open office.org

[wendilla]

I am always a bit wary of what to down load but I would like to download this and would I be able to open PPS FILES when I down load it .Any info would be most grateful.Thanks

[Lil O'lady]

Open office should allow you to read a power point show or a powerpoint file - however, powerpoint is very sensitive to variations between versions and you may lose some features if not viewing a resource in the correct version. However you don't need to download open office to read files like this - simply get the latest Powerpoint reader from microsoft's site, free. Same for word and excel.
The difficulty will arise if you want to make files of this type, but don't have Microsoft Office - in which case open office is what you will need.

[wendilla]

Thanks for your reply. All I really want it for is to read pps files which I get sent from a friend but I can't open them so is it just the free open office I need .?Thanks

[Zax47]

Errr.....no, as Lil O'llady says, PPS files are PowerPoint Show presentation files, PowerPoint is a Microsoft application found in various versions of Microsoft Office for creating presentations - nothing directly to do with OpenOffice. If you just want to open and view a PPS file then all you need is to download the free PowerPoint viewer application from Microsoft here;

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.asp x?********=048dc840-14e1-467d-8dca-19d2a8fd748 5&displaylang=en

This will allow you to open and look at PPS files (PowerPointShow) but NOT to make PPS files for yourself.

Open Office is a full suite of applications (Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Presentations) - just like Microsoft Office - only free, which allows you to create (and view) files in various formats. The OpenOffice presentation program will open PPS files made by PowerPoint (which is Microsoft).