Microsoft PowerPoint is a slide show presentation program currently developed by Microsoft, for

use on both Microsoft and Apple Macintosh operating systems. PowerPoint, initially named
"Presenter", was created by Forethought Inc.. Microsoft's version of PowerPoint was officially
launched on May 22, 1990, as a part of the Microsoft Office suite. PowerPoint is useful for helping
develop the slide-based presentation format and is currently one of the most commonly used slide-
based presentation programs available. Microsoft has also released the PowerPoint mobile
application for use on Apple and Android mobile operating systems.

Contents
[hide]

1History
2Operation
3Cultural impact
o 3.1Military excess in the US
o 3.2Artistic medium
4PowerPoint Viewer
5Versions
6File formats
7See also
8References
9Further reading
10External links

History[edit]
Originally designed for the Macintosh computer, the initial release was called "Presenter", developed
by Thomas Rudkin and Dennis Austin[4] of Forethought, Inc.[5] In 1987, it was renamed to
"PowerPoint" due to problems with trademarks, the idea for the name coming from Robert Gaskins.[6]
By then some experts believed that "desktop presentations", using computers to create flip
charts and overhead transparencies, could become as large a market as desktop publishing.[7] That
year Forethought was bought by Microsoft for $14 million[8][7] ($29.5 million in present-day terms[9]),
and became Microsoft's Graphics Business Unit, which continued to develop the software further.
Microsoft's version of PowerPoint was officially launched on May 22, 1990, the same day that
Microsoft released Windows 3.0.
PowerPoint introduced many new changes with the release of PowerPoint 97. It incorporated
the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) language, underlying all macro generation in Office 97.
PowerPoint 2000 (and the rest of the Office 2000 suite) introduced a clipboard that could hold
multiple objects at once, and the Office Assistant was made less intrusive.[10]
PowerPoint 2002 massively overhauled the animation engine, allowing users to create more
advanced and custom animations.[11]
PowerPoint 2011 makes it possible to remove image backgrounds, and provides additional special
effects for pictures, such as 'Pencil effects'.
As of 2012, various versions of PowerPoint claim ~95% of the presentation software market share,
with installations on at least 1 billion computers. Among presenters world-wide, this program is used
at an estimated frequency of 350 times per second.[12]
Operation[edit]
PowerPoint presentations consist of a number of individual pages or "slides". The "slide" analogy is
a reference to the slide projector. Slides may contain text, graphics, sound, movies, and other
objects, which may be arranged freely. The presentation can be printed, displayed live on a
computer, or navigated through at the command of the presenter. For larger audiences the computer
display is often a video projector. Slides can also form the basis of webcasts.
PowerPoint provides three types of movements:

1. Entrance, emphasis, and exit of elements on a slide itself are controlled by what PowerPoint
calls Custom Animations.
2. Transitions, on the other hand, there are movements between slides. These can be
animated in a variety of ways.
3. Custom animation can be used to create small story boards by animating pictures to enter,
exit or move.
PowerPoint provides numerous features that offer flexibility and the ability to create a professional
presentation. One of the features provides the ability to create a presentation that includes music
which plays throughout the entire presentation or sound effects for particular slides. In addition to the
ability to add sound files, the presentation can be designed to run, like a movie, on its own.
PowerPoint allows the user to record the slide show with narration and a pointer. The user may
customize slide shows to show the slides in a different order than originally designed and to have
slides appear multiple times. Microsoft also offers the ability to broadcast the presentation to specific
users via a link and Windows Live.

Cultural impact[edit]

A PowerPoint presentation in progress.

Jerry Pournelle in 1989 praised PowerPoint for the Macintosh, stating that "if you're in the business
of putting on briefings and otherwise making presentations, you might want to seriously contemplate
getting a Mac II just so you can use this program; it's that good. Highly recommended".[13] Supporters
say that[14][15][16] the ease of use of presentation software can save a lot of time for people who
otherwise would have used other types of visual aidhand-drawn or mechanically typeset slides,
blackboards or whiteboards, or overhead projections. Ease of use also encourages those who
otherwise would not have used visual aids, or would not have given a presentation at all, to make
presentations. As PowerPoint's style, animation, and multimedia abilities have become more
sophisticated, and as the application has generally made it easier to produce presentations (even to
the point of having an "AutoContent Wizard" that was discontinued in PowerPoint 2007, suggesting a
structure for a presentation), the difference in needs and desires of presenters and audiences has
become more noticeable.[citation needed] Experienced PowerPoint designers point out that the
"AutoContent Wizard" caused a glitch which contributed greatly to on-screen freezing of slides. Many
designers opt to use the "blank slide layout" in lieu of the other layout choices for this reason.
Nevertheless, in normal business use, most presentations created using PowerPoint are based on
its default layout and font choices.[17]
The benefit of PowerPoint is continually debated, though most people believe that the benefit may
be to present structural presentations to business workers, such as Raytheon Elcan does.[18] Its use
in classroom lectures has influenced investigations of PowerPoint's effects on student performance
in comparison to lectures based on overhead projectors, traditional lectures, and online lectures.
There are no compelling results to prove or disprove that PowerPoint is more effective for learner
retention than traditional presentation methods.[19] Statistician and designer Edward Tufte suggests
that as PowerPoint on its own has limited ability to present complex tables and graphics, a better
approach is to provide the audience with printed data and a written report for them to read at the
start of the meeting, before leading them through the report with a talk. He noted that after
the Columbia disaster, a report on the accident recommended that PowerPoint should never be
used as the sole method for presenting scientific material.

Military excess in the US[edit]

A "PowerPoint Ranger" is a military member who relies heavily on presentation software to the point
of excess. Some junior officers spend the majority of their time preparing PowerPoint
slides.[20] Because of its usefulness for presenting mission briefings, it has become part of the culture
of the military,[21][22] but is regarded as a poor decision-making tool.[23] As a result, some generals,
such as Brigadier-General Herbert McMaster, have banned the use of PowerPoint in their
operations.[20]In September 2010, Colonel Lawrence Sellin was fired from his post at the ISAF for
publishing a piece critical of the over-dependence of military staffs on the presentation method and
bloated bureaucracy.[24]

Artistic medium[edit]
Musician David Byrne has been using PowerPoint as a medium for art for years, producing a book
and DVD and showing at galleries his PowerPoint-based artwork.[25] The expressions "PowerPoint
Art" or "pptArt" are used to define a contemporary Italian artistic movement which believes that the
corporate world can be a unique and exceptional source of inspiration for the artist.

PowerPoint Viewer[edit]
Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer is a program used to run presentations on computers that do not
have PowerPoint installed. Office PowerPoint Viewer (or in PowerPoint 2007 and later, a link to a
viewer download)
PowerPoint Viewer is installed by default with a Microsoft Office 2003 installation for use with the
Package for CD presentation file format. It is added by default to the same disk or network location
that contains one or more such presentations. Beginning in PowerPoint 2007, the PowerPoint
Viewer is instead provided as a download link from the Microsoft Office Online Web site for Windows
2000 and newer systems.[26]The latest version is PowerPoint Viewer 2010, available for Windows
XP Service Pack 3 and newer.[27]
Presentations password-protected for opening or modifying can be opened by PowerPoint Viewer.
The Package for CD feature allows packaging any password-protected file or setting a new
password for all packaged presentations. PowerPoint Viewer prompts for a password if the file is
open password-protected.
PowerPoint Viewer supports opening presentations created using PowerPoint 97 and later. In
addition, it supports all file content except OLE objects and scripting. The latest version of
PowerPoint Viewer is only available for Microsoft Windows computers. Support for Macintosh
computers ended with PowerPoint 98 Viewer for the Classic Mac OS and Classic Environment,
supporting System 7.5 to Mac OS X Tiger (10.4).[28] It remains available for download today.[29] On
newer systems, PowerPoint 2016 will function as a read-only viewer if it is not activated.