When we talk about creating presentation slides within the Browser, most people will think of SlideRocket, the Flex application that allows you to create professional slideshow without any installation.
The SlideRocket interface
Today, Mike Taylor bring to my attention this Javascript based application 280Slides 280Slides allows you to create your presentation online. Unlike Sliderocket, no login is required so the moment you go to the site, you are ready to go. Mac users will find 280Slides having strong resemblances to Keynote. A side to side comparison as below:
Keynote? 280Slides?
Keynote? 280 Slides?Now which one is Keynote and which one is 280Slides? I let you figure that out yourself 
What I particularly like about 280Slides is that it allows you to bring in web videos and photos conveniently from its interface. For example, I can type in ’seesmic’ and 280Slides searches the videos of it from Youtube, and I can drag and drop them onto my slides for playback later. The ‘Present’ button convenient saves your slides settings (no login so far!) and now you have an ad-hoc slideshow with minimum effort. To save the slides however, you will now need to either register or enter your existing credentials.
A wall I hit will be that when I tried to download the presentation, it prompts me to download a file of pptx extension, something I do not have the luxury to open unless I have Powerpoint 2008. It is weird that while the founders behind 280Slides tries to imitate the user interface of Keynote, they provide us with a download file type that only someone with Powerpoint can open. Thanks to Ross from 280Slides for clarifying, the PPTX extension can actually be converted via a free tools on Apple, the Open XML File Format Convertor. I guess that will solve my problems then!
An option to download it as PDF will be great, even without any effects and the videos gone. Also, the ability to collaborate with other users will really value add to 280Slides too.
This is the slide show I have created from 280Slides in 10 minutes, dragging a couple of my existing vidoes on youtube and photos on facebook and flickr. Enjoy!
