Do You Need PowerPoint?
Presentation software is the easiest way to create and show the kinds of slides you’ve likely seen in meetings or classroom situations. There are several free options, including LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice, and SlideDog. However, if you need to collaborate with others on a presentation, integrate with other Microsoft programs (like Microsoft Word), or create a presentation that’s viewable by anyone, purchase Microsoft PowerPoint. Microsoft PowerPoint comes with all the features you need to create presentations. You can start with a blank presentation or choose from various preconfigured presentations (called templates). A template is a file constructed with styles and designs applied. This option provides an easy way to begin a PowerPoint with a single click. You can also insert pictures and videos from your computer and the internet, draw shapes, and create and insert all kinds of charts. PowerPoint offers many ways to transition between slides and animate the items on any slide.
What Is a PowerPoint Presentation?
A PowerPoint presentation is a group of slides that you create either from scratch or a template that contains information you want to share. Often, you show the presentation to others in an office setting, such as a sales meeting, but you can also create slide shows for weddings and birthdays. When you display the presentation to your audience, the PowerPoint slides take up the entire presentation screen.
Do You Have Microsoft PowerPoint?
Lots of (but not all) Windows-based computers come with Microsoft Office installed. That means you might have a version of Microsoft PowerPoint. To see if you have Microsoft PowerPoint installed on your Windows device: To find out if you have a version of PowerPoint on your Mac, you can find it in a couple of ways.
Where to Get Microsoft PowerPoint
The two ways you can purchase PowerPoint are by:
Subscribing to Microsoft 365. Buying the Microsoft Office suite outright from the Microsoft website.
Microsoft 365 is a monthly subscription, whereas you pay only once for the Office Suite. If you don’t want to create presentations but only want to view what others have created, use PowerPoint Online to view it for free.
The History of PowerPoint
Over the years, there have been many versions of the Microsoft Office suite. The lower-priced suites only included the basic apps (often Word, PowerPoint, and Excel). The higher-priced suites included some or all of them (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, SharePoint, Exchange, Skype, and more). These suite editions had names like Home and Student, Personal, or Professional. PowerPoint is included regardless of which version of the Microsoft Office suite you are looking at. Here are the recent Microsoft Office Suites that also contain PowerPoint:
PowerPoint Online and PowerPoint 365 are available and updated regularly in Microsoft 365.PowerPoint 2019 is available in Office 2019.PowerPoint 2016 was available in Office 2016.PowerPoint 2013 was available in Office 2013.PowerPoint 2010 was available in Office 2010.PowerPoint 2007 was included with Office 2007.PowerPoint 2003 was included with Office 2003.PowerPoint 2002 was included in Office XP.
PowerPoint is available for the Macintosh line of computers too, as well as smartphones and tablets.
