When someone lacks both the money to acquire a powerful PowerPoint viewer like Microsoft’s Office, or the means to obtain one for free, it comes to a simple choice: resort to a converter, which may tweak the file and change properties in disgusting ways or, try an online solution.

Power Point files, be it marked as .PPT, PPTX or with any other compatible extension out there, may be created, edited and viewed using online services. There are more than a couple of names that can pull trough such a stunt, both not all are worth it. With a particular view towards the price, today we’re going to explore one’s variants of opening a Power Point file through the browser.

Online PowerPoint Viewers

powerpoint

The list below contains several types of services, starting with pure-online establishments and straying with some tricks that you can do to access .PPT files without a desktop client. As we’ve tried to scout for the best options available, we’ve also found some good options that are not free.

ViewDocsOnline

viewdocsonline

When it comes to simplicity, sheer rapidness and responsivness, ViewDocsOnline is probably one of the best solutions out there. Contoured after a Google-like model, with only a single form inside a white background, this service can open pretty much any Microsoft Office file (doc, docx, ppt, pptx, pps, xls, xlsx) and a few others on top (pdf, ps, txt, rtf, sxi, etc.).

The service is free to use, requires no accounts (although creating one will give you more options), works with files up to 25MBs of size and has a sense of privateness when it comes to file uploads. After a file has been chosed, it will be automatically sent towards their server and allowed to be shared through a visible URL. From point on, the file will remain present for the next 3 weeks and be deleted afterwards.

Here’s how to use it:

  1. Visit the official website.
  2. Hit the Browse button and choose the file you need to view.
  3. Click on View Document and wait for the software to render the file.

Unfortunately, this service does now allow users to create, nor edit files.

GroupDocs

group docs

GroupDocs is a conglomerate of Office tools placed under the same roof and for the sake of understanding, it can be seen as Microsoft Office on the web. Their complete expertise allows users to view pretty much any files in a browser, create and extract signatures from documents, convert various files into other types and add specific comments, as annotations. The whole experience is vast, and worth it for someone looking for more options. Here are a couple of features, for the viewing part only:

  • Zoom in/out of the document
  • Easy-print button
  • Owners can download a document on their PC
  • Comparison tool that could prove great for editors
  • Webmasters can embed a widget in their website / applications

Unfortunately, GroupDocs needs an account first which will set you back around $17/year.

Google Docs

google docs

Since Google migrated the Docs section to Drive, wonderful things can be achieved, including online presentation viewing. For this to be done, you are going to need a Google account (Gmail is sufficient) and that’s about it. From the Google’s Drive menu you can create, edit and view PowerPoint files, just like any other office type.

Here’s how to do it:

  1. Navigate to Google Drive.
  2. Login using your Gmail account.
  3. In the left section, near the Create button in red, you will find a drive symbol, known as the Upload button.
  4. From the drop-down menu, choose File.
  5. Navigate and select the presentation file you need and click Open (this will upload the file on Google’s server).
  6. In the middle-right section of the screen, look for the file you’ve just uploaded and click it.

Moreover, there’s a dedicated “View as slideshow” button in Gmail which allows users to see attachments right on the screen, without having to go through the whole procedure.

SkyDrive

skydrive screenshot

Google is not the only company with an intelligent cloud, Microsoft has one itself. SkyDrive, as you may know, allows users to upload any types of files onto their 25GB-free part of the heaven, from which users can open some right from their browser. Thanks to an intelligent suite of applications, called Office Web Apps, PowerPoint presentations fall right into this category.

So, in order to view .PPT files online using SkyDrive you will have to perform the followings:

  1. Sign up for a LiveID.
  2. Use that account to login at SkyDrive .
  3. Use the Add Files button to upload the target onto SkyDrive, just like above.
  4. Once the file appears in the cloud, click to open it.
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