Information on Microsoft PowerPoint

PowerPoint is a core component of most editions of Microsoft Office.

Microsoft PowerPoint is a fully-featured presentation program, with an array of options for presentation creation and display. Microsoft offers it as one component of the Office software suite, and it interacts natively with the other applications in the package. PowerPoint has seen several versions throughout the years, though its core feature set and usage parameters remain the same.

Overview

PowerPoint provides slideshow-based presentation creation tools. Users can build presentations one slide at a time, adding text, lists, graphics, videos, audio files, animations and other elements. PowerPoint's effects features allow users to present slideshows using manual cues or automatic timing for presentations that display without input. The wide range of utilities make PowerPoint useful for displaying photographs, showcasing a business proposal or organizing a lecture.

Office Integration

As a part of the Microsoft Office suite, PowerPoint integrates with the other included productivity programs. Users can embed PowerPoint slides in Microsoft Word documents, transfer an Excel chart directly into PowerPoint or display cell contents from an Access database, all without changing the file formats of any existing documents. Microsoft offers PowerPoint in the Home and Business, Home and Office and Professional editions of Office, and PowerPoint is also available as a standalone product.

File Formats

Newer editions of PowerPoint use the open XML PPTX format as the default file extension. Previous versions save to the PPT extension by default. The program also works with many other presentation and multimedia file formats, including ODP, EMF, PNG, GIF, JPEG, WMV and XPS files.

Versions

PowerPoint runs on both Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. PowerPoint 2010 is the newest version available for Windows at the time of publication, while PowerPoint 2011 is the most recent OS X version. Microsoft has produced several editions for both platforms, with the first version appearing in 1988, and the first edition with Office integration releasing in 1995 with Office 95.

References

• Microsoft Office: Buy Microsoft Office 2010
• Microsoft Office: File Formats that are Supported in PowerPoint 2010

Resources

• Microsoft Office: PowerPoint