PowerPoint Viewer for PowerPoint 97, PowerPoint 2000 and PowerPoint 2002

Not everyone has PowerPoint , and those that do don't all have the same version. As a result, when you create a PowerPoint presentation using a current version of PowerPoint (as we do in class) there's a good chance that those with older versions of the product won't be able to view your work. Similarly, those without the product at all won't be able to open and view your presentation.

In cases where you just want to "view" a PowerPoint presentation, not create them, you can install and use the free PowerPoint Viewer tool provided by Microsoft. It's also a convenient tool to point people towards when you want them to see your work yet can't be sure if they've got the right software installed (just point them to this link). Be sure to choose the most current version for your particular operating system:

PowerPoint Viewer for PowerPoint 97, PowerPoint 2000 and PowerPoint 2002:

http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2002/ppView97.aspx

NOTE: The new computers in our lab have Office XP, which may have an even more recent version of PowerPoint than the above viewer allows. When this is the case (when you're using a product that's more current than the viewer, or when you have a more current version of the product than the folks you'd like to share it with) you can always choose the "SAVE AS..." option when saving your product to save it in an older version. In other words, you can use "SAVE AS..." to choose an older version instead of the default (the default for any application is to save files in the most current format it supports; the "SAVE AS..." option lets you choose an older format).