Microsoft PowerPoint facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Microsoft PowerPoint

A photo presentation being created and edited in PowerPoint, running on Windows 11
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Initial release	April 20, 1987; 38 years ago (1987-04-20)
Stable release	2312 (Build 17126.20132) / January 9, 2024; 17 months ago (2024-01-09)
Written in	C++ (back-end)
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Predecessor	Forethought Powerpoint
Available in	102 languages
List of languages Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Assamese, Azerbaijani (Latin), Bangla (Bangladesh), Bangla (Bengali India), Basque, Belarusian, Bosnian (Latin), Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dari, Dutch, English, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Igbo, Indonesian, Irish, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Khmer, Kinyarwanda, Kiswahili, Konkani, Korean, Kyrgyz, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Macedonian (Macedonia), Malay (Latin), Malayalam, Maltese, Maori, Marathi, Mongolian (Cyrillic), Nepali, Norwegian (Bokmål), Norwegian (Nynorsk), Odia, Pashto, Persian (Farsi), Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Punjabi (India), Quechua, Romanian, Romansh, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Cyrillic, Serbia), Serbian (Latin, Serbia), Serbian (Cyrillic, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Sesotho sa Leboa, Setswana, Sindhi (Arabic), Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Tatar (Cyrillic), Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Ukrainian, Urdu, Uyghur, Uzbek (Latin), Valencian, Vietnamese, Welsh, Wolof, Yoruba
Type	Presentation program
License	Trialware

Microsoft PowerPoint for Android OS

PowerPoint for Android running on Android 13
Developer(s)	Microsoft Corporation
Stable release	16.0.16501.20160 / May 26, 2023; 2 years ago (2023-05-26)
Operating system	Android Pie or later
Type	Presentation program
License	Proprietary commercial software

Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac

PowerPoint for Mac (version 16.69.1), running on macOS Ventura (13.2)
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Initial release	April 20, 1987; 38 years ago (1987-04-20)
Stable release	16.70 (Build 23021201) / February 14, 2023; 2 years ago (2023-02-14)
Written in	C++ (back-end), Objective-C (API/UI)
Operating system	macOS 11 or later
Available in	26 languages
List of languages English, Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish
Type	Presentation program
License	Proprietary commercial software

Microsoft PowerPoint is a popular computer program. It helps you create and show presentations. Think of it as a digital slideshow maker!

It was made by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin at a company called Forethought, Inc.. PowerPoint first came out on April 20, 1987, for Macintosh computers. Just three months later, Microsoft bought PowerPoint for about $14 million. This was a big deal for Microsoft at the time.

PowerPoint soon became a key part of Microsoft Office. This is a group of Microsoft programs sold together. It was first offered for Macintosh in 1989 and for Windows in 1990. Over time, PowerPoint became very popular. Since the late 1990s, it has been used for about 95% of all presentations worldwide.

PowerPoint was first made for business presentations. But now, people use it for many other things. This includes school projects, church talks, and even art.

The first PowerPoint version (1987) helped make clear sheets for overhead projectors. Later versions could make color slides. Then, in 1992, it could show presentations directly on digital projectors. This changed how people gave talks. Now, PowerPoint is available on many devices. You can use it on iOS, Android, and through web browsers.

PowerPoint's Journey: How It Started and Grew

The Beginning at Forethought (1984–1987)

PowerPoint was born at a small company called Forethought, Inc. in Silicon Valley. Robert Gaskins joined Forethought in 1984. He wanted to create a new program for computers with picture-based screens.

Gaskins wrote down his first ideas for PowerPoint in August 1984. He called it "Presentation Graphics for Overhead Projection." By October 1984, Dennis Austin joined as the main developer. They worked together for almost a year to design the program.

The team started building the program in November 1985, first for Macintosh. They added a third developer, Thomas Rudkin, in May 1986. At first, the product was called "Presenter." But just before it was released, they found out that name was already taken. Gaskins then came up with "PowerPoint." He thought it showed how the program would "empower" people giving talks.

In January 1987, Apple Computer invested in PowerPoint. This helped finish its development. Forethought announced PowerPoint on February 22, 1987. Apple's CEO, John Sculley, even spoke at the event. He said that "desktop presentation" could be a bigger market for Apple than desktop publishing.

PowerPoint 1.0 for Macintosh was released on April 20, 1987. All 10,000 copies of the first batch sold out quickly.

Microsoft Buys PowerPoint (1987–1992)

In early 1987, Microsoft was also thinking about making a presentation program. Jeff Raikes, a Microsoft marketing head, learned about PowerPoint. He saw a demo of it on February 6, 1987.

Raikes was very impressed. He told Bill Gates, Microsoft's founder, that they should buy it. Gates was unsure at first. He thought it was just a feature for Microsoft Word. But Raikes kept saying it was a whole new type of program. Gates listened and agreed to buy Forethought.

The Wall Street Journal reported good early reviews for PowerPoint. One consultant said, "People will buy a Macintosh just to get access to this product."

On July 30, 1987, Microsoft officially bought Forethought for $14 million. This was Microsoft's first big software purchase. Microsoft created a new "Graphics Business Unit" for PowerPoint. It was located in Silicon Valley, where Forethought had been. Robert Gaskins led this new group.

PowerPoint 1.0 for Macintosh continued to be sold by Microsoft. A new version, PowerPoint 2.0 for Macintosh, came out in mid-1988. It added color slides. The same PowerPoint 2.0 for Windows was released two years later, in 1990. This was at the same time as Windows 3.0.

PowerPoint 3.0 came out in 1992 for both Windows and Mac. It added live video output for projectors. This meant people could now use PowerPoint to deliver presentations, not just prepare them. Over time, this replaced older methods like transparencies and slides.

PowerPoint Joins Microsoft Office (Since 1993)

PowerPoint was part of Microsoft Office from the start. PowerPoint 2.0 for Macintosh was in the first Office bundle for Mac in 1989. When PowerPoint 2.0 for Windows came out, it was also in an Office bundle for Windows in 1990. These were special deals where programs were sold together for a lower price.

Over time, Microsoft wanted its Office programs to work more closely. This started with PowerPoint 4.0 in 1994. PowerPoint began to look and work more like Word and Excel. The computer press liked this change. They said the programs were so well integrated, you might think you were using Word instead of PowerPoint.

PowerPoint 95 was even more integrated. It was given version number 7.0 (skipping 5.0 and 6.0). This made all Office programs share the same main version number.

PowerPoint development stayed in Silicon Valley. Later versions added big changes. For example, PowerPoint 2007 (version 12.0) got a new "ribbon" menu. It also started using a new file format based on XML. This was PowerPoint's 20th anniversary. Microsoft celebrated with the original creators.

Today, PowerPoint is still a key part of Office. New ways of developing it mean that versions for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and the web can be released almost at the same time. New features are added nearly every month.

PowerPoint's Popularity and Use

Sales and Market Share

PowerPoint's first sales were small. About 40,000 copies were sold in 1987. Most people used other programs on MS-DOS computers. In 1988-1989, programs like Harvard Graphics and Lotus Freelance Plus were the leaders. Microsoft did not make a PowerPoint version for MS-DOS. After three years, sales were not great. Jeff Raikes, who bought PowerPoint for Microsoft, said it didn't look like a smart move by 1990.

Things changed when PowerPoint 2.0 for Windows came out. Sales jumped to about 200,000 copies in 1990. By 1992, PowerPoint sold about 1 million copies. About 80% of these were for Windows. In 1992, PowerPoint had 63% of the presentation software market. By late 1992, PowerPoint was making over $100 million a year.

Sales doubled again in 1993 to about 2 million copies. PowerPoint's market share grew to 78%. By 1997, sales were over 4 million copies a year. PowerPoint had 85% of the world market. By then, over 20 million copies of PowerPoint were in use. Total sales had passed $1 billion.

Since the late 1990s, PowerPoint has held about 95% of the world market for presentation software.

How PowerPoint Works Today

The first PowerPoint (1987) was used to print black and white pages. These could be copied onto clear films for overhead projectors. It also printed notes for speakers and handouts for the audience. The next version (1988) could make color 35mm slides. You would send the file to a special center, and they would mail the slides back. PowerPoint was for planning and preparing, not for showing live.

This changed a lot with PowerPoint 3.0 (1992). It could send video directly to digital projectors or large screens. This meant you could show your presentation live from a computer. In 1992, this was new and expensive. But over time, digital projection became the main way to use PowerPoint.

Today, a "PowerPoint presentation" usually means a digital slideshow. You create a file (called a "presentation" or "deck"). This file has many "slides." Slides usually have a similar style. They can include text, lists, tables, charts, drawings, pictures, sounds, videos, and animations. You can also add notes for each slide.

When you give a presentation, you use a computer. The presentation file is on the computer. The computer screen shows a "presenter view." This view has the current slide, the next slide, and your notes. The audience sees only the current slide on a projector or monitor. You control the slides from your computer. You can even use a smartphone or Apple Watch as a remote control.

Besides live shows, PowerPoint can be used in other ways:

• Shown on a computer screen for a small group.
• Printed as paper handouts.
• Shared as files for people to view on their own.
• Sent as a live broadcast over the internet.
• Put on a website or blog.
• Shared on social media like Facebook or Twitter.
• Set up to run by itself, like for a display.
• Saved as a video with audio.

Sometimes, people share PowerPoint files without a speaker. In these cases, the slides need to have more information. They must explain things clearly on their own.

PowerPoint on Other Devices

PowerPoint for Mobile Devices

PowerPoint Mobile comes with Windows Mobile 5.0. It lets you view and edit PowerPoint presentations. You can add notes, change text, and move slides around. But you can't create new presentations from scratch. Newer versions for Windows Phone 7 could also watch presentations streamed online.

In 2015, Microsoft released PowerPoint Mobile for Windows 10. This version lets users create, edit, present, and share presentations.

PowerPoint for the Web

PowerPoint for the web is a free, simpler version. It's part of Office on the web, which also has web versions of Word and Excel.

This web version doesn't let you add or edit charts, math equations, or audio/video from your computer. But if these were added in the desktop app, they will show up. Some advanced effects, like WordArt or complex animations, might not show up. However, they are still saved in the file. PowerPoint for the web also lacks some views, like Outline or Slide Sorter. It has fewer printing options too.

PowerPoint's Impact on Culture

A PowerPoint presentation in progress

How Businesses Use PowerPoint

PowerPoint was first made just for business presentations. Robert Gaskins, one of its creators, said his goal was to help business people. They had always given talks for sales or within their companies. PowerPoint helped them make these talks look better and easier.

PowerPoint's use in business grew fast. In its first five years (1987–1992), sales reached about 1 million copies a year. It had 63% of the world market. Over the next five years (1992–1997), sales jumped to 4 million copies a year. Its market share reached 85%. This growth was partly due to the "network effect." This means that as more people in a company or industry used PowerPoint, it became more valuable for others to use it too.

Not everyone liked the rise of PowerPoint. Some company leaders, like Lou Gerstner at IBM and Steve Jobs at Apple, tried to limit its use in meetings. But by 1999, it was clear. If you wanted to share an idea in a company, you used PowerPoint.

PowerPoint Beyond Business

As PowerPoint became popular in business, it also spread to other areas. People started using it for teaching, scientific meetings, church services, and even legal arguments.

By 2003, PowerPoint seemed to be everywhere. A reporter for the Chicago Tribune wrote that it had changed business, education, science, and communication. She said it was "poised for world domination." From company managers to fourth graders, everyone used PowerPoint to explain things.

Different Views on PowerPoint

As more people used PowerPoint, opinions about it grew. Some people loved it, others had strong criticisms. Here are three main ways people reacted:

Use It Less

Some people felt that using PowerPoint too much was a mistake. They thought people should use it less or not at all. A famous critic was Edward Tufte. He is an expert on how to design information.

In 2003, Tufte wrote a booklet called The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint. He said PowerPoint's default settings caused problems. He felt it made information too simple and broke up ideas into tiny pieces. He also said it focused too much on looks, not enough on content.

Tufte gave an example from the space shuttle Columbia accident. He said PowerPoint slides poorly showed what engineers knew about the damage. He suggested that for serious technical talks, it's better to use detailed graphics or written documents.

Many people agreed with Tufte. But others disagreed. Steven Pinker, a psychology professor, said that "Any general opposition to PowerPoint is just dumb." He felt that if used well, PowerPoint could show how we think. He also pointed out that bad presentations existed long before PowerPoint.

Use It Differently

Another idea was that PowerPoint could be good, but only if used in a very different way. Richard E. Mayer, a psychology professor, studied how people learn. He said we need to change how we use PowerPoint to match how people learn.

Mayer found that most PowerPoint slides had too much text. He suggested using fewer words, even less than 40 words per slide. He also said to use more slides, but make each one simpler. He advised removing most text, especially bullet lists, and using larger, better pictures. He also said to remove extra decorations like logos.

Mayer's ideas were seen in Steve Jobs's famous presentations. Jobs used Apple's Keynote program, but the ideas apply to PowerPoint too. This style is great for big talks to large audiences. But it might not be best for small meetings where people need to discuss things in detail.

Use It Better

A third view was that PowerPoint is fine, but people need to use it carefully. Stephen Kosslyn, a brain scientist, studied how people learn and understand. He said that small mistakes in slide design can make it hard for the audience to understand.

Kosslyn found that many PowerPoint presentations have common "flaws." For example, bullet points might not appear one by one. Or there might be too many bullet points or too much text on a slide. He said that even small changes can make a big difference in how well people understand.

He wrote a book about how to use PowerPoint better. He gave many tips for making slides clearer. Kosslyn believes PowerPoint is a great tool. He says the problem is not the program itself, but how people use it. He thinks that with proper training, people can make very effective presentations.

In 2017, a survey in the UK showed that PowerPoint is still very popular. Four out of five people said it was a great tool. They liked that it could be very visual. Another study found that young workers today use presentations much more than long written reports. This suggests that presentations, especially with slides, will continue to be important.

PowerPoint in the U.S. Military

The U.S. military started using PowerPoint slowly. But because military briefings are so common, PowerPoint quickly became a big part of their culture.

By 2000, PowerPoint was a key feature of the U.S. armed forces. A Wall Street Journal story said it had created a "blizzard of jazzy but often incoherent visuals." Officers could make hundreds of slides quickly. The term "PowerPoint Ranger" even became a joke. It meant a desk-bound officer who was better at making slides than fighting.

Ten years later, in 2010, the New York Times reported that PowerPoint use in the military had "spun out of control." It said that officers spent too much time making slides. Some generals felt it stopped good discussions and critical thinking.

General James Mattis said, "PowerPoint makes us stupid." General H. R. McMaster banned PowerPoint in his operations. He said it was "dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control." He added that "Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable."

Many military officers agreed that PowerPoint was overused. They said the problem was how the military's culture encouraged its misuse.

PowerPoint as Art

Musician David Byrne has used PowerPoint as an art form for years. He has made books and DVDs and shown his PowerPoint art in galleries. He said it started as a joke, but then he realized he could create moving art pieces with it.

In 2005, Byrne toured with a theater show that was like a PowerPoint presentation. He called it "I ♥ PowerPoint." He even suggested that PowerPoint could be used for "presentational theater."

The terms "PowerPoint Art" or "pptArt" are now used for an Italian art movement. They believe the business world can inspire artists. They see PowerPoint as a universal language.

By 2010, there was a group of PowerPoint fans. They were finding new ways to use the program. They created games, artworks, and even movies using PowerPoint's animation features.

PowerPoint Viewer

PowerPoint Viewer was a free program. It let people view, show, or print presentations on computers that didn't have PowerPoint installed. You couldn't create or edit presentations with it.

The first version came out with PowerPoint 3.0 in 1992. It helped people share presentations easily. Later versions, like with PowerPoint 2003, had a "Package for CD" feature. This would put the presentation, any linked files, and the Viewer onto a CD or flash drive. This way, the presentation could be shown on other computers without installing PowerPoint.

The last version for Windows was made with PowerPoint 2010. It could view presentations made in PowerPoint 97 and later. The last version for Mac was PowerPoint 98 Viewer.

As of May 2018, Microsoft stopped offering PowerPoint Viewer. It no longer gets security updates. Now, Microsoft suggests using the free PowerPoint Mobile app on Windows 10. Or, you can upload your file to OneDrive and view it for free using PowerPoint Online.

PowerPoint Versions Over Time

PowerPoint 1.0 (1987)

• First released for Macintosh.
• It let you have many slides in one file.
• You could organize slides, add notes, and print handouts.
• It allowed text formatting and importing pictures.
• It helped make all overheads look the same.

PowerPoint 2.0 (1988 Mac, 1990 Windows)

• Became part of Microsoft Office.
• Added color features and more word processing tools.
• You could now make color 35mm slides.

PowerPoint 3.0 (1992 Windows, 1992 Mac)

• Designed for the new Windows 3.1.
• Added support for TrueType fonts and presentation templates.
• Introduced new drawing tools and slide transitions.
• You could now include sound and video.
• This version allowed live video output for projectors.

PowerPoint 4.0 (1994 Windows, 1994 Mac)

• Part of Microsoft Office.
• Added "autolayouts" and a rehearsal mode.
• It looked and felt more like Word and Excel.
• It allowed full OLE 2.0.

PowerPoint 7.0 (1995 Windows)

• Part of Microsoft Office 95.
• Added new animation effects and better graphics.
• It was completely rewritten in C++.

PowerPoint 8.0 (1997 Windows, 1998 Mac)

• Part of Microsoft Office 97.
• Introduced the "Office Assistant" and file compression.
• Allowed saving presentations as HTML for web use.

PowerPoint 9.0 (1999 Windows, 2000 Mac)

• Part of Microsoft Office 2000.
• Added a three-pane "browser" view for easier navigation.
• Included real tables and presentation conferencing.

PowerPoint 10.0 (2001 Windows, 2001 Mac)

• Part of Microsoft Office XP.
• Allowed installing from the web.
• Used Exchange and SharePoint for sharing and teamwork.

PowerPoint 11.0 (2003 Windows, 2004 Mac, 2005 Mobile)

• Part of Microsoft Office 2003.
• Added tools for the presenter during a slideshow (notes, time).
• Included "Package for CD" to easily share presentations.

PowerPoint 12.0 (2007 Windows, 2007 Mobile, 2008 Mac)

• Part of Microsoft Office 2007.
• Introduced the new "ribbon" interface.
• Added SmartArt graphics and improved presenter view.
• Changed to a new XML-based file format by default.

PowerPoint 14.0 (2010 Windows, Web, Mobile, Mac, Symbian)

• Part of Microsoft Office 2010.
• Added sections within presentations and a reading view.
• Allowed saving presentations as video.
• Improved video and picture editing.

PowerPoint 15.0 (2012-2015, various platforms)

• Part of Microsoft Office 2013.
• Changed the default slide shape to widescreen (16:9).
• Improved online teamwork with multiple users.
• User interface was updated for touch screens.

PowerPoint 16.0 (2015-2018, various platforms)

• Part of Microsoft Office 2016.
• Added "Tell me" search for program controls.
• Introduced "PowerPoint Designer" and "Morph" transition.
• Allowed real-time collaboration and "Zoom" to slides.
• Included "Presentation Translator" for live captions.

PowerPoint File Types

PowerPoint Presentation

Filename extensions	.pptx, .ppt
Internet media type	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation, application/vnd.ms-powerpoint
Uniform Type Identifier (UTI)	com.microsoft.powerpoint.ppt
Developed by	Microsoft
Type of format	Presentation

Older File Types (1987–2007)

Early versions of PowerPoint used different file types. These changed with each new version. A stable file type, called `.ppt`, was used from PowerPoint 97 to 2003. This was the main file type for many years. It could be read and written by later versions too.

The `.pps` and `.ppsx` file types are similar to `.ppt` and `.pptx`. The difference is that they open directly as a slideshow, not for editing.

Common Older File Extensions

• `.ppt`: PowerPoint 97–2003 presentation file.
• `.pps`: PowerPoint 97–2003 slideshow file.
• `.pot`: PowerPoint 97–2003 template file.

Newer File Types (Since 2007)

A big change happened with PowerPoint 2007. The main file type became a new XML-based format. These files usually end with `.pptx`.

Microsoft said this new format had many benefits:

• Smaller file sizes, up to 75% smaller.
• Better security, as it could find and remove harmful parts.
• Less chance of files getting corrupted.
• Easier to share data with other programs.

Common Newer File Extensions

• `.pptx`: PowerPoint 2007 and newer presentation file.
• `.pptm`: PowerPoint 2007 and newer presentation with macros (small programs).
• `.ppsx`: PowerPoint 2007 and newer slideshow file.
• `.ppsm`: PowerPoint 2007 and newer slideshow with macros.
• `.potx`: PowerPoint 2007 and newer template file.
• `.potm`: PowerPoint 2007 and newer template with macros.

This new file format is an open standard. This means its details are public. Because PowerPoint is so widely used, these standard file types are important. They help make sure digital documents can be accessed for a long time.

PowerPoint 2013 and 2016 can save files in the older `.ppt` format too. This helps with older versions of the program. When saving to older formats, PowerPoint checks that no new features will cause problems.

PowerPoint can also save presentations in many other file types. These include PDF files, video files (like MPEG-4), and image files (like GIF, JPEG, PNG). It can also open and save files in OpenDocument Presentation format (ODP).

Images for kids

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  Icon for PowerPoint for Mac 2008

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  Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac 2011