Microsoft PowerPoint
| Power Point | |
|---|---|
| About | |
| Classification | Office |
| Type | Presentation software |
| Creator(s) | Dennis Austin |
| Developer(s) | Microsoft |
| First Release | May 22, 1990 |
| Development status | Active |
| Requirements | |
| OS | Windows or Macintosh |
Power Point is a piece of computer software which presents text and media using numbered graphical pages ("slides"). This program is owned and maintained by Microsoft, and is included with most distributions of Microsoft Office. It was originally called Presenter,[1] and destined for Macintosh systems. PowerPoint is the number 1 program used throughout the world for presentations.[2]
Features
PowerPoint is used primarily with a digital projector to display the slides directly from a computer. However, it can also be used to print digital "slides" as overhead transparencies or 35mm slides.[3] Additionally, slideshows can be published as webpages,[2] or printed on regular paper, with one or more slides on each page.
Slides can contain text, images, videos, audio, charts, graphs, and more. This content can be added directly, or imported from other office files. For example, spreadsheets (even if they include graphs) can be inserted into a slide.
As well as offering rich text options, PowerPoint offers many other stylistic options. Animations can be set up, including animated side transitions. Sides can be flipped through automatically on a timer, and other objects can be revealed on concealed based on actions or the passage of time, or even both. Animations are also available which emphasize content—these can be triggered in the same ways.
The background, text, and boarders can all by stylized with solid or gradient colors, patterns, images, and more. Templates can also be used to easily apply global style sets to presentations. These templates offer some customization options, and once applied, further changes can be made.
File formats
From the beginning, PowerPoint has used binary files to store presentations. These files are assigned the ppt file extension. However, Microsoft replaced this file format with the Office Open XML format, when they released Office 2007. Files written in this newer format were given the file extension pptx. The latter format is more stable and space-efficient, although it is not accepted by as many applications as the former. To help deal with this complication, Microsoft also released a free PowerPoint Viewer application, which can read the XML file format, as well as older binary files, back as far as PowerPoint 97.[4]
Similar software
- Open Office Impress
- LibreOffice Impress
- Keynote (iWork's program for Macintosh systems)
- Prezi (incompatible and uses a different style, but has a similar purpose)