With an old Microsoft Office-y feel.
Like many of you, I have been using the Google Docs (or Google Drive) for a long time. It works just fine when you need to work with a group and have several members contributing to a project. In fact, that is the only application that I use for collaborating on documents and spreadsheets. You sometimes wonder about how did we even manage before the times when it wasn’t possible to edit your documents online.
But when it comes to making presentations online, I haven’t been able to find a very usable solution. I have never found the Google’s interface good enough. It takes some effort and time to get used to so many toolbars inside a browser.
While I don’t really “create” new presentations on the cloud, but I do tend to edit them quite often and make a lot of changes before presenting. I would recall the points that I should (or shouldn’t 🙂 ) have included at times when I wouldn’t have an access to my computer. Or I’d be using my office computer which has a different operating system or even worse, on mobile.
Keynote on iCloud offers something that seems just right for my needs. It has a super easy to use interface which looks very familiar across devices and has all the features that I frequently use. It is so much more convenient to revise presentations with it. You can seamlessly convert and download your presentations in the format of your choice when you are done. Or, if you don’t depend on the presenter view a lot, you can also play the presentation right from the browser.
I must admit that I am an Apple fan-boy when talking about user interfaces. iCloud not only offers the same desktop-like interface across all devices but presents all of that with very neat designs. Take a look at the home page for iCloud, for example:
iCloud has many more things to offer with just as stunning interfaces. I haven’t explored the other available apps since I haven’t really found many use-cases for them. For mail, calendar and contacts I still prefer to use the good old Google with its familiar power-user functions.