Powerpoint?? can I download it for free??

paul112

Need some help please. The children are asking to do their homework on powerpoint. Up to now they have typed the odd thing up on word. I'm not technical and havent got much idea what they are talking about. I know they use it in school.

Can I download it onto my laptop for free? And if so, do you know a safe website to download it from, I dont want to end up with a virus.

Please talk in simple terms to me, I am not very good with things like this.

laurel7172

1. No, not legally.
2. As your children are of school age, this is probably your cheapest legal route:
http://www.software4students.co.uk/
3. You could say no. The majority of families don't have a business package on their PC, and no school is going to insist on homework being done in Powerpoint. It is sometimes useful when they get to secondary school and do more presentations, but there's always the school library at lunchtime.

Lokolo

OpenOffice is free. It's not the Microsoft Suite but a free equivalent.

http://www.openoffice.org

One of their's is presentation software called Impress. It should do the job.

However you must save the presentation in correct extension so that they can view it at school.

Dave_C_2

As you have said that you already have used M$ Word, it may be M$ powerpoint may already be installed as they are both part of the Microsoft Office suite.

Go to start > all programs > Microsoft Office and there may be shortcuts to Word, Excel and Powerpoint.

Do you have a disc labelled Microsoft office or did word just come pre-installed?

Otherwise +1 for open office.

Dave

jbreckmckye

Use LibreOffice or OpenOffice instead. LibreOffice is probably better-maintained, but both are free equivalents that can happily save and load Microsoft Powerpoint Presentations.

Both applications are open source - their source code is available to anyone who wants it. That means it's free without strings, and will always remain so.

johnnyboyrebel

Dave_C wrote: »

As you have said that you already have used M$ Word, it may be M$ powerpoint may already be installed as they are both part of the Microsoft Office suite.

Go to start > all programs > Microsoft Office and there may be shortcuts to Word, Excel and Powerpoint.

Do you have a disc labelled Microsoft office or did word just come pre-installed?

Otherwise +1 for open office.

Dave

PowerPoint only comes with office pro generally. For home use people would generally have the standard version.

leithman1

paul112 wrote: »

Need some help please. The children are asking to do their homework on powerpoint. Up to now they have typed the odd thing up on word. I'm not technical and havent got much idea what they are talking about. I know they use it in school.

Can I download it onto my laptop for free? And if so, do you know a safe website to download it from, I dont want to end up with a virus.

Please talk in simple terms to me, I am not very good with things like this.

Depending who you work for, you might be able to get an up to date version of MS Office for very low prices.
I know some financial institutions have reward schemes where employees can get the up to date version at a fraction of the student price.

ukcarper

johnnyboyrebel wrote: »

PowerPoint only comes with office pro generally. For home use people would generally have the standard version.

Powepoint comes with Home and Student 2010.

johnmc

A lot of PC's come pre-loaded with MS Works.

This has a version of Word but not Powerpoint.

+1 for OpenOffice which has a very similar presentation software (Impress). Can be saved in MS format and set MS as the default for all products.

WhiteChristmas

The Libre/OpenOffice presentation software is absolutely ghastly. Your children will (rightly) despise you for making them use it; they might even bring charges. I wouldn't blame them.

You can use a stripped-down version of Powerpoint (and the rest of MSO, certainly enough for any school project) at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/web-apps/

InsideInsurance

Even if they didnt press charges then children being children they probably would want to use a lot of the slide transitions etc and this is one part which OO has alreadys struggled with compatibility with MS - for straight forward text and images etc on slides there is rarely problems but advanced formatting and transitions there can be.

I second checking with your employers for the Home User Program as you can get Office Pro for circa £15