I was recently asked to put together a Powerpoint presentation for a AGM, and figured Bluetracker would be the perfect tool to use. There was only one other person providing input, so how tough could it be?

I did the first revision, and met with the other individual to review. We did the usual: marked up each slide with different color pens, tweaking the titles and bullet points. When we were finished, I went back to the office and revised the presentation. Since my colleague was going out of town, I posted the document on Bluetracker and added my comments. Bluetracker handled everything great, and automatically created a PDF version of the Powerpoint. My plan was for him to download the PDF, take a look and send more changes via Bluetracker.

My colleague then emailed me back, asking me to send him a copy of the Powerpoint file, so he could make further revisions- on the ORIGINAL. I told him to grab the Source file off Bluetracker, which he did and then, to my surprise, he emailed me back his updated version. No Bluetracker, just a plain old email with an attachment.

What a mess. There were formatting problems, spelling mistakes, and slides that did not fit. I had to go through the entire presentation and figure out what he has added, and what was to be left alone. After a couple of hours, I realized all this could have been avoided if he had simply added his notes as a comment in Bluetracker. I wrote him back and asked him why he did not do this right from the start. "I was pressed for time and fell back on my old familiar ways" was his answer.

Since I was the author, it was my problem to figure out what had changed. But I can tell you, it would have saved me a few hours if he had helped me out and used the tool. In the end, the presentation went great, and everyone was happy.

Sometimes, it's a challenge getting around old familiar ways. But it's sure nice to have some help.