Web Presentation Application Requirements
We started with the basic requirements:

• Create a feature-rich and easy-to-use presentation application for the Web.
• No installation required - any computer/platform could be used.
• Make it "eye candy." Presentations should look good.
• Use the best graphics engine on the Web - Flash.
• Support multimedia files (photo, audio, video, animations).
• Target Web 2.0 users: blogs, wiki, and podcasts.
• Host and grow an extensive content library (templates, clip art).
• Connect to other popular services - Flickr, YouTube, etc.
• Automatically give credit to the sources used in the presentation.
• Keep the application small, so it will load fast and run on older computers and devices.
• Publish off-line presentations - export, print.
• Release the desktop version. Notebooks outsell desktops.
• Support "dynamic" content. The presentation content can be "generated" dynamically.
• Frequent improvements and updates (seamless to the user).
• Make it cool and free. Offer subscriptions for premium services.
• Get ready for mobile and TV presentations.

Challenges
Using Flash as a platform for application development has few challenges. Here are some of the issues experienced with Spresent and the choices we made: (Figure 1)
• Flash version: From the development perspective, it's always good to use the latest version of Flash, but it wouldn't be the best choice from a user perspective. So we agreed to stay "two versions behind." This gave us about 90% market penetration for the target Flash version every time. Also it's good to keep older versions available as it helps with mobile deployments.
• Components: Using component libraries and layout managers is attractive for developers, but it would add more Kb to the size of the application. We agreed not to use standard components and instead developed our lightweight components when we needed them, to keep the application small. We ended up with a complete application under 200Kb (not including Clip Art libraries), so it loads fast on any connection.
• Application interface: We were experimenting with designing an interface in Flash - how to make it intuitive, functional and resolution-independent. What should be the aspect ratio of slides for a cross-platform Web application, etc. It took three iterations, but we got great reviews after launching spresent.com.
• Desktop version: Porting a Flash application from the Web to the desktop is not a big problem, which is another wonderful thing about Flash. We had to write a C++ wrapper for the Flash movie to handle FS commands, add some libraries, and create an installer. We released a Windows-only version on the desktop and that seems to be okay with the users. The desktop version looks the same as the Web version, except for file dialogs. Originally we didn't plan to release a desktop version, but notebook computers are not always connected to the Web, and notebooks outsell desktop computers now.
• Import: Users expect a Web application to open documents created on the desktop. So we had to write a PPT import on the desktop first. It's just a basic import feature, helping casual users of PowerPoint to use Spresent. Our application design and objects are different than PowerPoint, so it's impossible to import and have a Web presentation that looks the same on the desktop. And we didn't want to. Since we use Flash, the Web presentations should look better.
• Publishing: This is a key feature of any Web application - it should be capable of publishing the results in different formats - for Web and for desktop applications. Spresent publishes final presentations as e-Mail, EMBED, HTML, ZIP and Flash (SWF-4 and SWF-6).
• SWF Export: Compiling a single SWF file from a presentation was tricky. We kept clip art as separate movie files (SWF). To compile the single SWF file for presentation, we had to take every single SWF object used in the presentation, "decompile" the SWF file, retrieve all internal variables and movie parameters, and then add this object to the new SWF of the presentation. When we started, we weren't sure it would be possible. But we did it twice - for Flash 4 and Flash 6 formats (SWF-4, SWF-6).
• Printing: If a presentation has animations, how do you print it? Starting with Flash 7, printing became easier. We had to play some tricks with animated objects, but overall it came out great. Users can print the complete presentation from any computer with a single click, and usually print drivers offer handout options, such as two slides per page. Making a PDF was free with the printing feature - just print the presentation into a PDF file using the local PDF driver on the computer.
• To animate or not: Flash can animate almost anything in a presentation, but it would be a distraction. In Spresent the designers have strict rules - animations should not distract from the presentation content. On other hand, we added interaction and animations options to some traditional objects: bullets, tables, backgrounds, and charts. For example, the San Francisco background has seven non-distracting animations at the bottom of the screen.
• i18n: The Web application has to be internationalized early in development. Spresent creates presentations in any Unicode-compliant font, and the application interface comes in five languages. It's just one XML file per language, so adding new languages is easy.
• Auto play and audio: Web presentations are designed to be published to the Web and should be able to change slides on click or auto play. Spresent has an original, easy-to-use time line for arranging slide timers. We also added audio support; it really makes a difference in presentations. For slideshows and company presentations, asynchronous background music works great. For podcasts, product, and training presentations, synchronized voice (MP3) is the right choice.

Presentations for New Web Users
How can Web presentations help - for personal and business use? Here are some examples of how Spresent fits into the Web 2.0 space. (Figure 2)
• Blogs: There are 50+M blogs. Bloggers use text and some images, which is very simple and needs to be improved. Web browsers support rich content formats (like Flash), but most bloggers won't buy and learn Flash authoring tools to create and publish blogs. Spresent offers them a tool to create "Rich Internet Blogs" for better storytelling.
• Wikis: It's the easiest way to collaborate; anybody can update the content of a Web site. Anybody can overwrite anybody, but it usually works great. Since a Wiki is a Web site, it's limited to what browsers do the most - text and images. Spresent offers tools to create animated, rich-media articles for Wikis.
• Podcasts: The number of podcasts grows every day with the number of listeners around 20M+. Podcasts are blogs with multimedia attachments. Today the podcast Web sites (blogs) offer two media file options: MP3 file (audio podcast) or MPEG-4 file (video podcasts). Spresent offers another option - a presentation synchronized with an MP3 file (for example, a slideshow with a podcast). This is similar to enhanced podcasts on iPod video, but in the browser.
• Photo sharing: Services such as Flickr. Spresent implemented a connector for Flickr, to search and add photos to the presentations. Users can create advanced presentations or just simple slideshows from shared photos.
• Video sharing: Services such as YouTube. Spresent supports YouTube videos on slides in presentations. Users can mix videos with photos, text, clip art, etc.
• Audio sharing: Services such as PodShow+. Spresent supports an external MP3 file playback, in sync or async mode.
• Social Web: Services such as MySpace and FaceBook. Spresent can be used for presentations such as slideshows or advanced content aggregation.
• Education: Schools, colleges, and universities use presentation applications to teach. Web presentation publishing can help.
• Small business: Create a nice Flash presentation about a company or product and update it any time. Post it on the Web server, blog, or in a forum on another Web site. No contractors required.
• Enterprise: Business presentations, corporate training, Web presentations (time-shift economy), send engaging presentation to customers, and more...

The list above seems to be broad, but that's how presentations are used.

Wish List for Flash
Flash is great, but not perfect. Here are few things we wish Flash had:

• Built-in content protection (encryption) options in Flash Player. There are third-party tools to encrypt the SWF files, but it would be better to have it in the Flash player.
• FlashLite devices are currently 2/5 versions behind the Web. Converting all platforms to Flash 9 would be great.

Free Way
Flash and Web presentation tools have come a long way; however, it feels like it's just the beginning as more great things are coming. And it's all free - like Flash and Spresent. (Figure 3)