<<Hi folks,
You'll notice a new look the next time you use Google Docs
Presentations, but there's more to the changes than just aesthetic
appeal :)
For starters, we've increased the amount of editable space displayed,
and have made tweaks to our menus and toolbar that will hopefully lead
to a more intuitive editing experience.
Additional changes:
- In the 'Slide' menu, you'll find 'Zoom in' and 'Zoom out' options,
along with handy keyboard shortcuts.
- Undo/redo has been improved, and now applies to actions taken on
slides, objects and text.
As always, we'd love to hear your feedback!
Steve >>

http://groups.google.com/group/GDSupdates/browse_thread/thread/42c8e28e646a972b/0e8458a6e590f32b?show_docid=0e8458a6e590f32b

Finally!

I'm surprised that they didn't reuse fully the Document layout (like the share blue drop-down button).

I like the way they've saved space with the "No one else is editing this presentation" message on the top menu bar... but we still expect a chat sidebar for the edit mode :(

There's neither a save, nor a close button! The only exit-strategy seems to close the tab. I love this "real-time saving" concept, but I doubt mainstream users will understand that easily. There isn't a close item in the file menu (where the "open... " action oddly redirect to the Docs list instead of openning a box with existing presentations).

I'm very disatisfied with the "change theme" action: why didn't they link to the template gallery? Default themes are very few and not very nice.

old:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3228/2846605706_5f0ccc1268_o.png
new:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3272/2846572122_daf3a8e7d0_o.png

Sorry, I've just noticed the save icon in the toobar (I expected a big save and close button at the top right of the screen).

There were some more updates on google docs:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2008/09/back-to-school-with-bunch-of-new.html
Dictionary & Thesaurus
Encyclopedia

hebbet
They didn't say anything about the table of contents in Document, released with the other update (and I think it matters more than the dictionary and encyclopedia).

Hopefully, Blogoscoped has already covered that some time ago :)
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-08-11-n17.html

I like the new "Incremental Reveal" option in in the presentations, you can add a little effect with it.

http://www.websonic.nl/nieuws/092008/images/google_docs_presentatie_1.jpg

Incremental Reveal is not new

http://groups.google.com/group/GDSupdates/browse_thread/thread/76eb173548c61f55/ffc7d25701730759?show_docid=ffc7d25701730759