Web-based Presentation Applications

[Gil Heiman]

Not everyone wants to use PowerPoint for presentations. Here's a list of alternative web-based applications that allow you to create and share presentations with your team members.

As these lists get outdated very quickly, please add any new ones that you come across as well as additional feedback on those that made the list.
Source: http://www.solutionwatch.com/ (Oct. 6, 2006)

1. Zoho Show: Web-based presentation tool to create, edit, publish, and show presentations. Zoho Show is very feature packed allowing users to create presentations full of text, images, shapes, lists, and pre-formated content templates. Users can also import their existing PowerPoint and OpenOffice presentations, view presentations online, and export as HTML.
http://www.zohoshow.com/jsp/zoho_login.jsp

2. Thumbstacks: With Thumbstacks, create and share web-based presentations over the web. Thumbstacks provides a clean and easy to use presentation builder, although not as feature rich as Zoho Show, and allows users to export presentations in HTML format.
http://www.thumbstacks.com/

3. SlideShare: Great new service, currently available by invitation only, that consists of an YouTube-like site for Powerpoint and OpenOffice presentations displaying presentations through Flash players. Users can even place the Flash presentation players on their own websites. I’ve been waiting for a site similar to this for some time now; perfect for students and educators wanting to store presentations online for sharing and receiving feedback.
http://slideshare.net/

4. Empressr: Empressr is an Ajax and Flash-based service that lets you create and share presentations online. One advantage on the feature side is that it uses Flash and Ajax rather than HTML and Ajax allowing you to add more media then other tools including audio and video, although I personally prefer HTML presentations.
http://www.empressr.com/

5. ThinkFree Show: Excellent Java-based presentation application that feels much like Microsoft Powerpoint. Create rich presentations and play them through the online editor or by graphic. You can also save your presentations for viewing in Microsoft Powerpoint and share them with others online.
http://www.thinkfree.com/common/main.tfo