My Top 12 Web Tools of 2006 - Number 11

I have been using SlideShare for a while now and I rather like it. Some people have called it the YouTube for PowerPoint.

Currently, you cannot embed audio in SlideShare for a narrated presentation, but I'll bet they're working on it. I have used it a couple of times where it is paired with a separate audio file for the narration.

From their website: "What is SlideShare? SlideShare is a free service for sharing presentations and slideshows. You can upload your PowerPoint and OpenOffice presentations, tag them, embed them into your blog or website, browse others' presentations, and comment on individual slides. It's a great way to share your ideas with others, or to learn from other people. And it's free."

Also: "What is the maximum size of the presentation file that can be uploaded? SlideShare supports a maximum file size of 20MB at present."

Right now you create all of your presentation materials outside of SlideShare and then upload the finished product to the system. Basically they store your stuff and make it easy to embed the presentation into any webpage.

One of the nice features is the ability to link to a particular slide within a presentation. For example, this link will show our online course enrollments over the years, one slide out of 41 slides in that presentation. Another nice feature is the price: free! The embedded show below is somewhat text-heavy, which I believe means that the narration file is less needed.

Update (9/11/07): I added an mp3 narration file to my slideshow at Slideshare and synched them. This feature was not available at the time of the original post. Sorry for the tin-cup sound of the audio.