The beta bandages are off, and the full public version of online presentation creation and management software Sliderocket looks pretty good. The PowerPoint competitor (in the cloud) will let you upload and import PPT files, Flash animations, spreadsheet data for charts as well as images, audio and video assets — then share them amongst coworkers. The Flash-based webapp is pretty slick, and you can add Flickr and YouTube content as well as purchase stock art from a Fotolia and PresentationPro. You can deliver your presentation online or download a standalone player. Sliderocket is free for a single user, with 30-day tryouts for potential paying customers. So for you bullet-slingers out there, are you ready to give up your desktop software for this presumptive online replacement?
Sliderocket [via TechCrunch]Google Operating System reports that Google Docs has been upgraded to allow footnotes (an essential component for any students or academics out there), but that the implementation has some serious limitations. Because Google Docs doesn’t support pagination, you can’t tell how your footnotes will appear until you print them, and importing into a standalone word processor creates endnotes (rather than on-page footnotes). With luck, the next implementation might be better — in the meantime, old-fashioned, non-cloud, standalone word processors like Microsoft Word and OpenOffice.org Documents still look like the best formatting bet. Footnotes in Google Docs [Google Operating System]
Whether you’re a Google Docs user or you’re a little unsure about what the online suite can really do, Digital Inspiration’s 15-point guide, “How to Do Stuff with Google Docs,” explains how to convert, import, sync, translate, and tweak your documents in myriad ways. Makes for a good link-mail if you’re trying to get friends on the cloud-based bandwagon.
Robust online office suite Zoho has added a long-overdue file management and landing page for users, making it easier to view and edit word documents, spreadsheets, and slideshows without having to flip between browser tabs. Zoho Docs lets you preview documents in tabs within the page, manage the sharing and edit rights of any file with individuals or groups, and even chat with other people editing your Zoho stuff online. The drag-and-drop-interface, collapsible folders, and even blue and white interface might seem a little familiar to users of a certain other online suite, but it’s one of the few areas in which Zoho truly needed to play catch-up. Embedded below is a video demonstrating some of Zoho Docs’ offerings.
Google Documents has added a fullscreen editing mode to the “View” menu on individual documents, a convenience previously available only through a Greasemonkey script. Combined with Firefox 3′s serious fullscreen capabilities and GDocs’ fixed-width page view, it lets you turn the online office suite into a no-distraction writing environment—provided you can resist popping open another tab with Ctrl+T. It’s worth noting that Zoho Writer has a similar “Maximize editor” function, but it’s not as severe as Google Docs’ nothing-but-white implementation. Google Docs in Full Screen [Google Operating System]
Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Open It Online, a free Firefox extension, cuts out all the middle steps between finding a document in a Google search, in your web mail, or anywhere else online, and getting it open in a web-based office/editing suite. In other words, it adds an option to your Firefox “Open With” dialog to let you open Word documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, and more file types in Google Docs, the Zoho suite, ThinkFree Viewer, and other locations. You can pre-set defaults for every file type, and that’s just about it—nice and convenient for fans of online editing. Open It Online is a free download, works wherever Firefox 2 or 3 does.
Open It Online [via gHacks]Google Documents has seen a good deal of productive-minded change over the last few days, quietly rolling out new interface features and re-designs. The most noticeable is a new Word-like menu bar, which takes up a little space at the top of the browser. Secondly, coloured folders add a corner-of-eye method for separating documents into work flow states or other systems. Finally, document creators can now re-assign and change document permissions back and forth, giving collaborators read, write and ownership abilities. Zoho users, how is Google’s latest set of changes starting to look, put up against its (admittedly) more feature-rich competitor? Let’s hear it in the comments. New Toolbar and Menus [via Google Operating System]
When you’re at a computer that’s missing a vital file or application, like an office workstation that’s locked down, a friend’s system or coffee shop computer, you can still get to a desktop that contains your essentials—on the web. A “webtop” is a virtual desktop that you access using only a browser, and it can include much of the stuff you’d expect on a local computer desktop: like file storage and management, a calendar, RSS reader, email client, and photo viewer. While there are several web desktops available these days, the free and open source EyeOS application is the most accessible, useful, and promising one out there. Follow along to see what a web-based desktop looks like, and how it can help you get things done when you’re locked down or out of pocket.
Zoho Writer, part of one of Lifehacker’s favorite (and underhyped) webapps, has added a bunch of new features, and many of them add to the online office app’s appeal to even grizzled Microsoft Office veterans. Most significantly, Zoho now exports to the Office 2007 .docx format, and its creators promise import is coming soon. Also, when exporting to Word formats, headnotes, footnotes, headers and footers will be retained with proper formatting. FInally, a 10-language thesaurus is available for right-click use, and users can create groups of users to share documents with, rather than entering individual email addresses each time. Pretty nifty stuff, and another good reason to check out Google Docs’ main competitor. Zoho Writer Update: DocX Support, Thesaurus, Group Sharing & More [Zoho Blogs via CyberNet]
PDFs tend to be the preferred format of HR managers and others who you have to fill out forms for, leaving you to print, write out, and mail or fax the paper document back to them. Skip all that unnecessary writing and printing with PDFescape, a free web app that lets you fill in PDF forms, add custom text and re-save them to your own computer. The site makes it clear that PDFescape isn’t intended as a full-fledged PDF editor, but it does provide a pretty extensive toolkit for modifying other people’s documents. In addition to text, you can throw in custom images, shapes, and links, and you can store the finished product on your own computer or keep it on PDFescape’s server. Those basic features are free, but it seems as though PDFescape adds a logo mark to any documents you export from the site, which can be removed by purchasing “premium credits.” Either way, it’s significantly less expensive than buying a $300 Adobe suite. PDFescape [via MakeUseOf.com]
