by Santi Meintjes

Created on: February 07, 2008

PowerPoint is a Microsoft software product usually bundled within the Microsoft Office packages (but not in all of them). It replaces photographic slides and overhead transparencies that were once the mainstay of presentations.

It is designed to run on Windows Operating Systems, and if you need to view PowerPoint presentations that have been made with PowerPoint 97, 2000, 2002 or 2003 you can download a viewer from the Microsoft site (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads). You will not be able to edit the presentations, but you can open password protected presentations (provided you have the password.).

It is possible to configure Macintosh systems so that PowerPoint will run on it, but it is fairly complicated and you should consider whether it is worth the effort. There are versions of PowerPoint available specific for Mac users.

The file extensions used by PowerPoint are .pps and .ppt. The only difference between these is that a .pps file will open in the "slide show" view, while the .ppt file will open in the "edit" view of the PowerPoint programme. When your presentation is finished, make sure it is saved in the .pps format so you do not have to change to the proper view when you start your speech.

PowerPoint presentations.
Those that remember slide presentations will immediately see the similarities when the PowerPoint presentation hits the screen. However, you can do much, much more with PowerPoint. This includes:
Slides with text
Slides with graphs
Slides with drawings
Slides with pictures
Slides with videos

And all of the above can be animated and sound tracked to move, change colour, play music, etc. The possibilities are endless. What's more, you can save the presentation to a CD and play it on computers that have Windows but do not have the PowerPoint programme. However, do not distract from the content of your presentation by having too much flying text, bells, blinking icons, or other animations.

In addition, you can tweak the presentation so that slides move on by themselves, so you do not have to wreck your speech with "next slide please" instructions like with photographic slide presentations.

PowerPoint templates
Your presentation can be as simple or as elaborate as you want. The programme comes with a number of templates that you can use, especially in the beginning while you are familiarising yourself with the programme features. Templates include design templates that have different looks and provide you with boxes to add titles and subtitles, as

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