Active Files

Once presentations are in the cloud, the next step is to make them “active.” That means making them visual, searchable, accessible and reusable. They are permissioned, and their use is tracked. Visual files are files that are formatted to present. You can preview for yourself and present them to a client all from the same place. Search is a pretty standard feature but we all know that some search engines are better than others at helping you find content you need. Combine search with visualized results and you’ve instantly solved one problem: how to help employees find the right slides for their decks.

Accessible files are ones that your team can get to easily. Permissions enable accessibility because they direct users to content that is relevant to their job. And finally, reusable files refer to the ability to take a file or slide from a file and put it in a new presentation without a lot of hassle. For our clients, we provide a tray where users can drag and drop files and slides, put them in order, and then save them out as a new file. It’s like an Amazon shopping cart, except you are shopping for slides, and other content, instead of stuff.

In contrast, the opposite of active files are dormant files -- files that are hidden, asleep on your network somewhere and are hard to find. Active files, on the contrary, are ready to work -- ready to present -- from anywhere, anytime. A sales rep presenting at her customer’s office can find and access the files and present them within seconds. Or she could share a large-file video with her colleague across town.