How to open a PPTX presentation on a computer without PowerPoint
Someone sent a .pptx presentation, and there is no PowerPoint on your computer. Microsoft no longer makes a free viewer, but there are still plenty of options.
What happened to PowerPoint Viewer
Microsoft used to offer a free program, PowerPoint Viewer, but in 2018 it stopped supporting it and took it down. Today you can look at a presentation for free in other ways.
Five free ways
- PowerPoint on the web. The free web version at office.com with a Microsoft account. The file is uploaded to OneDrive.
- Google Slides. Upload the file to Google Drive and open it in Slides. The file ends up in Google’s cloud.
- LibreOffice Impress. A free program for Windows, Mac and Linux that opens, edits and saves PPTX.
- Keynote. Apple’s free app on the Mac opens PowerPoint presentations.
- OsonKit. Open the PPTX viewer in your browser — no install, no account and no upload.
View it in the browser
Drop the presentation on OsonKit. The slides are drawn with their backgrounds, shapes, pictures, tables, charts and SmartArt, with thumbnails to move between slides and the speaker notes. You can search the text and print one slide per page. The file is read in your browser and never goes to a server.
- Animations, transitions and videos are not played; fonts and fine details may differ slightly.
- Macros in .pptm files never run.
- Files up to 50 MB and 1,000 slides. Old .ppt files open as a text-only preview.
Which to choose
Need to edit the slides or present with animations? LibreOffice or PowerPoint on the web. Just need to look or print, especially if the deck is internal? Open it in the browser without uploading.