Where's PowerPoint?

PPTools
Shape Styles brings the power of styles to PowerPoint. Apply complex formatting with a single click
Merge Excel, CSV or tab-delimited data into PowerPoint presentations to create certificates, awards presentations, personalized presentations and more
FixLinks prevents broken links when you distribute PowerPoint presentations
Optimizer saves disk space and bandwidth, shrinks your PowerPoint presentations to the right size for email, screenshow or printing
PPT2HTML gives you full control of PowerPoint HTML output, helps meet Section 508 accessibility requirements
Prep4PDF preserves interactivity in PowerPoint presentations when you convert to PDF
Image Export converts PowerPoint slides to JPG, PNG, GIF, WMF and and more

Is PowerPoint installed on my computer?

To learn if you have PowerPoint on your computer, do this:

• Click Start
• Click Run
• In the Run dialog box, type POWERPNT.EXE
• Click OK
• If you have PowerPoint, you'll see it start up.
• If you don't have PowerPoint, you'll see a message saying something like "Windows cannot find POWERPNT ..."

I have Windows XP or Windows Vista. Why can't I find PowerPoint?

Windows is what's called an "operating system". It provides services that allow other programs like Word, Excel and PowerPoint to run. Windows doesn't include PowerPoint. You must purchase PowerPoint separately or as part of Microsoft Office.

When you purchase Office, make sure to get a version that includes PowerPoint. To learn more about this, read on ...

I have Microsoft Office. Why can't I find PowerPoint?

Office Small Business Edition (SBE) prior to Office 2003 do not include PowerPoint.
The Office 2003 Basic Edition doesn't include PowerPoint.

If your computer came with Microsoft Office but you can't find PowerPoint, you may have one of these "PowerPointless" versions.

To add PowerPoint, you'll need to purchase a "Standalone" version (ie, a box that has only PowerPoint, not all of Office). You may be able to purchase a reduced-price PowerPoint 2003 upgrade edition.

To learn more, visit this page at Microsoft.com

If you already have an earlier version of Office (or Microsoft Works), you may qualify for a reduced-price PowerPoint upgrade, so be sure to see this

You can get a 30-day trial version of Office 2003 Professional for a nominal shipping charge.

If you need to add an earlier version of PowerPoint to your existing Office, it gets confusing.

If you go shopping for, say, PowerPoint 2002, watch out -- there are two different versions.

The upgrade version of PowerPoint will not add PowerPoint to a version of Office that doesn't already include PowerPoint. If there's no PowerPoint there, there's nothing for the upgrade version to upgrade.

The language on the box may be confusing and appear to suggest something else. The salespeople may assure you that the upgrade will work. Get it in writing. Make sure you can return the product for a full refund if it doesn't work with your version of Office.

So if you have:

• Office Premium (97, 2000)
• Office Professional (97, 2000)
• Office Standard (97, 2000)
• Office Developer (97, 2000)
• PowerPoint (97, 2000)

then you can purchase and use PowerPoint Standalone Upgrade 2002.

If you have

• Office Small Business Edition [SBE] (97, 2000, 2002)

then you cannot use the PPT Upgrade. You must purchase and use PowerPoint Standalone Full Boxed Version.

Specifically about Office 2002 Small Business Edition
You must purchase the Full Boxed Version of PowerPoint to add PowerPoint to Office 2002 SBE.

Note that Office 2002 SBE is not for sale in stores. It comes OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer), which basically means that the people who built your computer installed this special version of Office. If you have Office 2002 SBE and wish to add PowerPoint, you might want to contact your OEM and ask how much it would cost--or see if they'll take SBE back and sell you or trade you for Office 2002 Standard or Pro, both of which include PowerPoint.

One final note:

You might be better off to upgrade your whole Office SBE Suite rather than adding PowerPoint to what you already have.

Visit Microsoft Office 2003 How To Buy page.

Click "What's in each edition" to help you decide which edition you are interested in.

Click the link to the edition you want then click the "Upgrade eligibility" link to learn whether you qualify for a reduced-price upgrade. In general, you'll find that Microsoft has done the right thing and is accepting virtually any previous version of Office from 97 onwards as qualifying you for the Office 2003 upgrade edition of your choice.

Contents © 1995-2008 Stephen Rindsberg, Rindsberg Photography, Inc. and members of the MS PowerPoint MVP team. You may link to this page but any form of unauthorized reproduction of this page's contents is expressly forbidden.

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