Can you use PowerPoint on an iPhone?

Using PowerPoint on the iPhone

So you’ve bought your iPhone and played with all the little functions, gasped at the brilliant iTunes interface and browsed your favourite sites on the Internet, and you’re starting to realise that this iPhone is a really great piece of technology. But what else can it do for you? Well, as the iPhone is in fact really a mini computer, it can be used as an excellent little portable presentation machine.

So how do you get your PowerPoint presentation onto the iPhone?

You can’t actually run your PPT files directly but you can convert your PPTs to an appropriate format such as MP4, a common video format for various mobile devices including the iPhone.

There are converters available around the web, such as PPTMovie

When you convert the PPT to a movie suitable for the iPhone you’ll need to resize it for the screen which is 480×320px, you’ll also need to choose a compression setting to get optimum file size as storage on an iPhone is limited. Remember though, that higher compression will not only reduce file size but also quality, so choose with care.

You’ll also have other options to choose from, such as how to control the movie, as well as various audio settings.

Another option is IVTStudio software. This software “enables users to publish and share video podcasts which alternate video clips with full-screen PowerPoint slides.”

Displaying your iPhone presentation

So your presentation is on your iPhone, which is great for close viewing, for one-to-one presentations and for practising while commuting, but as well as viewing it on the iPhone itself you can hook it up to a TV, monitor or projector. You just connect the appropriate Audio/Video connectors into the iPhone base dock. Exactly which cables you’ll need will depend on your playback equipment, but there are already many available.