PowerPoint

PowerPoint is a presentation software developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft 365 suite (formerly the Office family) and is widely used to create slide-based presentations that combine text, images, charts, video, and other media. Presentations are built from slides that can include layouts, themes, transitions, animations, speaker notes, and presenter view to aid delivery. The program supports design ideas, templates, and automatic formatting suggestions to help users create professional slides.

PowerPoint originated from Forethought's Presenter, released for the Macintosh in 1987. Microsoft acquired Forethought later that year, and PowerPoint for Windows was introduced in 1990. It has since evolved through numerous versions, with the 2007 update introducing the Office Open XML-based PPTX format and a redesigned user interface. In the cloud era, PowerPoint expanded to web and mobile platforms and integrated with OneDrive and SharePoint.

File formats include the legacy .ppt and the modern .pptx, along with options to export to PDF, XPS, images, or video. Presentations can be saved locally or stored in the cloud and opened across Windows and macOS, with mobile versions for iOS and Android and a web version that runs in a browser.

PowerPoint is a dominant tool in business, education, and government for communicating information, with features supporting collaboration such as real-time co-authoring (in PowerPoint for the web and Office 365), comments, version history, and sharing controls. Accessibility options and keyboard shortcuts assist a broad range of users.