Rick B.

PowerPoint isn’t an awful tool. The only problem is that it hasn’t come out of the Office 1.0 era, even after so many years. Lack of interactivity and eye candy make even interesting presentations look stale. It’s not like there aren’t any worthy alternatives either; there are so many of them out there. Office dwellers are creatures of habit and therein lies their problem.

It’s true that there are a few web apps that help break away from the clutches of PowerPoint, SlideRocket is the only presentation app that not only allows you to create stunning presentations but also to manage them intelligently, share them securely and then measure the results. Join me for a review of the recently revamped presentation app after the jump.

Overview

SlideRocket is an online presentation app that strives to make presentations less boring and more engaging. Since our earlier review of SlideRocket, they’ve undergone an extensive makeover, adding a new suite of interactive features, a powerful dashboard, and a fresh new look and feel.

Sign up goes in two stages, the first is the standard sign up form with all the fields as mandatory requirements and the second requires you enter your credit card information if you are registering for the free trial account. Your credit card will not be charged at this stage or during the course of the free trial and you can cancel anytime.

Pricing

Pricing at SlideRocket is subscription based. While I was expecting to a see a complex tiered pricing model, SlideRocket surprised me with just only one paid plan. The paid Pro plan costs $24 a month and is loaded with features and a relatively generous storage limit of 1 GB.

There is a free account that comes with a lot of features of the paid account minus the interactive features and analytics. For those looking to evaluate the web app, the Pro plan comes with a free 14 day trial period.

Dashboard

After the sign up, there’s no need for email activation and you can login to your account straight away. A bright coloured and imposing Getting Started page welcomes you upon logging in and the page offers to help you import an existing presentation file, create a new one or help you learn how to use SlideRocket. Since our style is always trial and error, I skipped the page to get to the dashboard.

The dashboard is neatly designed with great color choices and aesthetics. I really loved the font styling and the manner in which the presentation library is displayed. You can change the library views and the size of the presentations in the library using the controls on the top right corner.

The dashboard is part of the revamp and is now the central hub from where you can manage settings, share and collaborate on presentations, view history, export presentation and pull analytics information.

Creating a new presentation

Creating a new presentation begins with the selection of a new theme. You have the option to select from one of the existing themes or create a new one altogether. For now, let’s go ahead and select an existing theme.

Another great point to note is the availability of options to optimize the presentation to the screen resolution of your choice. SlideRocket offers you to set custom resolution if your needs are not met by the five main presets.

I should note here that the presentation editor is very well designed. There are a ton of features available in this screen but SlideRocket team has done a great job at making all the icons and controls appear less daunting for first time users. The idea of using the right column for customizing text you’re entering is a great feature that even the user friendly PowerPoint lacks.

To the left we have icons that act as shortcuts to add multimedia, charts, tables etc. Adding textual content is pretty much the same way we’re used to—double click on the title and body to fill it with your ideas and observations.

When trying to import a picture, I was pleasantly surprised that I was taken to the Asset Library instead of a pop up to upload directly from the computer. Pictures have to be imported to the library first and then added to the presentation. While this might look like adding an additional step, the idea here is to have the images for future presentations and save time.

Not impressed yet? Wait until you see the Flickr integration. Just search for a keyword and you’re able to add any picture from Flickr that’s publicly available to your presentation and the library as well. Kudos SlideRocket!

Charts & Videos

Adding videos happens the same way as pictures. There’s YouTube integration available and once you enter the URL of the video it will be embedded in the presentation for you. No more pasting code!

Now, coming to the most important part of a business presentation—showing off charts after charts of data irrespective of however useless they might be. SlideRocket comes with six types of charts with brilliant colors and shades. You can double click the chart to edit or add more data.

Forms & Polls

Thanks to the new version of SlideRocket you can now add forms and polls to your presentation. At the end of the presentation they can come in very handy for collecting feedback on questions pertaining to the subject matter. From a simple test box to multiple choice questions and sliders, there six types of forms to choose from. Editing content is, as usual, done by double clicking them.

The content on the slides can be tilted, moved around and dragged across the screen at will.

Comments and Analytics

What use does collaboration have if there’s no real-time commenting system? SlideRocket lets you send invites to coworkers and friends so they can jump on board and comment on the progress of the presentation.

To see how popular and useful your presentations are, go to the Analytics tab in your presentation dashboard. From there you can see comprehensive analytical data such as the number of times the presentation was viewed, how long the users stayed on presentation, poll and form responses etc. If not for anything else, SlideRocket deserves a pat on the back for giving so much insight to fine tune the presentation.

Final Thoughts

As a presentation app, SlideRocket blows its competition out of the water with an impressive set of features. The number of ready-made themes is relatively lacking and something the SlideRocket team might consider adding to, especially for Pro plan users. SlideRocket’s monthly subscription plans are on the steeper side, but, quality doesn’t come cheap.

At the end of the day, however, $24 per month might be a bit too steep for regular office goers. A mid-level plan with slightly reduced features might add a bit more traction for SlideRocket. On the upside, however, $24 per month is an easy price to pay for small companies that will have multiple users taking advantage of this killer app.

To spice up your presentation, in addition to the gamut of features, SlideRocket hosts a marketplace to add content and services that can make your presentations stand out among the crowd. All presentations can be downloaded and showcased offline as well.

SlideRocket is definitely a must have tool for professionals in need of powerful presentation software.

Company: TuneCloud | Project: TuneStorm.fm

Something that is overlooked by a lot of web designers and developers is what is actually involved in the deployment of a website; the process when you’ve finished developing the site, tested to make sure it works, and are ready to push it to a live web server.

In a lot of cases, you will be dealing with clients who are getting their website for the first time, and there is nothing for you to really consider apart from the hosting solution to set them up on. As time goes on, you will start getting larger clients that may have existing websites already, or who have more complicated needs. You may find yourself in a scenario where the outcome could be a very unhappy client with data loss and a whole company’s worth of missing emails and site assets. Here are some basic steps that will ensure that you have covered all the bases for a smooth website deployment.

Step 1: Preparation

There are a few things to consider when you are finalizing a website, and they all depend on what type of deployment you will be completing.

The three general scenarios of a website deployment is:

1. The client has nothing (i.e. this is their first website)
2. The client already has hosting and you will be deploying the site on their server
3. The client already has hosting but you will be moving to a new server

The first scenario is the most desired because you are starting with a blank slate. Scenarios 2 and 3 are a bit trickier and involve a more thoughtful deployment process.

Once you have worked out what your deployment scenario is, you will be able to better prepare yourself for everything you need to do in order to carry out a smooth transition from the old website to the new one.

If you are dealing with scenario 1, then all you need to do is register their domain name and purchase (or provide) web hosting. Simple and fast deployment.

Scenarios 2 and 3 require some information gathering. You need domain management credentials for the existing web host so that you can manage the DNS records (more on this in a bit). You will find that, in many cases, the client has no idea what these are or where to get them, so you will need to do as much as you can before you approach your client.

So let’s gather information on our own. We can use a tool like whois.domaintools.com to find out some information about the existing domain name.

Type in the domain name and on the results page you will see the whois information. For those not familiar with the term, a whois (pronounced as "who is") is a query of information regarding an Internet resource, such as a domain name. For illustration purposes, here’s the whois information for Google.

Take note of the various contact email addresses, especially the administrative and technical contact. If you know who they are, then you are all set because you will know who to talk to. If you don’t, just write down their contact details and ask your point-of-contact for the project about them.

Next, click on the Registration tab. You will see ICANN Registrar information (the first line), which you should take a note of. Also, note down the Name Servers listed.

The ICANN Registrar is the company that registered the domain name. GoDaddy, Network Solutions, and Namecheap.com are examples of ICANN registrars.

If you have contact with the person listed as the domain’s administration or technical contact, either request the ability to manage the domain name yourself or ask them to modify the DNS records for you when your site is ready to be deployed.

If you don’t know the contact for the domain, then you will have to get your client to email or phone them for you.

At the very least, if you mention the ICANN Registrar’s name (e.g. "Hey, you registered your domain name on GoDaddy, does that ring a bell?"), then it might jog their memory and help them recall the information you need.

Step 2: Set Up DNS Records

If you are going to be setting up the website on a new host and you have access to the DNS management administration, then that’s great. Create yourself an A record (the address record that maps a domain name to the IP address of the server) or subdomain record for a live development site such as dev.domainname.com. Point this subdomain to the IP address of the new server.

If you don’t have DNS access but wish to have full control, I recommend using ZoneEdit.com, which is a free and easy, web-based domain manager. Be warned! Make sure you know what you’re doing with this tool; read their DNS basics and FAQ.

If you don’t want to get this far into the technical side, you need access to their account on their domain name registration service, which will usually have GUIs to help you set up DNS records.

Step 3: Set Up a Live Testing Site

It’s now time to see if the site works on the live server environment.

A practice I recommend doing is setting up a subdomain URL prior to officially deploying the site. Something like dev.domainname.com which will eventually be on domainname.com.

Don’t create a subdomain on the host as this will set up a new directory and make local DNS changes. Set it so that dev.domainname.com acts as a totally separate website. What you want to do is make dev.domainname.com a domain alias (also known as a CNAME record).

So, for example, if you’ve set up an A record (the record that maps the IP address of the web server to the domain name) like so:

example.com.     A     192.0.2.1

You would set an alias for dev.example.com as such:

dev.example.com.     CNAME     example.com.

By doing this, you can set up the website in the same physical location that it will live. You want to be as accurate as possible here so that you can do your final tests as if the site was truly deployed (which, technically, it is).

You can set all folder permissions and other settings, and then run tests and benchmarks to see how the site performs on the server.

If you’re hosting on the same server as the old website, the best you can do is upload to a directory named dev and set up a subdomain DNS record for it while you test. This allows the existing site to function normally, while still allowing you to test the web server environment. You will have to move this when it is time to deploy.

Step 4: Set Up Email Accounts

Developers deploying a website often overlook email, but it will be a priority to the client. Does your client have mail hosted on their old server? Are you moving their email?

If their email is currently in the same hosting account as the old website, then you will probably be moving mail to the new server. If so, collect all email account addresses and set up the exact same accounts on the new server. In most cases, you then won’t need to change anything, it will just transition to the new mail server at the same time the website does.

If the client has an internal mail server or third-party mail hosting, then you will need to make sure that the MX records (the DNS records that deal with mail) are all correct.

If your client has no idea, then a quick test is to ping the mail server, and if it has a different IP address to the website, then it’s most likely hosted on a different server and you need to double-check the MX records and make sure whoever is managing the DNS is notified of what is happening.

MxToolbox will give you all the information you need about the domain; it will list information about a domain name’s MX records.

The last thing you want to happen is for the client to lose email.

Step 5: Backup and Go Live

Even if you are hosting on a new server, take a full backup including any databases of the old website, as you never know when you might need something.

OK, all set to go live. If you have full control over DNS records then just change the A record for the domain name so that the IP address is set to the new web server and in about 20 minutes the new website will be live.

If anything is not right, just change it back to the old website and do some testing.

If you are changing Name Servers to point to the new host, then this can take anywhere up to 72 hours, so make sure you have the time to monitor and fix any errors as they happen on the new website. Because this is a change in name servers, you can’t just change it back quickly, so be prepared and give yourself enough time.

If you are hosting on the same server and removing the old website to make way for the new one, then do it at a time where you can monitor and fix anything live as it happens.

Give yourself enough time and try to go live in the business hours of the companies that you will need to contact if anything goes wrong.

All done. If you follow these steps, you should have a 100% smooth deployment of your new website and a happy client to spread the word of your business.

Website Deployment Checklist

1. Have access to DNS record management or know the people to contact
2. Set up the DNS records and make sure that all the settings are correct
3. Set up and test the website on the production server (where it will live)
4. Set up email
5. Back up the old site (if applicable) and deploy the new one

Related Content

• Launching a Blog Successfully in 15 Days
• How to Find and Remove Broken Links in Your Website
• A Complete Guide to VPS Hosting
• Related categories: Web Development and Website Management

About the Author

Mark Biegel is a Web Designer and Programmer from Brisbane, Australia. Specializing in PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, as well as design, he has been riding the highs and lows of the web industry for the last 10 years. You can find out more about Mark’s various projects at markbiegel.com and connect with him on Twitter.

A new study of online discussion around social music sites shows Apple's Ping is the least-talked about among Spotify, Rdio, Blip.fm and Pandora. Of the relatively little being said about Ping, 43% is negative, 3% is mixed and 54% is positive, according to the study by Infegy, which analyzes "chatter" from millions of sites on the Web.

Infegy looked at a 10,000 post sample from the past 30 days to determine how the top music sites stacked up against each other.

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A topic cloud of words from posts about Apple's Ping.

Ping has been criticized as a half-baked social network where the real goal is to sell more songs on iTunes. An agreement with Facebook that would have made it more social fell through before the release. The service was quickly overrun with spam. All in all, it has not caught on with the fire of some of Apple's other products, and people simply are not talking about it. "With the exception of a huge spike on the day of its release, Ping chatter has been surprisingly low," Infegy said.

Graph of the amount of talk around social music sites.

So who do users like? The streaming site Rdio registered a distant last in terms of conversation generated, but 87% of the conversation it generated was positive despite the fact that it just launched last month and costs $4.99 per month. Rdio was founded by creators of Skype and the file-sharing service KaZaA, is integrated with Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm and iTunes.

Blip.fm, the streaming service that revolves around user-created playlists, was the most talked-about service, and 80% of the conversation was positive. Pandora, the streaming music recommendation engine, generated the second-most buzz, 81% of which was positive.

The real winner may be the free streaming service Spotify, which is integrated with Facebook and generates about as much conversation as Ping even though it is not available yet in the U.S. Spotify is available in seven European countries, but its launch in the U.S. has been delayed by legal negotiations. Spotify has faced negotiation delays but is aiming to launch in the U.S. in 2011. Conversation about Spotify was 82% positive, 14% negative and 3% mixed.

Do you use Ping or Blip.fm? Which social music sites do you prefer?

In the late 90s, Greg Flores ran a search engine and noticed that his users were looking for online music. This is the story of how that discovery led to the launch of MP3.com, a pioneering site that connected musicians and their fans. You'll hear how a few clues helped MP3.com's founders predict the future of online music, and how they built a business to help create that future. You'll also hear about how the music industry worked to derail MP3.com's efforts.