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Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows
- V 2021
Microsoft PowerPoint: Create attractive presentations without complicating your life
Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation software application that has been the industry standard for decades. It is used by millions of people worldwide to create presentations for a variety of purposes, including business, education, and personal use. PowerPoint is known for its user-friendly interface and its wide range of features , making it a powerful productivity tool for creating visually appealing and informative presentations.
What is Microsoft PowerPoint?
Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows is the latest version of PowerPoint that is available for Windows PCs. It is included with the Microsoft 365 suite of applications, which also includes Word , Excel , and Outlook . PowerPoint for Windows can also be purchased as a standalone application .
Key features of Microsoft PowerPoint
PowerPoint for Windows offers a wide range of features that make it a versatile tool for creating presentations. Some of the key features include:
- Templates : PowerPoint offers a variety of templates that can be used to create presentations with a professional look and feel.
- Themes : PowerPoint themes allow you to change the overall look of your presentation, including the colors, fonts, and layout.
- Slides : PowerPoint presentations are made up of individual slides, each of which can contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia content.
- Transitions : PowerPoint transitions allow you to smoothly move between slides in your presentation.
- Animations : PowerPoint animations can be used to add visual interest to your presentations.
- Multimedia : PowerPoint supports a variety of multimedia content, including images, videos, and audio.
- Collaboration : PowerPoint allows you to collaborate on presentations with others in real time.
Creating a presentation with Microsoft PowerPoint
Creating a presentation with PowerPoint is a straightforward process. To create a new presentation, simply open PowerPoint and select the desired template . Once you have selected a template, you can start adding content to your slides.
Adding content to slides
To add content to a slide, you can simply type text into the text box. You can also add images, videos, and other multimedia content by clicking on the appropriate button on the ribbon.
Customizing slides
You can customize the appearance of your slides by changing the background color, font, and layout. You can also add transitions and animations to your slides.
Reviewing and saving your presentation
Once you have finished creating your presentation, you can review it in slide show mode to see how it will look when presented. You can save your presentation in a variety of formats , including PPTX, PPT, and PDF.
Why Microsoft PowerPoint so popular?
Microsoft PowerPoint is incredibly popular for several reasons, making it the go-to presentation software for individuals and businesses worldwide. Its widespread adoption can be attributed to its user-friendly interface, comprehensive feature set , and ability to create visually appealing and informative presentations.
User-friendly interface
PowerPoint's intuitive and straightforward interface makes it accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise. The drag-and-drop functionality, familiar menus, and clear visual elements enable users to navigate and utilize the software effortlessly . This simplicity has been a key factor in its widespread adoption, particularly among non-technical individuals who need to create presentations.
Comprehensive feature set
PowerPoint boasts a robust feature set that caters to a wide range of presentation needs. Its extensive library of templates and themes provides a foundation for professional-looking presentations, while its design tools allow for customization and personalization. Additionally, the inclusion of multimedia elements, transitions, animations, and interactive features enhances the visual appeal and engagement of presentations.
Visual appeal and informational content
PowerPoint's ability to combine text, images, videos, and other multimedia content makes it an effective tool for delivering information in a visually engaging and impactful manner. Users can effectively communicate their message through a combination of visual elements and clear, concise text . This combination of visual appeal and informational content holds the audience's attention and enhances the overall effectiveness of the presentation.
Widespread familiarity and compatibility
PowerPoint's widespread use and familiarity among individuals and organizations have made it the de facto standard for presentation software. This commonality ensures compatibility across platforms and organizations, facilitating collaboration and knowledge sharing. Moreover, PowerPoint's integration with Microsoft Office suite further enhances its practicality and accessibility.
Global adoption and educational usage
PowerPoint has become an essential tool in educational settings , empowering instructors to effectively deliver lectures, presentations, and course materials. Its versatility enables teachers to incorporate various multimedia elements, interactive exercises, and collaborative activities to enhance student engagement and learning outcomes.
Business and corporate use
In the business world, PowerPoint is indispensable for meetings, presentations, and communicating information to clients, partners, and stakeholders. Its ability to visually present complex data, highlight key points, and engage the audience makes it a valuable tool for effective communication and decision-making .
Microsoft PowerPoint's enduring popularity stems from its user-friendliness, comprehensive feature set, ability to enhance visual appeal and informational content, widespread familiarity, and exceptional compatibility across platforms and organizations. Its versatility makes it a preferred choice for individuals, educators, and businesses worldwide, cementing its place as the industry standard for presentation software.
Minor tweaks
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.
Final words about the app
Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows is a powerful tool for creating presentations. It is easy to use, offers a wide range of features, and can help you create presentations with a professional look and feel. However, PowerPoint is a paid software application and can be limited in terms of creativity.
- Ease of use
- Wide range of features
- Professional look and feel
- Collaboration
- Limited creativity
Photo slideshows reborn
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- Trial version
Create E-Learning Content with Adobe Captivate
PowerPoint for telling your story. A new, modern take on the familiar PowerPoint application to design and share your most impactful presentations
Get your ideas across with beautiful design, rich animation, cinematic motion, 3D models and icons. Let intelligent technology help you bring your presentation to life with a few clicks.
Tell your story with confidence with slide-by-slide notes only viewable by you. Easily translate your slides into the preferred language and use the built-in accessibility checker to be sure your audience doesn’t miss a thing.
Get premium versions of PowerPoint and other Office apps like Word and Excel by subscribing to Office 365. With Office 365 you'll get great PowerPoint features like Designer, Editor, and real-time co-authoring. Plus, you'll receive exclusive, new features every month ensuring you're always up-to-date.
Also available in other platforms
- Microsoft PowerPoint for Android
- Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac
- Microsoft PowerPoint for iPhone
Microsoft PowerPoint for PC
User reviews about microsoft powerpoint.
to continue there improving this important application because it downloading weakly
by محمد ناصر
I WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS PROGRAM AND RESTORE IT IN MY COMPUTER
by francis t lopaz
Would've given it a better rating had you let me downloaded it!
by Anonymous
i love it. it works well and it has very good animations transistions and fonts
Why do we need to pay now. why do we have to pay i mean before we had it for free why now tho i cant pay even tho i need to do presentations b ut how im i supposed to pay for a powerpoint when i cant convince my parents to give me money to go to the cinema?
yes we can summarize. power point no there was problem for receive their own point Pros: to add the file in power point Cons: to sav e correctly not anywhere
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Microsoft PowerPoint
Pump up your presentations, start with microsoft copilot.
Expand your ideas
Use a free template
Beautify with Microsoft Designer
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PowerPoint is better with Microsoft 365
- Sharing and real-time collaboration
- PowerPoint for the web
- Basic spelling and grammar
- Basic templates, fonts, icons, and stickers
- Dictation and voice commands
- 5 GB of cloud storage
Microsoft 365 Personal
- PowerPoint for the web and PowerPoint desktop app for offline use
- Premium templates, fonts, icons, and stickers with thousands of options to choose from
- Dictation, voice commands, and transcription
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Copilot Pro available as an add-on 2
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- Up to six people
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- Available for up to 300 employees
- Desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook
- 1 TB of cloud storage per user
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Microsoft 365 Copilot available as an add-on 4
Microsoft 365 Business Standard
Everything in microsoft 365 apps for business, plus:.
- Web and mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook
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- Automatic spam and malware filtering
- Webinars with attendee registration and reporting
- Collaborative workspaces to cocreate using Microsoft Loop
- Video editing and design tools with Microsoft Clipchamp
Microsoft 365 Copilot available as an add-on 4
Get the PowerPoint mobile app
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Bring everyone together in one place to meet, chat, call, and collaborate.
Frequently asked questions, where can i use microsoft powerpoint, is there a free version of microsoft powerpoint, can i collaborate with other people in microsoft powerpoint, in what languages is microsoft powerpoint available.
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- [1] Documents must be saved in and shared from OneDrive.
- [2] Copilot Pro benefits are currently available on web, Windows, macOS, and iPadOS. A Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription is required to access Copilot in select apps, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook. Excel features are currently in preview in English only. Microsoft 365 Personal or Family and Copilot Pro are not available in the same transaction and must be purchased in two separate transactions.
- [3] Once your paid subscription begins, cancelation policies vary based on your status as a new customer, product, and domain selections on Microsoft. Learn more . Cancel your Microsoft 365 subscription any time by going to the Microsoft 365 admin center. When a subscription is canceled, all associated data will be deleted. Learn more about data retention, deletion, and destruction in Microsoft 365 .
- [4] Microsoft 365 Copilot may not be available for all markets and languages. To purchase, enterprise customers must have a license for Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 or Office 365 E3 or E5, and business customers must have a license for Microsoft 365 Business Standard or Business Premium, or a version of these suites that no longer includes Microsoft Teams.
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How to get Microsoft PowerPoint for free
Need to create a digital presentation? There are loads of options to choose from.
Google Slides, Apple Keynote, Canva and Prezi are all worth considering, but there’s one app that probably comes to mind first.
Microsoft’s PowerPoint remains the go-to for many people, combining ease of use with an excellent range of features.
But there’s one big problem: you usually need to pay to access the app. This starts £119.99 / $149.99 for a standalone version alongside other Office apps, or £79.99 / $99.99 per year as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription.
However, the good news is that there are three totally free (and legal) ways to use PowerPoint totally free of charge. Here’s what you need to know.
Option 1 – Use the web version
Accessing Microsoft PowerPoint and other core Office programs is free via the web, and all you’ll need is a Microsoft account.
Head over to office.com and click ‘Sign in’ to enter your details. If you don’t yet have an account, choose ‘Sign up for the free version of Office’ and follow the instructions.
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
Once that’s complete, you’ll be taken to your main office homepage. From the left pane, choose ‘Create’, then ‘Presentation’ to open a new PowerPoint document.
As you can see, there’s also the option to create documents in Word and Excel here, alongside Outlook and a free version of Microsoft Teams. These are all ‘Web Apps’, meaning you can only use them via your browser and not a desktop app. When you work on a file here, it will be saved to OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage service – everyone gets 5GB for free.
In fact, you probably have Google to thank for this software being available in web app form. Its free Docs, Sheets and Slides software and their integration with Google Drive made it difficult for Microsoft to keep asking users to pay.
Check out our guide to the best cloud storage services to see how both compare to the rest of the competition.
The web version of PowerPoint is a more stripped-back version of the software, so the comparison to Google Slides is more reasonable than the full desktop program. Nonetheless, both services should provide everything a casual user is looking for.
Option 2 – Use on mobile
Perhaps again in response to Google, Microsoft’s Office mobile applications are completely free and available across modern mobile devices.
You can download the Microsoft PowerPoint app for Android and iOS . While Microsoft understandably reserves some premium features for its Office 365 subscription, the mobile apps are still very capable and offer integration with OneDrive.
Option 3 – Check if your school or workplace gets it free
Many employers offer Microsoft 365 apps to their employees free of charge. Even if your work email address ends with the name of the company you work for, it may still be used to sign into a Microsoft account. Of course, you may be working in an office job where Excel and the like are already the defaults.
If your school has signed up to Microsoft 365 Education, all staff and students should be able access Office apps for free. To check, enter your education email address on the Microsoft website .
But if your school isn’t yet signed up and you’re in a position to change that, compare plans and begin the sign-up process here .
Learn more in our separate article: Do students get Office 365 for free?
Related articles
- How to get Microsoft Word for free
- How to get Microsoft Excel for free
- Microsoft 365 buying guide
Author: Anyron Copeman , Mobile Editor, Tech Advisor
Anyron is Mobile Editor at Tech Advisor, where he’s been a mainstay of the editorial team since 2019. In his current role, Anyron is responsible for all smartphone, tablet and mobile network coverage on the site. A BA Journalism graduate, he has experience with a wide range of consumer tech products and services, including smartphones, tablets, foldables, wearables and more.
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Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows is the latest version of PowerPoint that is available for Windows PCs. It is included with the Microsoft 365 suite of applications, which also includes Word, Excel, and Outlook. PowerPoint for Windows can also be purchased as a standalone application.
Get free access to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint using Microsoft 365 for the web (formerly Office). Go premium. See plans and pricing.
Microsoft PowerPoint empowers you to create clean slideshow presentations and intricate pitch decks and gives you a powerful presentation maker to tell your story.
The Microsoft 365 app (formerly Office) is home to all your favorite productivity apps and content. It helps you find, create, share and save your content all in one place with Copilot*, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more.
Accessing Microsoft PowerPoint and other core Office programs is free via the web, and all you’ll need is a Microsoft account. Head over to office.com and click ‘Sign in’ to enter your details.
In this comprehensive guide, we'll walk you through the process of legally downloading and using Microsoft PowerPoint for free. Get ready to craft engaging slideshows without breaking the...