Yesterday I had the good fortune to get a preview of a new online tool from Adobe called 'Presentation' (which is officially being announced today, probably about now). So what exactly is this new tool? Basically, think of an online version of Powerpoint built on Flash technology. And how much will it cost you? For now it'll be free, as are all of the offerings on Acrobat.com. The Presentation service is not fully-mature yet. But that's actually desirable. Adobe said they'd prefer to launch early and get user-feedback on features that they want baked in. One feature that is on the near horizon is the ability to export to Powerpoint, which is obviously important.
'Presentations' is but one of several free tools available on Acrobat.com. If you haven't checked it out yet, you probably should. You'll be very impressed with the writing tool, which is called Buzzword. Especially if you've been using Google Docs as your online collaborative word processor. I like Google Docs, but Buzzword is vastly superior in terms of look, feel and versatility.
Clearly, Adobe is trying to position itself as a major player in the area of online collaboration. You can also hold online meetings using the ConnectNow service in Acrobat.com. For now, the limit is three people. But, remember this is a free tool. And, many impromptu meetings that require screen-sharing don't involve more than three people.
If you have any ideas on how to improve Acrobat.com navigate to ideas.acrobat.com and give them the benefit of your thoughtfulness. We'll all benefit if Adobe makes this service better. But, from what I can tell, it's pretty amazing already.
Wow. Sounds like an awesomely helpful tool. And I can't believe it's free!
Posted by: Joe | May 28, 2009 at 11:14 AM