PowerPoint has traditionally been the software of choice for slide shows tit conferences and meetings. Its ease of use has made the program ideal, along with its universality among scientists and engineers.

The program does have its drawbacks, however. Most notably, it is saved in a format that essentially makes it unusable for any other purpose than that of a slide show. It cannot be used for publication, and, as many discover all too late, it is not the software of choice for making posters (both these phenomena go back to Microsoft's refusal to pay a license to Adobe for PostScript, the universally used “page description language” among publishers). The remainder of the drawbacks exist when the slide show needs to be distributed. Newer versions of PowerPoint can make HTML files for posting on a web site by using Save As under File, but saving in the PowerPoint format has not evolved as a way to view slide shows on the web.