PowerPoint 2007 for Starters: The Missing Manual

Creating PowerPoint Shows

A PowerPoint show is a version of your slideshow saved in a special format (.ppsx, .ppsm, or .pps) that folks who don't have PowerPoint installed on their computers can run. Instead, when you distribute a PowerPoint show—by burning it to CD, for example, by emailing it—all your recipients need to run your show is a copy of the PowerPoint viewer. The PowerPoint viewers is a freely downloadable Microsoft program that lets viewers run and print slideshows, but not edit them.

The difference between a slideshow saved as a PowerPoint show and the same slideshow saved as a PowerPoint presentation file is simply this: opening the show in PowerPoint or in the PowerPoint viewer runs it in slideshow mode; opening the presentation file in PowerPoint runs it in editing mode. Both shows and presentation files can be edited in PowerPoint.

Note

When you package your slideshow for CD, PowerPoint automatically throws in a copy of the free PowerPoint viewer so the recipient of your CD doesn't have to hunt one down herself. To run a slideshow that's on a CD, simply insert the disc into a computer's CD drive. Windows launches PowerPoint (or the PowerPoint viewer), and the show starts playing automatically.

To create a PowerPoint show:

1. Choose Office button → Save As.

   The Save As dialog box appears.

2. From the "Save as type" drop-down menu, choose "PowerPoint Show (*.ppsx)".

3. In the "File name" box, type the filename you want your file to have. In the "Save in" box, type the ...