How to Determine whether a PowerPoint 2010 presentation is compatible with PowerPoint 2003 or earlier

If you are creating a PowerPoint presentation in a recent version of PowerPoint like PowerPoint 2010, 2007 or the new PowerPoint 2013, but you need to share with colleagues or online, then you may be wondering how to determine if this .ppt version is compatible with earlier versions of PowerPoint like PowerPoint 2003 or 2000.

To minimize significant losses of functionality and fidelity, you can run the Compatibility Checker in PowerPoint 2010. The Compatibility Checker finds potential compatibility issues between PowerPoint 2010 and earlier versions of PowerPoint, and creates a report to help you resolve any issues.

It is important to now that Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 can’t save your PPT compatible to PowerPoint 95 or earlier file formats.

How to use Compatibility Checker in PowerPoint 2010

To check compatibility, go to File menu and then click on Info option. Now you will find a new big button that says Check for Issues.

Here, click on Check Compatibility option and PowerPoint will check for issues that prevent your document to be opened in earlier versions of MS Office PowerPoint.

When you work on a presentation in compatibility mode, where the presentation is saved in PowerPoint 97-2003 file format instead of the new PowerPoint file format (.pptx), the Compatibility Checker runs automatically when you save your presentation.

For example, if you use some effects not available in earlier versions or shapes that are not present in PowerPoint 2007, then these checks will appear in this window. Glow effect and reflection are just a few examples of effects that were introduced in PowerPoint 2010 and are not available in earlier versions.

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