Web 2.0 technologies are starting to show their potential behind corporate firewalls, and more companies want to create real business value with Web 2.0. We were shocked to see Google Docs for the first time. It’s amazing that such a complex application can be done so beautifully through the Web. In this three-part series, we’ll show you how to build a Web application like Google Docs using Ajax technology. There are three types of common office documents: text, spreadsheet, and presentation. This series focuses on the presentation format.

In Part 1, we’ll look at user interface (UI) design, which is one of the most important aspects of online applications. Users tend to prefer software that they are familiar with, so making a cool and familiar presentation GUI on the Web greatly affects users’ perception of our tool. Within this article, we’ll focus on the key elements of a good interface and get one working.

Part 2 will focus on adding editing features to our presentation application. We’ll change font styles, drag and drop pictures in the presentation, and modify our text content. All of these features will be covered in Part 2.

Finally, in Part 3, we’ll look at persistence. Our philosophy is, a Web application should be compatible with existing ones. We’ll export or import other presentation files into our system, keeping in mind these questions:

• How do we transform one type of file to another?
• How do we save current works for user later use?
• How do we share presentations with other people?

Right now, let’s start developing the user interface.