Google Docs presentations get real-time collaboration, transition effects and more

Google Docs‘ collaboration features have really improved of late, and today that’s being expanded to presentations.

As Google has announced, new features include simultaneuous editing with a different color presence marker for each user; built-in chat to share ideas as you work, and a revision history  to see who made what changes and roll back to earlier versions.

In all, the company says that over fifty new features have been added to the new version of Google Docs presentations. These include: transition effects between slides (a glaring absence since the service launched); animations; new themes, and the ability to incorporate drawings, flowcharts and rich data tables into presentations.

The new features are slowly being rolled out to all users, but you can activate them right away. Click on the gear icon in your document list, select ‘Document Settings’. From the editing tab, check the box to “Create new presentations using the latest version of the presentation editor.”

Interestingly, Google says that the new features are built for recent browsers only. Users of older browsers will be able to view but not edit the new presentations. This cut off for older browsers, it says, is to enable “more useful and collaborative features, delivered faster than ever before” in the future.