This article describes the file formats that Microsoft PowerPoint can open,
save, import, and export.
Opening and Saving
PowerPoint 2000 can open presentations created by the following versions of
PowerPoint:
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2000
- Microsoft PowerPoint 97 for Windows
- Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a, 7.0b
- Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows, versions 2.0, 2.0e, 3.0, 4.0,
4.0a, 4.0c
- Microsoft PowerPoint for the Macintosh, versions 3.0, 3.0b, 4.0, 98
PowerPoint can also open presentations created by these third-party
products:
- Harvard Graphics for Windows, version 3.0 (.ch3; .sh3)
- Lotus Freelance for Windows, versions 1.0 - 2.1 (.pre)
NOTE: The online help in PowerPoint 2000 erroneously states that the Harvard Graphics 2.3 and 3.0 for MS-DOS converters are available through the Microsoft Office 2000 Resource Kit. These converters are not available for PowerPoint 2000 at all.
PowerPoint can save presentations in the following formats:
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 presentations (.ppt)*
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 shows (.pps)*
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 templates (.pot)*
- Microsoft PowerPoint 97, 2000 & 95 presentations (.ppt)**
- Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows, version 4.0 (.ppt)
* Microsoft PowerPoint 97 can open PowerPoint 2000 files natively;
however, features exclusive to PowerPoint 2000 are either
approximated or lost.
** This is a special format that PowerPoint for version 7.0, PowerPoint 97, and PowerPoint 2000 can read natively.
Importing and Exporting
PowerPoint can also import presentations based on a variety of document
formats. These formats include:
- Text files (.txt)
- Rich Text Format files (.rtf)
- WordPerfect 5.x documents (.doc)***
- WordPerfect 6.x documents (.doc; .wpd)***
- Works 4.0 for Windows 95 documents (.wps)***
- Works 3.0 for Windows documents (.wps)***
- Word documents (.doc)***
- Word 4.0 for the Macintosh documents (.mcw)
*** To import these formats, you must install the appropriate Text converter(s), which are not installed automatically.
PowerPoint can export slides in the following formats:
- Windows Metafiles (.wmf).
- JPEG File Interchange Format(.jpg)
- GIF Graphics Interchange Format(.gif)
- Device Independent Bitmaps (.bmp)
- Tag Image File format (.tif; .tiff)
- Portable Network Graphics format (.png)
- Web Page (.htm; .html)
- PowerPoint can export presentation outlines in the Rich Text Format
(.rtf).
The third-party products that are discussed in this article are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding the performance or reliability of these products.
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