It’s not a loose analogy, but almost a literal description. SlideShare looks and works like a near clone of YouTube, except it’s for sharing PowerPoint slides instead of videos. Tagging, sharing, embedding in other sites—it’s all there.

Now there are plenty of good reasons not to use the much-abused PPT medium as the preeminent information designer Edward Tufte has eloquently described. The Wall St. Journal recently covered this territory as well. But maybe your pastor is a big slideware fan or you’re looking to make the most of existing content from your ministries to put on your church website. If so, SlideShare is worth a try.

The site doesn’t support animated transitions at this point, but it does support the PPT and PPS extensions along with ODP (Open Office) and KeyNote (if saved as a PPT).

Here’s an example of presentation on a compendium to the Catechism. Take a look a few pages in for some amusing images of DVD covers from Biblical movies. Your visitors aren’t going to remember all the small print, but the pictures might register.

Have you had success sharing slides at your church? Please share with the rest of us.