PowerPoint on the iPad? SlideShark makes it happen seamlessly

For those unfamiliar with Brainshark, the company has made its name by providing presentation solutions for businesses and individuals alike. But understanding that much of the world’s presentation work happens in PowerPoint, the company has branched out to launch its SlideShark product , enabling you to display PowerPoint via your iPad.

When you look at the market for the iPad, with huge increases in sales, it’s only natural that people would want to use it for showing presentations but doing so has been frustratingly difficult. A few months ago we saw SlideRocket get into the fray by implementing HTML5 translation, but SlideShark brings another option to users.

It’s an interesting method, combining a Web-based translation with a native iPad application, and it looks great:

The process is exceedingly simple. Just log in with your free SlideShark or Brainshark account, upload the files an then play the presentation back via the free iPad app. The conversion to being iPad friendly happens behind the scenes, rather than focusing on an HTML5 transition. As such, things that might not work in HTML5 because of the (admittedly low) constraints of the platform should work like a charm in SlideShark, keeping the presentation as it should be rather than forcing it to as it has to be.

There is a caveat, however. From the FAQ, the following will not work:

“…hyperlinks on slides, embedded videos or animated gifs, slide transitions, triggers, and 3rd party components. There are also some advanced animations that may not be supported.”

SlideShark does work for free, however, and it’s not required that you’re a Brainshark customer, it just so happens that the login for Brainshark will work for SlideShark as well.

In short, it’s another tool that’s well worth having in your arsenal. The more mobile we get, we’re often times having to give up the methods to which we’ve become accustomed. SlideShark is solving at least one of the problems, and it’s doing so in a way that’s accessible to almost all of us.