Opening Windows PowerPoint presentations on a Mac

If you are a Mac user, you will have PowerPoint 2008 or 2011 installed on your machine.  An easy way to see which version you have is to either go to your "About PowerPoint" when you have the program open, or simply look at the icon.  If you have a "bubble" letter P, it's PowerPoint 2008 for you, and if it's more angular, it's PowerPoint 2011.  What on earth am I talking about?

Here is the logo for PowerPoint 2008:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this is the logo if you're using PowerPoint 2011:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alright, so now you know which version of PowerPoint you have, and it's time to download a PresenterMedia PowerPoint template.  Let's go ahead and download a PC specific version of a template.  I recommend downloading a 2007 version if you're using 2008 PowerPoint, and a 2010 version if you are using 2011 PowerPoint (closest version of PC template to your version of PowerPoint).

Once you download a template, open it in your PowerPoint program, and notice the pop up box that appears:

At which point, of course we will click "Download" to download this plugin to be able to make the Windows Media (that's a WMV video) play properly.

You will be redirected out to a Windows Download page where you can download the Windows Media Component necessary:

This may look a bit overwelming, but do not worry, it's pretty straight forward.  All the files you see are INCLUDED with the download, meaning you don't have to pick and choose.  Simply click the "Download" link at the bottom of the page and you will begin the download which will enable all templates to play on your Mac.

Why is this helpful?

This is extremely helpful if you need to build a PowerPoint that will end up being displayed on a machine running Windows (PC) with PowerPoint version 2007 or 2010.  It is important to have the same version of the template as the version of PowerPoint you will be presenting in.  This ultimately minimizes the number of compatibility issues that you are likely to run into.

Now that you are able to, feel free to download some of our PC based templates and open them on your Mac.  The sky is officially the limit!