Quite often, you might have received a PowerPoint presentation with a PPS extension rather than the normal PPT extension - here's more info...

Technically there is no difference between PPT and PPS files. You can rename the extensions whenever you want and the presentation file will remain the same.

The difference lies in how PowerPoint treats them:

- By default, PPT files open in edit mode within PowerPoint allowing you to use all the menus and commands.

- By default, PPS files open in slideshow (play) mode and you see no PowerPoint interface. When the presentation finishes or you manually exit using tthe ESC key, PowerPoint also quits.

Having said that, you can play a PPT file directly from within Windows Explorer - right-click the file and the choose the Play option in the context menu.

You can also edit a PPS file without changing the extension using either of these options:

* Just drag and drop the PPS file from Windows Explorer into an empty PowerPoint window.

* Launch PowerPoint and open a PPS using the File | Open option to edit a presentation.

* Right-click a PPS file and choose Open With... | PowerPoint in the context menu.

Saturday, August 21, 2004