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PowerPoint Memorabilia
Compiled by Geetesh Bajaj
Exclusive: Pictures of
PowerPoint v.1 | More Pics
| Version 2 Review
A Look at PowerPoint
The Need for Memorabilia
Memorabilia Links
Steve's Musings
A PowerPoint Chronology
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PowerPoint 3 for Macintosh.
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A Look At PowerPoint
PowerPoint over the years has developed into a premier presentation
program. From being one of the 'other' programs thrown in to form
the Microsoft Office suite until today, it's been a long and interesting
journey for both PowerPoint and its users.
Every new version has seen the addition of newer features. Most
of these features have been welcome; although users have always
asked for even more features!
PowerPoint's competitors have been very able as well and many have
a feature set surpassing that of Microsoft's offering. Nevertheless,
PowerPoint aided by its simple interface and integration with other
programs has rolled on the presentation juggernaut ahead of others.
PowerPoint certainly is today's de facto presentation standard
commanding aound 95% of the market share, but many of us may not
be aware that it was the first presentation program ever created.
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The Need for Memorabilia
A Collage: PowerPoint Versions.
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It was some of these factors which led me to seriously consider
a PowerPoint Memorabilia page. This page is forever evolving - and
I would love to incorporate user experiences with earlier PowerPoint
versions on this page. So, if you are ready to share your nostalgia,
this is the place! You can get in touch wth me through
the feedback page...
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Memorabilia
Jim Endicott authored Growing
Up With PowerPoint (PDF 154 kb), an article that discusses the
growth of the program from version 1 until PowerPoint 2000 - he
has graciously allowed me to host the article on this site. The
article originally appeared in the February 2000 issue of Presentations
magazine. Jim's own site at Distinction
Services has a great section on PowerPoint tips.
The Bit Better site has a link to a PowerPoint presentation on
PowerPoint history. You can access the presentation download link
from their Tips
Page.
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Steve's Musings
Steve Rindsberg, one of the PowerPoint veterans and earliest of
the MVPs has shared a few experiences, reproduced below with his
permission:
"...I went looking for my original PowerPoint book ... the
first copy of PowerPoint I got came with a beautifully printed,
the only hardbound software manual I've ever seen. Unfortunately,
I must have thrown it away in a spring cleaning fit, because I can't
find it any longer..."
"...I never really had much use for the earlier versions of
PowerPoint - Persuasion on both Mac and PC, and Freelance on the
PC only were both far superior programs at the time. I only had
PowerPoint because we occasionally needed to image slides for customers
who used it.
At the time, I was writing a monthly column for The Cobb Group's
Inside Freelance magazine (this was Freelance DOS, by the way).
When they discontinued the magazine and chose not to do an FL/Windows
one, the editor asked if I wanted to write a column about PowerPoint
instead. Sure, why not?
That was *just* before PowerPoint 4 came out and became part of
Office. In other words, just before PowerPoint took over the world."
Steve Rindsberg creates the PPTools
range of PowerPoint add-ins.
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A PowerPoint Chronology
This section is authored by Austin Myers, a PowerPoint MVP
(Most Valuable Professional). Thank you Austin, for allowing me
to reproduce this content:
April 1987 - A Sunnyvale, California company called, ForeThought
released a product they called, "Presenter" for the Apple
Mac II. At that time Apple used an add-in board that mimicked the
IBM PGA video standard and was required to run "Presenter".
It could generate 236 colors!!!
August 1987 - Microsoft buys ForeThought for a price of
$14 million. At the time it appeared Microsoft was more interested
in another ForeThought product called FileMaker+. It provided a
data base of sorts for file management. (They eventually dropped
it.)
February 1998 - Microsoft released both a Mac and DOS version
of PowerPoint. PowerPoint 1
May 1990 - Microsoft released PowerPoint 2 for the Mac.
June 1990 - Microsoft released PowerPoint 2 for DOS/Windows.
(Many of the MS products were designed to run under both DOS and
Windows at this time. Although most of us wouldn't have recognized
Windows at the time.)
May 1993 - Microsoft released PowerPoint 3. It was the first
Microsoft product that required Windows. Specifically it required
the user to upgrade to Windows 3.1.
February 1994 - Microsoft released PowerPoint 4.
September 1995 - Microsoft released Office 95 (PowerPoint
7) This was probably the most significant step in PowerPoint's history
as it was completely re-written in C++.
May 1997 - Microsoft released Office 97 / PowerPoint 97
(PowerPoint 8)
June 1999 - Microsoft released Office 2000 / PowerPoint
2000 (PowerPoint 9)
June 2001 - Microsoft released Office XP / PowerPoint 2002
(PowerPoint 10)
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