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The History and Evolution of PowerPoint

04.20.20   •  #ppt #history #versions.

On April 20, 1987, the first version of PowerPoint was released. Because we love the software so much (and we know many of you readers do, too!), we wanted to celebrate PowerPoint’s 33rd birthday with a whole article dedicated to its origins, history, and use cases! 95% of presentations are created with PowerPoint, 30 Million PowerPoint presentations are given everyday, and 500 million people all over the world are using the software. So without further ado, let’s dive into the success story of PowerPoint - with the early beginnings and the development throughout the different versions (except for version 13, which was skipped due to triskaidekaphobia concerns ).

Timeline & Version History

5. july 1984: the idea was created.

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

Robert Gaskins was hired by Forethought Inc. as vice president of product development. His task was to create a new software for graphical personal computers like Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh. Already 1 month later, Gaskins came up with the idea of PowerPoint. Back then, the project description was labeled as "Presentation Graphics for Overhead Projection". For the next year they continued to work on the first specification of the software.

November 1984: Start of development

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

Development officially started under the name "Presenter". However, they started to work on the Macintosh version first. The first developer besides Gaskin was Thomas Rudkin, who joined after 6 months.

January 1987: Funding by Apple

To continue development, the team needed more money. Apple's Strategic Investment Group selected the company for its first investment. One month later, when they announced the software at the Personal Computer Forum in Phoenix, famous Apple CEO John Skully reportedly said "We see desktop presentation as potentially a bigger market for Apple than desktop publishing".

21. January 1987: The name PowerPoint was established

Originally, they chose to keep the name "Presenter" for the final software. However, to everyone's surprise, when they tried to register the trademark, their lawyers replied that the name was already used by another software product. The team had to find a new name quickly and thought about "SlideMaker" and "OverheadMaker". According to Gaskins, one night he came up with "Power point" randomly under the shower. Initially, nobody liked it, but when his colleague Glenn Hobin independently had the same idea (he saw a sign on an airport reading "POWER POINT"), they took it for an omen and stuck with the name. The reason why the name now is a single word with an upper-case P is that back then it was required in the naming of all Macintosh software applications. The common belief that PowerPoint got its name because it "empowers" people is therefore wrong.

20. April 1987: PowerPoint 1.0 (Macintosh)

The first 10.000 copies of the first version of PowerPoint for Macintosh shipped from manufacturing by Forethought Inc. The release was received quite well by the media, commenting it "People will buy a Macintosh just to get access to this product."

July 1987: Acquisition by Microsoft

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

In early 1987 Microsoft started an internal project to develop a software to "create presentations". Shortly after, they heard that a company called Forethought had nearly finished such a software. The successful release of PowerPoint 1.0 convinced Microsoft to buy the company entirely.

May 1988: PowerPoint 2.0 (Macintosh)

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

One year later, the second version of the software was introduces. It included color, more word processing features, find and replace, spell checking, color schemes for presentations, guide to color selection, ability to change color scheme retrospectively, shaded coloring for fills.

May 1990: First Windows version of PowerPoint

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

Almost 3 years later, the presentation software was finally released for Windows PCs. It was announced at the same time as Windows 3.0 and was using the same version number as the current Macintosh variant (2.0).

May & September 1990: PowerPoint 3.0

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

It was the first application designed exclusively for the new Windows 3.1 platform. New features were: full support for TrueType fonts (new in Windows 3.1), presentation templates, editing in outline view, new drawing, including freeform tool, flip, rotate, scale, align, and transforming imported pictures into their drawing primitives to make them editable, transitions between slides in slide show, incorporating sound and video.

February & October 1994: PowerPoint 4.0

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

The new version included among others: Word tables, rehearsal mode, hidden slides. Moreover, Microsoft first introduced a standard "Microsoft Office" look and feel (shared with Word and Excel), with status bar, toolbars and tooltips.

July 1995: PowerPoint 95 (new version naming)

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

To align PowerPoint with all other Office applications, Microsoft decided to skip versions 5 and 6 and instead call it PowerPoint 95.

October 2003: PowerPoint 2003

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

The 2003 version was the first to include the now called "Presenter View": tools visible to presenter during slide show (notes, thumbnails, time clock, re-order and edit slides). Furthermore, it included an option to "Package for CD" to write presentation and viewer app to a CD.

January 2007: PowerPoint 2007

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

It brought a new user interface (a changeable "ribbon" of tools across the top to replace menus and toolbars), SmartArt graphics, many graphical improvements in text and drawing, improved "Presenter View" and widescreen slide formats. Another major change was the transition from a binary file format, used from 1997 to 2003, to a new XML file format.

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

June 2010: PowerPoint 2010

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

This release added: sections within presentations, a reading view, save as video, insert video from web, embedding video and audio as well as enhanced editing for video and for pictures.

October 2012: PowerPoint for Web was released

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

The first time ever, the presentation software could be used in your web browser without any installation.

January 2013: PowerPoint 2013

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

Changes: online collaboration by multiple authors, user interface redesigned for multi-touch screens, improved audio, video, animations, and transitions, further changes to Presenter View. Clipart collections (and insertion tool) were removed, but were available online.

July 2013: First PowerPoint app for Android & iPhone

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

Finally the famous presentation software came on your mobile device with the first versions for Android and iOS. Giving presentations but as well basic editing of slides was already supported on the small screens. However, there wasn’t an iPad optimized version just yet.

September 2015: PowerPoint 2016

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

September 2018: PowerPoint 2019

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

New things in 2019: Morph transition, easily remove image backgrounds, inserting 3D models and SVG icons and a handy Zoom feature.

Are you interested in even more details on the story? You're lucky! Robert Gaskins gave an interview at the 25th anniversary of PowerPoint where he reveals even more on the history of the famous presentation software.

Modern use cases of PowerPoint

Most people use PowerPoint mainly for creating presentations, but did you know that there are many other ways of using the software? PowerPoint is not just for presenting plain slides to your audience - it can do much more - here are some interesting use cases you might not know about:

Games are a great way to lighten the mood during a presentation. Also, they engage the audience. Memory, Charades, or PowerPoint Karaoke - your options are endless! You can choose whatever suits your own presentation style and preference. If you don’t feel like thinking of games yourself, check out the best PowerPoint Games article , where you will get a lot of inspiration, creative game ideas and even a Memory template.

The times of boring, uninspired PowerPoint slides are long gone! Instead, we want to see interactive elements that engage the audience in new, exciting ways! Add Q&A sessions, get your audience’s feedback, share media and capture your audience with stories and unexpected elements! If you want to learn more about audience engagement and interaction, check out our blog post on 10 tools to boost Audience Engagement ! (Also, if you want to save time and energy, you can download SlideLizard , which allows you to create polls, do Q&A sessions, share media and slides and get audience feedback - all in one place!).

Quizzes are extremely popular, and you can create them easily with PowerPoint. We promise that your audience will love them! You can even take your quiz to the next level by matching the design of your quiz to popular quiz shows, like "Who wants to be a Millionaire" (actually, we designed a Who wants to be a Millionaire template with the original design and sound effects so you don’t have to do it yourself). Our advice for quizzes: Use a PowerPoint add-on that allows you to do live quizzes, like SlideLizard . That way you can easily let your audience vote via their smartphones or laptops.

Do you know the struggle of talking in front of a shy audience that doesn’t seem to open up? If you do, you’re definitely not alone: many presenters have to cope with this issue everyday. But there’s good news: By using some icebreaker questions at the beginning of your presentation, you can - well - break the ice. From "How are you feeling today" to "What would your superpower be" you could ask anything, really. Especially funny icebreaker questions (e.g. "Have you ever…?") are known to be very effective. You could even do more than one of these questions in the beginning (to be sure the ice is really broken). We've created a list of 20 great icebreaker questions , which you can use as inspiration.

Common struggles

PowerPoint is easy and intuitive to use - which is the reason why it has become the most used presentation software in the first place. However, there are several little struggles users sometimes have to deal with. They are all easy to solve though, and we will show you how.

Sometimes, the wrong language is set in the beginning, or you would simply like to add another language to your existing one. You can easily change that in the settings. In our blog post, you will get a detailed tutorial on how to install a new language pack and switch to your desired language .

Occasionally, PowerPoint files can get really big in file size. The reason for that are usually pictures or videos within the slides. To save a lot of storage space, you can compress your PowerPoint’s file size (without losing quality!). To learn how to do it, read this detailed step-by-step tutorial on reducing PPT file size .

This problem occurs often: You design a perfect presentation with custom fonts on your computer at home, but once you want to give that presentation on a different computer, all your beautiful custom fonts are gone and replaced with default fonts. That’s really annoying, but can be solved by embedding fonts into your .pptx file .

Templates are so useful, as they save so much time. The sad thing is that not that many people actually use them. We want to contribute to changing that by teaching you how to make your own custom design template for PowerPoint . And if you don’t feel like creating a template yourself, you can download one of ours for free:

  • the wonderful Blue Alps template
  • the simplistic Elegant Architecture template
  • the fresh Caribbean template to get that summer holiday feeling

When was PowerPoint created?

The idea of PowerPoint came up in 1984. In the following years, development started under the name "Presenter". In 1987, the first version of PowerPoint for Macintosh was released. The first Windows release followed in 1990.

When did PowerPoint come out?

The first version of PowerPoint for Macintosh came out on April 20, 1987. The initial Windows version followed 3 years later, in May 1990.

Who created / invented / developed PowerPoint?

Robert Gaskins is one of the inventors of PowerPoint. He developed the first version with the help of his colleagues at Forethought Inc., Dennis Austin and Thomas Rudkin. Microsoft bought the company in 1987.

How old is PowerPoint?

The first version of PowerPoint was released on April 20, 1987, which means that PowerPoint celebrates its 33rd birthday in 2020. However, it was for Macintosh only, the Windows version was release in May 1990.

When did PowerPoint become popular?

According to Google Trends, PowerPoint had its peak in popularity in November 2009 (measured by number of searches). However, PowerPoint was already a popular presentation software in the 1990s.

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

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Pia works in Marketing as a graphic designer and writer at SlideLizard. She uses her vivid imagination and creativity to produce good content.

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Presentations > Presenting: PowerPoint, a retrospective

Presenting: PowerPoint, a retrospective

The world’s most popular presentation software (with up to 95% market share today) had humble beginnings when it was introduced in 1987. Back then, Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” was topping the charts, people were lining up to see The Princess Bride, and computers were evolving new capabilities in displaying colorful graphics — forever changing the way we interact with our digital assistants, as well as each other.

A person making a presentation

As Microsoft 365 celebrates ten years of Office apps on the cloud, let’s take a look at the history of PowerPoint , one of the cornerstones of Microsoft’s software suite.

What was the point of PowerPoint?

When PowerPoint came onto the scene, most group presentations in classrooms and conference rooms used overhead projectors. Remember those machines? They relied on transparent sheets that you printed or wrote text directly on, then illuminated by a bulb and aimed at a blank wall. They were bulky, displayed limited visuals, and oftentimes blurry or difficult to focus.

Tell your story with captivating presentations Banner

Tell your story with captivating presentations

Powerpoint empowers you to develop well-designed content across all your devices

Instead, PowerPoint was developed to take advantage of new graphics processing capabilities on computers. Its earliest versions could also produce overhead transparencies, but later versions would take advantage of 35mm slides and video projectors, keeping in line with new technological advancements.

A small Silicon Valley startup called Forethought developed PowerPoint 1.0 in 1987. Throughout its three-year development period it was called Presenter, but the name had been taken. One of the key figures at Forethought, Robert Gaskins, thought of “PowerPoint” from a sign he had seen on an airport runway: he imagined the software empowering the user to create and share compelling points in a presentation. The name stuck, and the software sold out upon its first production run.

Microsoft makes PowerPoint a core component of Office

PowerPoint’s popularity caught the attention of Microsoft executives, who visited Forethought shortly after its release. At first, it took them some effort to convince Bill Gates, who wanted to integrate presentation capabilities into Microsoft Word, which had been released four years earlier. But he eventually understood that this wasn’t just a software component, it was an entire genre of capabilities. He signed off on buying Forethought, bringing PowerPoint into the Microsoft fold.

It was a young Microsoft’s first significant software acquisition, for $14 million in 1988 (or $35.5 million today). By taking over Forethought’s headquarters in California, it gave Microsoft a much-needed presence in Silicon Valley.

PowerPoint was core to Microsoft right from the start. When Microsoft Office launched in 1989, what would become the world’s most popular productivity suite included just three programs: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

PowerPoint gets folded into Microsoft 365

When Office 365 debuted in 2013, it wasn’t just a software update. These key programs now lived on the cloud, made for mobile life: Sales of laptops were now outpacing desktops; smartphones were smarter and more powerful than ever; and people were doing the Harlem Shake and hitting up Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop.” Now, PowerPoint and others featured dedicated mobile versions for both Android and iPhone. You could create and edit a presentation from anywhere, all while using AI-driven tools to design and animate slides in new ways.

The cultural impact of PowerPoint

As much as PowerPoint has become a staple of business, scientific, and educational presentations, it’s also unlocked new and unexpected avenues of creativity. Here are some of the ways that PowerPoint has expanded into the public consciousness:

  • WordArt and animations: You couldn’t miss these stylized texts in the 1990s and 2000s. WordArt added fun special effects like shadows, outlines, and stretches to create eye-catching titles, while PowerPoint’s bouncing, fade-in, and sunburst animations still remain popular.
  • PowerPoint parties: Gather your friends and give your silliest presentation on something you love! It’s a twist on the elementary school presentations you might now be nostalgic for—and with drinks, costumes, friends, and fun themes, giving presentations in person or over Microsoft Teams has never been more fun.
  • As an artistic medium: PowerPoint’s visual focus and animation capabilities have enabled creatives to express themselves, from users known as “the Prince of PowerPoint” to David Byrne of The Talking Heads. On TikTok, the #powerpoint hashtag has over 4.3 billion views, with user-created tutorials on how you can make your presentations more eye-catching, aesthetically pleasing, and creative.

Over the past four decades, PowerPoint has evolved to keep up with the way we use our laptops and mobile devices—and it’s more powerful, AI-driven, and full of design possibilities than ever.

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PowerPoint Version History and Evolution To This Day [2022]

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By Nikolay Kaloyanov

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PowerPoint Version History and Evolution

On April 20, 2022, PowerPoint celebrated its 35th birthday. Since then, a lot of things have happened in the software market – we have witnessed the dot com hype, the digital transformation, mobile phone usage increase, and lots of other technological advancements.

But one thing remained – the commanding presence of PowerPoint in the market that nowadays consists of many great presentation software . Has it always been the same? Let’s find out in this article.

Article Overview: 1. Date of Birth 2. Microsoft’s PowerPoint Acquisition 3. PowerPoint version history 3.1. PowerPoint 1.0 3.2. PowerPoint 2.0 3.3. PowerPoint 3.0 3.4. PowerPoint 4.0 3.5. PowerPoint 95 /or PowerPoint 7.0/ 3.6. PowerPoint 8.0/9.0/10.0 3.7. PowerPoint 11.0 3.8. PowerPoint 2007 3.9. PowerPoint 2010 3.10. PowerPoint 2013 3.11. PowerPoint 2016 3.12. PowerPoint 2019 3.13. PowerPoint 2021

1. Date of birth

Robert Gaskins - Co-Founder of PowerPoint

Robert Gaskins, Co-Founder of PowerPoint. Source: IEEE Spectrum

Every major application has 2 moments that are remembered – the day when it’s launched and the year it goes viral. While the initial idea of the software came up in 1984, the program was launched 3 years later by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin.

Robert Gaskins was clear that the multi-billion presentation industry was dated, and it needed a change. That’s why he deeply believed personal computers would change the game. Initially named “Presented”, trademark issues led to the team picking the name “PowerPoint”.

Interestingly, it was made to work on Macintosh, and some of the initial funding came from no one but Microsoft’s arch-rival Apple. The name of the initial company made by Gaskins and Austin was Forethought Inc.

2. Microsoft’s PowerPoint Acquisition

When Microsoft acquired PowerPoint in 1987 for $14 million in cash(or around $35.63M current money), it was considered a bold move. PowerPoint was a unicorn and it was Microsoft’s first big acquisition.

Bill Gates’ company wasn’t a huge player at the time – in fact, it generated just under $200m in revenue in 1986, compared to Apple’s $1.9 billion and IBM’s staggering $51.25 billion.

Putting things into the perspective, Microsoft wasn’t a major player at the time, and PowerPoint 1.0 didn’t help much either. In fact, many were wondering if the huge investment would be worth it.

Well, 3 decades later it’s easy to summarize the influence that Microsoft PowerPoint has had. 89% of people are using PowerPoint, and over 35 million presentations are created a day .

3. PowerPoint version history

PowerPoint has undergone a metamorphosis over the years and that’s obvious. A lot of things have changed and clients have become more demanding. Let’s see how each version looks like.

Pre-Office Era

PowerPoint’s time before it was added to the “elite group” of Microsoft Office tools was very interesting. This is the time when the biggest advancements were made.

3.1. PowerPoint 1.0

PowerPoint First Version

Forethought released PowerPoint 1.0 in 1987. It had a black-and-white user interface and 9 menus, and it was available on Macintosh computers. It was a breakthrough, and quite understandably – received amazing feedback back in time.

3.2. PowerPoint 2.0

PowerPoint v2.0

PowerPoint 2.0 was the first version that was launched after the acquisition. Needless to say, people expected to see changes, and they would do. The most notable change was the introduction of colors – with the second version users could edit color schemes and make more customizations. Also, a lot of other features (such as the “find and replace” tool) were introduced for the first time.

3.3. PowerPoint 3.0

In the history of PowerPoint, there was hardly any bigger update than the transition from 2.0 to 3.0. Most of the features we use today were created for MS PowerPoint 3.0 – including audio, video, and of course – the ability to add presentation templates . This version was the one to come up with slide transitions.

3.4. PowerPoint 4.0

PowerPoint history version 4.0

This update didn’t see many big changes but has laid the foundation of what we know as Microsoft Office – a combination of apps that can be utilized by companies (Word, Excel, etc.).

Part of Microsoft Office

PowerPoint history could have been totally different if it was only offered as a standalone product, rather than as a part of something bigger. Fortunately, PowerPoint has been able to share some of the great fonts that were available in Word and import tables from Excel. But it hasn’t always been like that.

3.5. PowerPoint 95 /or PowerPoint 7.0/

PowerPoint 95 Version

PowerPoint 95 took a completely different path. Its code was rewritten in order to be optimized for Windows 95. On top of the improved user experience, presenters could now create more animations and add symbols and clipart. With the Microsoft toolbar, you could easily get access to other Microsoft applications, and for the first time, you could write meeting minutes, thanks to the “Meeting Minder” feature.

3.6. PowerPoint 8.0/9.0/10.0

We’ll combine these 3 versions, as they are the updates before Windows XP took place. We saw PowerPoint advance to a powerhouse. It finally was able to save as HTML files, and during this period the first attempts at collaboration were made (via SharePoint). Also, the first animated GIFs were given life.

3.7. PowerPoint 11.0

PowerPoint 2003

PowerPoint 11 is part of Windows Office 2003 and has played its role in the new era in PC software – Windows XP. It gave presenters more freedom regarding their notes, clock time, etc. Other than that, you could use a camera, and enjoy a better overall experience. The legacy 35mm slides were removed.

The end of binary formats

Although still fairly reliable, binary formats were not considered a new technology in 2007. That is why the launch of Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 has put an end to them. The new XML format (.pptx) could make presentations more efficient and interoperable with other pieces of software. Not only that, it would significantly increase the security of the files.

3.8. PowerPoint 2007

PowerPoint 2007

PowerPoint 2007 (or PowerPoint 12.0) brought a lot of changes. Apart from the one we mentioned above, there a whole lot of things that took place. Apparently, the UI became more mature and intuitive. Design-wise, new 3D effects, and rotations appeared, as well as SmartArt graphics that allowed you to create all sorts of diagrams. However, what really made PowerPoint 2007 shine is how it became print-friendly – with Print Preview and the support of PDF format. Last but not least – you could finally track presentation changes, and digitally sign documents.

3.9. PowerPoint 2010

PowerPoint 2010 (or PowerPoint 14.0) didn’t bring that many changes but rather improved the layout of 12.0. Still, this PowerPoint version brought a lot of goodies – such as importing videos from the Internet, and different embedding options – including video and audio, plus editing options.

3.10. PowerPoint 2013

PowerPoint 2013

PowerPoint 15.0 was rather an addition, than a separate program but it was the first time PowerPoint was available on the web, and collaborations were finally possible. On top of that, the first versions for iOS and Android were released. 2013 was a year to remember for the developers.

3.11. PowerPoint 2016

PowerPoint history version 2016

PowerPoint 2016 was another grand release. It provided an option to collaborate in real-time (something that wasn’t present in 15.0), presentation translations, and brand new Morph transitions that are smoother than standard animations.

3.12. PowerPoint 2019

PowerPoint 2019 doesn’t have the “wow” effect but this is because the previous versions have already delivered most of the great experience. In fact, a few awesome features appeared: vector file imports, inserting 3D models and 360-degree view, export as 4K video, and a great background removal feature.

3.13. PowerPoint 2021

This is the latest version of PowerPoint.  While it doesn’t add a lot of things, it finally equals its biggest rival Google Slides in terms of online collaboration . You can now co-author with other people, and write comments to which others can reply.

PowerPoint hasn’t always been the leading presentation software.  There was a certain period when Microsoft engineers were wondering if they have wasted their hard-earned money but it wasn’t long after when PowerPoint took off and became one of the most dominant niche programs of all time, and certainly one of the most iconic names in the digital era.

If you find our content valuable, why don’t you check some of our other PowerPoint-related articles:

  • How to Insert GIFs into PowerPoint: The Quick Step-by-Step Guide
  • How to Convert Your PowerPoint Presentation into Google Slides
  • How to Get Started with PowerPoint + Guide and Resources

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Nikolay Kaloyanov

Nikolay is a copywriter with vast experience in Technology, Marketing, and Design. When he isn't playing with words and crafting texts, he watches sports and asks questions. He is a funny person...until you put him on a diet.

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Disruption, innovation, and endurance: A brief history of PowerPoint

Disruption, innovation, and endurance: A brief history of PowerPoint

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

The journey of a thousand presentations begins with a single slide.

This is a story about love in the time of ClipArt, about innovation persevering through really lame animations. This is the story of people who refused to copy-and-paste their lives and instead chose to change the world.

“PowerPoint sought to disrupt an established business model, much like Uber is doing to taxis. We offered a superior replacement for a familiar capability.” Robert Gaskins, Inventor of PowerPoint

This is the story of PowerPoint .

Create New Presentation (ctrl+N)

Our opening slide begins in 1984. Robert Gaskins , a computer scientist with a degree from Berkeley, had an idea. He was tired of spending hours preparing projection transparencies and using chalkboards to illustrate presentations.

And so he, with the help of developers Thomas Rudkin and Dennis Austin , set out to create a presentation program that would provide an easy way to make and present slides.

They called this program Presenter , which was later renamed PowerPoint.

Insert New Slide (ctrl+M): The 1980s

The team presented the program and business plan to their software company, fittingly named Forethought , in Sunnyvale, California. And just as Prometheus brought down fire to humans, Forethought quickly spread the revolutionary idea of PowerPoint to the world .

Everyone wanted a bullet point in this story. Apple invested $432,000 in PowerPoint, making it Apple’s first ever venture capital investment . By 1986, the PowerPoint team was using PowerPoint to explain their business strategy. (You can even see their 1986 “New Product Summary” here .)

In 1987, Microsoft managed to outdo Apple for once and snatched up PowerPoint for $14 million .

Insert New Slide (ctrl+M): The 1990s

Following their acquisition , Microsoft released its first official version of PowerPoint in 1990 . By 1993, PowerPoint was making $100 million in sales annually.

The early versions of PowerPoint only produced transparencies , handouts , and speaker notes until the rise of laptops made transparencies obsolete.

1997 became the year that changed the course of PowerPoint history forever. PowerPoint 97 was released with major improvements and updates, most notably, custom animation . This allowed presentations to faded-zoom into the future. And the fact that users needed no special programming skills to animate their presentations made everyone pinwheel into love with PowerPoint.

Save Presentation (ctrl+S): The 2000s to today

Since 1997, PowerPoint has continued to improve and grow. Newer versions have come out with audio and video embedding, web support, and more slide transitions than ever before.

By 2003, PowerPoint revenues for Microsoft were over $1 billion annually . By 2010, Microsoft announced that PowerPoint had been installed on a billion computers worldwide. A study done in 2012 reported PowerPoint held approximately a 95% share of the presentation software market, eclipsing competitors such as Apple Keynote , Google Presentations , and Prezi .

PowerPoint’s continued domination may be down to the program’s gold-standard status in educational settings for students and professors. And, for the most part, people are satisfied with their PowerPoint experience—there is no compelling reason to change. It seems that  PowerPoint is here to stay.

Meanwhile, founder  Robert Gaskins , has settled into retirement and  written a book about inventing PowerPoint  for those who want to discover more about the birth of this innovative and enduring program.

Interested in disruptive innovation?  To learn more about Hult’s future-focused global business programs,  download a brochure .

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history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

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Chm Blog Curatorial Insights , From the Collection , Software History Center

Slide logic: the emergence of presentation software and the prehistory of powerpoint, by david c. brock | october 04, 2016.

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In many parts of our world today, group communication centers on visual materials built with “presentation software,” often crafted by a speaker him or herself. As a result, meetings now generally depend on the use of personal computers, presentation software in the guises of product or service and display by digital projectors or flat-screens.

A humorous sample PowerPoint presentation supplied with the very first version in 1987. This clip was created with PowerPoint 1.0 for Mac running in a Mac Plus emulator.

So central have these visual materials become that the intended functioning of digital files, programs, computers, and peripherals has become an almost necessary condition for public communication. Choice of presentation software has even become a mark of generational and other identities, as in whether one uses Facebook or Snapchat. Millennials and Generation Z choose Google Slides or Prezi. Everyone else uses PowerPoint, its mirror-twin by Apple called Keynote, or, for political expression and/or economic necessity, LibreOffice. Membership in a highly technical community can be signified by using the typesetting program LaTeX to build equation-heavy slides.

It is PowerPoint, nevertheless, that has become the “Kleenex” or “Scotch Tape” of presentation software. A “PowerPoint” has come to commonly mean any presentation created with software. Microsoft rightly boasts that there are currently 1.2 billion copies of PowerPoint at large in the world today: One copy of PowerPoint for every seven people. In any given month, approximately 200 million of these copies are actively used. PowerPoint is simply the dominant presentation software on the planet. 1

It may come as a surprise, then, to learn that PowerPoint was not the first presentation program. Rather, there were several programs for personal computers that performed similarly to PowerPoint in many respects, which appeared starting in 1982—fully five years before PowerPoint’s debut. PowerPoint’s ubiquity is not the result of a first-mover advantage. 2

Further, many of PowerPoint’s most familiar characteristics—the central motif of a slide containing text and graphics, bulleted lists, the slide show, the slide sorter, and even showy animated transitions between slides—were not absolute novelties when PowerPoint appeared. These elements had been introduced in one form or another in earlier presentation software.

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

Here, the principal developers of PowerPoint—Dennis Austin and Tom Rudkin—describe the structure of the source code defining slides. Austin and Rudkin worked closely with the product’s architect, Bob Gaskins. This document is in a collection of materials donated to the Computer History Museum by Dennis Austin.

From 1982 through 1987, software makers introduced roughly a dozen programs for several different personal computers that allowed users to create visual materials for public presentations as a series of “slides” containing text and graphic elements. Frequently, these slides were printed on paper for incorporation into a photocopied report and transferred to a set of transparencies for use with an overhead projector. Other presentation programs allowed slides to be output as a sequence of 35mm photographic slides for use with a slide projector, a videotape of a series of slide images, or a digital file of screen-images for computer monitors. Makers and users called these programs “presentation software,” and just as commonly “business graphics software.” “Business” here is significant, I think. 3

Early presentation software was most commonly used to create overhead presentations. In this clip, Dennis Austin—a principal developer of PowerPoint—demonstrates the use of overhead projectors and presentations.

The six years from 1982 through 1987 saw the emergence of presentation software (including PowerPoint), with multiple makers introducing competing programs offering many similar capabilities and idioms. Why did multiple, independent software creators develop presentation software for personal computers at just this moment?

I believe that an analytical framework that I developed with historian Christophe Lécuyer to understand episodes in the history of solid-state electronics can also help us to unpack this very different case from software history. Our framework consists of three “contextual logics” that we argue shaped the emergence of the planar transistor, the silicon microchip, the simultaneous-invention of silicon-gate MOS technology, and, as Christophe and Takahiro Ueyama recently show, the history of blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs). 4

In their 2013 article, “The Logics of Materials Innovation,” Christophe and Takahiro describe these logics beautifully:

This framework distinguishes different types of contextual challenges that shape the creation of new materials and manufacturing processes: the materiality of substances, tools, and fabrication techniques (referred to as “material logic”); the needs, demands and interests of intended customers (“market logic”); and the competitive tensions among laboratories, firms, and nations (“competitive logic”). These material, market, and competitive logics are not determinative, in the sense that they do not lead to necessary outcomes. But they are particularly stable over time and provide powerful resources and constraints to innovators and their patrons.

The implication seems straightforward: People from similar backgrounds, in similar organizations, facing a common, structured set of contextual logics, will do similar—but not identical—things. But can these logics that help make sense of the history of semiconductor electronics, a technology deeply about materials, also give insights into the history of the ne plus ultra of the digital—software itself? I think it can. Competitive logic, Market logic, and Material logic: Let’s consider them in that order, and see what they can mean for the “prehistory” of PowerPoint.

Competitive logic centered on software makers. In the first half of the 1980s, makers of presentation software were typically connected to companies. There were, of course, makers of non-commercial software of various stripes—hobbyist, open source, libre and the like—but they do not appear to have been a factor in early presentation software. Rather, the makers of presentation software were what I call “integrated software manufacturers,” “software publishers,” and “author houses.” Sometimes the boundaries between these maker-types are blurry, but I think the categories are useful.

Integrated software manufacturers, ranging from cottage firms to public companies, wrote code, manufactured it mainly on magnetic media, wrote and printed technical documentation and guides, and distributed it in shrink-wrapped boxes. For integrated software manufacturers of this era, think of Microsoft, Lotus Development, and MicroPro International." Software publishers" did everything that the integrated manufacturers did, except write the code. Rather, they entered into contracts on a royalty basis with those who did write programs. Software publishers ran the gamut from stand-alone companies that only produced software written by others, to firms that published a mix of programs written internally and externally, and also to computer makers like Apple, who published software written by others under their own label as well as selling their own programs. Code authors ranged from individual sole proprietorships to “author shops,” partnerships between two or more programmers in an LLP or a small company.

The origins of Microsoft, perhaps the best-known integrated software manufacturer.

These author shops, publishers, and integrated manufacturers were, by 1982, competing in a growing market for personal computer application software: Spreadsheets, word processors, databases and “business graphics” programs that often used data from spreadsheets to generate line-graphs, pie-charts, bar-graphs, and other standard plots used in business, science, and engineering. This battle for market share in applications for personal computers was the ‘competitive logic’ for presentation software’s emergence. 5

“Market logic” centered on the intended users of software, and, in the case of presentation software, focused to the communication practices of white-collar workers in the United States (and, perhaps, elsewhere), particularly “managers” and “executives.” Contemporary commentators noted that personal-computer “business” software like spreadsheets represented a turn in “office automation,” the opening of a new phase in which software users would expand beyond specialists and secretaries to managers and executives. Personal computers with new software would be in the offices of Mahogany Row in addition to the accounting department and the typing pool.

For example, in September 1982, John Unger Zussman, a columnist for InfoWorld, noted: “…the market is changing. An examination of the changing word-processor marketplace can tell us a lot about the maturation of microcomputers and give us a clue to the role of micros in the office of the future. ‘There’s an expanding concept of reality in the modern office,’ says Gary Smith, NCR’s director of marketing. Software oriented toward managers, such as spreadsheet and slide-show programs and electronic mail, has increased the demand for distributed data processing. It is now legitimate for a computer to appear on a manager’s desk—or a secretary’s. The personal workstation, says Smith, is becoming ‘the major focus of white-collar productivity.’ This was not always the case. In the past, computers were the province of the data-processing department…and, besides, managers wouldn’t be caught dead typing at a keyboard…word processing became a stepping-stone into the automated office…the introduction of microcomputers into the office of the future seems to be more a process of infiltration than one of direct assault.” 6

In this 1979 commercial, Xerox presented just this vision of the office of the future.

In a 1984 article in the Proceedings of the IEEE titled “A New Direction in Personal Computer Software,” MIT Sloan School professor Hoo-Min Toong, with his postdoc Amar Gupta, identified the crux of the market logic to which presentation software was a response: The time that executives and managers spent in meetings. They write: “Top managers are noted to spend four-fifths of their time attending meetings—delivering or receiving presentations and reports, communicating, and gathering information for subsequent meetings. Meetings are the most prominent, time consuming element of an executive’s job.” They continue: “At present, business personal computers only represent information in numeric form, in text, and in simple charts and graphs. A crucial missing component is the ability to present and manipulate visual, pictorial data…A new layer…will bridge the gap from the present position…to supporting business communications with sophisticated images and color.” 7

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

Toong and Gupta’s diagram of the proportion of an “executive’s” time spent in meetings. © 1984 IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from Proceedings of the IEEE.

Toong and Gupta then discuss a newly released example of such “presentation graphics software,” VCN ExecuVision, offered by the book publisher Prentice-Hall. VCN ExecuVision, which ran on the IBM PC, cost $400 but also required libraries of images and icons, that is, “clip art,” at $90 per floppy disk. Users could create “slide shows” of multiple “slides” that the user could craft with text, clip art, and geometric shapes, as well as pie, bar, and line graphs, with the completed slide show either printed or displayed on the PC monitor.

The idiom of the slide was directly adapted from the world of 35mm photographic slides. “Seeing a single slide is one thing,” Toong and Gupta write, “seeing an aggregate of slides is another. VCN ExecuVision supports slide shows in which the transition from one slide to another can be controlled either manually (pressing a key causes display of the next slide) or automatically… More significant is the support of animation techniques which give an illusion of seeing a running movie rather than a slide show…VCN ExecuVision brings sophisticated graphical capabilities to the realm of personal computers thus vastly expanding the horizons of personal computer applications in all four domains – office, home, science, and education.” Continuing their celebration of ExecuVision, Toong and Gupta illustrated their journal article with three full-color pages of ExecuVision slides, replete with images having the unmistakable aesthetic of clip art. Presentation software and clip art may have been born together.

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

Sample slides from VCN ExecuVision. © 1984 IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from Proceedings of the IEEE.

Evidently, ExecuVision was the creation of Toong himself—in a Cambridge, Massachusetts author shop called Visual Communication Network Inc.—before the program had been sold or licensed to Prentice Hall. Toong filed articles of incorporation for the firm in October 1983, with his brother and a former MIT industrial liaison as the other directors. His brother was listed as the president and a Sloan School building was the firm’s address. Toong’s connection to ExecuVision is not mentioned in the article. 8

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

Lotus’ announcement of Executive Briefing System. Courtesy of the Kapor Archive.

Toong’s ExecuVision was, in late 1983, a new entrant into the presentation software market that two new integrated software manufacturers, located in neighborhoods on opposing sides of the MIT campus, had already enjoined. On one side was Mitch Kapor’s startup, Lotus Development. Kapor created his new firm on a windfall from two programs he had written that were published by Personal Software, Inc., later renamed VisiCorp. VisiCorp was also the publisher of the breakthrough spreadsheet program VisiCalc, written in Cambridge by Software Arts Inc., the “author shop” of Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston.

Mitch Kapor had written a statistical analysis and data graphing program for the Apple II called TinyTROLL, which he sold through a partnership with his friend and then MIT finance PhD student Eric Rosenfeld who had suggested the program to Kapor. The partnership was called Micro Finance Systems, and Kapor was approached VisiCorp to adapt TinyTROLL to work with data imported from VisiCalc. Kapor soon delivered VisiPlot and VisiTrend, programs that took VisiCalc spreadsheet data and generated pie, bar, and line graphs from them, as well as performed various finance-relevant statistical functions on the data. Kapor and Rosenfeld’s Micro Finance Systems received hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties for VisiPlot and VisiTrend before VisiCorp bought them outright for $1.2 million. With his share in the windfall, Kapor set up an integrated software manufacturer of his own, Lotus Development, and, in 1982, the firm released its first product, Executive Briefing System, for the Apple II. Todd Agulnick, a 14-year-old high school student, had been hired by Kapor and wrote the BASIC code for Executive Briefing System under his direction. 9

Lotus’ $200 Executive Briefing System was centered on the color video display of the Apple II. In brief, a number of programs for charting and graphing like VisiPlot offered the “BSAVE” command. Instead of routing data to immediately render an image on the video display, BSAVE sent the very same data to a stored file. In this way, a “screen shot” could be rendered on the video display at a later time, shared with others, archived for future use, etc. Lotus’ Executive Briefing System treated BSAVE’d files—these screen shots—as “slides” that could be modified and then displayed on the Apple II’s video display as a “slide show” for a “presentation.” Executive Briefing System users could edit slides of charts and plots by adding text and/or clip art of lines, geometric shapes, or “ornamental” motifs. Slides were arranged in slide shows, and saved to floppy disk. While the program allowed a slide show to be printed—as a paper report or for transparencies for overhead presentation—it focused on slide shows for the video display. A variety of animated “transitions” between slides were available, such as fades, wipes, and spinning-into-view. 10

An early Executive Briefing System demonstration. This clip was created by running an image of the demonstration disk in an Apple II emulator.

David Solomont’s Business and Professional Software Inc., another integrated software manufacturer developing products for the Apple II, was located at 143 Binney Street just a 25-minute walk across the MIT campus—and past Hoo-Min Toong’s office—from Kapor’s Lotus Development office at 180 Franklin Street. Like Kapor, Solomont’s firm had earlier developed a plotting and charting program for the Apple II to work with VisiCalc spreadsheets. Solomont struck a deal with Apple to license the plotting program, which was sold by Apple under the company’s brand as “Apple Business Graphics.” Soon thereafter, arriving on the market about the same time as Lotus’ Executive Briefing System, came Solomont’s “Screen Director” program in 1982. 11

A 2015 CHM oral history interview with David Solomont.

Screen Director, made for the then-new Apple III computer, fully embraced treating a computer running Screen Director like a 35mm slide projector. Users could organize BSAVE’d image files from programs like VisiPlot and Apple Business Graphics into various “slide trays” for presentation on the video display. While Screen Director did not allow for the editing of existing image slides, it did provide for the creation of text slides and for a limited set of animated transitions between slides. Screen Director even shipped with the standard two-button wired controller for slide projectors, but modified to plug into the Apple III for controlling Screen Director slide shows. 12

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

A 1982 print advertisement for Business and Professional Software’s Screen Director program.

So far I have described a meaning for “competitive logic” and “market logic” in the case of presentation software, and some early programs from 1982 through 1984. But what of “material logic?” Material logic here includes personal computers themselves, specifically personal computers with graphics capabilities that were expanding in the early 1980s. The computers’ physical performativity, their material agency, constituted a resource, medium, and constraint for software makers and users. Existing programs widely used on these computers, like spreadsheets and plotting programs, were themselves a critical part of the material logic. Software, like hardware, has an unavoidable materiality. At the most abstract, a computer program can be considered to be a specific pattern. In practice, every instance of a program is a pattern in something material, including the body of an author.

Finally, the material logic for presentation software included operating systems centered on the graphical user interface, or GUI. This style of computing had been pioneered at Xerox PARC in the late 1970s, most famously on the Xerox Alto computer. The Alto inspired other efforts to bring the GUI into personal computing during the first half of the 1980s: Apple’s Lisa and Macintosh computers, Microsoft’s Windows software, and VisiCorp’s VisiOn software to name but a few. 13

This material logic was especially important in the creation of PowerPoint. In 1983, two Apple managers, Rob Campbell and Taylor Pohlman, left the firm and created a new integrated software manufacturer, Forethought Inc. Simply put, they left Apple to bring a Xerox Alto like GUI operating system to the IBM PC. By 1986, however, Forethought Inc. had a change of plans. This story—of Forethought’s creation of PowerPoint—and other stories about what PowerPoint and its competitors can tell us about software history, will be the subjects of upcoming essays by me on the @CHM blog.

For more information about the development of PowerPoint, please see our Guide to the Dennis Austin PowerPoint Records .

  • Oral history interview with Shawn Villaron, PowerPoint manager at Microsoft, date, forthcoming/in process.
  • Indeed, a wonderfully helpful list of presentation software offerings from 1986 compiled by Robert Gaskins, the initiator and architect of the original PowerPoint project, can be found on pages 131-134 of his painstakingly detailed and comprehensive memoir, Sweating Bullets .
  • One place in which these identifying names for the presentation software genre were evident was, and is, the pages of the trade magazine InfoWorld . Google Books has a large number of issues of the periodical available with full text and search. On the more general use of the genre names, see this Google Books NGram .
  • See Christophe Lécuyer and David C. Brock, Makers of the Microchip: A Documentary History of Fairchild Semiconductor (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010); David C. Brock and Christophe Lécuyer, “Digital Foundations: The Making of Silicon Gate Manufacturing Technology,” Technology and Culture , 53 (2012): 561–97; and Christophe Lécuyer and Takahiro Ueyama, “The Logics of Materials Innovation: The Case of Gallium Nitride and Blue Light Emitting Diodes,” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences , 43 (2013): 243-280.
  • See, for example, Martin Campbell-Kelly, “Number Crunching without Programming: The Evolution of Spreadsheet Usability,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing , 29 3 (July-September 2007): 6-19 and Thomas J. Bergin, “The Origins of Word Processing Software for Personal Computers: 1976-1985,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing , 28 4 (October-December 2006): 32-47.
  • The article may be viewed in InfoWord on Google Books.
  • Hoo-Min D. Toong and Amar Gupta, “A New Direction in Personal Computer Software,” Proceedings of the IEEE , 72 3 (March 1984): 377-388.
  • Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Articles of Organization, Visual Communications Network, Inc., October 13, 1983.
  • Mitch Kapor, “Reflections of Lotus 1-2-3: Benchmark for Spreadsheet Software,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing , 29 3 (July-September 2007): 32-40; David C. Brock telephone call with Todd Agulnick, July 15, 2016.
  • Rik Jadrnicek, “ Executive Briefing System, a slide-show program ,” InfoWorld, May 17, 1982, 47–49.
  • Oral History of David Solomont , Computer History Museum, 2015. Or watch it on YouTube .
  • Richard Hart, “ Screen Director helps you present ‘slide shows,’ ” InfoWorld, November 8, 1982.
  • See Michael Hiltzik, Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Comptuer Age, (New York: HarperCollins), 1999.

About The Author

David C. Brock is an historian of technology, CHM's Director of Curatorial Affairs, and director of its Software History Center. He focuses on histories of computing and semiconductors as well as on oral history. He is the co-author of Moore’s Law: The Life of Gordon Moore, Silicon Valley’s Quiet Revolutionary and is on Twitter @dcbrock.

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Walking into the hall to deliver the speech was a “ daunting experience ," the speaker later recalled, but “we had projectors and all sorts of technology to help us make the case." The technology in question was PowerPoint, the presentation software produced by Microsoft . The speaker was Colin Powell, then the U.S. Secretary of State.

Powell's 45 slides displayed snippets of text, and some were adorned with photos or maps. A few even had embedded video clips. During the 75-⁠minute speech , the tech worked perfectly. Years later, Powell would recall, “When I was through, I felt pretty good about it."

The aim of his speech, before the United Nations Security Council on 5 February 2003, was to argue the Bush administration's final case for war with Iraq in a “powerful way." In that, he succeeded. While the president had already decided to go to war, Powell's speech—inseparable from what would become one of the most famous PowerPoint presentations of all time—did nothing to derail the plan. The following month, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland launched their invasion .

Powell's speech dramatized how PowerPoint had become, by 2003, a nearly inescapable tool of communication and persuasion in much of the world. Since then, its domination has only become more complete. The same tool used by U.S. State Department and CIA officials to pivot an international coalition toward war is also used by schoolchildren to give classroom reports on planets, penguins, and poets. Microsoft rightly boasts of 1.2 billion copies of PowerPoint at large—one copy for every seven people on earth. In any given month, approximately 200 million of these copies are used, and although nobody's really counting, our cumulative generation of PowerPoint slides surely reaches well into the billions. So profound is PowerPoint's influence that prominent figures have decried the software's effects on thinking itself . Edward Tufte , the guru of information visualization, has famously railed against the “cognitive style" of PowerPoint, which he characterizes as having a “foreshortening of evidence and thought" and a “deeply hierarchical single-⁠path structure."

PowerPoint is so ingrained in modern life that the notion of it having a history at all may seem odd. But it does have a very definite lifetime as a commercial product that came onto the scene 30 years ago, in 1987. Remarkably, the founders of the Silicon Valley firm that created PowerPoint did not set out to make presentation software, let alone build a tool that would transform group communication throughout the world. Rather, PowerPoint was a recovery from dashed hopes that pulled a struggling startup back from the brink of failure—and succeeded beyond anything its creators could have imagined.

PowerPoint was not the first software for creating presentations on personal computers. Starting in 1982, roughly a half-dozen other programs [PDF] came on the market before PowerPoint's 1987 debut. Its eventual domination was not the result of first-mover advantage. What's more, some of its most familiar features—the central motif of a slide containing text and graphics; bulleted lists; the slideshow; the slide sorter; and even the animated transitions between slides—did not originate with PowerPoint. And yet it's become the Kleenex or Scotch Tape of presentation software, as a “PowerPoint" has come to mean any presentation created with software.

With PowerPoint as well as its predecessors, the motif of the slide was, of course, lifted directly from the world of photography. Some presentation programs actually generated 35-mm slides for display with a slide projector. In most cases, though, the early programs created slides that were printed on paper for incorporation into reports, transferred to transparencies for use on overhead projectors, or saved as digital files to be displayed on computer monitors.

The upshot was that personal computer users of the 1980s, especially business users, had many options, and the market for business software was undergoing hypergrowth, with programs for generating spreadsheets, documents, databases, and business graphics each constituting a multimillion-dollar category. At the time, commentators saw the proliferation of business software as a new phase in office automation, in which computer use was spreading beyond the accounting department and the typing pool to the office elites. Both the imagined and actual users of the new business software were white-collar workers, from midlevel managers to Mahogany Row executives.

PowerPoint thus emerged during a period in which personal computing was taking over the American office. A major accelerant was the IBM Personal Computer , which Big Blue unveiled in 1981. By then, bureaucratic America—corporate and government alike—was well habituated to buying its computers from IBM. This new breed of machine, soon known simply as the PC, spread through offices like wildfire.

The groundwork for that invasion had been laid the previous decade, in the 1970s technosocial vision of the “office of the future." It started, like so much of what we now take for granted in our contemporary world of networked personal computing, at Xerox's legendary Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) [PDF]. The site was established in 1970 to invent the computing systems that would equip the future's white-collar office, an arena the company hoped to dominate in the same way it did photocopying. Many of the bright young computer scientists and engineers recruited to work at PARC knew one another from the major computer science programs funded by the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) at MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, UC Berkeley, the University of Utah, and SRI.

In 1972, PARC researchers began to focus on a new personal computer they called the Alto. Led by Alan Kay , Butler Lampson , Bob Taylor , and Chuck Thacker , they were captivated by an extraordinary idea: that in the office of the future, every individual would have a dedicated computer like the Alto. Moreover, these computers would be networked to one another and to other, larger computers, both locally and far away. This networking would form a web of communication and computing resources well beyond the capacity of any single personal computer. In the pursuit of this vision, Ethernet emerged , as did the PARC Universal Packet protocol [PDF], or PUP, an important predecessor of the TCP/IP standard of today's Internet.

The Alto's creators emphasized the machine's graphics capabilities, dedicating much of the computer's hardware and software to rendering high-⁠resolution imagery onscreen, including typography, drawings, digital photographs, and animations. It was a huge step up from the mainstream computers of the day, which still used punch cards, paper printouts, teletypes, and “dumb" terminals. Alto users interacted with it through a graphical interface to access, generate, and manipulate information. Even the text was treated as an image. The computer was controlled through a standard keyboard and the then-novel mouse that had emerged from Doug Engelbart 's SRI laboratory.

This graphical turn in computing was perhaps most pronounced in one of the Alto's programming languages, called Smalltalk. Developed by Kay, Dan Ingalls , Adele Goldberg , and other collaborators, Smalltalk wasn't just a programming language; it was also a programming and user environment. It introduced the graphical user interface, or GUI, to personal computing, including a metaphorical desktop with overlapping windows, contextual and pop-up menus, file browsers, scroll bars, selection by mouse clicks, and even cut, copy, and paste.

While such innovations were ostensibly proprietary, by the end of the 1970s, Xerox managers and PARC staff were routinely discussing their findings with outsiders and publishing details of the Alto system in journals. PARC researchers were, after all, still part of the broader ARPA community of computer scientists and engineers. Many visitors who saw the Alto system considered it transformative.

One such visitor was Apple cofounder Steve Jobs . Following Xerox's investment in Apple in 1979, PARC researchers gave Apple engineers and management detailed demonstrations of Smalltalk and other programs previously reserved for Xerox insiders. Jobs was so enthralled by what he saw that he decided to reorient the Lisa, a business computer Apple was developing at the time, to fully embrace the PARC idiom. A few years later, when Jobs was transferred out of the Lisa project, he seized control of another effort aimed at creating a low-cost computer and pushed it, too, toward the PARC idiom. That computer became the Macintosh.

What does all this have to do with PowerPoint? Apple lavished resources—people and cash alike—to embrace the PARC paradigm with the Lisa and the Macintosh, but not everyone at Apple was happy about that. In particular, those working to maintain the existing Apple II and III lines felt that their efforts were being shortchanged. By 1982, the product marketing manager for the Apple III, Taylor Pohlman , and the software marketing manager for the Apple II and III, Rob Campbell, had had enough. They quit and went into business together, founding the company that would create PowerPoint.

But PowerPoint was not at all in their original plan.

One thing that united Pohlman and Campbell—but alienated them at Apple—was that they were cut from a different cloth than the computer-science types working on the Lisa and the Macintosh. Though both Pohlman and Campbell were technically minded, they were also oriented toward marketing and sales. Before Apple, Pohlman had worked in marketing at Hewlett-Packard, and Campbell had run a small accounting software company.

The pair left Apple late in 1982, and by early 1983, they had secured US $600,000 in venture capital to create a software company, which they called Forethought. Ironically, the startup's aim was to bring the PARC idiom to the IBM PC and its clones—in essence, to outplay Apple at its own game. That year, the Apple Lisa appeared , priced at nearly $10,000 (more than $25,000 in today's dollars). Two years earlier, Xerox had brought its own personal computer, the Xerox Star , to market, at an even higher price. Pohlman and Campbell's idea was to bring a graphical-software environment like the Xerox Alto's to the hugely popular but graphically challenged PC.

Forethought's founders intended to go beyond the Star and the Lisa by incorporating an important dimension of Alto's Smalltalk: object-oriented programming . In simple terms, traditional programming of the day treated data and the procedures for manipulating it separately. In object-oriented programming, data and procedures are combined in “objects" that interact with each other by passing messages between them. Proponents held that the modularity of object-oriented programming made for speedier development, flexibility, and dynamic change. For example, skilled Smalltalk programmers could quickly alter the GUI while the program was running. Object-oriented programming has since become the prevailing paradigm for the most widely used programming languages.

Pohlman and Campbell envisioned an object-oriented software platform called Foundation, which was centered around documents. Each Foundation document would act like an object in Smalltalk, which a business user would stitch together with other documents to create, say, a report containing a graph of recent sales, a statistical analysis of customer traits, drawings of proposed changes to a product, and a block of explanatory text. Each element would be live, malleable, and programmable. Spreadsheets, databases, drawings, word processing—Foundation would handle it all. Users would select a document with a mouse click, and contextual menus would then offer choices appropriate for that type of document. Foundation would be, in essence, Smalltalk for the office worker.

Forethought staffed up, bringing in software developers from Xerox PARC who were familiar with object-oriented programming and WYSIWYG applications, in which the text and graphics displayed on screen look very similar to the way they will appear in print. To create certain functions, the startup inked deals with outside suppliers; Forethought also purchased a powerful VAX computer from Digital Equipment Corp. for the software-development effort.

Within a year, the company ran into difficulties. For one, the developers grew deeply concerned about which personal computers, if any, would be powerful enough to run Foundation. The Apple Lisa had the horsepower, but it was already failing in the market, while the Macintosh was deemed too feeble. And the IBM PC was still far behind where Forethought had hoped and planned it would be.

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

Forethought, a Silicon Valley startup, brought PowerPoint 1.0 to market in April 1987.

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

More worrying was Oracle's announcement that it would need another year to deliver on its contract for the database code. This meant that the launch of Foundation would be intolerably delayed. Forethought was running perilously low on funds, and it didn't have the resources to develop a database on its own. The company was facing, literally, an existential crisis.

Rather than liquidate the firm, management and investors decided to “restart" Forethought—a “pivot" in today's Silicon Valley parlance. Work on Foundation was set aside, while the firm focused on software publishing—that is, manufacturing, marketing, and supporting computer programs written by others. Forethought's publishing arm produced software for the Apple Macintosh under the brand Macware. And it was a success. Its biggest hit, oddly enough, was a database program called FileMaker .

With brightening finances from sales of FileMaker, Forethought began to develop a new software product of its own. This new effort was the brainchild of Robert Gaskins , an accomplished computer scientist who'd been hired to lead Forethought's product development. Gaskins was a polymath who had simultaneously pursued Ph.D.s in English, linguistics, and computer science at UC Berkeley before joining industry. He in turn hired a bright young software developer named Dennis Austin , who had previously developed compilers at Burroughs and contributed to a GUI operating system at a laptop startup.

Gaskins and Austin worked closely to conceptualize, design, and specify Forethought's new product. Gaskins spotted an opportunity in presentation software and believed they could apply the PARC idiom to this application. He envisioned the user creating slides of text and graphics in a graphical, WYSIWYG environment, then outputting them to 35-mm slides, overhead transparencies, or video displays and projectors, and also sharing them electronically through networks and electronic mail. The presentation would spring directly from the mind of the business user, without having to first transit through the corporate art department.

While Gaskins's ultimate aim for this new product, called Presenter, was to get it onto IBM PCs and their clones, he and Austin soon realized that the Apple Macintosh was the more promising initial target. Designs for the first version of Presenter specified a program that would allow the user to print out slides on Apple's newly released laser printer, the LaserWriter, and photocopy the printouts onto transparencies for use with an overhead projector.

Austin quickly got to work programming Presenter in Apple Pascal on a Lisa computer, eventually switching to a Macintosh. He was joined in the effort by Tom Rudkin , an experienced developer, and the pair hewed as closely as possible to the Macintosh's user interface and modes of operation. Indeed, the source code for Presenter included Apple-provided code for handling text, which Apple used in its own word processor, MacWrite.

In April 1987, Forethought introduced its new presentation program to the market very much as it had been conceived, but with a different name. Presenter was now PowerPoint 1.0—there are conflicting accounts of the name change—and it was a proverbial overnight success with Macintosh users. In the first month, Forethought booked $1 million in sales of PowerPoint, at a net profit of $400,000, which was about what the company had spent developing it. And just over three months after PowerPoint's introduction, Microsoft purchased Forethought outright for $14 million in cash.

PowerPoint then became Microsoft's presentation software, first just for the Macintosh and later also for Windows. The Forethought team became Microsoft's Graphics Business Unit, which Gaskins led for five years, while Austin and Rudkin remained the principal developers of PowerPoint for about 10 years. Wisely, Microsoft chose to keep the Graphics Business Unit in Silicon Valley rather than move it to Redmond, Wash. The unit became Microsoft's first outpost in the region, and PowerPoint is still developed there to this day.

While PowerPoint was a success from the start, it nevertheless faced stiff competition, and for several years, Lotus Freelance and Software Publishing's Harvard Graphics commanded larger market shares. The tipping point for PowerPoint came in 1990, when Microsoft unleashed its bundling strategy and began selling Microsoft Office—which combined Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint—as a $1,000 set. Previously, each part had been sold separately for about $500 apiece.

Because most users of personal computers required both a word processor and a spreadsheet program, Microsoft's price for Office proved compelling. PowerPoint's competitors, on the other hand, resented the tactic as giving away PowerPoint for free. And for more than a quarter century, Microsoft's competitive logic proved unassailable.

These days, the business software market is shifting again, and Microsoft Office must now compete with similar bundles that are entirely free, from the likes of Google , LibreOffice, and others. Productivity software resides more often than not in the cloud, rather than on the user's device. Meanwhile, the dominant mode of personal computing globally has firmly shifted from the desktop and laptop to the smartphone. As yet, no new vision of personal computing like the one that came from Xerox PARC in the 1970s has emerged. And so for the moment, it appears that PowerPoint, as we know it, is here to stay.

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Looking Back on the Birth of PowerPoint

March 13, 2017 / Blog, Infographics, PowerPoint, Presentation infographics, Powerpoint, powerpoint history

Powerpoint history

It’s hard to imagine life without the comforts of modern technology that people know today: smartphones, 24/7 Internet access, computers that basically provide anything and everything with the push of a few buttons, and the like. Now, you’d think that innovation is an everyday occurrence, but that wasn’t the case in the mid-1900s, especially for businesses.

Back in the early 60s, Roger Appeldorn invented the first overhead projector . It had a simple principle of using light reflected upon mirrors to display data printed on transparencies (a.k.a. foil or viewgraph), paper-sized sheets of cellophane. The bulky instrument became a mainstay in meeting rooms, but the processes to create one sheet of transparency were tedious and time-consuming (inkjet printing was still a new thing). If not printed, then presenters would handwrite data to be projected on the transparencies. That is, until the 90s. What happened?

Microsoft PowerPoint happened.

Its revolutionary and innovative approach to creating presentations gave it an edge over its more than thirty competitors . Its timing with the booms of both the Apple and Windows operating systems—primitive as they were—cemented its growth. And its fundamental function hosted other uses it wasn’t intended for, like classroom operations and simple public speaking exercises (and not-so-simple ones like the TED Talks ). Yes, it’s that flexible.

Today, PowerPoint is at its latest version: PowerPoint 2016, as part of the Microsoft bundle Office 2016. More than two decades since the first version was published, PowerPoint is at its prime—with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Although it has seen its share of competitors, the presentation designer software remains as strong as ever, if not stronger.

So how did this juggernaut of a program come to fruition? How about a teaser? For starters, did you know that PowerPoint didn’t start as an internal project of Microsoft? The following infographic will take you through decades across the technological history to the go-to presentation software that is—and will always be—Microsoft PowerPoint.

Akanegbu, Anuli. “Vision of Learning: A History of Classroom Projectors.” EdTech Magazine . February 28, 2013. www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2013/02/vision-learning-history-classroom-projectors

“Life Before the Web – Running a Startup in the 1980’s.” The Zamzar Blog . July 13, 2016. blog.zamzar.com/2016/07/13/life-before-the-web-running-a-startup-in-the-1980s

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Behind the orange icon: the history of PowerPoint

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

Last year PowerPoint celebrated its big 3 0. At thirty years old, the software superpower had a lot to celebrate. PowerPoint still stands as the most valuable Microsoft acquisition to date, is currently installed on over a billion computers worldwide and is responsible for the creation of up to 30 million presentations each day.

Aptly described as “the world’s most ubiquitous presentation tool,” the impact and the history of PowerPoint however goes relatively under the radar - surprising for such an incredibly influential and controversial software program. Righting this wrong, we take a look at a brief history of PowerPoint - its groundbreaking beginnings, present status and what the future holds for the world’s favorite presentation software.

At the beginning: Robert Gaskins’ PowerPoint

The history of PowerPoint begins in Silicon Valley in the 1980s, when the business of visual presentations - reliant on slides, overhead projectors and acetate, was costly, time-consuming and inevitably exclusively reserved for senior management.

Robert ‘Bob’ Gaskins saw this gap in the market and alongside software firm Forethought Inc, developed the later renamed ‘Presenter’ for Apple Macintosh in 1987. Gaskins’ revolutionary creation allowed individuals to easily add (then pixelated) graphics and text to an ordered slide-deck. Although Windows’ users would have to wait another three years to get their hands on Microsoft PowerPoint, the new program promised any tech-literate team member the same presentation tools as their superiors, democratizing workplace communication practices.

Read more about how to organize your corporate templates

Despite the clear potential to creatively overhaul the workplace, the history of PowerPoint ppt almost ended before it had begun, as it faced serious challenges from its very beginning. Gaskins revealed that Bill Gates himself wasn’t sold on the idea and almost blocked the acquisition, drafting a letter to the developers to ditch its graphics-led nature and work on a text version more like an advanced Microsoft Word. On top of Gates’ initial concerns, PowerPoint only worked on brand new computers, and couldn’t be installed on existing machines, adding another big barrier to its success.

Luckily, the people surrounding Gates were both persuasive and tuned in to Gaskins’ vision, and by 1992 the Windows version had gone live as PowerPoint 3.0. Part of the all-new “Office” productivity suite, PowerPoint 3.0 showcased new PowerPoint features that formed the fundamentals of today’s version - TrueType font support, transition effects, new graph types and symbols, drawing tools and the Office toolbar with shortcut buttons.

PowerPoint’s installation issue was overcome by the fact that businesses found it cheaper to invest in new computers than to continue producing presentations using their old methods - and PowerPoint is largely credited for accelerating the history of personal computers by driving an increase in computer sales throughout this period.

A PowerPoint timeline: PowerPoint over the years

The launch of PowerPoint 3.0 and the not so coincidental age of personal computers, led to over two decades of constant product innovation that would keep PowerPoint at the top of its game. Some key dates to note in the history of PowerPoint:

  • PowerPoint for Windows 95 : thanks to 32-bit coding, multimedia elements such as sound and animation now made an appearance alongside a more user-friendly interface
  • PowerPoint 97 : known as the software’s “ innovative phase ”, PowerPoint applications included voice recording, advanced saving functions, slide finder and new navigation controls and frames
  • PowerPoint 2000 : the software’s characteristic tri-pane view is born, plus in-program table creation and automatic resizing of slides and text is introduced
  • PowerPoint for Windows Vista 2007 : deemed a “ noticeably different animal ” this version introduced many of today’s existing features like the ribbon menu, Live Preview, Presenter View and was far speedier than ever before
  • PowerPoint 2010 : real-time co-author tools primes PowerPoint for the phenomenon of collaborative and remote working; a feature developed for Office 365’s cloud-based sell in 2011
  • PowerPoint in Office Apps 2014 : PowerPoint is optimized for tablets and mobile devices so users could access, create and distribute quality content on the go

impression powerpoint presentation in meeting room

PowerPoint 2016 and beyond: taking on the competition

PowerPoint is by no means the only presentation tool on the scene today. The history of PowerPoint, particularly in recent years, has seen increasing competition from the likes of Prezi, Google Slides and Keynote. Yet PowerPoint’s reigning market position remains largely unchallenged - notably due to its ability to keep up with new competitor offerings.

For example, when Prezi first launched, it made waves by bringing non-linear storytelling to the presentation scene. Prezi’s zoom canvas and motion effects allowed presenters to jump to and from and in and out of slides, exposing the comparatively clunky way PowerPoint users had to exit Presenter mode and hunt through PowerPoint ppt slides to find previous information. Prezi gave individuals the advantage of maintaining a consistent flow throughout their presentation - with some seriously impressive effects to boot.

Cue PowerPoint’s 2016 line-up of rival updates. PowerPoint’s Morph allowed users to create multiple (and smooth) transitions between slides, Zoom eliminated the need to exit presenter mode so in true Prezi style you could jump around presentation content and Designer empowered visually optimized slides with guided design assistance. These features are extremely user-friendly in comparison to other presentation tools on the market, leaving PowerPoint sitting comfortably once again. This edge was further secured with innovative features such as built-in screen recording, new and improved co-authoring add-ons and hotly anticipated 3D capabilities - with interactive models giving an audience an even more engaging experience.

The anti-PowerPoint club

Despite being the world’s go-to presentation tool - with all its updates, boardroom feats and competitive edge, the history of PowerPoint does include a fair share of fierce criticism.

In 2004, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos issued a “No PowerPoint presentations” policy - asking employees to swap their PowerPoint slides for four page written memos that would be read by the team and followed by a Q&A session. He argued that “Powerpoint-style presentations somehow give permission to gloss over ideas, flatten out any sense of relative importance, and ignore the interconnectedness of ideas.” A devotee to the whiteboard and marker pen, Steve Jobs echoed Bezos’ disdain for slide-based talks with his infamous statement : “People who know what they're talking about don't need PowerPoint.”

These highly reputed CEOs touch on a very vocal criticism of presentation software - that ideas can be reduced and oversimplified when translated into ppt format. The argument also goes that PowerPoint’s bullet point structure can give instant and sometimes undeserved authority to its content and content creator. This idea that an audience often takes PowerPoint slides as gospel rather than subject matter to be discussed and debated, was picked up by leaders in the UK’s university system; as discussed in The Independent ’s rather damningly titled ‘Let's ban PowerPoint in lectures - it makes students more stupid and professors more boring.’

On the flipside to this reductive effect, there is of course, “Death by PowerPoint.” This phrase needs very little introduction as chances are you have endured and suffered through it yourself at some point in your academic or working career. Characterized by information overload, busy and crammed slides and an unenthused audience, “Death by PowerPoint” is another reference to poorly produced and presented PowerPoint presentations. The saying is so widespread there are countless guides to overcoming these annoying PowerPoint ppt habits; including the popular BBC read “How to Avoid Death by PowerPoint.”

Read next: What is Office 2019? Everything you need to know for now

Creating PowerPoint presentations with tens of millions of views

There’s no denying the history of PowerPoint has seen many bad, painful and uninspiring presentations. But when it comes down to it are PowerPoint users, rather than the platform itself, the culprits of ineffective slideshows?

Take TED Talks - home to some of the most powerful speakers on the planet. If you search the site’s most viewed talks, you’ll notice that the majority of these videos feature a starring role for PowerPoint and its visual cues. These inspirational talks, some of which have received tens of millions of views, are so far removed from the concept of “Death by PowerPoint” and are proof that presentation tools can elevate rather than harm the process of sharing ideas.

Unlike TED Talks gurus, businesses often overlook the mastering of PowerPoint ppt in the workplace and it’s not unusual to find employees with little or no software training. This shortcoming sparked a major milestone in the history of PowerPoint, when Microsoft Inc launched their Microsoft Partner Network in 2000. Following heavy investment, the program now works with 640,000 partners worldwide - including Templafy , to offer companies the resources, training and technology they need to ensure their workforce have an advanced understanding of Microsoft products. This support acts to encourage businesses to build their offering around Microsoft products like PowerPoint, with smart integrations that help them stand out in their industry.

At Templafy for instance, our PowerPoint solutions help enterprises around the world transform generic company templates into thousands of personalized, on-brand presentations with the right look and feel, as well as up-to-date company data and legal disclaimers.

Particularly helpful for employees that aren’t design or tech savvy, users directly access pre-approved PowerPoint ppt templates from within the program and as our platform is fully-integrated within PowerPoint, employees can conveniently reuse or easily customize company slides and add images, text snips, videos, etc. to their PowerPoint presentations on-the-go, without needing to worry about document or brand compliance.

Rather than wasting time checking that their content aligns with a company’s latest brand guidelines, all templates can be dynamically personalized via Templafy’s centralized library of brand-compliant slides, graphics and images. Using Templafy’s BrandChecker, if any off-brand material sneaks into the presentation the employee is alerted and offered alternative options that keep them in line with corporate identity guidelines. Mirroring Microsoft’s cloud-based services, all of this can be done remotely and on any device. Brand Managers can rollout any changes, however big or small, via the Admin Dashboard so they can rest assured that users in all departments always have the relevant and most up-to-date assets to hand.

What does the future hold for PowerPoint?

Will PowerPoint still be the most ubiquitous presentation tool on the planet 30 years from now? Especially when forecasters are predicting the presentation scene to be full of new tech arrivals. Wearable tech such as Myo armbands will bring more personalized flow to presentations, allowing presenters to move around and use muscle movement to transition between and zoom into slides. Whereas, the development of VR and AR markets estimated to reach $150 billion by 2020, is likely to bring headsets into the mix. Rather than 2D slides, space surrounding an audience could be used as the ‘canvas’ of a presentation, producing truly immersive and interactive experiences of shared ideas.

Despite all the fast-moving tech advancements on the horizon, the history of PowerPoint so far has proven the true adaptability and evolving nature of the software and its ability to change with users’ shifting needs. It’s hard to imagine the teams at PowerPoint HQ ignoring new technologies and we’ll surely see key behaviors and trends further integrated into PowerPoint’s distinctly user-friendly solutions. With continued investment in its partner network and subsequent smart integrations with new, upcoming companies, PowerPoint is cleverly placed to remain as relevant and powerful as ever.

Bring on the next thirty years!

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A Brief History of Microsoft PowerPoint: Origination & Where it Is Today

  • John Hewitt
  • Categories : Collaboration , Business
  • Tags : Office collaboration topics collaboration tools

A Brief History of Microsoft PowerPoint: Origination & Where it Is Today

Next Slide!

Before Powerpoint came along, anyone who wanted a visual aid for their presentation would have to spend substantial amounts of time either scrawling on a board of some sort or in creating transparencies or slides to transmit information. Although Powerpoint has been maligned by some for encouraging lazy speaking styles, the alternative is much worse. It saves millions of man-hours every year that would otherwise be spent cleaning boards off or switching slides.

The first version of Powerpoint - first called Presenter, but later renamed because of copyright issues - was developed by Bob Gaskins and Dennis Austin, a University of California-Berkeley PhD student in 1984. The startup he worked for at the time was acquired by Microsoft soon after in 1987, and the first version of the software under the Microsoft banner was released for Windows 3.0 in 1990. When Microsoft purchased it, Powerpoint was already a mass success, selling more on its first day of release for the Macintosh OS than any other program in history at the time.

Powerpoint integrated the use of graphics and animations early on in its development, with more recent versions allowing the user to embed entire videos. The most effective Powerpoint presentations are used to highlight important points in a presentation, rather than to have the presenter simply read off of the slide. It’s also very useful for presenting graphs and other visual data representations. As the software package became more popular, a market for specialized projection equipment grew up along side it, making it so that Powerpoint would be used for more than just creating slides and transparencies.

Unlike most of the other software products that have made their way into the Office suite, Powerpoint has never had significant market competition. Hypercard for the Macintosh was used for presentations in fair numbers, but never approached Powerpoint in terms of market penetration for professional users. That software package was discontinued in the mid-1990s.

Version History

  • 1988 Powerpoint Version 1
  • 1990 Powerpoint Version 2
  • 1993 Powerpoint Version 3
  • 1994 Powerpoint Version 4
  • 1995 Powerpoint 95
  • 1997 Powerpoint 97
  • 1999 Powerpoint 2000
  • 2001 Powerpoint 2002
  • 2003 Powerpoint 2003
  • 2007 Powerpoint 2007
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What Is Microsoft PowerPoint?

Get to know Microsoft’s presentation software

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

  • University of Texas

Microsoft PowerPoint is a slideshow presentation program first developed by Forethought, Inc. for the Macintosh computer in 1987 and purchased by Microsoft in 1990. Microsoft has released several updated versions, each offering more features and incorporating better technology than before. The most current version of Microsoft PowerPoint is available in Microsoft 365.

Do You Need PowerPoint?

Presentation software is the easiest way to create and show the kinds of slides you've likely seen in meetings or classroom situations.

There are several free options, including LibreOffice , Apache OpenOffice , and SlideDog . However, if you need to collaborate with others on a presentation, integrate with other Microsoft programs (like Microsoft Word), or create a presentation that's viewable by anyone, purchase Microsoft PowerPoint .

If integration with other Microsoft programs isn't important, Google Workspace has a presentation program called Slides that allows for excellent collaboration with others.

Microsoft PowerPoint comes with all the features you need to create presentations. You can start with a blank presentation or choose from various preconfigured presentations (called templates). A template is a file constructed with styles and designs applied. This option provides an easy way to begin a PowerPoint with a single click.

You can also insert pictures and videos from your computer and the internet, draw shapes, and create and insert all kinds of charts. PowerPoint offers many ways to transition between slides and animate the items on any slide.

What Is a PowerPoint Presentation?

A PowerPoint presentation is a group of slides that you create either from scratch or a template that contains information you want to share. Often, you show the presentation to others in an office setting, such as a sales meeting, but you can also create slide shows for weddings and birthdays.

When you display the presentation to your audience, the PowerPoint slides take up the entire presentation screen.

Do You Have Microsoft PowerPoint?

Lots of (but not all) Windows-based computers come with Microsoft Office installed. That means you might have a version of Microsoft PowerPoint.

To see if you have Microsoft PowerPoint installed on your Windows device:

From the  Search window on the taskbar (Windows 10), the  Start screen (Windows 8.1), or from the  Search window on the Start menu  (Windows 7), type PowerPoint  and press Enter .

Note the results.

To find out if you have a version of PowerPoint on your Mac, you can find it in a couple of ways.

Look for it in the  Finder sidebar, under  Applications by selecting Go > Applications .

Or select the magnifying glass in the upper-right corner of your Mac's screen and type PowerPoint in the search field that appears.

Where to Get Microsoft PowerPoint

The two ways you can purchase PowerPoint are by:

  • Subscribing to Microsoft 365 .
  • Buying the Microsoft Office suite outright from the Microsoft website.

Microsoft 365 is a monthly subscription, whereas you pay only once for the Office Suite.

If you don't want to create presentations but only want to view what others have created, use PowerPoint Online to view it for free.

Some employers, community colleges, and universities offer Microsoft 365 free to their employees and students.

The History of PowerPoint

Over the years, there have been many versions of the Microsoft Office suite. The lower-priced suites only included the basic apps (often Word , PowerPoint, and Excel ). The higher-priced suites included some or all of them (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook , OneNote, SharePoint, Exchange, Skype , and more). These suite editions had names like Home and Student, Personal, or Professional.

PowerPoint is included regardless of which version of the Microsoft Office suite you are looking at.

Here are the recent Microsoft Office Suites that also contain PowerPoint:

  • PowerPoint Online and PowerPoint 365 are available and updated regularly in Microsoft 365.
  • PowerPoint 2019 is available in Office 2019.
  • PowerPoint 2016 was available in Office 2016.
  • PowerPoint 2013 was available in Office 2013.
  • PowerPoint 2010 was available in Office 2010.
  • PowerPoint 2007 was included with Office 2007.
  • PowerPoint 2003 was included with Office 2003.
  • PowerPoint 2002 was included in Office XP.

PowerPoint is available for the Macintosh line of computers too, as well as smartphones and tablets.

The easiest way to start a new PowerPoint presentation is to use a template. Microsoft offers a variety of them in a range of casual and professional tones. Choose one and replace the placeholder text and images with your own.

Go to the Insert tab and select Audio > Audio on My PC to play music across slides in a presentation . Locate the music file you want to use, then choose Insert . Select the audio icon, go to the Playback tab , and select Play in Background .

To save your current presentation as a template, go to File > Save As . Click Browse , then choose PowerPoint template from the Save as type list options. Give your new template a file name and select Save .

If you want to make your presentations smaller, compress the pictures you use in them. Select an image so the Picture Format tab appears. Go to that tab and select Compress Pictures (it's in the Adjust group). Here you have a few options: Uncheck Apply only to this picture so that the changes apply to all images in the presentation. You can also choose Delete cropped areas of pictures , but you can't restore images to their original size. Finally, select Use default resolution in the Resolution section.

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Blog / PowerPoint Tips / The history of PowerPoint.

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

The history of PowerPoint.

The Simpsons made its debut as a series of shorts, Ronald Reagan gave his ‘tear down this wall’ speech, The Bangles were telling us to ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’ and PowerPoint first appeared on the Mac. What year was it? That’s right, 1987. We’d love to get stuck into an 80s pop culture article, but we’ll stick to what we know best. So here’s the history of PowerPoint, from 1987 to present day. But first let’s jump ahead a bit…

It’s 2003. The then U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, walks onto the stage to deliver a speech to the United Nations Security Council. Using PowerPoint as a tool of persuasion, he presents a compelling argument in support of the Bush administration, for the Iraq war. By this point, Bush had already made his decision, but Powell presented a strong case that convinced many that the Iraq war was America’s best option.

Although PowerPoint’s inception was back in 1987, the success and potency of Powell’s speech highlighted just how influential the software had become in the world of public speaking. His 45 slides were uniquely modern, adding a forward-thinking and professional vibe that helped him drive his key points with persuasive flair.

Jump forward 15 years and PowerPoint’s influence on modern life is even more profound then it was back then. 1.2 billion copies of PowerPoint occupy computers all over the world. That’s 1 copy for every 7 people on earth. That’s a lot of copies. Who knows how many slides. But what we do know is that PowerPoint has (rightly so) solidified itself as a staple of modern- day presenting. Those in the business world are witnessing its impact in the present for themselves, but what about its past? Let’s take a look back at the history of PowerPoint: its origins, its growth and how it became a world leader in presentation software .

The origins of PowerPoint

When PowerPoint burst onto the presentation scene back in 1987, it wasn’t the only software available on the market. But it was the best. It’s emergence coincided with a surge in personal computer purchasing and the use of computers in business environments. With business owners hungry for the best presentation software available, PowerPoint came out on top of its predecessors.

But its domination wasn’t immediate. Although widely believed to be Bill Gates’s brainchild, PowerPoint was actually developed by Robert Gaskins, was originally called ‘Presenter’ and released under a company called ‘Forethought’. In a market where consumers had a host of other established programs to choose from, PowerPoint initially struggled to set itself apart from its competitors. The graphics, bulleted lists and slideshows that are so characteristic of PowerPoint nowadays, were not actually PowerPoint’s own, original ideas.

Microsoft sensed PowerPoint’s potential regardless. Seeing the explosion in business software and office automation, Microsoft seized the opportunity and bought the application for $14 million.  They developed the software further, taking it to new heights with the release of PowerPoint 97. By eliminating the need for programming knowledge or specialist skills, PowerPoint 97 granted personal computer users access to filmesque features like transitions and animations .

From version 97 onwards, PowerPoint went through major upgrades with every release. A version was released on average every two years, spreading through offices like wildfire. The 2000 version introduced a clipboard feature that could hold multiple objects at once. In 2002, PowerPoint transformed its animation engine, allowing users to take advantage of advanced, custom animations. In 2011, they took the upgrade to another level with new background features and special effects. By 2012, after all the advancements, Microsoft announced their achievement of 95% of the presentation software market share.

The cultural impact of PowerPoint

We can totally see why. From the beginning, PowerPoint has put users first, taking away the complexities, and saving them time and effort. PowerPoint’s prioritisation of ease of use means that even those who aren’t very tech-savvy can still create their own presentations. It has encouraged those who aren’t naturally inclined to do presentations, to at least have a go. It’s made high-quality presenting easier and readily available. Today, users can take advantage of pre-designed templates and animations that give their presentations a slick, professional look.

The software has transformed the world of presenting. It’s used in schools, universities, start-ups, global businesses, people’s homes and governments. After all the years of technological innovation, PowerPoint has stayed at the top of the game. If Presidents and world leaders are using it, it’s probably here to stay.

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Why Was PowerPoint Created? Exploring the Origins of This Presentation Software

PowerPoint has become a ubiquitous tool for creating presentations for both educational and business purposes.

Its hard to imagine a world without it, but it wasnt always that way.

In this article, well explore the history of this presentation software and how it revolutionized presentations, as well as the types of presentations created in PowerPoint, its impact on education and business, and its future.

Lets dive in and explore the origins of PowerPoint and its ongoing impact on the world.

Table of Contents

Short Answer

PowerPoint was created by Microsoft in 1987 as a way to help people create multimedia presentations.

It quickly became one of the most popular presentation tools and is now used to create everything from business presentations to academic projects.

PowerPoint provides a variety of tools such as text, graphics, sound, and video, allowing users to create dynamic presentations.

It is a great tool for making presentations more engaging and interactive.

The Rise of Microsoft Office

Microsoft PowerPoint wasnt created in a vacuum.

Its history is deeply intertwined with the development of the Microsoft Office suite.

Microsoft Office began in 1983 with the release of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Multiplan.

The Microsoft Office suite continued to grow over the years with the addition of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint.

The reason for the creation of Microsoft Office was to provide a comprehensive suite of software tools to enable users to more easily create powerful documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Microsoft PowerPoint was created in 1987 as a way to help users create dynamic visual presentations.

It was the last piece of the Microsoft Office puzzle, and it proved to be instrumental in revolutionizing the way people communicate ideas and information.

Since its release, Microsoft PowerPoint has become a staple in many educational and professional settings.

It has been used for lectures, demonstrations, and presentations, and is widely considered to be the most popular presentation software available.

The introduction of PowerPoint has made it easier than ever before for individuals to create professional-looking slideshows and presentations.

Microsoft PowerPoint was created with the intention of making it easier for users to communicate information visually.

It was a revolutionary step forward for presentation software, and it helped to usher in a new era of information sharing.

With its intuitive user interface and powerful features, PowerPoint has become one of the most popular presentation tools available.

The History of PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint was created in 1987 as part of the Microsoft Office suite as a presentation program to help users create dynamic visual presentations.

The program was initially developed by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin, two software engineers at Forethought, Inc.

who sought to create a way to easily create and display presentations.

The program was first released in 1987 and quickly became a popular tool for businesses and educational settings, as it allowed for the display of text, images, videos, and more in an organized and visually appealing way.

It was also seen as a more interesting alternative to the traditional chalkboard or overhead projector presentations.

PowerPoint quickly gained a reputation for being an easy-to-use and effective presentation tool, and over the years, its features have expanded and improved drastically.

It is now used by millions of people worldwide for lectures, demonstrations, and presentations.

Additionally, PowerPoint is often used as a creative tool for making art, and its features have been adapted for use in video editing, game design, and more.

Since its inception, PowerPoint has become a staple in the professional and educational worlds, and has revolutionized the way we communicate ideas and information.

Today, PowerPoint remains one of the most popular presentation programs on the market, and its impact on the world of communication is undeniable.

How PowerPoint Revolutionized Presentations

PowerPoint revolutionized presentations when it was first released in 1987 as part of the Microsoft Office suite.

It allowed users to create dynamic visual presentations with the aid of a computer, rather than using paper and pen.

It allowed users to display text, images, videos, and more in an organized and visually appealing way.

This opened up a whole new world of communication for both educational and professional settings, as it made it easier to present ideas and information in a more engaging way than ever before.

The software allowed users to add animations and transitions to slides, making presentations much more dynamic and engaging than traditional methods.

It also enabled users to create custom slide shows with multiple slides, allowing for much more detailed presentations.

PowerPoint was also one of the first programs to use hyperlinks, which allowed users to easily connect related ideas and expand their presentations.

Since its introduction, PowerPoint has become a staple of many classrooms and businesses around the world.

It is widely used for lectures, demonstrations, and presentations, and has become an invaluable tool for communicating ideas and information.

Its ease of use and wide range of features have made it one of the most popular presentation software programs on the market.

Types of Presentations Created in PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint has become a popular choice for creating presentations, both in the professional and educational spheres.

This program has revolutionized how we communicate ideas and information, as it allows users to create dynamic and visually appealing slideshows.

With PowerPoint, users can quickly and easily create slides that incorporate text, images, videos, and more.

PowerPoint presentations are used for a variety of purposes, ranging from lectures and demonstrations to marketing and sales presentations.

In the classroom, PowerPoint is often used to make lessons more engaging and easier to understand, while in the business world, it is used to convey detailed information to clients and colleagues.

It is also used to create professional-looking slideshows that can be used for webinars, videos, and other digital presentations.

PowerPoint also allows users to create dynamic presentations that can be used for product launches, conferences, and other events.

With the right design features, users can create slides that will capture the attention of their audience and keep them engaged.

PowerPoint also has a variety of templates and themes that can be used to make presentations look more professional and polished.

Overall, PowerPoint is an incredibly useful tool for creating presentations of any kind.

With its wide range of features, it is easy to create dynamic and visually appealing slideshows that will engage any audience.

Whether its for the classroom, the workplace, or a special event, PowerPoint is the go-to choice for creating visually stunning presentations.

The Impact of PowerPoint in Education

PowerPoint has been a game-changer in the world of education since its inception in 1987.

It has revolutionized how teachers and students share and present information, allowing them to create dynamic visuals and presentations that engage and inform.

As a result, PowerPoint has become an essential tool in the classroom, used for lectures, demonstrations, and presentations.

PowerPoint has made it easier for educators to illustrate complex concepts and ideas to students, allowing them to grasp difficult topics more easily.

It also allows teachers to bring their lessons to life by incorporating multimedia elements, such as videos, images, and audio clips, into their presentations.

Furthermore, PowerPoint has helped teachers keep track of their students’ progress with the use of quizzes and surveys, allowing them to tailor their lessons to the individual needs of their students.

The use of PowerPoint has also made it easier for students to prepare for exams and assignments.

With the ability to create slideshows and presentations, students can easily organize their notes and research into a visually appealing format.

This makes it easier for them to remember key concepts and topics, and also makes it easier for them to present their findings in a more organized and professional manner.

In addition, PowerPoint has become a great way for students to collaborate on projects.

With the ability to share presentations and collaborate in real-time, students can easily work together to create a comprehensive presentation.

This helps to foster collaboration and creativity in the classroom, and makes it easier for students to work together to come up with innovative solutions to problems.

Overall, PowerPoint has been a revolutionary tool in the world of education.

It has made it easier for teachers and students to communicate and share information, and has helped make learning more engaging and effective.

The Impact of PowerPoint in Business

The impact of PowerPoint in the business world has been immense since its creation.

From boardroom meetings to corporate presentations, PowerPoint has become an essential tool for conveying information and ideas.

The program’s ability to combine text, images, videos, and other multimedia elements into a cohesive visual presentation has made it easy for professionals to quickly and effectively communicate their message.

From PowerPoint slides to interactive presentations, the program has become an invaluable tool for businesses of all sizes.

The use of PowerPoint has enabled businesses to create presentations that are more engaging and interactive.

With its array of features, businesses have been able to create presentations that are more visually appealing and easier to understand.

This has allowed them to quickly and effectively convey their ideas and information to colleagues and clients.

PowerPoint has also become a powerful tool for training, as it allows businesses to create interactive tutorials that are easy to follow.

The impact of PowerPoint on the business world is undeniable.

It has revolutionized how people communicate ideas and information, and has become a staple in many educational and professional settings.

From boardroom meetings to presentations, PowerPoint has made it easier for businesses of all sizes to quickly and effectively convey their message.

With its array of features, businesses have been able to create presentations that are more engaging and interactive, enabling them to quickly and effectively communicate their ideas and information to colleagues and clients.

The Future of PowerPoint

The future of PowerPoint looks bright, with continued development and innovation from Microsoft.

With the introduction of the subscription-based Office 365, users now have access to new features and updates for their PowerPoint presentations, making it easier than ever to create dynamic and engaging presentations.

In addition, PowerPoint now has the capability to embed videos from YouTube and other video streaming services, allowing users to easily include multimedia content in their presentations.

Furthermore, PowerPoint also provides a wide range of themes and templates to make creating professional-looking presentations quick and easy.

As technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, PowerPoint will continue to evolve and become even more powerful and user-friendly.

With the ever-growing popularity of virtual meetings and conferences, PowerPoint is the perfect tool to help users create engaging presentations that will capture the attention of their audiences.

Final Thoughts

The creation of Microsoft PowerPoint revolutionized how ideas and information are presented and shared.

From its beginnings as a part of the Microsoft Office suite in 1987, PowerPoint has become a staple in both education and business settings, allowing users to create dynamic and visually appealing presentations.

As PowerPoint continues to evolve, its impact on the way people communicate will only become more profound.

So, the next time you create a presentation in PowerPoint, remember the origins of this powerful presentation software and the ways it has changed the way we communicate.

James Wilson

James Wilson has extensive knowledge in the information technology industry.His second love, besides dealing with computers, is smart home technology. He is continually updating information to better comprehend this problem and has a deep understanding of the apartment’s support system.

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A Brief History of Presentations: How Bill Gates and Microsoft Monopolized All Cave Walls

A Brief History of Presentations: How Bill Gates and Microsoft Monopolized All Cave Walls

It’s a warm summer evening. The year - 15,000BC. Far away in the caves of Lascaux (France), a primitive homo sapiens has just returned from his daily hunt. His mind in the zone: a creative zone. He lets his hands sway holding whatever colored stone or tool he has, and he paints and etches these murals of horned bulls and other such fauna; murals that will amaze archaeologists into thinking that the basic instinct of visual communication has been with us since time immemorial. Besides, these cave drawings are also a remarkable example of humans’ fascination with presentations.

Before we were clicking and typing away in our computer programs to make a colorful document, there were tools deep-rooted in a chapter of the history of presentations. Modern-day technology has made it possible to create stunning presentations and other visual content in PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Keynote; something that is a far cry from where it all began. In this blog, we trace the timeline of how we came around to making presentations and communicating business ideas and information with their help.

1. Cave paintings

The earliest evidence of human communication and projection of ideas can be traced back to prehistoric times in the form of cave paintings made by the early age humans in Lascaux. These spark the notion that the surface of the cave walls served as a huge slide to the human mind. The prehistoric man described what he may have seen in his surroundings and painted it onto this slide to bring the world’s first-ever presentation to life 20,000 years ago. Sure, he couldn’t write what he had in his mind for us to read, but he could do something even better. He projected what he had seen onto a surface, a concept that forms the basis of any modern-day PowerPoint presentation.

2. Hieroglyphs

Yes, we all went “Ooh” and “aah” when we first came across the drawings of Egyptian gods in the Hollywood classics The Mummy , The Mummy Returns, and The Scorpion King . If archaeological inspection has found anything while digging through the tombs of the revered rulers buried under the Egyptian tombs, it is that with the passage of time, reaching 3000BC, the human intellect had figured out how to use symbols to portray an actual story about those resting in the catacombs. This means that ancient Egyptians actually collected data about the emperors throughout their lives and then presented it to those visiting the tombs. As eyes spanned chamber after chamber, one could find ways to know the deceased through these hieroglyphs (or kill them if they were raised from the dead). Fascinating things lie under those pyramids, don’t they?

3. Bar chart

Transcending ahead to the mid-1300s, there was the advent of bar graphs or bar charts. Reportedly devised and represented in The Latitude of Forms , a bar chart projected a case of uniformly accelerated motion with the help of comparative bars. The classic bar chart quantified the qualities in a more decipherable manner that would give the audience more leverage in understanding the data quickly. With bar graphs, the human mind was able to extrapolate thoughts and data, a concept that modern-day infographics derive from.

4. Chalkboards and whiteboards

This will take all of us back to those old school days. But for some, the chalkboard or blackboard, and its fancy cousin, the whiteboard, emerged from the most rudimentary concepts of learning at school. In ancient times when classrooms had not come into being, students in early settlements used clay slabs as boards to write by etching them with a stylus (which evolved into the current pen or pencil).

In fact, later in the 1600s, teachers were piqued by the wonders a wooden slate and chalk can do for efficient learning. The result of that evolution became a much larger wooden slate hung against a wall and the use of chalk to write on it. Chalkboards thus became synonymous with the most economical way of giving presentations back then. The cheapness of wood and the utility of the duster or eraser made chalkboard a remarkable tool for teacher’s assistance. You could draw your mind to it and just erase it for the next chapter.

Later with the advent of marker ink and whiteboards, it became even more practical to project ideas and lessons without having to worry about coughing on the chalk dust. Thus, communication through whiteboards became a milestone in the history of presentations.

The modern-day presentations have whiteboards and chalkboards to thank for bringing in the need to develop flexible tools to manipulate and edit data in an adaptive manner.

5. Flip charts

Another means of communication whose origins can be traced back to classrooms are the paper flip charts. With printed posters fastened with metal clips, a flip chart enabled a teacher to present detailed information with diagrams. This was an improvement over the chalkboard usage as it eliminated the time lapse involved in copying the printed material onto a bigger surface. Textbooks were aligned according to the lecture content with each poster on the flip chart, which found several teaching applications in the medical courses.

In fact, so versatile were the flip charts that even businesses took notice and started using them to present ideas and pitch entrepreneurial avenues to investors. Slowly and steadily, the flip chart gave birth to poster cards. Businesses used all data and figures and presented them onto sequenced cardboard posters which the presenter went through one by one on a board affixed to a wooden or metallic stand. Soon, the presentations started becoming more refined and data-oriented than before. There was a tool with the presenter, and ideas just flew off the shelf with it.

Instinctively, this laid down the basic groundwork for the slideshows that we see in PowerPoint presentations today.

6. Projectors, filmstrip, and more

While technology and optical advancements kept on growing with the passage of time, it was not until the early 1800s that the first-ever projector was developed. Called by the name “the magic lantern”, it used a flaming candle to project transparencies onto a screen. A transparency was a thin transparent strip of paper or glass through which light can pass and the designs on the strip could be replicated onto a screen.

With the advent of electricity, the projector got modernized. Inventors started figuring out how the very first overhead projector could be used to effectively disseminate information in classroom or business meeting setups. Teachers, in fact, used overhead projectors with transparencies late into the 80s and even early 90s.

However, as the human tryst with knowledge and experimentation kept growing, so did the projector. The average business leveraged this to improve their meeting productivity and corporate communication strategy. With the camera and design technologies climbing new heights, soon the meeting room presentation started employing thin strips of negatives of written and organized information. These filmstrips were able to replicate the contents printed on the reel in the sequential form with each frame capturing each ‘slide’.

Consequently, the slide projector came into action in the 1950s. By this time, corporates had understood how visual content could lead to enhanced learning and information supply. A slide projector used specially designed slides that were prepared much before a meeting and then arranged onto the projector column that used a similar concept as the magic lantern. The only difference was that this time, the light source was powered by electricity. The presenter could present up to 80 slides on a specific topic. To enhance the functionality, however, the presenters also started using pre-recorded voiceovers that were played alongside the presentation for better dissemination of information. An outstanding and revolutionary example of this projector remains the Kodak Carousel Projector, which revolutionized the way lectures were delivered.

Then along came PowerPoint

A significant issue with the slide projectors was the amount of people and resources it went into preparing the slides. Not only that, while transparencies were cheaper than slides, these were not easy to make for an individual and needed a specialized designing resource at work. Moreover, lack of editing capacity and re-usability was also a key issue. A significant drawback was of the portability of the slides and the usual wear and tear and other glitches.

However, it was only due to these drawbacks that need arose for having presentation creating programs, which eventually catapulted the famous PowerPoint on the scene.

Launched in April of 1987, PowerPoint, initially named “Presenter”, was developed by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin while working at a Silicon Valley giant, Forethought Inc. The program was launched for Apple Macintosh primarily, and was pitched with its look and feel on the Microsoft Windows 1.0, which was yet to be released back then.

PowerPoint 1.0 was used for producing overhead transparencies in the Macintosh computer. It was only after Microsoft acquired PowerPoint for $14 million in July 1987 that its later versions were used for creating colorful slides that could be used in projectors. It was only after PowerPoint 3.0 was released for both Windows and Macintosh that it began picking up pace.

But before we delve into how PowerPoint became the unconquerable giant it is today , here are some fun facts that add to the run-up to its dominance.

  • PowerPoint was Microsoft’s first significant acquisition in its days of competition with early Macintosh computer.
  • Did you know that Bill Gates earlier had been for keeping PowerPoint as part of Microsoft Word and not as a separate application? In fact, the earliest versions of Office Suite did not even have PowerPoint as its part. It was only later in the early 1990s that it was sold as part of the Office bundle software.
  • Within three years of its launch and acquisition by Microsoft, PowerPoint reported poor sales. It was only after launch of later versions of Windows after 1991 that the sales picked up and PowerPoint grabbed more than half the market share of computer graphic presentation creation software.

How PowerPoint made a difference

At the time of its inception and distribution, PowerPoint had brought together a revolution in the field of presentation in day-to-day official communication. Besides its application with a projector, there were several reasons why the software gathered much traction:

  • PowerPoint enabled teachers, businessmen, entrepreneurs and other presenters to create slides at their own discretion and ability instead of waiting for a design vertical to do it for them.
  • With each successive version, PowerPoint got more flexibility, intuition, and robustness. Not only could one represent facts and figures, but also could process data with bar graphs, pie charts, funnels, line graphs, and much more.
  • Coupled with a portable computer and projector, one could present an entire business pitch deck like this to a group of audience in a meeting.
  • It alleviated the pain points that presenters faced regarding portability and distribution. The slides could be printed on paper and even distributed with linked files on a CD-ROM. With the development of data storage technologies, it became even more portable and usable.
  • PowerPoint’s linkage with Office Suite apps like Word and Excel added to its popularity. One could just input figures into the excel sheet of each PowerPoint file and then simply choose an infographic to represent that information.
  • With each successive version, Microsoft kept improving upon its original concept of “slide master” (or templates as we call them) with additional design variants and more readymade slides to give users a head start in making an eye-catching presentation.
  • PowerPoint also enabled users to embed a presentation into a webpage or a blog, or run it as a slideshow, or simply record it as a video.
  • The latest version of PowerPoint is capable of churning out stunning animations, audio-visuals, infographics coupled with video insertion as well.

PowerPoint gave the user everything they needed to make eye-catching content. But the term “Death by PowerPoint” also stayed with it persistently. Then again, the point remained that it depended on the presenter to use it precisely and use it better. In fact, a classic example of impressing the audience right off the bat was this pitch deck by dating app Tinder. The focus remained on captivating the audience with an interesting pain point and giving the solution immediately. More needs to be seen on how human instinct for presenting and communicating information enables better and smarter usage of PowerPoint.

What the future holds     

Technology is never a bowl of water kept on a table. It is an ever-flowing river of faster and better things. With each wave of genius that methods of presentations have borne, the role of virtual reality and artificial intelligence has become even more prominent. In fact, Microsoft has teased how it plans to use artificial intelligence to make its Office Suite products including PowerPoint more efficient and user-friendly. With time, the tech giant has also forayed into Android and web applications, taking PowerPoint to the user’s fingertips.

While more and more web tools are also coming up (Google Slides, Prezi), the basic concept behind presentations remains efficient communication of ideas. It only remains to be seen how the man who etched murals in Lascaux will keep captivating the minds of his audience with ideas and information in the years to come.

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A brief History of PowerPoint (and Facts You Did Not Know)

Last updated on November 14th, 2023

PowerPoint is one of the most widely used applications in the world and yet most people don’t even know about the name of its developer or the fact that PowerPoint was not initially developed for Microsoft Windows but rather for Apple’s Mac OS. It can be fascinating to explore the history of things we take for granted and PowerPoint is no different. Let’s take a look at a history of PowerPoint and some amazing facts you probably didn’t know about Microsoft PowerPoint and when did PowerPoint come out.

Early Development of PowerPoint

PowerPoint was developed by a former Berkeley Ph.D. student known as Robert Gaskins. His idea was to develop an easy-to-use presentation program based on a series of slides. As is the case with most successful ventures, PowerPoint had the most humble beginning from a place one wouldn’t have fancied as the best place to make the most extraordinary presentation software of its time. Gaskins joined a company named ‘Forethought’ and began working on PowerPoint by hiring a developer named Dennis Austin. Forethought was not the ideal place for such a venture because it was a failing Silicon Valley company. It turns out it became the ideal place for Gaskins to develop his software.

Early Development of PowerPoint - Robert Gaskins and the first UI interface of PowerPoint.

The initial release of PowerPoint for Mac and the acquisition by Microsoft

Originally designed for Apple’s Macintosh computers, the first version of PowerPoint was named “Presenter”, however, the name had to be scrapped due to Trademark issues and was later changed to PowerPoint in 1987. The developers of the initial release included Dennis Austin and Thomas Rudkin. The same year Microsoft bought the application for $14 million.

PowerPoint 1.0

PowerPoint 97 Releases with major upgrades

It can be arguably said that what made PowerPoint as the most widely sought presentation app was its version 97 release. PowerPoint 97 brought new changes to the old version with major upgrades. Earlier versions had linear presentations, whereas, the incorporation of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) language allowed users to invoke pre-defined transitions and effects within a non-linear style, similar to a movie. The best part was that these transitions and effects required no programming knowledge by the end user.

PowerPoint 97

Evolution of PowerPoint between 1998 to 2010

From version 97 onwards, PowerPoint came up with new features and better templates that improved according to the different UIs and graphics introduced with the passage of time. Before there was the Modern UI, who can forget Windows 98 or Windows 2000 (especially if you are a child of the 90s), which now seems like a UI for a 16-bit game. However, it was not only the UI but other major features that evolved PowerPoint with the passage of time, including the improved Ribbon UI, better formatting tools, web integration, video and audio embedding features and more. PowerPoint releases for Microsoft Windows between 1999-2010 included PowerPoint 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007 and 2010 , whereas, the Mac versions between 1998-2010 included; PowerPoint 1998, 2001, X, 2004, 2008 and 2011.

PowerPoint From Version 2000 to 2010

PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

The latest version of PowerPoint for Mac (till date) is version 2011. PowerPoint 2011 came with increased efficiency and the ability to present presentations remotely, which was a feature geared towards professional users to help them improve communication and reduce travel costs. This feature is known as Broadcast Slide Show and enables the presenter to present presentations via the web without any other software.

PowerPoint 2011 For Mac

PowerPoint 2013 for Windows

The latest version of PowerPoint for Windows is PowerPoint 2013, which is compatible with Windows 7 and the Modern UI based Windows 8 operating systems. Other than compatibility with the conventional Office Suite, it also comes with the tablet version of Windows 8 called Office RT. You can find out more about PowerPoint 2013 from these posts:

  • New features Of Microsoft Office 2013
  • Download Microsoft Office 2013 Free Trial

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Windows versions of PowerPoint (Timeline)

Below is a timeline of PowerPoint versions for Windows based operating systems, with logos of the most compatible versions of the Windows OS for the given versions of PowerPoint.

Timeline Of Windows Versions of PowerPoint

(Timeline Created With: Arrow Timeline Diagram PowerPoint Template )

Mac versions of PowerPoint (Timeline)

Below is a timeline of PowerPoint versions for Mac.

Timeline Of Mac Versions Of PowerPoint

(Timeline Created With: Free Simple Process Timeline Chart Template for PowerPoint )

PowerPoint for Mobile Devices

Recently, Microsoft has released various mobile variants for MS Office applications, including; MS PowerPoint. You can find out more about these apps from the following links:

  • Official Microsoft App Released For Android
  • Official Microsoft Office App Released For iOS
  • Getting Started With Office Mobile For Windows Phone
  • How To Install PowerPoint 2013 On Mobile Devices
  • Nokia Asha 501: Now With MS Word, Excel And PowerPoint

PowerPoint For Mobile Devices

Fan Facts about PowerPoint

Here are some unbelievable facts that about PowerPoint.

Who created PowerPoint?

PowerPoint was originally developed for Macintosh computers by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin in 1984. The name of the company that developed PowerPoint was Forethought, Inc., however, at that time the name was not PowerPoint, it was Presenter.

Who owns PowerPoint?

Since the acquisition of PowerPoint back in 1984, the owner of PowerPoint is Microsoft Corporation.

What was the original name of PowerPoint?

The original name for PowerPoint was “Presenter” and it was later changed to just “PowerPoint” to align with the naming convention of other Microsoft Office products.

When was the first version of PowerPoint released?

The first version of PowerPoint for Windows was released in 1987. In this same year, Microsoft purchased the rights to PowerPoint from Forethought, Inc.

Example of About PowerPoint interface in the first version of PowerPoint

What was the price paid by Microsoft in the acquisition of PowerPoint?

PowerPoint was originally released with the name “Presenter”, and it was available for the Apple Macintosh in 1987. In this same year, Microsoft Corporation ended purchasing the rights to PowerPoint for $14 million from Forethought, Inc.

How many languages are supported in PowerPoint?

PowerPoint is available in over 40 languages.

How many users have PowerPoint?

PowerPoint has over 1 billion users worldwide.

When was PowerPoint created?

Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin created PowerPoint in 1987. If we consider the first release of PowerPoint as the foundation date, then PowerPoint was first released by Microsoft Corporation on April 20, 1987, and available for the Apple Macintosh computer.

Who created the built-in PowerPoint templates in Microsoft PowerPoint?

PowerPoint’s design templates have been created by professional designers and include over 60 themes and thousands of individual slide designs. Other professional slide templates can be found in sites such as SlideModel.

What was the longest PowerPoint presentation?

The record for the longest PowerPoint presentation is currently held by a group of students from Missouri, who presented for 139 hours straight in 2017.

In 2014, Ryan Allis delivered a presentation titled “Lessons from my 20’s” with 1286 slides ( source ).

The longest ever PowerPoint presentation with more than 1900 slides!

What is the default font in PowerPoint?

The default font in PowerPoint is Calibri, which replaced Times New Roman as the default font in Microsoft Office 2007.

What are some other fan facts about PowerPoint?

PowerPoint has a range of hidden features and shortcuts that can make it easier to use and save time.

PowerPoint has been used for a variety of non-presentation purposes, such as creating animations, designing websites, and even creating art.

The irony of PowerPoint

It’s quite an irony that Robert Gaskins’ PowerPoint attracted the first venture capital investment ever made by Apple, however, after the release of the Macintosh version of PowerPoint in 1987, it became one of the most significant acquisitions ever made by Microsoft. In fact, Microsoft even setup a business unit in Silicon Valley to further develop the application and Robert Gaskins headed the group for five whole years, further enhancing the PowerPoint application. Interestingly, 36 years later, over one billion computers worldwide run PowerPoint.

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history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

How-To Geek

How to view and restore old versions of powerpoint files.

Accidentally deleted something important from a PowerPoint presentation?

Quick Links

Requirements, how to see older versions of your powerpoint presentations.

Microsoft PowerPoint lets you view and switch to older versions of your presentations. If you accidentally deleted something important and it got overwritten in PowerPoint, here's how to restore it.

Before you get started, make sure that you have a Microsoft 365 subscription. The ability to view and restore previous versions of PowerPoint presentations can be accessed only through a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Fortunately, this subscription also gives you access to all other Office apps, along with 1TB of OneDrive storage. You can put the cloud storage to good use by automatically saving your presentations to OneDrive.

Also, enabling auto-save  on PowerPoint is required for accessing version history. To do so, you'll need to create a new PowerPoint presentation and then turn the "AutoSave" switch on in the document's title bar. When PowerPoint shows you a confirmation pop-up, select "OneDrive."

Related: How to Automatically Save PowerPoint Presentations to OneDrive

Now that you've sorted out the basics, open PowerPoint and load any PowerPoint presentation. There are two ways to check version history here, and we'll show you both.

First, click "File" in the menu bar.

In the left pane, click "Info."

Click "Version History" on the right.

Alternately, you can click the file name at the top of the document that you've opened and select "Version History" from the pop-up menu.

No matter which method you choose, a new pane labeled "Version History" will open up on the right-hand side of your presentation in PowerPoint.

Microsoft PowerPoint sorts older versions of the document by date and time here. To load a previous version of the presentation, click the "Open version" button below the version that you need to go back to.

This will open a read-only file that shows an older version of your PowerPoint presentation. Right below the ribbon menu, you'll see a button labeled "Restore." Click it to go back to the previous version.

Note that this will overwrite your PowerPoint presentation. You can always repeat the same steps to visit the modified version of your document in case you want to copy any additional changes to the older version.

If you use Microsoft 365 apps frequently, you might also be interested in knowing how to restore previous versions of Excel workbooks or Word documents .

Related: How to View and Restore Previous Versions of a Word Document

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What you will learn, tools & materials.

history of microsoft powerpoint presentation

Introduction to Microsoft PowerPoint 2019/Office 365 (Self-Guided)

Across industries, Microsoft PowerPoint is the most widely used business software for presentations. Knowing how to use PowerPoint 2019, and its online Office 365 counterpart, adds a vital workplace skill to your professional profile.

The Introduction to Microsoft PowerPoint 2019/Office 365 course will introduce you to PowerPoint 2019 and teach you how to use its basic tools and features. By the time you finish these hands-on lessons, you will know how to create engaging, dynamic presentations.

The PowerPoint 2019 Interface

This lesson explores the basic features of Microsoft PowerPoint 2019. You'll explore the Ribbon and learn how to start the PowerPoint program and plan a presentation. And you'll practice working with different views, task panes, tabs, and templates.

Creating Presentations

Now that you know the basics of PowerPoint, it's time to create a presentation from scratch. We'll start by choosing a theme for a presentation and create slides with a variety of slide layouts. You'll explore the Live Preview feature, and we'll discuss how to save a file for future use. You'll also create and edit slides in Slide pane and Outline view. Finally, we'll explore ways to play a slide show.

Working with Files and Creating and Editing Tables

Including tables in your presentation lets you present a lot of information in a compact space. In this lesson, you'll add, revise and format tables. You'll also explore multiple ways to open a presentation. Then, you'll learn how to preserve different versions of your work by saving with new file names.

Creating Professional Presentations

This lesson covers two topics: proofreading and printing. We'll explore the Spelling, AutoCorrect, Thesaurus and Smart Lookup feature. You'll learn to print your presentation as slides, an outline, handouts and notes pages. This versatility really helps you connect with audience members!

Working with the Images Group

This lesson switches gears and works with images instead of text. You'll learn how to embellish your slides with media images, including online pictures, Icons, 3D models and photographs. You'll also learn how to download an image from a website and insert the image on a slide.

WordArt and the Illustrations Group

This lesson includes instructions for using WordArt, Shapes, Icons, 3D Models and SmartArt Graphics. You'll learn how to transform text into colorful WordArt objects and add Icons and 3D Models. You'll also practice drawing and filling shapes with color and special effects. You'll learn to group and edit the objects you create. And you'll add visual sophistication to your text with SmartArt Graphics.

All About Charts

In this lesson, you'll create a chart to illustrate statistical data. You'll explore chart components and learn how to add and edit specific chart elements. You'll discover how to change the look of your chart by using options on the Chart Tools contextual tab and the chart formatting buttons.

Making Global Changes to a Presentation

Making duplicate changes to dozens of PowerPoint slides is boring and time-consuming. This lesson focuses on making global changes to slides, handouts, and notes. You'll also make global changes to modify your presentation's background or theme colors.

Creating Links

In this lesson, we'll work with hyperlinks and action buttons. Enliven your presentation as you create links from text or objects to other slides, presentations, documents, and Web pages. You can add sounds and 3-D effects if desired. Also introduced is the Zoom feature which sets up presenter-driven links between slides in a presentation.

Applying Animation to Slides, Text, and Objects

This lesson explores slide transitions and Transition tab options. You'll apply animation to text and slide objects and use the Animations tab to add animation to slide or layout masters. You'll also find out how to add sound effects, such as chime or coin, to slide transitions.

Adding Advanced Animation Effects to Text and Objects

Using the Animation Pane, you'll add and reorder animated text and objects on slides. You'll discover how to apply advanced animation effects to text and objects on slides, and slide and layout masters. You'll also add an audio clip to your presentation.

Sharing and Saving Your Presentations

In this lesson, you'll focus on different ways to save and share a presentation. You'll practice converting a presentation into a PDF file, so it's accessible on computers without PowerPoint 2019. You'll learn to open, edit, and share your presentation online with PowerPoint Online and a Windows OneDrive account. Last, you'll learn how to transform your presentation into a video.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

  • This course must be taken on a PC. Macs are not compatible.

Software Requirements:

  • PC: Windows 10 or later. PowerPoint 2019 is not compatible with earlier Windows versions.
  • Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge is also compatible.
  • Microsoft PowerPoint 2019: Available to download with a subscription to Microsoft 365, or with Microsoft Office Home and Student 2019 (not included in enrollment).
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader .
  • Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.
  • Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

  • The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

How to create a logo in PowerPoint

march 13, 2024

A headshot of Monica Jayasighe, who is wearing a black floral shirt and smiling in front of an off-white background.

by Monica Jayasinghe

You might think it takes complex graphic design software to create a professional-looking logo, but surprisingly, Microsoft PowerPoint offers all the tools you need, including free and easy to modify templates . Follow these steps to unleash your inner graphic designer using nothing but PowerPoint and a little creativity.

Step 1: Prepare your canvas

Kick things off by making sure your logo will be easy to print.

  • Open PowerPoint and select the Design tab.
  • Click on Slide Size and choose Custom Slide Size .
  • Set the dimensions to 8.5 by 11 inches to make your design print-ready.

An infographic elements template featuring different shapes

Step 2: Craft your logo with Word Art

Now, onto the fun part—add your name (or brand name) and let's get crafty with word art.

  • Go to the Insert tab and select Word Art .
  • Choose a style that fits your vision and type in your text.
  • To curve your text, navigate to Shape Format , then click on the small blue A and select Transform .
  • Adjust the curvature and placement until you're satisfied with the appearance.

More tips: Learn how to make a transparent logo or design one for your business brand ! 

Step 3: Customize your design

Now, amp up your design by changing fonts, colors, and text size to get the perfect look and feel. Don't be afraid to experiment!

  • To insert additional text elements, use the text box tool and adjust the font size to fit your design.
  • Customize the text alignment and layering to enhance your logo's visual appeal.

An infographic elements template featuring different kinds of people

Step 4: Assemble the class crest

As I explain in the video above, I'm making a class crest—a super fun activity to help students get to know each other better. If you'd like to create a similar crest, here's what to do:

  • To integrate your logo into a class crest, first select both the text box and Word Art , then right-click and choose Group to unify the elements.
  • Add shapes from the Insert tab to build the crest background.
  • Customize the shape's color and outline width to complement your logo.

Finalizing your logo

For the final touch, I added a circle with a white fill (no outline for me, thank you!) and arranged it so our logo stood out in the center. Follow these steps to do the same:

  • Introduce a circle shape with a white fill and no outline around your logo to emphasize it against the crest.
  • Arrange your design elements to ensure the logo stands out, using the Send Backward or Bring Forward options as necessary.
  • Once satisfied, save your design in a suitable format for printing or digital use.

An infographic elements template featuring different animals

Practical applications and creative exploration

For my classroom crest, I designed an activity where students could personalize their own crests with images or words, color them, and cut them out. These logos could then be featured on bulletin boards, classroom websites, or student portfolios, fostering a sense of ownership and identity.

If you're making your logo for a personal or business brand, you can cut, paste, and print this transparent logo easily to create any project you desire!

Who knew lesson prep could unleash my inner designer? I hope this fun and easy activity helps you unleash your own inner creativity, too!

Related topics

IMAGES

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  2. How Microsoft PowerPoint Began Infographic

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  3. History of PowerPoint: The Amazing Facts You Did Not Know (2021)

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  6. Complete History of PowerPoint & Versions (2022)

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VIDEO

  1. পাওয়ার পয়েন্ট শিখুন Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation Course Part 2 MS PowerPoint Tutorial

  2. Learning of Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation Basics, Part-4

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  5. How to create Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation file @awyalsheikh @EnglishZoneBD

  6. পাওয়ার পয়েন্ট শিখুন

COMMENTS

  1. Microsoft PowerPoint

    It is a presentation program capable of reading and editing Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, although authoring abilities are limited to adding notes, editing text, and rearranging slides. It can't create new presentations. ... PowerPoint release history Date Name Version System Comments April 1987: PowerPoint 1.0 Macintosh Shipped by ...

  2. Microsoft PowerPoint

    Microsoft PowerPoint, virtual presentation software developed by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin for the American computer software company Forethought, Inc. The program, initially named Presenter, was released for the Apple Macintosh in 1987. In July of that year, the Microsoft Corporation, in its first significant software acquisition, purchased the rights to PowerPoint for $14 million.

  3. Complete History of PowerPoint & Versions (2022)

    The History and Evolution of PowerPoint. On April 20, 1987, the first version of PowerPoint was released. Because we love the software so much (and we know many of you readers do, too!), we wanted to celebrate PowerPoint's 33rd birthday with a whole article dedicated to its origins, history, and use cases! 95% of presentations are created ...

  4. Presenting: PowerPoint, a retrospective

    As Microsoft 365 celebrates ten years of Office apps on the cloud, let's take a look at the history of PowerPoint, one of the cornerstones of Microsoft's software suite.. What was the point of PowerPoint? When PowerPoint came onto the scene, most group presentations in classrooms and conference rooms used overhead projectors.

  5. PowerPoint Version History and Evolution To This Day [2022]

    3. PowerPoint version history. PowerPoint has undergone a metamorphosis over the years and that's obvious. A lot of things have changed and clients have become more demanding. Let's see how each version looks like. Pre-Office Era. PowerPoint's time before it was added to the "elite group" of Microsoft Office tools was very interesting.

  6. A brief history of PowerPoint

    By 2010, Microsoft announced that PowerPoint had been installed on a billion computers worldwide. A study done in 2012 reported PowerPoint held approximately a 95% share of the presentation software market, eclipsing competitors such as Apple Keynote, Google Presentations, and Prezi. PowerPoint's continued domination may be down to the ...

  7. Slide Logic: The Emergence of Presentation Software and the ...

    Oral history interview with Shawn Villaron, PowerPoint manager at Microsoft, date, forthcoming/in process. Indeed, a wonderfully helpful list of presentation software offerings from 1986 compiled by Robert Gaskins, the initiator and architect of the original PowerPoint project, can be found on pages 131-134 of his painstakingly detailed and ...

  8. The Improbable Origins of PowerPoint

    The technology in question was PowerPoint, the presentation software produced by Microsoft. The speaker was Colin Powell, then the U.S. Secretary of State. The speaker was Colin Powell, then the U ...

  9. How Microsoft PowerPoint Began: A Brief History on PPT

    Microsoft PowerPoint happened. Its revolutionary and innovative approach to creating presentations gave it an edge over its more than thirty competitors. Its timing with the booms of both the Apple and Windows operating systems—primitive as they were—cemented its growth. And its fundamental function hosted other uses it wasn't intended ...

  10. PowerPoint History: Behind the orange icon

    The history of PowerPoint begins in Silicon Valley in the 1980s, when the business of visual presentations - reliant on slides, overhead projectors and acetate, was costly, time-consuming and inevitably exclusively reserved for senior management. Robert 'Bob' Gaskins saw this gap in the market and alongside software firm Forethought Inc ...

  11. A Brief History of Microsoft PowerPoint: Origination & Where it Is Today

    The first version of Powerpoint - first called Presenter, but later renamed because of copyright issues - was developed by Bob Gaskins and Dennis Austin, a University of California-Berkeley PhD student in 1984. The startup he worked for at the time was acquired by Microsoft soon after in 1987, and the first version of the software under the ...

  12. What Is Microsoft PowerPoint?

    Microsoft PowerPoint is a slideshow presentation program first developed by Forethought, Inc. for the Macintosh computer in 1987 and purchased by Microsoft in 1990. Microsoft has released several updated versions, each offering more features and incorporating better technology than before. The most current version of Microsoft PowerPoint is ...

  13. The History of PowerPoint

    So here's the history of PowerPoint, from 1987 to present day. But first let's jump ahead a bit…. It's 2003. The then U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, walks onto the stage to deliver a speech to the United Nations Security Council. Using PowerPoint as a tool of persuasion, he presents a compelling argument in support of the Bush ...

  14. When Did Microsoft PowerPoint Come Out? (A History Lesson)

    The program was first released in 1987 for Macintosh computers, developed by Microsoft. At first, it was a basic presentation program, offering only the essentials for creating a slide presentation. However, the program quickly gained popularity due to its user-friendly interface and wide range of features.

  15. Why Was PowerPoint Created? Exploring the Origins of This Presentation

    The History of PowerPoint. Microsoft PowerPoint was created in 1987 as part of the Microsoft Office suite as a presentation program to help users create dynamic visual presentations. The program was initially developed by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin, two software engineers at Forethought, Inc.

  16. A Brief History of Presentations: From Cave Drawings to PowerPoint

    Within three years of its launch and acquisition by Microsoft, PowerPoint reported poor sales. It was only after launch of later versions of Windows after 1991 that the sales picked up and PowerPoint grabbed more than half the market share of computer graphic presentation creation software. How PowerPoint made a difference

  17. A brief History of PowerPoint (and Facts You Did Not Know)

    Evolution of PowerPoint between 1998 and 2010 PowerPoint 2011 for Mac. The latest version of PowerPoint for Mac (till date) is version 2011. PowerPoint 2011 came with increased efficiency and the ability to present presentations remotely, which was a feature geared towards professional users to help them improve communication and reduce travel costs.

  18. PowerPoint Version

    PowerPoint version is the version of Microsoft PowerPoint, which we have to date. MS PowerPoint is a presentation application made by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin in a Software Company Forethought Inc. and was released on April 20, 1987, for Mac Operating Systems. ... and history of powerpoint along with an explanation. You may also have a ...

  19. The History of PowerPoint

    A brief pictorial timeline of the history of PowerPoint - the program we at Slidesho adore.

  20. How to View and Restore Old Versions of PowerPoint Files

    There are two ways to check version history here, and we'll show you both. First, click "File" in the menu bar. In the left pane, click "Info." Click "Version History" on the right. Alternately, you can click the file name at the top of the document that you've opened and select "Version History" from the pop-up menu.

  21. History of Microsoft Powerpoint

    History of Microsoft Powerpoint - Free download as Powerpoint Presentation (.ppt / .pptx), PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or view presentation slides online. free

  22. 25 Best Free PowerPoint PPT History Presentation Templates

    Free Famous Event in History Presentation. This is a dark blue history PPT template free download with white fonts and graphics. This template works well for historical reports or school projects. 3. Free Women's History Month Presentation. This PowerPoint history template is free to download.

  23. Introduction to Microsoft PowerPoint 2019/Office 365 (Self-Guided)

    The PowerPoint 2019 Interface. This lesson explores the basic features of Microsoft PowerPoint 2019. You'll explore the Ribbon and learn how to start the PowerPoint program and plan a presentation. And you'll practice working with different views, task panes, tabs, and templates. Creating Presentations

  24. How to create a personal logo in PowerPoint

    You might think it takes complex graphic design software to create a professional-looking logo, but surprisingly, Microsoft PowerPoint offers all the tools you need, including free and easy to modify templates.Follow these steps to unleash your inner graphic designer using nothing but PowerPoint and a little creativity.