Define Microsoft Power Point. (Computer Skills in English)

Ans.

Microsoft Power Point

Microsoft Power Point is a presentation program, created by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin at a software company named Forethought, Inc. It was released on April 20, 1987. initially for Macintosh computers only. Microsoft acquired Power Point for about $ 14 million three months after it appeared. This was Microsoft’s first significant acquisition, and Microsoft set up a new business unit for Power Point in silicon valley where Forethought about been located.

Power point became a component of the Microsoft Office suite, first offered in 1989 for Macintosh and in 1990 for Windows, which bundled several Microsoft apps. Beginning with Power Point H.O. (1994), Power Point was integrated into Microsoft Office development, and adopted shared common component and a converged user interface.

Power Point’s market share was very small at first, prior to introducing a version for Microsoft Windows, but grew rapidly with the growth of Windows and of Office. Since the late 1990s. Power Point’s worldwide market share of presentation software has been estimated at 95 percent.

Power Point was originally designed to provide visuals for group presentations within business organizations, but has come to be very widely used in many other communication situations, both in business and beyond. The impact of this much wider use of Power Point has been experienced as a powerful change throughout society, with strong reactions including advice that it should be used less, should be used differently, or should be used better.

The first Power Point version (Macintosh 1987) was used to produce overhead transparencies, the second (Macintosh 1988, Windows 1990) could also produce color 35 mm slides. The third version (Window and Macintosh 1992) introduced video output of virtual slideshows to digital projectors, which would over time completely replace physical transparencies and slides. A dozen major versions since then have added many additional features and modes of operation and have made Power Point available beyond Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows, adding versions for IOS, Android and Web access.