PPTX – all about the file format for pre­sen­ta­tions

For many, Pow­er­Point is the program of choice for creating digital pre­sen­ta­tions. The Microsoft program offers a wide variety of templates or in­di­vid­ual options to amend fonts, colors, shapes and images to put together the perfect pre­sen­ta­tion. When you receive a pre­sen­ta­tion (e.g. by mail) created with Pow­er­Point or want to save your self-designed slides, you au­to­mat­i­cal­ly come into contact with the PPTX format. Learn what PPTX is, how to open PPTX files, and how PPTX differs from the PPT format.

Every digital file has a specific format that de­ter­mines how the in­for­ma­tion it contains is decoded and then made ac­ces­si­ble. The PNG format, for example, packs images into a few kilobytes so that they can be displayed on the Internet as easily as possible. The PPTX format is the answer for pre­sen­ta­tions created with Pow­er­Point: Projects with texts, images, an­i­ma­tions, im­ple­ment­ed Excel tables, etc. can be saved in this way to save space.

Even though the format was developed by Microsoft for its own ap­pli­ca­tion, PPTX files can also be created, opened and saved using Pow­er­Point al­ter­na­tives.

The extension .pptx is composed of the suffix .ppt (an ab­bre­vi­a­tion for “Pow­er­Point”) used in older Pow­er­Point versions and a final “x”. The latter in this case stands for the fact that Pow­er­Point uses the markup language XML (Ex­ten­si­ble Markup Language) to structure the data.

If you want to present a file created in Pow­er­Point in PPTX format, but don’t have access to the Microsoft program you’ve got several options. As long as you’ve got access to the Internet, you can upload and open the PPTX file via an online service.

What follows is an overview of the al­ter­na­tive pre­sen­ta­tion programs to help you determine which one is best for your needs.

One of the easiest ways for Windows users to view PPTX files outside of Pow­er­Point is to install the program PPTX Viewer. You can download the free tool directly from the Microsoft Store. PPTX Viewer is best suited for opening and playing finished pre­sen­ta­tions in PPTX format.

If you want to present files with the extension .pptx on your computer and also edit them it is a good idea to consider one of the numerous Microsoft Office suite al­ter­na­tives: Apache OpenOf­fice Impress or WPS Pre­sen­ta­tion, for example.

However, you’re well advised to double-check your slides before a big pre­sen­ta­tion to ensure that they are displayed correctly.

If you want to play your Pow­er­Point pre­sen­ta­tion on a Mac, you have the option of using its default pre-installed program Keynote. Keynote is a full-fledged Pow­er­Point al­ter­na­tive for Apple operating systems. You can open and edit PPTX format files with Keynote. However, complex designs and an­i­ma­tions may not be displayed as created in Pow­er­Point, so proceed with caution.

In 2016, Google added the browser-based program Google Pre­sen­ta­tions.

If you want to open a PPTX file in Google Slides, you need to sign up for and/or log in to your Google account. Save the PPTX file in Google Drive, right-click on the PPTX file to open it with Google Pre­sen­ta­tions.

Once you have created a pre­sen­ta­tion in Pow­er­Point, there are several options to save it in PPTX format.

If you use the OneDrive cloud storage by Microsoft 365, you can use the auto-save function of Pow­er­Point. To do this, simply activate the slider in the top menu bar of the program. The pre­sen­ta­tion will then be au­to­mat­i­cal­ly saved as a PPTX file in the des­ig­nat­ed OneDrive folder.

Al­ter­na­tive­ly, you can use the Pow­er­Point shortcut [Ctrl] + [S]. When using this shortcut, select the folder to save your file in and specify the file format. PPTX is selected by default.

Of course it is possible to save your Pow­er­Point via the menu. This takes a bit longer than the previous two methods, but it provides a full overview of all saving options.

Simply open the “File” tab and select the “Save” or “Save as” option. Now you can select both the save location and the desired file format.

Many Pow­er­Point users are familiar with the .ppt file extension which is the earlier version of the PPTX format. While pre­sen­ta­tions in the PPT format were saved as a self-contained binary-based file, PPTX format files use the XML markup language to structure the data. PPTX pre­sen­ta­tions are therefore versatile and more user-friendly than the old PPT projects.