While viewing Microsoft PowerPoint presentations on an iPad isn't anything new, many of the apps that let you do this aren't very stable, lack animations or are bundled with pricier apps that also let you create presentations (such as Apple's Keynote or Quickoffice Pro HD).

If it's a reliable presentation viewer you need, a new and free app called SlideShark should do the trick.

Brainshark's 15MB app lets you view and show PowerPoint presentations on your iPad -- or to whatever source it's connected to, such as a TV or projector, via the HDMI connector (for iPad 2 users).

While the app works very well, loading the presentation onto the iPad might be an inconvenience for some. You see, you first need to visit slideshark.com on your personal computer and register for a free account. Once this is completed, you'll upload a PowerPoint file (.ppt or .pptx) to your password-protected online account, which gives you up to 100MB of storage in total. After the upload it takes a couple of minutes to convert the slides into an iPad-optimized viewing format, which will then be available on your Internet-connected iPad a minute or so after that.

Once the PowerPoint is on your iPad you can tap to launch it full-screen, slide your finger up from the bottom to see all slides in the presentation (displayed as thumbnails) and tap or swipe to advance. A nine-slide tutorial presentation is already included with the app to teach you how to get the most out of it.

I uploaded two presentations -- one, a 22-slide .pptx file and an older 14-page .ppt deck without any animation -- and both worked like a charm. Uploading, converting and downloading between the PC and iPad took two or three minutes in total, and it looked great on the iPad. Too bad you can't drag and drop files between the tablet and computer via iTunes, as it needs to be formatted for SlideShark first.

At least the recently-updated app lets you tap and hold on PowerPoint files in emails to load them into SlideShark. Alternatively, you can do this by tapping the arrow+rectangle button in cloud storage services like iCloud, Dropbox or Box -- or by clicking the "Open in" button in the top right corner when viewing a PowerPoint in the native iPad viewer.

While SlideShark preserves animations, fonts, graphics and colours -- something you don't often find in other presentation viewers for the iPad -- not all PowerPoint features are supported, such as embedded videos, slide transitions and hyperlinks. Or yet, anyway.

Shortcomings aside, SlideShark is a free and powerful tool for those who want a seamless way to view and share PowerPoint presentation on their iPad.