For the first time in 15 months, Google Docs failed to meet my needs and left me totally stranded. I no longer own Microsoft Office. I needed to send a PowerPoint file. I imported an existing presentation into Docs, edited it, and attempted to export it as a new PPT presentation. Alas, Google Docs only lets you export presentations as PDF or TXT files. I was flummoxed.

What the heck, Google? It's a rare, rare occasion that I need to use PowerPoint for anything. I had a copy of Microsoft Office on a Windows laptop sitting in my office. I would only use that machine if and when I absolutely needed to use a Windows platform for something. That included creating PowerPoint files. Well. That machine died. And I am cheap, and don't want to give Microsoft any of my money, so I haven't bought a new Windows machine yet. Nor have I bought a copy of MS Office for my Apple computers. (Yes, I am an Apple snob. Sue me.) Google Docs has sufficed just fine. Until now.

At first, I thought things were going just fine. I had the PowerPoint file stored online and imported it to Google Docs with no problems. It even converted all my formatting, fonts, templates and everything. It looked great. So I happily edited away. When I was done, I hit the "File" tab to export the presentation. The selections included: New, Open, Upload, Import, Save, Save as a New Presentation, Rename, Delete, Print, Save as PDF, Save as Text, Start Presentation, Discard Changes, and Save & Close.

I thought perhaps Save as a New Presentation was the ticket. So I clicked that. What does Docs do? It just opens up a new presentation in Docs. Darn. I looked everywhere, under every tab, in every menu. Nowhere is there a Save as PowerPoint or Export as PowerPoint file option. PDFs and Text files obviously don't cut it when PowerPoint is required. Google Docs allows you to export Word and Excel files, so why does PowerPoint not get any Google love?

In the end, I had to send the original file to a colleague and walk him through the changes over the phone. This wasted time for both of us. Maybe Gates was right after all.

Google, you add new features all the time. Please allow Docs users to export presentations as .ppt files. Please! This is essential!

Have any of you run into similar trouble spots concerning Google Docs? If so, please share.