Burning Chromebook: Day 3

Native PowerPoint files don't "Present"

Native PowerPoint files don’t “Present”

Day 3 of testing moved onto using Google Slides. I was able to open up existing PowerPoint presentations, and was impressed that Chrome discreetly placed a link to other apps that would interact with the file. However, Google Slides did not allow me to present the slideshow (although it would for presentations created in Google Slides). The way round this was to import the existing PowerPoint presentation into a new Google Slide file. Importing created some formatting issues which were not there when I opened up the original PowerPoint file, so in future I would have to factor in time to make minor adjustments.

Imported PowerPoint files will "Present"

Imported PowerPoint files will “Present”

Unsurprisingly the Chromebook did not like native Keynote files. My options here would be to export from Keynote to PowerPoint and then display using Google Slides (or a cloud service like SlideRocket). Here, the export process created more formatting errors (and the rather nifty transitions and visual effects are lost). Sadly using iWork.com to present is no longer an option, with the service being shut down in 2012, but if I wanted to preserve all the features of the original Keynote file then playing an exported QuickTime file might be an aceptable workaround (providing I did not need to see presenter notes).

MacBook Air

Chromebook

Notes

Office Word

Google Docs

No issues so far. Spell check does not seem to be available offline. This might be fixed by installing an extension.

Office Excel

Google Sheets

No issues so far.

Office PowerPoint

Google Slides

Some formatting issues with imported files. “Present” not an option unless using native slide format.

iWork Keynote

Google Slides

Files

Considerable formatting issues with imported slides. Downloaded QuickTime mov, m4v, and mp4 files playable in Files.

iBooks Author

No equivalent.

Was not expecting to find an equivalent.

Dreamweaver

ShiftEdit (Cloud9 IDE might be an option too)

Have not tested.

Photoshop

pixlr

Tested with some basic cropping and resizing. Need to test more extensively.

Cyberduck

Have not found solution yet. I might be able just using Secure Shell Terminal emulator and SSH client.

Have not tested.

Safari

Chrome

No issues so far.

Twitter

TweetDeck

No issues so far.

Email

Gmail and Webmail

No issues with Gmail so far. Have to configure webmail.

Screenflow

  • Google Hangouts

  • Screenr

  • Screencastle

Have not tested.

iTunes

Google Play Music

Working well. MUsic Manager has uploaded the majority of my library.

Evernote

Evernote Web

No issues so far.

Dropbox

Dropbox

No issues so far.

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