Microsoft PowerPoint is a productivity software that enables you to easily create presentations for school, work, and whatever else you need slideshows for. Developed by Microsoft, this presentation program is part of the Microsoft Office suite and features user-friendly designed tools to help you craft the proper presentation file.
Bundled with other office suite programs in Microsoft Office 2021, Microsoft PowerPoint is one of the most popular applications around when it comes to creating professional-looking slideshows. It’s highly flexible when it comes to design customization and the various ways you can deliver your output.
Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program that was first created by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin from Forethought, Inc. back in 1987. It was later acquired by Microsoft and eventually became a key component in its flagship product, the popular office suite known as Microsoft Office or MS Office. Its basic function is to allow users to create, edit, and display slideshow presentations using text, images, and other supported media files.
What’s great about this program is that it allows you to present its files in a myriad of ways. You can display them via projector or screen, as usual. You can also print out its slides since presentations are meant to parse information into a more concise form. The files can also be uploaded or embedded as videos. Lastly, you can just save them as is and distribute them for others to access on their own.
Over time, Microsoft PowerPoint’s updates were designed to make it as user-friendly as possible—especially to those who’ve never used a presentation-making software. For Microsoft Office 2021’s improvements, numerous improvements can be found in this program and its other fellow MS Office apps. For one, the visuals on the Ribbon tab are much more streamlined and easy on the eyes. “Record Slide Show” now supports presenter video recording, ink recording, and laser pointer recording.
For your Ink Objects, you can apply the new Ink Replay or Rewind tool for cooler animations. Some of the design tools have been optimized, as well—such as the Draw tab, Colors, and the Sketched style outline. The program now supports the OpenDocument format (ODF) 1.3. Plus, it has better collaboration features like real-time co-authoring, easy viewing of who’s currently working on a file, and sharing of links to specific slides.
Typically, you can’t download and use PowerPoint for free as it’s a paid program bundled with other applications in Microsoft Office editions. You can only either try MS Office’s free 1-month trial or use the online web app version of PowerPoint instead. For that, you need to make a Microsoft account. However, getting the desktop version is worth the price most of the time—although unfortunately, not all of the upgrades here are available on the Microsoft LTSC (Long Term Servicing Channel) version.
PowerPoint users can now create dynamic and captivating presentations effortlessly, thanks to the integration of Microsoft 365 Copilot. By understanding natural language commands, Copilot assists users in turning their ideas into beautifully designed presentations, making the creation process more enjoyable and expressive.
A small batch of updates for Microsoft PowerPoint irons out some kinks on specific workflows. Saving a file no longer auto-fills the Title field within the File Info menu, a minor detail yet helpful in managing your files. Plus, working with linked charts from SharePoint gets a lot easier. The Change Source dialog now defaults to the chart's current location, saving you time digging through outdated paths. Finally, the Edit Photo Album option is now accessible in Slide Sorter for quicker photo adjustments while organizing slides.
All in all, Microsoft PowerPoint is a popular productivity software for a good reason. Not only is it highly user-friendly, but its updates constantly ensure that you will have a much easier time working on your files and coordinating with your colleagues when sharing a file. It’s only too bad that you can’t benefit from all new features if you happen to be using the Microsoft LTSC version.
Version
16.53
License
Paid
Platform
Mac
OS
Mac OS X
Language
English
Downloads
699K
Developer
Microsoft
