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Review of SlideRocket

posted by Nick Weynand on May 12, 2009 | comment

For my upcoming AMA Marketing Jam '09 presentation, I decided to break out of the PowerPoint box and use a Web app I discovered recently: SlideRocket. The idea is fantastic, it's an online way to create slides from within your Web browser. There's no software to install and you can "take" your presentation anywhere that has an Internet connection.

Although the idea is great, the execution could definitely use some improvement. After using it to create my presentation, my overarching thought is "I don't think they're ready to charge for this." Here's a quick list of pros and cons for anyone ready to try SlideRocket as an alternative to PowerPoint.

Pros	Cons
No software to install Access your presentations anywhere Very easy to use Cool transitions and effects	Buggy: I found several features that simply didn't work well Presentation notes didn't work well. It looks like you can only create one big set of notes and not take notes on each individual slide. Many features still in "beta": I found several features that didn't work and when asking for support the response was "Oh, we're working on that so it's not ready yet." I'd prefer that they don't put the feature in until it's out of beta. Monthly cost: It's a service so they charge $10 or so per month. I can't justify paying monthly for a presentation service that I'll probably use 3 times per year. It probably makes sense for some people.

Pros

Cons

No software to install
Access your presentations anywhere
Very easy to use
Cool transitions and effects

Buggy: I found several features that simply didn't work well
Presentation notes didn't work well. It looks like you can only create one big set of notes and not take notes on each individual slide.
Many features still in "beta": I found several features that didn't work and when asking for support the response was "Oh, we're working on that so it's not ready yet." I'd prefer that they don't put the feature in until it's out of beta.
Monthly cost: It's a service so they charge $10 or so per month. I can't justify paying monthly for a presentation service that I'll probably use 3 times per year. It probably makes sense for some people.

With that list in mind, I think SlideRocket should stay in beta (or "zeta" as they call it, anyone know what that means?) until they get some of the issues worked out. I also think they should go with an annual pricing model since paying by month probably doesn't match most people's presentation schedule.

If you've used SlideRocket and have other thoughts, please share.

Comments

#1 from Nick Weynand on May 12, 2009

Oh, another con I just thought of: copy/cut/paste keyboard shortcuts don’t work within SlideRocket.

#2 from .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 12, 2009

Hi Nick,

Thanks so much for trying and reviewing SlideRocket! We are working hard every day to make our service the best presentation software out there - and we know we have a lot of work ahead of us. You found a couple of bugs that we just discovered ourselves; please know they are being worked on and fixes will be released very soon. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced, and hope you will continue to engage with our service.

I would love to hear your feedback in more detail. If you are interested, please feel free to email me at community at sliderocket dot com (and please cc our support team as well - sounds like you have been in communication with them already, which is great).

We look forward to learning more about your experience and your presentation needs, and thanks again for taking the time to review our service.

Take care,
Tracy Frey

Senior Director of Community and Product Marketing
http://www.sliderocket.com
http://www.twitter.com/sliderocket

#3 from Stacy Armijo on June 10, 2009

Thanks for sharing this, Nick. Our whole team at Pierpont was impressed with how engaging your visuals were at the Marketing Jam and have been meaning to ask how you achieved it. Thanks for saving us the time!