Google Presentations and the Right Tool for the Job
By Zach Gemignani
September 24, 2007
Find more about:
business
powerpoint
presentations
productivity
tools
Last week, Google released Presentations to fill out their portfolio of online, collaborative document types (they already offer text documents and spreadsheets). The Google folks were kind enough to include us in a round of beta testing a few weeks back, giving us a chance to preview this application, find bugs, and offer feedback.
If you give Google Presentations a try, you may be struck by its limitations. It doesn't offer much flexibility in creating presentations, especially when compared to Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote. The best you can do is create simple text slides on a few predefined templates. On the other hand, it offers unique capabilities you don't get with desktop applications. In particular, we were impressed with how easy it was to share a presentation live online.
I have started to wonder whether calling Google Presentations a "web-based competitor to PowerPoint" or "a PowerPoint clone" was simplistic and misguided. Lumping together software tools is a natural reaction to long lists of features and techno-terminology. Software vendors don't make it any easier to distinguish the differences when they attempt to convince us that their solution is the complete, do-everything tool to satisfy all your [presentation/data analysis/communication/networking] needs.
So, we assume our software tools fall into neat buckets. We assume the tool we are using today do everything we need "well enough." And we assume any new tool is a direct competitor to what we use. As a result, we are severely limited in what we can achieve.
For a long time, I was a fan and a heavy user of PowerPoint. It did what I needed. Perhaps I told myself that what it did was all I needed. A while ago, I had to break off this exclusive relationship.
Now, I find myself using a bunch of different tools to communicate information. On the one hand, this has made my life more complicated. There are new applications to learn and the hassle of moving documents around. But in other ways, it's easier. I use tools designed for the task at hand. And I have opened up a whole new realm of what is possible in terms of organization, polish, and audience engagement.
The table below shows the activities involved in business presentations. For each activity, I have a rough assessment of how well PowerPoint, Keynote, and Google Presentation perform. I also list the current Juice toolset.

Analytics Roundup
By Ken Hilburn
September 14, 2007
Find more about:
analytics
email
graphics
nytimes
productivity
social_network
statistics
trends
video
visualization
- Nielsen/NetRatings' August social media numbers: Not much change
- Interesting post I stumbled on related to Nielsen's web analytics service. Several references to "juicy" or "juiciness".
- Inbox Zero
- Merlin Mann on cleaning your e-mail inbox.
- The New York Times > Home Prices Across the Nation
- The most interesting / important part may be the talking head in the lower left, should you be annotating your reports with video?
- Introduction to Statistical Thought—free ebook
- 1) explains how statisticians think about data
2) introduces modern statistical computing
3) as lots of real examples
Analytics Roundup: Naming matters
By Chris Gemignani
May 14, 2007
Find more about:
branding
display
howto
juice
marketing
powerpoint
presentations
productivity
tagging
visualization
- Igor | Naming companies, naming products
- Definitive essay on naming from the company that inspired our name.
- Vox Populi: Best practices for file naming | 43 Folders
- One approach to a tough problem that we all have.
- Seth's Blog: Worst powerpoint slide ever used by a CEO
- Pretty bad, but surely not the worst.
- HARLEM-13-GIGAPIXELS.COM
- Extreme data presentation in a different realm.
Help Save Your Local GUI Jock
By Juice Alumni
April 28, 2007
Find more about:
dashboard
interface
management
productivity
We all know at least one GUI Jock. That one guy who knows how to, say, run a complex query on the content management system, or export data from the annoying sales database front-end or actually get new data into what qualifies as "the system" where you work. He is a master of tools that appear obscure, but are in fact just a pain in the neck. He is not writing firmware for the space shuttle; he is changing the background gradients in your marketing dashboard.
The GUI Jock is a paradoxical figure. Indispensable and yet undervalued, he owes his livelihood to the ferocity of the beast he tames. The sheer number and complexity of pull-down menus, check-boxes, obscure options, software bugs, and poor user interface choices created by an external software vendor. The GUI Jock conquers them all—he is a human compiler who receives requests in the loose and informal language of the outsider and compiles them to the standards demanded by expensive enterprise software.
But how did he find himself in this position? Ironically, he may have fallen into this unfortunate role by being good at a few ad hoc requests which he likely completed under the assumption that he would soon be moving on to more interesting work. But now he is stuck in a trap that he helped build and of which others are afraid. He is there to fall on the grenade that is lousy software, poor documentation, and bad process so the rest of the organization can go about its job without another hassle. The GUI Jock suffers so we do not.
What can be done?
In my experience the GUI Jock is usually not happy with his lot. If you know him you are probably aware that he can be a grouch and he has probably sighed in your presence more than once (if you don't know him, he might be you). But can we set him free?
A typical response is training. Grab a conference room for a few hours, set up a projector and show the junior staff just how to hold that chair while taming the beast known as the "InsiteDynaMetrix CollaboStream(tm)". The juniors sit and nod, happy to have such a big block of their day accounted for. In my experience, the success rate of this approach is woefully low. It can backfire, basically serving to train attendees to know who exactly the GUI Jock is and that they should funnel all relevant requests directly to his inbox.
To protect itself, the organization demands that the GUI Jock stay in his role. He is the only person who will save himself. He has a few options:
- Sucker a new employee into the role. New employees are eager to please and crave the recognition of value that comes with being a GUI Jock. They are also too naive to see the quicksand.
- Increase the friction for people who lean on him. Ask for forms to be filled out, demand detailed requirements, and delay in delivering results. With enough process, these people may decide to serve themselves.
- Apply to graduate school.
3 comments
sarab said:
I agree, with seth godin's take on tufte (after watching the google video segment).
Jason said:
Brilliant, For those who know what travis is talking about.
I am afraid I may be a GUI Jock, and I did not know it before.
Ian said:
I am the GUI jock and they DO fill in forms to make me do things, oh god what shall I do!
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Diaper Genies for analysts (i.e. simple tools and tricks to help you work better)
By Zach Gemignani
April 28, 2006
Find more about:
excel
productivity
tools
With a new baby, you come to appreciate the small inventions that make a big difference. The Baby Bjorn, the Diaper Genie, the baby monitor: these are simple, well-designed technologies that can save your sanity.
Which got me to thinking: What are the Diaper Genies for data analysts? What are the little tools that solve nagging problems in a light, simple, intuitive way? I put together a starter list below of a few of my favorites. The thing that's amazing about these tools and tricks is that they have changed my usage behaviors. By simply eliminating a few clicks or keystrokes, I work differently and more efficiently.
- MWSnap is a bit of freeware by Mirek Wojtowicz that lets you easily capture images on your screen. Pre-MWSnap, I often found myself using the Windows Ctrl-PrtSc function when making presentations. Then I would have to chop down the full screen capture in an image editing program. This application lets you grab just the part of the screen you need, then copy and paste it right into PowerPoint.
- Keyboard shortcuts in Excel. Keyboarding both saves you time and expands your ability to work effectively with large data sets. There are two kinds of keyboarding that we teach: 1) using the Alt key with letters to navigate the menu structure (e.g. Alt-i-r to insert rows, Alt-e-s-v to paste special). 2) using the Ctrl and Shift keys with the arrows to move around and grab blocks of data. See Chris' keyboarding game. Everyone rolls their eyes when we harp on keyboarding as an essential element to being effective with Excel; I've seen too much value from the skill to care.
- Excel Pivot Tables."What's easy about PivotTables?!," you say. Admittedly, this tool doesn't exactly fall under the category of simple and quick to learn. In fact, we are still looking for an intuitive way to teach Pivot Tables. Here are a few good tutorials I've come across. In my experience, you have to put up with a short and mildly painful learning curve; it's worth the trip. I've seen many analysts who still rely on vlookup functions when a simple Pivot Table would let them manipulate their data far more quickly. We are developing a post that offers our tips and tricks on working with Pivot Tables.
- Voice IM (e.g. Google Talk, Skype). There is a form of conversation that requires less focused discussion than a phone call but more verbal interaction than instant messaging. This is where the voice talk features on many IM clients become valuable. Often Chris and I will open a Google Talk call while we work on something together. Long silences suddenly feel acceptable since it's free.
- Windows Alt-Tab. This key combination gives you the ability to flip between applications and can be a huge time saver. I've found it especially useful when I'm pulling data from application and dropping it into another.
- Faster web browsing with Firefox. Mozilla's Firefox browser touts its security, pop-up blocking, and extensions as differentiators. The features I care about are those that help me manage the information better. Ctrl-f gives a 'find' box in the bottom of your browser where you can start typing instantly. It jumps you right to the part of the page with your word/phrase. Tabbed browsing and the ability to jump between tabs (Ctrl-PgUp or -PgDn), close tabs (Ctrl-w), or open a new tabs (Ctrl-t) lets me work with half a dozen web sites at the same time.
- Google Desktop. The new version has a feature where you can press Ctrl twice and it pops a search box. Not only is this a better tool for finding files than Windows offers, but it can quickly find applications. You may never have to go to that Windows Start button again!
We don't claim to be productivity gurus like Merlin Mann of 43 folders or the folks at Lifehack, but I think you'll appreciate how these tools seem to scratch an itch then mercifully leave you alone. They give you a sense of control that is about the opposite of MS Word deciding how your bullets should look.
3 comments
Fred said:
I fully agree with your comment on Excel keyboard shortcuts... I feel like I'm missing an arm and a half if I can't use these shortcuts.
So here's my question: I'm switching to Mac, and Excel 2004 doesn't appear to have support for this type of navigation. Is there any way around this, or to get it to work with the shortcuts as in Windows?
Thanks
Zach said:
You question could hardly be more timely for us. We are also looking at switching to the new MacBooks. As you know, we are obsessive about Excel keyboarding (it can feel like a superpower) and the fear is that we will be reduced to the typing equivalent of hunt-and-peck people.
Here's a good article I found about keyboarding on Macs:
http://www.macworld.com/2004/09/secrets/septworkingmac/index.php/
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7 comments | Show all comments only the last 5 are shown
Paul Soldera said:
We've been using Google tools quite a bit recently. They really shine when you need to collaborate remotely, but after that, the functionality really is limited - especially the spreadsheet program. I haven't tried the presentation one, but must give it a go.
The real drawback for me though, is the response time. I am so used to rapid text/data entry and menu response time that I have almost no tolerance of any perceptible delay. I think this is where ajax and other RIA apps hit a wall. Which is a pity.
Dan Keldsen said:
Nice comparison, and like Paul, I've found myself using Google tools a fair amount (why not, they're free - making experimentation so much easier than "enterprise apps").
Lag-time and some inconsistencies across the "product suite" make working with these tools a bit confusing, but using Google Docs and Spreadsheets has been very handy with some remote collaboration lately.
In your comparisons, I agree with most of your commentary, with one exception...
I'm trying to like Numbers, but while it provides beautiful charts and tables for the most part, it's limitations in color schemes, and in a number of frustrating UI interactions, is giving me heartburn. It's quirky, and on my machine (2 month old MacBookPro - the LED variation), is very slow in switching between pages/tables/charts.
Even though it has been nearly 14 years since I last used Illustrator to create charts, I'm about to ready to give it a whirl again - at least the graphical presentation is sure to be solid, although it's baffling to me that all of these tools, whether coming from a spreadsheet or "art" metaphor are still so clunky after all this time.
I guess the "Tufte-ian" revolution hasn't quite intersected with the usability movement yet, eh?
Chris Gemignani said:
I agree that Numbers is a little weird. While the basic charts are pretty good, the inspector-based manipulation is hard to get used to. The good news is an update to Numbers appeared yesterday that is supposed to address performance.
Tony Rose said:
I'm not familiar with Numbers. I will say that I almost snapped my mouse in half trying to use Google Spreadsheets and dealing with the delay. Even the slightest lag between key strokes and data entry won't work for me. Call me high-maintenance... We have a long way to go before Excel is overtaken in the corporate world.
What, no Xcelsius in the "juicebox"?
GleaM said:
I just heard yesterday the name of a web-based suite called Zoho:
http://www.zoho.com/
For what I did heard and the impression that I got from it (looks very google-like), I think it beats Google suite by far.
Just to add somo other solutions...
Regards.
rolo said:
We have set up a 46" LCD to display KPIs, and use powerpoint, but obviously it has not been the best experience.
Can anyone suggest tools for digital signage in corporate offices where a reports and analysis unit has to display, every other day, kpis, tables with data, trendlines, bar charts, etc. But in a professional way and not like a simple power point?.
Thanks in advance!
Noah Iliinsky said:
Hi Zach,
I've got to agree on your choice of the Omni tools; they really are best-of-class.
I'm curious about what you mean when you say storyboarding. Typically, I'd think of frames that define phases, with some illustration and supporting text. How does that work in OmniOutliner?
Best, Noah
said:
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