Slide Shark PowerPoint Viewer App for the iPad

Slideshark App

I received an email from Brainshark today announcing they have developed a new app that will display PowerPoint (PPT) presentations on the iPad. After you sign up for a free account, you upload the PPT file to the Slideshark website and it converts it into a file that is viewable on the iPad. Slideshark is an alternative to saving a PPT file as a PDF, converting it to a Keynote file, or saving the slides as images.

Below is a description from the app description in iTunes:

With SlideShark you can view and show PowerPoint presentations on your iPad – the way they were meant to be seen. It’s easy to use, powerful, professional, and – best of all – free! SlideShark is the one and only app you can use to accurately and professionally show PowerPoint presentations on an iPad.

Key Features:
• Play PowerPoint files properly on your iPad
• Preserves animations, fonts, graphics, and colors
• Simply tap or swipe to advance animations and slides
• Connect to a TV or VGA-projector to present to larger audiences (iPad 2 users)

Limitations

You are limited to 25mb of storage space which is a very small amount in my opinion. You can purchase additional storage space if you need to keep presentations stored that exceed the 25mb of space. Slideshark indicates there are additional limitations when viewing PPT files using this app:

While the app is optimized for PowerPoint, there are a few features that are not currently supported. These include: hyperlinks on slides, embedded videos or animated gifs, slide transitions, triggers, and 3rd party components. There are also some advanced PowerPoint animations that may not be supported.

If you are looking for an alternative to Keynote to view PPT files on the iPad when speaking or presenting this may be just the thing you have been searching for. With the small amount of space available for uploaded presentations I am not sure how useful this app will be. The app is compatible with devices to project on a TV or screen and you do not need an internet connection to view the PPT file downloaded to the iPad. Feel free to leave a comment below with your opinion on this app once you have used the app.