Enabling you to check out the cloud office suite without having to commit to anything

Dec 10, 2011 11:21 GMT  ·  By

Google is adding a new tool to its Docs demo site, the presentations editor, which recently got a major upgrade. Thanks to the new underpinnings, it can be used without a Google account or signing in enabling users to take it for a spin to see how they like it.

For those that use it, Google Docs is both a joy and a pain. But most would not go back regardless.

However, turning people over to the cloud is hard, most can't believe that a website does most of what the big hunk of software, they've paid hundreds of dollars for, does.

Being able to try out the cloud editors before making a commitment, i.e. signing up, helps, which is exactly the idea behind the Docs demo website.

"We recently launched a new version of Google presentations with many new features to help you create beautiful presentations together. We’ve added the new editor to our Docs demos to make it easier to test drive your presentation building skills," Google explained.

"Check out the new animations and transitions, get artsy with drawings, and show off your masterpiece to a friend or colleague. You can share the link in the demo with others and work on the same presentation together. No login required. No Google account needed," it added.

The demo presentation enables you to not only see what the editor is like and play around, but also to learn how to make a presentation via the interactive tutorial.

There are also demo sites for the documents editor, the spreadsheets editor and the drawings editor. The most important editors in Google Docs are there, so you should be able to get a good idea of what they're all like before signing up for a Google account or starting to use Docs properly.