About working with different versions of PowerPoint

If you have a presentation that was created in Microsoft PowerPoint 95, PowerPoint 97, PowerPoint 2000, or PowerPoint 2002, you can open it in Office PowerPoint 2003. When you save the presentation, it will be saved in the format of the version it was created in. To save a presentation created in an earlier version as a Office PowerPoint 2003 presentation, give it a new name or save it in a different location.

If you save a Office PowerPoint 2003 presentation in an earlier version of PowerPoint, you will lose some of the features available in Office PowerPoint 2003.

PowerPoint 97-2003 & 95 Presentation format

When you save a presentation in the PowerPoint 97-2003 & 95 Presentation format, the presentation is saved in a single file that includes both the PowerPoint 97-2003 file format and the PowerPoint 95 file format. The file will be large because it contains both sets of data. If file size is not a problem, use this format to make a presentation created in Office PowerPoint 2003 available to users of earlier PowerPoint versions.

Users of Office PowerPoint 2003 can continue to work on a presentation in the dual format without losing any features or formatting unique to Office PowerPoint 2003. When users of an earlier PowerPoint version open a presentation saved in PowerPoint 97-2003 & 95 Presentation format, features and formatting available in Office PowerPoint 2003— but not in the earlier version— are lost.

PowerPoint 95 format

Office PowerPoint 2003 supports all data and formatting of presentations created in PowerPoint 95.

To open a Office PowerPoint 2003 presentation in PowerPoint 95, you must save the Office PowerPoint 2003 presentation in PowerPoint 95 format. If a PowerPoint 95 user edits and saves the presentation, features unique to Office PowerPoint 2003 are lost.