drawback.

280 Slides

280 slides was recommended to me when I asked on twitter about powerpoint & presentations. Unfortunately this service doesn’t yet offer upload of existing presentations though it is apparently coming soon (link is 2 months old at this point so I’m not sure what ‘soon’ means). Due to this limitation I can’t upload my file to compare with the other services. However, I am including it here because the service has potential and is only a few months old at this point.

pros

• no registraion required
• online editor
• export as pptx
• embed video (youtube)
• embed images from flickr
• incremental reveals

cons

• no transitions
• no animations
• registration required (to save for future editing
• no audio
• can only use youtube video
• no submit to social networks buttons
• no embed code - send to slideshare.net for that feature
• only offers export to pptx (no other options)

summary

There are severe limitations for this service including lack embed built in thus requiring you to use slideshare or save as pptx. 280 slides needs to add embed code and privacy controls to bring them on par with other services. The ability to use YouTube videos and images from flickr is a nice plus but is not enough to overcome the deficiencies as it stands. Perhaps in the future 280 slides will be a contender

Scribd

pros

• export ppt,pptx, pdf, txt
• upload ppt pptx pps odp
• categories
• submit to social networks
• upload new revision
• complete control of size of embed
• privacy controls
• share document types other than slideshows

cons

• no transitions
• no animations
• registration required
• no audio
• sizing embed does not give option to constrain proportions
• ugliest player

summary

Scribd replacement of the video thumbnail with an ugly and somewhat pixelated speaker icon is a major drawback - at least the other services left a thumbnail of the first frame of the video. The lack of video & audio support is somewhat countered by the ability to export in multiple formats and complete control over the size of the embedded player. I also like that a single service allows you to share documents in multiple formats (unfortunately no support for MS Publisher)

Lack of transitions and animations further detracts from scribd in addition to the really ugly player - what’s with the scroll bar on the right. I’m also disappointed that the tables on the first slide were removed. I suppose the player is a result of sharing multiple formats and trying to please everyone.

Slideboom

pros

• download (original format)
• upload ppt pptx pps
• topics (like categories)
• submit to social networks
• integrated with Ispring
• complete control of size of embed
• animations
• comments
• privacy controls
• wordpress plugin
• thumbnail view
• graphical comments (pen, highlighter, eraser)
• video & audio

cons

• no transitions
• registration required
• no audio
• no control of player size
• no online editor
• video & audio is only available when used in conjunction with ispring

summary

Slideboom was a late addition to this page as I didn’t discover it until I looked more closely at Ispring, which has an upload to slideboom option. slideboom has supports animations, thumbnail views and graphical comments as well as commenting on the slideboom site. It is possible to download the file in original format but lack of support for uploading/downloading in formats other than powerpoint is a negative.

Having a plugin for wordpress is a definite plus, though you could still use the regular embed code.

Ispring Free

Ispring Free is a powerpoint to flash conversion tool that you install on your computer (no Mac of Linux version). Ispring is the only powerpoint to flash conversion tool that I could find with a truly free version. All other options that I looked at were shareware, trial ware, or questionable in some other way that gave me second thoughts about installing on my system.

pros

• complete control
• complete control of size of embed
• embed video
• embed audio
• full transitions
• full animations
• thumbnail view
• upload to slideboom

cons

• only available if you somewhere to host the swf file
• must install software
• no online editing
• only works with powerpoint

summary

ispring free has all the features I was looking for to embed powerpoint in a web site. The embedded audio starts automatically rather than on click, however the embedded video requires a click which is how I expected it to be. For a free program, I’m impressed that they do not watermark your slides but rather include a small inobtrusive banner next to the controls. The ability to see thumbnails of all the slides by clicking the thumbnail button is nice and similar to presenter view in powerpoint.

Another impressive feat is that it took the 15mb of embedded video included them in the file and got the file size down to 5.2mb and the video still looks fine. Finally this program is easy to use - it installs right into powerpoint and after two clicks it starts building your flash file. The build process is quick and it’s easy to preview the file if you have a media player that can play swf files (gom player works for me)

The downside is that you cannot edit it online - but if you are using this product you already have powerpoint or a similar program. The free version is here.

Ispring Pro

If Ispring Free is great, then Ispring Pro is outstanding. The pro version has a hefty price tag ($199) so I tried out the 30 day trial version.

• complete control
• complete control of size of embed
• embed video
• embed audio
• full transitions
• full animations
• thumbnail view
• skins
• add meta data
• slideshow notes in player
• outline view
• more features than I had time to look at
• upload t slideboom

cons

• only available if you somewhere to host the swf file
• must install software
• no online editing
• only works with powerpoint

summary

The summary for Ispring Free is valid for here in addition to the points below. Ispring pro also adds the same toolbar to powerpoint but with options to “insert flash”, control embedding of resourses including adding a background audio presumably for voice over. After clicking the publish button the true power of the pro version can be seen. The free version has only one tab, but pro has multiple tabs:

• change settings (size, scale, background color, flash version, disable flash printing menu, optimize images for for resolution (choose size) playback and navigation controls.
• media (presets - web local network cd custom, image compression settings, audio compression settings, video compression settings)
• presenter (add meta data about the presenter including - name title, email, web site, info, company logo, company website, and photo)
• web links (set link target, redirect page at end of presentation)

Clearly Ispring Pro is a power house of features. Support for audio, video and multiple skins which the end user can customize is the key selling feature here. There are several skins to choose from in the pro version. I’ve uploaded two here just to demonstrate how the look changes. The free version skin is also available in the pro version. Additionally you have the option to customize the skin yourself, though I didn’t try that out.

The pro version is here.

This skin is called “advanced”

this skin is called “crystal”

Ispring and Slideboom integrated

I tested the integration using the free version of slideboom. when choosing upload to slideboom a menu comes up asking for login, password, title, topic, langauge, tags & description. You are also given options to allow public access, upload original presentation, allow other to download.

Final Thoughts

There is no perfect solution. Every option has limitations, particularly the hosted options of which none support audio integration (slideboom being the exception but needing the integration of a third party program). Of the hosted solutions I would have to say google docs has the most going for it as there is an online editor, collaboration and integration of video using YouTube.

The next best solution is to use Ispring free or pro. If you are only need to convert a few files the trial version of pro is excellent as it will give you the ultimate feature list. The only downside is a small banner on the bottom of your slide (presumably this is not there in the paid version). If you need to regularly put presentations online then either the free or paid version will work for you depending on your budget. I will be using the trial version without sideboom as I don’t mind the banner ad and only need to covert a few files, plus I like the option of choosing the skin with features I like.

If you are unable to add swf files to your blogging service (hosted such as blogger, edublogs) then using the integration with slideboom would be the best choice. The downside here is the need to use two services to achieve a single goal.

One thing that I find annoying about embedding from other sites is that the code provided is never valid. Youtube, Twitter, and all of these sites provide invalid embed code which results in validation errors.

Regardless of my preferences everyone will have different needs. Use the information I’ve gathered to make your own decisions. If you know another service or a feature that I missed in the ones here, please comment.

This post took a lot of time to write (several hours over 3 days), I hope you find it useful.