Many people probably find themselves frustrated by the recent struggle with PowerPoint and other Office programs, which now require a paid subscription for services that were once free and included on most computers. Students, like this writer, find particular stress and anxiety associated with this issue; nothing is quite so stressful and infuriating as tying to open a PowerPoint presentation at two in the morning, due in class the next day, only to have a screen pop up demanding that you make a purchase of Office (which will only last a year).

Enter the savior that is Google Drive; long a favorite online storage spot for students and professionals alike, the nifty gadget also offers a variety of alternatives for Office services that have recently become unavailable for a huge chunk of people. With Google Docs and sheets, people can work together or separately, and Drive itself allows you to save documents, pictures, and other files in a secure, easily accessible, online storage space. Saved files can also be accessed from any device that can access the website, making it readily available on computers, tablets, phones, and other internet-capable devices. And, as for that pesky PowerPoint problem, Google Drive has the anxious student or professional covered; Google Slides have your back.

According to this blog post, Google Slides has revamped itself with some nifty new features meant to make presentations more dynamic and visually appealing. Ne presentations are now widescreen by default, as to better accommodate modern screens that are, more and more, wide screened. Slide sizes can be changed, however, to accommodate any screen. Slides are also more customizable, now, which allows the user to change font sizes, styles, colors, and the entire dynamic of individual slides.

In the face of trials such as those that Office manages, it is truly comforting to have Google Drive and its services so readily available for a public so desperately in need of presentation and word document tools. Hats off to Google Drive Slides and their innovations; long may they reign!

[Image courtesy of this Google Drive blog post.]