Supposing you have a powerpoint file that’s already been packaged into a presentation file and you need to extract one or more slides to reuse or to edit. How do you go about doing this? I answered this question on a forum recently.

Well, the solution is a simpe and free one. As you may have found, you may not be able to open this file in Microsoft Powerpoint as an ordinary file but only as a presentation.

The best solution is to download and install a copy of Open Office. OpenOffice is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute.

Installation is easy and it works on Mac, Windows, and *nix. Open your presentation file using Open Office Impress, and then you can extract your slides from here, or save it as a Microsoft Power Point file to edit and use.

And, Open Office is good for a lot of other stuff too, so keep it installed, you won’t regret it.