Microsoft PowerPoint Version Release History

		Microsoft PowerPoint Version Release History
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COMPUTER LITERACY - Provides effective and affordable instructor led computer training courses in London and throughout the South East. Training is offered at all levels - from Beginner through to Guru – and on all the leading software applications, including Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Studio. Our public scheduled courses are open to corporate clients and private individuals alike, and are run at our modern and fully resourced training centre in central London. In addition we also offer, throughout London and South East England, company specific and bespoke training courses at client’s premises, at our training centre or at other mutually agreeable locations. For further information on the courses we offer please click on the “Home” link above, or give us a call today on 0870 240 6160.

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PowerPoint Release History | Useful PowerPoint Resources

Computer Literacy

About Us

Computer Literacy delivers instructor led Microsoft PowerPoint computer training courses in London and throughout South East England.

To learn more about the scheduled, custom and on-site courses we offer please click on the "PowerPoint Courses" Page link above.

PowerPoint certainly is today's de facto presentation standard commanding around 95% of the market share, but many of us may not be aware that it was the first presentation program ever created.

In April 1987 a Sunnyvale California company called ForeThought released a product they called, "Presenter" for the Apple Mac II. In August of that year Microsoft bought ForeThought. At the time it appeared Microsoft was more interested in ForeThought's database product called FileMaker+ - a product which they eventually dropped.

Under Microsoft's management, Presenter evolved into PowerPoint and over the years, from being one of the 'other' programs thrown in to form the Microsoft Office suite, has developed into a premier presentation program.

The table below lists the various versions of PowerPoint for Windows that you may encounter.

Version	Released	Comments
1	1988	Version 1, for the Macintosh and DOS was released.
2	1990	In May 1990 PowerPoint 2 for the Mac was released followed by in June PowerPoint 2 for DOS and Windows. Many of the Microsoft products were designed at the time to run under both DOS and Windows, however most of us would not have recognise today the Windows of the time.
3	1993	This was the first Microsoft product that required Windows. Specifically it required users to upgrade to Windows 3.1.
4	1994	Version 4 was released in the February of that year.
7^*	1995	Known as PowerPoint 95 this release was bundled with the Office 95 suite. This release probably represents the most significant step in PowerPoint's evolution as it was completely rewritten in C++.
8	1997	Known as PowerPoint 97, this was part of Office 97. The main change with this release related to the outline view.
9	1999	Known as PowerPoint 2000, this was part of Office 2000 offering. With no major changes introduced most users did not find the upgrade worthwhile.
10	2001	Known as PowerPoint 2002, this was part of Office XP. The release mainly offered usability improvements of which the most note worthy being the Slide Design task pane.
11	2003	Known as PowerPoint 2003, this is part of Office 2003 suite. The new features in this version are primarily focused on Smart Tag enhancements and the Package for CD / Pack and Go functionality. Most users will not find the upgrade worthwhile.
12	TBC- early 2007	When PowerPoint "12" (PowerPoint 2007) arrives sometime in the first quarter of 2007, it looks as if the biggest benefit will be the ability to dress up presentations with a vast library of templates and image galleries. Based on the early beta version of the product although the interface will radically change, with for the first time Word, Excel and PowerPoint sharing a common look-and-feel, a lot of the underlying features and commands should remain the same. We anticipate that experienced users are in for a steep learning curve, Once the initial shock of relearning where to find functions wears off, Microsoft advises users should enjoy fewer mouse clicks and thus better efficiency!!! It is anticipated that this release will be most relevant to the image-conscious PowerPoint user among us.

* There was no PowerPoint 5 or 6. Beginning with PowerPoint 7, the version numbering was changed so all of the Microsoft Office applications would have the same version number.