How to open .PPT files (PowerPoint 97-2003) on Android, Windows and Linux

Old lecture notes on a USB stick, a training deck on a company intranet, a slideshow someone forwarded by email years ago ending in .pps: the old PowerPoint format is still around. Newer phones and PCs without Office often have nothing that opens it.

Folders opens .ppt, .pps and .pot files in its presentation viewer on Android, Windows and Linux. It’s free and works offline: you can read the slides and speaker notes and present them full screen.

What is a .ppt file?

PPT is the binary format Microsoft PowerPoint used as its default up to PowerPoint 2003, before PowerPoint 2007 switched to PPTX. A .ppt file isn’t a ZIP of XML like its successor. It’s a “compound file”, a little file system of its own holding streams of binary records, the same kind of container used by old Word .doc and Excel .xls files.

Extension	What it is
.ppt	PowerPoint 97-2003 presentation
.pps	PowerPoint 97-2003 Show: opens straight into the slide show. This was the format of the slideshows passed around by email in the 2000s
.pot	PowerPoint 97-2003 template

Two quirks of the old format explain most of the trouble people have with it today:

• Videos were usually linked, not embedded. Older PowerPoint versions stored a path to a video file on the author’s computer instead of the video itself. Copy the .ppt alone and the video is gone.
• Macros have no warning label. A .ppt or .pps can contain VBA macros, with no separate extension to tell you so (unlike .pptm in the newer format).

How to open a .ppt file with Folders

On Android

1. Install Folders from the download section and allow file access when asked.
2. Open the folder with the file, or type part of its name in the search box.
3. Tap the .ppt, .pps or .pot file. It opens on the first slide.
4. If it’s attached to an email, tap it and choose Open with → Folders.

On Windows and Linux

1. Install Folders and browse to the presentation.
2. Open it. A .pps opens on its slides too, not as an automatic show.
3. Windows users can also right-click the file in File Explorer and pick Open with → Folders.

What you can do with it in Folders

• Read every slide in order.
• Present full screen, with next and previous, when you want the slideshow experience.
• Speaker notes shows the presenter’s notes for each slide, often the real content of old lecture decks.
• Go to slide… jumps to a slide number.

Old binary decks are view only in Folders: it reads the 97-2003 format but doesn’t write it, so the slide actions (duplicate, delete, reorder) and Save are for the newer PPTX family. To rearrange an old deck, save it as .pptx in PowerPoint or LibreOffice first, then open that in Folders. Macros never run, and animations and transitions aren’t played.

Other ways to open .ppt files

• Microsoft PowerPoint opens .ppt in Compatibility Mode and can convert it to .pptx.
• LibreOffice Impress, free on Windows and Linux, opens PPT, PPS and POT.
• Google Slides imports them after you upload them to Google Drive.
• Microsoft’s old PowerPoint Viewer was retired years ago; avoid download sites that still offer it.

Problems opening a .ppt file?

• Videos or sounds are missing. They were linked files on the author’s computer. Ask for the video files too, keep them in the same folder as the deck, and open it in PowerPoint; or ask for a version saved as .pptx with the media embedded.
• It’s password-protected. Folders says so and can’t open an encrypted deck. Open it in PowerPoint with the password and save an unprotected copy.
• Fonts and bullets look wrong. Decks from that era used fonts and symbol sets that today’s devices may not have, so others are used in their place.
• The file is damaged. Old files copied from CDs, floppies or failing drives are sometimes partly unreadable. If Folders shows some slides as unreadable, try another copy or LibreOffice.

Questions people ask

How do I open a PPS file? Open it in Folders: it shows the slides like any presentation, and Present plays them full screen. In PowerPoint, double-clicking starts the show; use File → Open to edit it instead.

How do I convert PPT to PPTX? In PowerPoint, open the file and use File → Info → Convert or Save As with the .pptx type. In LibreOffice Impress, File → Save As and choose PowerPoint 2007-365. Folders doesn’t convert presentations.

Can I open a PPT file on Android? Yes. Folders opens .ppt, .pps and .pot files on Android 7.0 and newer, offline and without a Microsoft account.

PPT vs PPS: what’s the difference? The content is the same; a .pps is flagged to open as a slide show. Rename a .pps to .ppt and PowerPoint opens it for editing.

Related guides: how to open .PPTX files and how to open old .DOC files. Or see all 382 file types Folders opens.