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Live Presentations is a web-based presentation creation, sharing, and collaboration application. It is compatible with Power Point and Microsoft Live. In many ways, it is a fully updated version of Power Point, with more animations, more transitions, and more high-quality themes. It solves certain problems that were inherent to collaborating on old Power Point presentations: namely, the issue of e-mailing different versions back and forth among collaborators. Now, all collaborators can access the version and make changes. Every change is logged for all to see, which allows everyone to keep track in a more efficient way. The web-enabled presentation also removes problems of different operating systems and versions of windows between collaborators and viewers, creating a truly virtual, global office for everyone involved. Users may also download a dedicated desktop version of the software.

Live Presentations was founded by Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia in September 2006. The site launched Live Presentations in November 2007. The company’s CTO is Sumanth Raghavendra.

Live Presentation’s closest competitor is Google Presentations. Live Presentations offers far more functionality than Google Presentations does. Live Presentations especially steps out with the desktop app, which allows users to work on their presentations whether they are offline or online, and then synch them later. Busy professionals who spend a lot of time traveling will appreciate that, as it’s not always possible to access the Internet. Live Presentations also maintains all of the features and functions of a user’s PowerPoint presentations in a way that Google Presentations isn’t capable of doing.

The app looks a lot like Power Point, which is not surprising given they are meant to be compatible. One nice feature is that it is fully integrated with Twitter, Flickr, Google Translate, Quotes, and Word Definitions. Once the user is in the system it works almost exactly like Power Point works, with the addition of some smooth document creation wizards.

The registration process is super slow and somewhat buggy. Users are asked to enter their e-mail addresses, names, passwords, and a captcha image. The users then have to wait for a verification e-mail that takes a long time to show up. Requesting a new one seems to simply reload the page. Attempting to log in with Google, which is an option, simply reloads the page. Attempting to install the application caused an infinite loop where Adobe AIR malfunctioned, tried to install the software, and then malfunctioned again. Until these issues are addressed the app is only good in theory.

There are two versions of the app. The basic, free version allows users to have up to 20 presentations and 100 MB of storage. For $6.99 per month users can upload unlimited presentations and will be given 500 MB of storage. The paid version also comes with e-mail support that isn’t available for the free version.

Once the bugs are worked out this application would be great for anyone who uses presentations in the course of their business or who makes presentations for a living. It would be perfect for professionals, professors, students, and sales representatives of every stripe.

• Users can create and share presentations with anyone, at any time.
• The app tracks all of the changes in the document.
• Use on the web or download a desktop application to work offline.
• Users can import existing Power Point presentations.
• Based on Adobe Air – Site is pleasing and responsive

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