I dedicate this blog to comics in all forms, manga, autobio, superhero, art books, etc. And of course, since I need a challenge, I've decided that I'll read and write (short) reviews for 365 comics during 2015.
So, I'm going to do a presentation. I decide to use a projector with my iPad, so which app do I use to create the presentation?
First I tried on on Deck Slideshow Presentations. I went through their sample/guide presentation to get a feel for it. Which was a bit insulting actually. First Deck sells itself by telling me it's themes will stop me from making a fugly presentation, since all of it's themes were created by real professional designers. "Choosing from a pre-built gallery prevents you from making poor design choices." After informing users that they can't make their own theme, but must choose from a 'gallery,' Deck is quick to point out that each theme is 'unique,' not like other 'cookie-cutter' presentation makers. I'm not sure how something can be both 'pre-built' and 'unique' at the same time, but ok. At least I won't suffer the embarrassment of using my own terrible design.
I made a presentation using a photo I just quickly snapped of a snake poster and some graphs that compared using butter on toast to snake oil. I looked through the themes to select my professionally designed presentation, searching for just the right one to match my snake oil information. I chose one called "Pour." Oh, wait. I'd have to pay .99 cents to use it. That wasn't in the sample guide.
It turns out there are only three pre-loaded pre-built themes. That's pretty unique. I could download about four more for free, but the rest of the professional designers expected to be paid for their work. Go figure. So I reconsidered an chose the paper plane method to deliver my news to the toasted snack enthusiasts.
I went through the presentation. Little paper airplanes flew onto the screen and unfolded revealing my "Use on Toast" Pie Chart. There seemed to be a lot of clicking between the slides though, one click to zoom in on my snake picture, the next click to zoom out again, another to get the paper plane going again, and on and on.
Not impressed. Over all I can't see anyone presenting anything more complicated than opening a jar using this method. Sure, it was simple to use, but the lack of options also made for a really dull short presentation, even if it was about the miracle of snake oil on toast.