What if you’ve received a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation file (.ppt or .pptx) and want to open it to view it, but you don’t have Microsoft PowerPoint installed on your computer? Naturally you’d not like to spend money for buying this software just for viewing one or more presentation files sent to you by some friend or downloaded from the Internet. How then to open these PowerPoint presentation files to view them without having Microsoft PowerPoint?
Well, you’ve some free options to view PowerPoint presentations or slides even without having installed Microsoft PowerPoint on your computer. Let me explain these options.
(1) Free Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 2007:
Microsoft provides a free download of its Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer 2007 application that allows you to view full-featured presentations which have been created in PowerPoint 97 or any of the later versions (2000, 2002, 2003, 2007). This free PowerPoint Viewer also allows you to open even password-protected PowerPoint presentations. You can view and print PowerPoint presentations in this free PowerPoint Viewer 2007, but you cannot edit them in it. And, obviously, for viewing these presentations with it, you won’t require Microsoft PowerPoint on your computer since the free PowerPoint Viewer has the capability to work independently.
The free PowerPoint Viewer 2007 can allow you to view presentation files with .ppt, .pptx, .pptm, .pot, .potx, .potm, .pps, .ppsx and .ppsm file extensions.
However, the following PowerPoint features are not supported by this free PowerPoint viewer:
PowerPoint Viewer can work on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, Windows Server 2003 (and now Windows 7 also).
You can download PowerPoint Viewer freely from this Microsoft page. Its download size is about 25.8 MB. In fact, you are even permitted to freely distribute this PowerPoint Viewer to other users subject to certain license terms for the PowerPoint Viewer as explained on Microsoft’s site.
(2) Using free OpenOffice Impress:
You can also use the free OpenOffice software to view the PowerPoint presentations. OpenOffice has several components. Impress is the component of OpenOffice that will allow you to view, edit, or even create PowerPoint presentations. This software is absolutely free and is an excellent open-source software. Have a look at the following image of this software:
(3) Using free online Google Docs:
You can create, edit and view PowerPoint presentations using free online Google Docs. It is again an absolutely free option and will allow you not only to view PowerPoint presentations but also to create new ones. You can freely access Google Docs with a free Google Account, that can be created in minutes with any email address. Have a look at a PowerPoint presentation being created in Google Docs in the following figure:
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