presentation word history

View previous versions of Office files

View previous versions of a file.

If your file is stored in OneDrive or SharePoint in Microsoft 365, you can go back to a previous version of file. This is incredibly important if a mistake was made, you have issues with malware or a virus, or you just prefer a previous version. This is also important when you're collaborating with others and someone makes changes you didn't want in a file. 

The experience for Version History is similar across your apps.

Important:  Version history in Microsoft 365 only works for files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint in Microsoft 365. For more info, see Save a document to your OneDrive .

Choose the tab for the version of Microsoft 365 apps you're currently using to see instructions that match your apps.

Learn how Version History helps you see what changes have been made in a file, compare different versions, or restore the version you want:

Open the file you want to view.

Select a version to open it in a separate window.

If you want to restore a previous version you've opened, select Restore .

Important:  If your experience looks different, select one of the tabs above to try the instructions for another version.

Go to File > History .

Note:  If you don't see History on your navigation pane it's possible that you actually have a subscription version of Microsoft 365. Select the Info button on the navigation pane and see if you can access Version History there.

If you're using Microsoft 365 for Mac, select the name of the document on the title bar of the application, then select Browse Version History .

If you're using an older version of Office for Mac, select  File > Browse Version History .

Click the title of your file and select  Version history . 

Select a version to open it.

If you want to restore the previous version you've opened, select Restore .

Note:  If you sign in with a personal Microsoft account, you can retrieve the last 25 versions. If you sign in with a work or school account, the number of versions will depend on your library configuration .

SharePoint in Microsoft 365 versioning

If you work in a SharePoint in Microsoft 365 environment you have some powerful versioning tools at your fingertips. SharePoint in Microsoft 365 libraries offer version tracking, sharing, and recycle bin storage when you delete something. For more info on versioning in SharePoint in Microsoft 365, see:

How does versioning work in a SharePoint list or library

Restore a previous version of an item or file in SharePoint

Enable and configure versioning for a list or library

Need more help?

Want more options.

Explore subscription benefits, browse training courses, learn how to secure your device, and more.

Microsoft 365 subscription benefits

Microsoft 365 training

Microsoft security

Accessibility center

Communities help you ask and answer questions, give feedback, and hear from experts with rich knowledge.

Ask the Microsoft Community

Microsoft Tech Community

Windows Insiders

Microsoft 365 Insiders

Find solutions to common problems or get help from a support agent.

Online support

Was this information helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

Got any suggestions?

We want to hear from you! Send us a message and help improve Slidesgo

Top searches

Trending searches

teacher appreciation

11 templates

islamic history

36 templates

27 templates

memorial day

12 templates

55 templates

104 templates

History Presentation templates

Free history google slides themes and powerpoint templates for your presentations. download them and make your cultural projects stand out with the large amount of graphic resources included., related collections.

13 templates

67 templates

Middle School

138 templates

High School

228 templates

86 templates

High School History Class: 9th Century

Download the High School History Class: 9th Century presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides. High school students are approaching adulthood, and therefore, this template’s design reflects the mature nature of their education. Customize the well-defined sections, integrate multimedia and interactive elements and allow space for research or group projects—the possibilities...

Social Studies & History Subject for Middle School - 6th Grade: Ancient World History

Learning about our past is the best way of understanding our present. This template is perfect to present your students the different civilizations that emerged in ancient history and make them passionate about history. The slides have an appealing antique look that will take your audience in a trip to...

Papyrus History Lesson

History lessons tend to be boring for students, since they need to remember dates and a bunch of information. Make it entertaining by editing our free presentation template, whose backgrounds based on ancient papyrus rolls take it to the next level.

Premium template

Unlock this template and gain unlimited access

Art Subject for Elementary - 2nd Grade: Art History

Already at elementary level, you can make your students connect with the beauty and the aesthetic objects. How? By teaching Art History. Have this template as an extra resource for your class and use slides to reinforce the contents of the lesson. The layouts are not complicated at all: there...

1930s: Franklin D. Roosevelt

Writing History Thesis

Are you finishing your writing history thesis and need a good presentation to impress the examination board? We propose you this vintage style template that fits wonderfully with the topic. It has a simple design, beige background and doodle illustrations of books, papyrus, quills, etc. that add sophistication to your...

The Arab Spring Movement Thesis Defense

Download the The Arab Spring Movement Thesis Defense presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides. Congratulations, you have finally finished your research and made it to the end of your thesis! But now comes the big moment: the thesis defense. You want to make sure you showcase your research in the...

History Subject for High School in Spain: Constitution Day Infographics

Download the "History Subject for High School in Spain: Constitution Day Infographics" template for PowerPoint or Google Slides and discover the power of infographics. An infographic resource gives you the ability to showcase your content in a more visual way, which will make it easier for your audience to understand...

The Prehistory

It is agreed that prehistory is the period of time previous to the invention of writing systems. We all think of people as cavemen, with giant clubs and wearing some kind of clothing made of fur. Prehistory is more than that! Teach all you know, and all your students need...

Powerful Predators

Download the "Powerful Predators" presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides and teach with confidence. Sometimes, teachers need a little bit of help, and there's nothing wrong with that. We're glad to lend you a hand! Since Slidesgo is committed to making education better for everyone, we've joined hands with educators....

Reconstruction Era and the Gilded Age - History - 11th Grade

In the United States, the Reconstruction Era followed the Civil War and sought to unite the nation and grant civil rights. The Gilded Age brought industrial growth, but also inequality and corruption. Both eras shared the struggle for civil rights and equity. So these are two periods loaded with historical...

The Visigoths

Download the "The Visigoths" presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides and start impressing your audience with a creative and original design. Slidesgo templates like this one here offer the possibility to convey a concept, idea or topic in a clear, concise and visual way, by using different graphic resources. You...

The Role of the Cangaço Thesis Defense

Download the The Role of the Cangaço Thesis Defense presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides. Congratulations, you have finally finished your research and made it to the end of your thesis! But now comes the big moment: the thesis defense. You want to make sure you showcase your research in...

Vintage Paper History Lesson

Take your students on a fascinating journey through global history! Speak about human evolution, cultural and religious history, important inventions and political developments with this lovely presentation template with a background of creamy, vintage paper scraps. You can edit the graphs, map and everything else in these slides easily, so...

Generation of '27

Generation of '27 is a group of avant-garde poets and artists who began to publish their work in the 20s of the 20th century. To help you explain this interesting part of Spanish literature to your students, we propose you this old-style brown template, with different illustrations of books, pens,...

Christopher Columbus and the Discovery of America for Children

Download the "Christopher Columbus and the Discovery of America for Children" presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides and easily edit it to fit your own lesson plan! Designed specifically for elementary school education, this eye-catching design features engaging graphics and age-appropriate fonts; elements that capture the students' attention and make...

Social Studies Subject for Middle School - 8th Grade: Geography and Colonialism

How did we all humans get to know each other? Well, it’s a complicated story about colonialism, discoveries and adventures, but it can be easy to understand if you as a teacher use the correct resources. This template includes maps, timelines, charts and tables that will give your history lesson...

• Page 1 of 63

New! Make quick presentations with AI

Slidesgo AI presentation maker puts the power of design and creativity in your hands, so you can effortlessly craft stunning slideshows in minutes.

Register for free and start editing online

• Search Menu
• Browse content in Arts and Humanities
• Browse content in Archaeology
• Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Archaeology
• Archaeological Methodology and Techniques
• Archaeology by Region
• Archaeology of Religion
• Archaeology of Trade and Exchange
• Biblical Archaeology
• Contemporary and Public Archaeology
• Environmental Archaeology
• Historical Archaeology
• History and Theory of Archaeology
• Industrial Archaeology
• Landscape Archaeology
• Mortuary Archaeology
• Prehistoric Archaeology
• Underwater Archaeology
• Urban Archaeology
• Zooarchaeology
• Browse content in Architecture
• Architectural Structure and Design
• History of Architecture
• Residential and Domestic Buildings
• Theory of Architecture
• Browse content in Art
• Art Subjects and Themes
• History of Art
• Industrial and Commercial Art
• Theory of Art
• Biographical Studies
• Byzantine Studies
• Browse content in Classical Studies
• Classical History
• Classical Philosophy
• Classical Mythology
• Classical Literature
• Classical Reception
• Classical Art and Architecture
• Classical Oratory and Rhetoric
• Greek and Roman Epigraphy
• Greek and Roman Law
• Greek and Roman Papyrology
• Greek and Roman Archaeology
• Late Antiquity
• Religion in the Ancient World
• Digital Humanities
• Browse content in History
• Colonialism and Imperialism
• Diplomatic History
• Environmental History
• Genealogy, Heraldry, Names, and Honours
• Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
• Historical Geography
• History by Period
• History of Emotions
• History of Agriculture
• History of Education
• History of Gender and Sexuality
• Industrial History
• Intellectual History
• International History
• Labour History
• Legal and Constitutional History
• Local and Family History
• Maritime History
• Military History
• National Liberation and Post-Colonialism
• Oral History
• Political History
• Public History
• Regional and National History
• Revolutions and Rebellions
• Slavery and Abolition of Slavery
• Social and Cultural History
• Theory, Methods, and Historiography
• Urban History
• World History
• Browse content in Language Teaching and Learning
• Language Learning (Specific Skills)
• Language Teaching Theory and Methods
• Browse content in Linguistics
• Applied Linguistics
• Cognitive Linguistics
• Computational Linguistics
• Forensic Linguistics
• Grammar, Syntax and Morphology
• Historical and Diachronic Linguistics
• History of English
• Language Acquisition
• Language Evolution
• Language Reference
• Language Variation
• Language Families
• Lexicography
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Linguistic Theories
• Linguistic Typology
• Phonetics and Phonology
• Psycholinguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Translation and Interpretation
• Writing Systems
• Browse content in Literature
• Bibliography
• Children's Literature Studies
• Literary Studies (Asian)
• Literary Studies (European)
• Literary Studies (Eco-criticism)
• Literary Studies (Romanticism)
• Literary Studies (American)
• Literary Studies (Modernism)
• Literary Studies - World
• Literary Studies (1500 to 1800)
• Literary Studies (19th Century)
• Literary Studies (20th Century onwards)
• Literary Studies (African American Literature)
• Literary Studies (British and Irish)
• Literary Studies (Early and Medieval)
• Literary Studies (Fiction, Novelists, and Prose Writers)
• Literary Studies (Gender Studies)
• Literary Studies (Graphic Novels)
• Literary Studies (History of the Book)
• Literary Studies (Plays and Playwrights)
• Literary Studies (Poetry and Poets)
• Literary Studies (Postcolonial Literature)
• Literary Studies (Queer Studies)
• Literary Studies (Science Fiction)
• Literary Studies (Travel Literature)
• Literary Studies (War Literature)
• Literary Studies (Women's Writing)
• Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
• Mythology and Folklore
• Shakespeare Studies and Criticism
• Browse content in Media Studies
• Browse content in Music
• Applied Music
• Dance and Music
• Ethics in Music
• Ethnomusicology
• Gender and Sexuality in Music
• Medicine and Music
• Music Cultures
• Music and Religion
• Music and Media
• Music and Culture
• Music Education and Pedagogy
• Music Theory and Analysis
• Musical Scores, Lyrics, and Libretti
• Musical Structures, Styles, and Techniques
• Musicology and Music History
• Performance Practice and Studies
• Race and Ethnicity in Music
• Sound Studies
• Browse content in Performing Arts
• Browse content in Philosophy
• Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
• Epistemology
• Feminist Philosophy
• History of Western Philosophy
• Metaphysics
• Moral Philosophy
• Non-Western Philosophy
• Philosophy of Science
• Philosophy of Language
• Philosophy of Mind
• Philosophy of Perception
• Philosophy of Action
• Philosophy of Law
• Philosophy of Religion
• Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic
• Practical Ethics
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Browse content in Religion
• Biblical Studies
• Christianity
• East Asian Religions
• History of Religion
• Judaism and Jewish Studies
• Qumran Studies
• Religion and Education
• Religion and Health
• Religion and Politics
• Religion and Science
• Religion and Law
• Religion and Art, Literature, and Music
• Religious Studies
• Browse content in Society and Culture
• Cookery, Food, and Drink
• Cultural Studies
• Customs and Traditions
• Ethical Issues and Debates
• Hobbies, Games, Arts and Crafts
• Lifestyle, Home, and Garden
• Natural world, Country Life, and Pets
• Popular Beliefs and Controversial Knowledge
• Sports and Outdoor Recreation
• Technology and Society
• Travel and Holiday
• Visual Culture
• Browse content in Law
• Arbitration
• Browse content in Company and Commercial Law
• Commercial Law
• Company Law
• Browse content in Comparative Law
• Systems of Law
• Competition Law
• Browse content in Constitutional and Administrative Law
• Government Powers
• Judicial Review
• Local Government Law
• Military and Defence Law
• Parliamentary and Legislative Practice
• Construction Law
• Contract Law
• Browse content in Criminal Law
• Criminal Procedure
• Criminal Evidence Law
• Sentencing and Punishment
• Employment and Labour Law
• Environment and Energy Law
• Browse content in Financial Law
• Banking Law
• Insolvency Law
• History of Law
• Human Rights and Immigration
• Intellectual Property Law
• Browse content in International Law
• Private International Law and Conflict of Laws
• Public International Law
• IT and Communications Law
• Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law
• Law and Politics
• Law and Society
• Browse content in Legal System and Practice
• Courts and Procedure
• Legal Skills and Practice
• Primary Sources of Law
• Regulation of Legal Profession
• Medical and Healthcare Law
• Browse content in Policing
• Criminal Investigation and Detection
• Police and Security Services
• Police Procedure and Law
• Police Regional Planning
• Browse content in Property Law
• Personal Property Law
• Study and Revision
• Terrorism and National Security Law
• Browse content in Trusts Law
• Wills and Probate or Succession
• Browse content in Medicine and Health
• Browse content in Allied Health Professions
• Arts Therapies
• Clinical Science
• Dietetics and Nutrition
• Occupational Therapy
• Operating Department Practice
• Physiotherapy
• Radiography
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Browse content in Anaesthetics
• General Anaesthesia
• Neuroanaesthesia
• Browse content in Clinical Medicine
• Acute Medicine
• Cardiovascular Medicine
• Clinical Genetics
• Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Dermatology
• Endocrinology and Diabetes
• Gastroenterology
• Genito-urinary Medicine
• Geriatric Medicine
• Infectious Diseases
• Medical Toxicology
• Medical Oncology
• Pain Medicine
• Palliative Medicine
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Respiratory Medicine and Pulmonology
• Rheumatology
• Sleep Medicine
• Sports and Exercise Medicine
• Clinical Neuroscience
• Community Medical Services
• Critical Care
• Emergency Medicine
• Forensic Medicine
• Haematology
• History of Medicine
• Browse content in Medical Dentistry
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Paediatric Dentistry
• Restorative Dentistry and Orthodontics
• Surgical Dentistry
• Browse content in Medical Skills
• Clinical Skills
• Communication Skills
• Nursing Skills
• Surgical Skills
• Medical Ethics
• Medical Statistics and Methodology
• Browse content in Neurology
• Clinical Neurophysiology
• Neuropathology
• Nursing Studies
• Browse content in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Gynaecology
• Occupational Medicine
• Ophthalmology
• Otolaryngology (ENT)
• Browse content in Paediatrics
• Neonatology
• Browse content in Pathology
• Chemical Pathology
• Clinical Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics
• Histopathology
• Medical Microbiology and Virology
• Patient Education and Information
• Browse content in Pharmacology
• Psychopharmacology
• Browse content in Popular Health
• Caring for Others
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• Self-help and Personal Development
• Browse content in Preclinical Medicine
• Cell Biology
• Molecular Biology and Genetics
• Reproduction, Growth and Development
• Primary Care
• Professional Development in Medicine
• Browse content in Psychiatry
• Addiction Medicine
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Forensic Psychiatry
• Learning Disabilities
• Old Age Psychiatry
• Psychotherapy
• Browse content in Public Health and Epidemiology
• Epidemiology
• Public Health
• Browse content in Radiology
• Clinical Radiology
• Interventional Radiology
• Nuclear Medicine
• Radiation Oncology
• Reproductive Medicine
• Browse content in Surgery
• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Gastro-intestinal and Colorectal Surgery
• General Surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Paediatric Surgery
• Peri-operative Care
• Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• Surgical Oncology
• Transplant Surgery
• Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery
• Vascular Surgery
• Browse content in Science and Mathematics
• Browse content in Biological Sciences
• Aquatic Biology
• Biochemistry
• Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
• Developmental Biology
• Ecology and Conservation
• Evolutionary Biology
• Genetics and Genomics
• Microbiology
• Molecular and Cell Biology
• Natural History
• Plant Sciences and Forestry
• Research Methods in Life Sciences
• Structural Biology
• Systems Biology
• Zoology and Animal Sciences
• Browse content in Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry
• Computational Chemistry
• Crystallography
• Environmental Chemistry
• Industrial Chemistry
• Inorganic Chemistry
• Materials Chemistry
• Medicinal Chemistry
• Mineralogy and Gems
• Organic Chemistry
• Physical Chemistry
• Polymer Chemistry
• Study and Communication Skills in Chemistry
• Theoretical Chemistry
• Browse content in Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Architecture and Logic Design
• Game Studies
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Mathematical Theory of Computation
• Programming Languages
• Software Engineering
• Systems Analysis and Design
• Virtual Reality
• Browse content in Computing
• Business Applications
• Computer Security
• Computer Games
• Computer Networking and Communications
• Digital Lifestyle
• Graphical and Digital Media Applications
• Operating Systems
• Browse content in Earth Sciences and Geography
• Atmospheric Sciences
• Environmental Geography
• Geology and the Lithosphere
• Maps and Map-making
• Meteorology and Climatology
• Oceanography and Hydrology
• Palaeontology
• Physical Geography and Topography
• Regional Geography
• Soil Science
• Urban Geography
• Browse content in Engineering and Technology
• Agriculture and Farming
• Biological Engineering
• Civil Engineering, Surveying, and Building
• Electronics and Communications Engineering
• Energy Technology
• Engineering (General)
• Environmental Science, Engineering, and Technology
• History of Engineering and Technology
• Mechanical Engineering and Materials
• Technology of Industrial Chemistry
• Transport Technology and Trades
• Browse content in Environmental Science
• Applied Ecology (Environmental Science)
• Conservation of the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Environmental Sustainability
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Environmental Science)
• Management of Land and Natural Resources (Environmental Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environmental Science)
• Nuclear Issues (Environmental Science)
• Pollution and Threats to the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Environmental Science)
• History of Science and Technology
• Browse content in Materials Science
• Ceramics and Glasses
• Composite Materials
• Metals, Alloying, and Corrosion
• Nanotechnology
• Browse content in Mathematics
• Applied Mathematics
• Biomathematics and Statistics
• History of Mathematics
• Mathematical Education
• Mathematical Finance
• Mathematical Analysis
• Numerical and Computational Mathematics
• Probability and Statistics
• Pure Mathematics
• Browse content in Neuroscience
• Cognition and Behavioural Neuroscience
• Development of the Nervous System
• Disorders of the Nervous System
• History of Neuroscience
• Invertebrate Neurobiology
• Molecular and Cellular Systems
• Neuroendocrinology and Autonomic Nervous System
• Neuroscientific Techniques
• Sensory and Motor Systems
• Browse content in Physics
• Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
• Biological and Medical Physics
• Classical Mechanics
• Computational Physics
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Electromagnetism, Optics, and Acoustics
• History of Physics
• Mathematical and Statistical Physics
• Measurement Science
• Nuclear Physics
• Particles and Fields
• Plasma Physics
• Quantum Physics
• Relativity and Gravitation
• Semiconductor and Mesoscopic Physics
• Browse content in Psychology
• Affective Sciences
• Clinical Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Criminal and Forensic Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Evolutionary Psychology
• Health Psychology
• History and Systems in Psychology
• Music Psychology
• Neuropsychology
• Organizational Psychology
• Psychological Assessment and Testing
• Psychology of Human-Technology Interaction
• Psychology Professional Development and Training
• Research Methods in Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Browse content in Social Sciences
• Browse content in Anthropology
• Anthropology of Religion
• Human Evolution
• Medical Anthropology
• Physical Anthropology
• Regional Anthropology
• Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Theory and Practice of Anthropology
• Browse content in Business and Management
• Business Strategy
• Business Ethics
• Business History
• Business and Government
• Business and Technology
• Business and the Environment
• Comparative Management
• Corporate Governance
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Entrepreneurship
• Health Management
• Human Resource Management
• Industrial and Employment Relations
• Industry Studies
• Information and Communication Technologies
• International Business
• Knowledge Management
• Management and Management Techniques
• Operations Management
• Organizational Theory and Behaviour
• Pensions and Pension Management
• Public and Nonprofit Management
• Strategic Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Browse content in Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice
• Criminology
• Forms of Crime
• International and Comparative Criminology
• Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice
• Development Studies
• Browse content in Economics
• Agricultural, Environmental, and Natural Resource Economics
• Asian Economics
• Behavioural Finance
• Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics
• Econometrics and Mathematical Economics
• Economic Systems
• Economic History
• Economic Methodology
• Economic Development and Growth
• Financial Markets
• Financial Institutions and Services
• General Economics and Teaching
• Health, Education, and Welfare
• History of Economic Thought
• International Economics
• Labour and Demographic Economics
• Law and Economics
• Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics
• Microeconomics
• Public Economics
• Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
• Welfare Economics
• Browse content in Education
• Adult Education and Continuous Learning
• Care and Counselling of Students
• Early Childhood and Elementary Education
• Educational Equipment and Technology
• Educational Strategies and Policy
• Higher and Further Education
• Organization and Management of Education
• Philosophy and Theory of Education
• Schools Studies
• Secondary Education
• Teaching of a Specific Subject
• Teaching of Specific Groups and Special Educational Needs
• Teaching Skills and Techniques
• Browse content in Environment
• Applied Ecology (Social Science)
• Climate Change
• Conservation of the Environment (Social Science)
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Social Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environment)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Social Science)
• Browse content in Human Geography
• Cultural Geography
• Economic Geography
• Political Geography
• Browse content in Interdisciplinary Studies
• Communication Studies
• Museums, Libraries, and Information Sciences
• Browse content in Politics
• African Politics
• Asian Politics
• Chinese Politics
• Comparative Politics
• Conflict Politics
• Elections and Electoral Studies
• Environmental Politics
• European Union
• Foreign Policy
• Gender and Politics
• Human Rights and Politics
• Indian Politics
• International Relations
• International Organization (Politics)
• International Political Economy
• Irish Politics
• Latin American Politics
• Middle Eastern Politics
• Political Methodology
• Political Communication
• Political Philosophy
• Political Sociology
• Political Behaviour
• Political Economy
• Political Institutions
• Political Theory
• Politics and Law
• Public Administration
• Public Policy
• Quantitative Political Methodology
• Regional Political Studies
• Russian Politics
• Security Studies
• State and Local Government
• UK Politics
• US Politics
• Browse content in Regional and Area Studies
• African Studies
• Asian Studies
• East Asian Studies
• Japanese Studies
• Latin American Studies
• Middle Eastern Studies
• Native American Studies
• Scottish Studies
• Browse content in Research and Information
• Research Methods
• Browse content in Social Work
• Addictions and Substance Misuse
• Adoption and Fostering
• Care of the Elderly
• Child and Adolescent Social Work
• Couple and Family Social Work
• Developmental and Physical Disabilities Social Work
• Direct Practice and Clinical Social Work
• Emergency Services
• Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
• International and Global Issues in Social Work
• Mental and Behavioural Health
• Social Justice and Human Rights
• Social Policy and Advocacy
• Social Work and Crime and Justice
• Social Work Macro Practice
• Social Work Practice Settings
• Social Work Research and Evidence-based Practice
• Welfare and Benefit Systems
• Browse content in Sociology
• Childhood Studies
• Community Development
• Comparative and Historical Sociology
• Economic Sociology
• Gender and Sexuality
• Gerontology and Ageing
• Health, Illness, and Medicine
• Marriage and the Family
• Migration Studies
• Occupations, Professions, and Work
• Organizations
• Population and Demography
• Race and Ethnicity
• Social Theory
• Social Movements and Social Change
• Social Research and Statistics
• Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
• Sociology of Religion
• Sociology of Education
• Sport and Leisure
• Urban and Rural Studies
• Browse content in Warfare and Defence
• Defence Strategy, Planning, and Research
• Land Forces and Warfare
• Military Administration
• Military Life and Institutions
• Naval Forces and Warfare
• Other Warfare and Defence Issues
• Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution
• Weapons and Equipment

• < Previous chapter
• Next chapter >

14 Etymology, Word History, and the Grouping and Division of Material in Historical Dictionaries

Philip Durkin is Deputy Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. He has led the OED’s team of specialist etymology editors since the late 1990s. His research interests include etymology, the history of the English language and of the English lexicon, language contact, medieval multilingualism, and approaches to historical lexicography. His publications include The Oxford Guide to Etymology (OUP 2009) and Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English (OUP 2014).

• Published: 07 March 2016
• Cite Icon Cite
• Permissions Icon Permissions

The key defining characteristic of a historical dictionary is that it presents the histories of individual words over time, grouping together material that shows a shared or common historical development, and presenting in separate entries material that shows a distinct history. This apparently simple criterion for the division and structuring of material in a historical dictionary in fact brings with it many challenges, and judgement calls for the lexicographer, some of the main categories of which are identified and illustrated in this chapter. Test cases investigated include: a large set of homonyms from the Oxford English Dictionary ; words that show multiple inputs; and words that show lexical merger or split.

14.1 Introduction

The key defining characteristic of a historical dictionary is that it presents the histories of individual words over time, grouping together material that shows a shared or common historical development, and presenting in separate entries material that shows a distinct history. (For discussion of full or limited application of similar grouping of material in much synchronic lexicography, see Koskela, this volume.) This apparently simple criterion for the division and structuring of material in a historical dictionary in fact brings with it many challenges and judgement calls for the lexicographer, some of the main categories of which are identified and illustrated in this chapter.

The basic unit in a historical dictionary is often characterized as being a presentation of ‘the history of a word’; see discussion of the history and development of this concept in Considine (this volume). The same is also true of many of the largest and finest etymological dictionaries: see Buchi (this volume). However, the concepts ‘a word’ and ‘its history’ are both abstractions, and it is important that both the authors and the users of historical dictionaries do not lose sight of this. The present chapter will examine some of the tensions inherent in these concepts, particularly through the lens of ‘words’ which show historical discontinuities or processes of historical split or merger, and which hence pose particular problems for the conception of a historical dictionary entry as ‘the history of a word’. It will do so by close examination of some examples taken from the Oxford English Dictionary , a historical dictionary in which work on the origins and subsequent historical development of words is particularly closely integrated. 1

14.2 Etymology, Word History, and Homonymy

A fundamental task in historical lexicography is the grouping together of lexical material which appears to show a common origin, and then (in most historical dictionaries) arranging this material within a structure which reflects as closely as possible the likely historical development of each of the main meanings and characteristic patterns of usage. In a historical dictionary (as also for most historical linguists) questions of homonymy are closely tied together with questions of etymology: identical word forms in the same word class will normally be regarded as showing the same word if they show a common origin. (Compare the different approaches considered by Koskela, this volume. On difference in word class, see Weiner, this volume, Koskela, this volume.)

In practice, distinctions between homonyms vary between on the one hand cases where both etymology and meaning are clearly differentiated (for instance, file ‘metal tool’ of Germanic origin, and file ‘set of documents’, of French origin, which referred originally to the wire on which a collection of documents was kept), 2 and on the other hand cases where either or both of these distinctions are more difficult to establish, and lexicographical decisions are less straightforward.

14.2.1 An Example in Detail: Twenty-two OED Entries with the Headword Spelling post

We can observe some of the results of historical lexicographers’ decision making if we take as a practical example the OED ’s twenty-two separate entries with the headword spelling post (or in one case post -). The OED has twelve separate noun homonyms spelt post , plus six verb entries, two adverbs, and one preposition, in addition to the prefix post -, with a hyphen in the headword form; all are full homonyms, identical in pronunciation as well as in written form. The following are very brief summaries of what I would take to be the most common meaning of each:

  post n. 1 ‘post, pole, stake’

post n. 2 (in Law) ‘the time after’

post n. 3 ‘delivery of postal matter’

post n. 4 , the name of a card game

post n. 5 ‘office or position to which someone is appointed or stationed’

post n. 6 , the name of an intoxicating beverage

post n. 7 (in bookkeeping) ‘entry in a ledger’

post n. 8 , a term in papermaking

post n. 9 (in bookkeeping) ‘extra or additional entry’

post n. 10 ‘bugle call’

post n. 11 ‘postgraduate’

post n. 12 ‘post-mortem’

post v. 1 ‘to attach to a post’, etc.

post v. 2 ‘to send via a postal service’, ‘to travel in the manner of a post-rider’, etc.

post v. 3 ‘to station in a particular location, to appoint to a particular position’

post v. 4 ‘to pay down, to provide as security’, etc.

post v. 5 ‘to trample (laundry) in water’

post v. 6 ‘to perform an autopsy on (a body)’

post adv. 1 ‘with post-horses, by means of the post; with speed or haste’

post adv. 2 (in legal documents) ‘later in the same document’

post prep. ‘subsequent to, later than; following, since’

post - prefix ‘afterwards, subsequent, later than, situated behind’

Only one of these words ( post n. 7 ) is marked obsolete (and it overlaps in time with most of the other homonyms), although several others are rare, and post n. 2 is now restricted to historical contexts.

OED ’s post n. 1 is a large dictionary entry describing a number of distinct senses developed over time. It shows an Old English borrowing of Latin postis ‘doorpost, post, pole, stake’, and the historical record suggests that there was probably a continuous history of use from Old English to later times, although the possibility cannot be entirely ruled out that all later use reflects (re-)borrowing of Latin postis and/or (Anglo-)French post in the Middle English period. 3 The material in this entry all shows as its ultimate semantic point of departure ‘support or column of timber or (later) some other strong material’ and/or ‘doorpost’, although some of the later meanings (such as specific uses in geology or mining or in sports such as basketball) result from several stages of semantic development, and the relationship may well be opaque to some language users.

post n. 2 ‘the time after’ is very restricted in register, found only in Law (and now only in discussions of legal history), ultimately reflecting a specific use of Latin post ‘after’ in the wording of writs.

post n. 3 is, like post n. 1 , another major dictionary entry, with numerous senses, and covering a long chronological span, from the early 1500s to the present day. It ultimately reflects Italian posta ‘stopping place’, a use as noun of the feminine of the past participle of porre ‘to place’, although examination of the historical evidence suggests that it entered English via French poste . It shows a number of different meanings, both abstract and concrete, relating to the delivery of postal matter, as well as extended uses (e.g. in the titles of newspapers or in computing). Its semantic development is closely related to the external, real-world historical development of postal services, and it shows numerous points of contact with the development of French poste , Italian posta , and words in other European languages also ultimately borrowed from these (e.g. German Post , Dutch post ) in complex patterns of mutual influence that are difficult to establish with any degree of certainty.

These first three homonyms are completely distinct etymologically: even their remote etymons show no connection. By contrast, post n. 4 , the name of a card game, does share a remote etymon with post n. 3 , both being ultimately from Italian porre ; however, the two are kept separate, since their immediate etymons are different (that of post n. 4 probably being Italian posta ‘stake in a game’), and it is unlikely that any connection was felt between the two even at the time of their earliest use in English.

Similarly, post n. 5 ‘office to which a person is or may be appointed’, ‘place where military personnel are stationed or positioned’, another important word in modern English, again shares Italian porre as its ultimate etymon. Like post n. 3 , it has a French form poste as its immediate etymon, but the two French forms are distinguished in gender, as are their Italian etymons, the Italian noun in this case being posto ‘place assigned’. Although this is semantically not very remote from posta ‘stopping place’, the distinction in meaning between the nouns in French and Italian seems consistently maintained, and, most importantly, there seems to be no confusion of meanings in English, therefore the separation of post n. 3 and post n. 5 in OED seems unproblematic.

post n. 6 ‘an intoxicating beverage made by steeping poppy heads in warm water’ shows a seventeenth-century borrowing from Urdu.

post n. 7 ‘entry in a ledger’ (in bookkeeping) brings us back to the extended word family of Italian porre . Like post n. 3 , it corresponds to a use of Italian posta , but the English use more probably reflects conversion from one of the set of verb homonyms in English ( post v. 2 ), hence it is presented as a separate dictionary entry. post n. 8 , a term in papermaking, also belongs ultimately to the same family, but its route into English was probably via German Post , itself ultimately showing a specific use of the German equivalent of post n. 3

The very rare post n. 9 , again from bookkeeping, shows an ellipsis for post-entry , which itself shows the prefix post -, and hence has no etymological connection with post n. 7 ; the two are therefore presented in separate entries in OED , even though they are homonyms belonging to the same specialist field of discourse. Like post n. 9 , post n. 11 and post n. 12 also show ellipses or clippings, from postgraduate and post-mortem respectively.

The remaining item in OED ’s set of twelve noun homonyms, post n. 10 ‘bugle call’ (most typically found in ‘last post’) is a difficult case for a historical dictionary, calling for a judgement call from lexicographers. It probably arose from a specific use of post n. 5 in military use, perhaps in a phrase such as ‘call to post’; however, certainty on this point is elusive. It therefore seems the safest solution to place this in a separate entry, with comments at each entry drawing attention to the fact that they may show developments of the same word history. In a case like this it is impossible to avoid the nagging suspicion that some further evidence could result in this being placed confidently under post n. 5 , hence bringing together branching pathways of semantic change and enriching the documentation of that word’s historical development.

Taking the verbs more briefly, post v. 1 and post v. 2 are both substantial dictionary entries for semantically rich verbs which originally show conversions from post n. 1 and post n. 3 respectively. There are several points where the distinctions between homonyms become rather less clear than in the case of the nouns. Notably, post v. 1 shows a number of senses (the earliest dating back to the 1600s) relating to posting up information of various sorts, originally conceptualized as attaching information to a post on a placard or notice. The extension of this (long conventionalized) strand of meaning into the world of computing, describing the posting of messages to mailing lists, etc., leads to some ambiguity with post v. 2 , which has as its core a number of uses relating to postal services, in modern use especially to post a letter , with analogous uses in other fields, such as in bookkeeping or accounting, or in computing, where data is described as being posted to or into a particular location in a data structure. This assignment of particular conventional uses to either post v. 1 and post v. 2 depends upon the construction of a narrative of likely organic historical development for each word: senses are assigned on the basis of their likeliest fit in a process of diachronic semantic change. However, use of post in computing to describe the sending of messages or data to electronic mailing lists appears to show plausible points of attachment with both of these word histories; it probably developed primarily from earlier uses of post v. 1 , but very likely also shows influence from uses post v. 2 , and here OED provides an explicit note on the likely cross-currents of influence:

This sort of merger or near-merger places strain on the structures of a historical dictionary: it is clear that post v. 1 and post v. 2 have different origins, but both homonyms have probably influenced the development of this particular use, and the most that the historical lexicographer can do is to try to identify and document the different influences at play, as in the note here.

The next two post homonyms present a different sort of complication: they are not definitely of distinct origin from one another, but presentation as two separate dictionary entries makes for a clearer presentation of complex histories. post v. 3 is a conversion from post n. 5 , with meanings relating to stationing something in a particular or strategic position, or appointing someone to a particular position or posting. post v. 4 shows the meanings (in slang use) ‘To lay down, stake, deposit, pay down’ and ‘To pay or provide as bail or security; to pay (bail)’; it could, like post v. 3 , also show conversion from post n. 5 , but input directly from Italian posta ‘stake in a game’ (probably the origin of post n. 4 , the card game) is also possible, and some association with post n. 7 ‘entry in a ledger’ is also conceivable. This uncertainty about the origin of post v. 4 , as well as the semantic distance between the meanings at the two entries, provides good grounds for keeping post v. 3 and post v. 4 separate, even though they may well in fact show a shared origin.

post v. 5 and post v. 6 are both relatively rare and clearly distinct from other homonyms: post v. 5 is a Scots laundry term, originating as a variant of poss in similar use, while post v. 6 , like post n. 12 , shows an ellipsis for or clipping of post-mortem .

post adv. 1 ‘with post-horses, by means of the post, express; (hence) with speed or haste’ originates from phrasal uses of post n. 3 , while post adv. 2 (like post n. 2 ) reflects uses of Latin post ‘after’ in legal documents.

post - prefix (from Latin post -) shows not a lexical item but a word-forming element; its inclusion as a historical dictionary entry permits minor formations in post - to be grouped together economically in one place (while more significant ones have full entry status); it also enables the historical lexicographer to summarize in one dictionary location the history of such formations within English and the major patterns of foreign-language influence. The inclusion of such elements as headwords involves some (time-honoured) bending of category distinctions for beneficial pragmatic reasons; it also enables a dictionary to reflect well the rather fluid lexical development shown by items such as post preposition, a lexical item with the meaning ‘subsequent to, later than; following, since’ which arose by analogy from uses of the word-forming element post -.

14.2.2 Some General Observations Drawn from This

We can draw some general observations from this exploration of post homonyms:

Most historical dictionary entries depend upon establishing a pattern of branching historical development from a shared origin, and this is the typical shape of the history of a word. (To what extent this is typically an abstraction from much more complex patterns of diffusion and spread will be examined in Section 14.3 .)

Nonetheless, it is not uncommon to find patterns of influence both among etymologically related clusters of words, and between words that are etymologically unrelated (as between post v. 1 and post v. 2 here), and the structures of historical dictionaries need to be flexible enough to reflect these.

Identity of the remote as opposed to the immediate etymon is of little structural importance (e.g. the fact that several of these words have Italian porre in their remote ancestry), although this can be interesting information for many readers and is typically encoded in a dictionary’s etymologies; it also often correlates with some degree of semantic similarity, and hence with a higher than average likelihood of mutual influence between words.

In some cases it will be uncertain whether particular uses do or do not show a shared origin, and, whatever decision is taken by the historical lexicographer on treating them as one or more different dictionary entries, the difficulties must be clearly flagged (as in the case of post n. 5 and post n. 10 , or of post v. 3 and post v. 4 ).

In most historical dictionaries, there will be some entries which do not correspond at all closely to a single lexical item (by most definitions), entries for word-forming elements such as post - being a rather extreme case, but these play an important part in a dictionary’s efficient presentation of key information about individual word histories.

14.3 Word Histories that Challenge the Notion of Organic Historical Continuity from a Single Point of Origin

In Chapter 10 , Considine examines some of the stresses inherent in the revised OED entry for historical . It is not in doubt that the OED is here charting the development of an important English lexeme over time; what is a matter of real uncertainty is how much each of its senses owes to borrowing from Latin historicus , or to analogy with the development of the near synonym historic , or to influence from French historique or related words in other European languages, or to the influence of the related noun history or to other members of a somewhat extended word family. Furthermore, individual uses in each of its separately demarcated senses may themselves show a differing set of influences; before a particular meaning or pattern of use has gained general currency, it is quite possible that different instances of similar word use may reflect very different trajectories of development and influence.

To some extent, such phenomena reflect the difficult balance of the ‘macro’ and the ‘micro’ level in lexical history that is ever present in historical lexicography: most statements about the development of words over time are abstractions from a complex set of data, open to challenge on numerous points of detail when investigated closely; the historical lexicographer has constantly to chart a difficult course between cataloguing a confusing welter of fine details and multiple possibilities in which even the most dedicated reader may easily become lost, and presenting an overly smoothed, streamlined presentation in which one explanatory narrative is favoured over all others, and in which significant strands of influence and development may be entirely neglected. The danger is perhaps nowhere greater than in the temptation to see each dictionary entry as a self-enclosed entity, neglecting the position of each lexeme within a set of lexical relations within the lexicon as a whole, and also often with equivalent words (often, but not always, cognates) in other languages.

Frequently, even the ‘macro’ picture cannot be presented faithfully without describing multiple inputs, either within a single historical period, or at different stages in a word’s development. The noun culture shows both of these factors rather clearly. It is first recorded in English in the 1400s. Like very many other words borrowed into English during the Middle English period, especially in the key period around 1400 when English was rapidly taking on new functions in various official and technical fields in both spoken and written use, 4   culture almost certainly shows some input from both French and Latin. At this date it referred only to cultivation of the soil, but during the 1500s various uses connected with the education of an individual person begin to be found in English, again showing borrowing or influence from French and Latin. The other major element in the long-term ‘macro’ level history of the word culture in English comes from German. In German, the word Kultur was borrowed from French during the 1600s. However, a major development in the use of the word occurred in German during the 1700s, when Kultur came to refer not only to the education of the individual but to the (perceived) state of development of a whole society. This development in the use of the word in German had a huge impact on how the word was also used in English and in French. During the subsequent centuries, there has continued to be considerable mutual influence between English culture , French culture , and German Kultur . In a case like this, the etymology section of the OED entry provides a useful location for bringing together commentary on this complex set of foreign-language inputs, keyed to particular sense numbers in the main part of the entry, and also integrating some discussion of the complex, and changing, set of relationships with semantically related terms such as civilization and society :

In the case of culture , there is no real doubt that we are dealing with the history of a single, polysemous, ‘word’: the challenge is in presenting the major influences and the most important inter- and intra-linguistic influences as clearly as possible within the constraints of a historical dictionary entry.

In some other cases, there is very real doubt about the boundaries of particular word histories, and about whether particular forms, meanings, and uses show a shared origin. A particularly difficult case is presented by modern English road . This word in the form road and in the meaning (very broadly) ‘path or way’ is first documented in the late sixteenth century, and the traditional assumption has been that this shows a development from Old English rād (broadly) ‘action of riding’, which itself is ultimately from the same Germanic base as the verb ride , and which survives in other meanings in forms broadly similar to those of road down to the modern English period. 5 (Modern English raid is also developed from Old English rād , reflecting a northern and Scots form; in the teleological perspective of OED it is treated in a separate entry, the etymology of which begins with a statement that it is historically a variant form of road : compare Section 14.5 on splits of this type.) However, matters are complicated considerably by the existence in Scots of forms of the type rode (from the thirteenth century onwards) and rod (from the fifteenth century onwards) also broadly in the meaning ‘path or way’; these are not easily explained as developments from Old English rād , but it is possible that they could show a common origin with (southern English) road ‘way or path’, if the hypothesis is rejected that that word shows a development from rād . Alternative hypotheses have been suggested on this basis, although they have not met with universal acceptance, and (in the opinion of this writer) no solution has yet been found that provides an entirely satisfactory explanation for all of the word forms of the types road, rode, rod, raid recorded in this cluster of meanings. (For much more detailed discussion both of the data and of various attempted solutions see Durkin 2013 .) In a case of unresolved difficulty like this one, there is little alternative for the historical lexicographer than to plump for an arrangement of the material that seems best to reflect the balance of probabilities, and, crucially, to flag the difficulties very prominently. In this instance, OED places the Scots material showing the form types rode and rod and the meaning ‘path or way’ at a separate entry, rod n. 2 , and treats all other material at the entry road n., where the etymology section presents a detailed discussion of the problems, and begins with a clear statement of the underlying uncertainties:

In a further category of cases, identity of etymological origin is not in doubt, but continuity of use is very uncertain. In a language like English that has (for most periods in its history) a very rich documentary record, and for which the lexicographical resources of the OED can normally provide at least some evidence of use in each century or so from a word’s date of earliest attestation up to the present, it is somewhat surprising when words are encountered with a large, unfillable gap in the documentary record, but such words are indeed encountered. A few examples from the new edition of the OED include appley ‘resembling apples’ (with gap from ?a1425 to 1854), caringly (attested in 1606, 1797, and then from 1961), reabridge (attested once a1631 and then from 1950). 6 In each of these cases, the etymology is the same on either side of the documentary gap (which it is always possible that further research may fill), but the existence of the gap brings home rather clearly the probability of separate coining in different periods. In many ways, such examples only serve to highlight some of the processes that are likely to lie behind the presentation of most word histories as simple units in historical dictionaries: some words (e.g. many technical terms in the sciences) are coined in very particular circumstances, and spread from a single first introduction; in very many other cases, it is likely that there have been multiple ‘coinages’, as different speakers have felt the same need and (in most cases unconsciously) filled that need by making use of the same lexical resources, whether that should be the internal word-forming resources of English or the lexicon of another language in the case of lexical borrowing. Historical dictionaries can seldom pinpoint these multiple inputs that contribute in varying degrees to the eventual general currency of a new word (or indeed of a new meaning of an existing word), but it is very likely that the apparently ‘unusual’ cases discussed in this section are really just those where the data confront most brutally the assumption that word histories are at all likely to be clean, simple, or uncomplicated.

The remaining two sections of this chapter look at two particular types of word history, those involving lexical mergers or lexical splits, which pose special challenges for the structures of historical dictionaries. 7

14.4 Lexical Mergers and the Challenges they Pose for Historical Dictionaries

Some word histories show the merger of what were in an earlier stage of linguistic history two distinct words, distinct in form or meaning or both, and showing distinct etymologies (either entirely separate origins, or distinct pathways from a shared point of origin).

In some instances of merger, the meanings formerly realized by two distinct word forms come to be realized by a single word form. For instance, a fairly common pattern in the history of English is that a formally distinct causative verb becomes merged with the non-causative verb from whose root it was ultimately formed. Thus, the reflex of Old English meltan (transitive) ‘to melt (something)’ (weak verb, past tense mielte ) merges in Middle English with the reflex of its ultimate parent meltan (intransitive) ‘to melt’ (strong verb, past tense mealt ); both verbs come to show regular weak inflections, with regularized past tense melted , and hence modern English has a single verb melt (past tense melted ) which means both ‘to melt’ and ‘to melt (something)’. (From a theoretical perspective, this process could be construed differently, without invoking merger: for instance, it could be argued that one verb has become obsolete while the other has acquired a new meaning. However, the practical challenges for a historical lexicographer remain the same, in that words that were formally distinct in parts of their paradigm have been replaced by identical word forms realizing both sets of meanings.) For a historical dictionary like the OED , with a teleological perspective anchored in contemporary English, a practical solution is to treat all of this material in a single entry, with clear flagging in the etymological discussion and in the presentation of historical forms that originally distinct verbs have merged over time.

Many instances of merger are rather more messy than melt . Modern English mare ‘female horse’ is formally developed from Old English mearh ‘horse (of either sex)’; its change in meaning is one of the outcomes of a complex process of merger between this word and its feminine derivative mīre, mȳre ‘female horse’. From approximately 1300 onwards, formal reflexes of both mearh ‘horse (of either sex)’ and mīre, mȳre ‘female horse’ are found in the meaning ‘female horse’ (and in various figurative uses); while in etymological terms we may be able to distinguish for instance the Scots form mere as formally a development from mīre, mȳre and the standard form mare as formally a development of mearh , the convergence in meaning of both sets of forms as ‘female horse’ argues strongly for a combined entry in a historical dictionary anchored in contemporary English. Thus in OED all of this material is presented together in a single dictionary entry mare , in which the various form types are catalogued and their varied origins explained.

Rather greater lexicographical challenges can be posed by cases of partial merger, where polysemous words of distinct origin come to show semantic overlap in one or more of their meanings. OED has major entries for two polysemous words both of which have the form mean in modern English; one is a French loanword, borrowed in the Middle English period, with the core meanings ‘intermediate, intermediary’ and (hence) ‘moderate, middling, average’; the other is a word of Germanic origin, and in early use shows primarily the meaning ‘possessed jointly, common’, although there are some indications that a meaning ‘minor, inferior in degree’ may already have existed before the Romance word was borrowed into English. In Middle English and later, ‘inferior in rank or quality, unpleasant’ comes to be a common meaning of mean ; this probably developed from the word of Germanic origin (compare the similar semantic development shown by common ), but there was probably a degree of convergence with use of the Romance-derived word in the meaning ‘(only) middling’. In a case like this, a historical dictionary has little option but to ‘plump’ for placing particular uses under one homonym or the other, and flagging prominently that the exact line of development is unclear, and some degree of merger or loss of distinction between etymologically distinct homonyms is likely. Compare similarly the case of post v. 1 and post v. 2 discussed in Section 14.2.1 .

14.5 Lexical Splits and the Challenges they Pose for Historical Dictionaries

An obvious challenge for the structures of historical dictionaries is presented by lexical material that at one stage in the history of a language constitutes a single word, undistinguished in form and with a single etymology, but which subsequently shows a split into two distinct forms, meriting separate treatment. This is especially the case for dictionaries like the OED (or most other ‘national’ historical dictionaries) which have an essentially teleological perspective, working from early times up to the present, with headword forms anchored in the present day. In contemporary languages with an extensively developed standardized variety and corresponding orthographic norms, such distinctions are normally signalled by distinct written forms, as between metal and mettle explored in detail in the following paragraph. In some cases splits may also be signalled by distinct morphological or syntactic behaviour, as in the case of media , historically the plural of medium , or by distinctions in pronunciation, as between recreate ‘to create again’ (with long high vowel in the first syllable) and recreate ‘to reinvigorate, refresh, to amuse oneself’ (with short mid-height vowel in the first syllable, like recreation ).

Metal is a thirteenth-century borrowing into Middle English from Anglo-Norman and Old French (with maybe also some input directly from Latin). Its earliest and core use is to denote (from a modern scientific perspective) any of the metallic elements, or these elements taken collectively (defined by OED as ‘hard, shiny, malleable material of the kind originally represented by gold, silver, copper, etc., … esp. as used in the manufacture of objects, artefacts, and utensils’). It is also used in a range of other meanings developed from this core meaning, including, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the broadened meaning ‘material, matter, substance, fabric’. Closely related to this are the figurative meanings defined by OED as ‘A person’s character, disposition, or temperament; the “stuff” of which one is made, regarded as an indication of one’s character’ and ‘A person’s spirit; courage, strength of character; vigour, spiritedness, vivacity.’ These are very similar in motivation to modern English figurative uses of the words substance or fibre . The word shows a wide variety of spelling forms in Middle English and Early Modern English, including metal, metell, mettle . In modern English, the figurative senses noted above survive largely (but by no means only) in certain idiomatic phrases, especially to show one’s mettle . In modern use, this almost always shows the spelling mettle , while the spelling mettle never occurs (except as an occasional spelling error) for other uses; hence metal and mettle are listed as separate lexical items in synchronic dictionaries of modern English. Because the OED ’s default perspective is that of contemporary English (taking a broadly teleological approach), modern uses of metal and mettle are also placed at separate dictionary entries in the OED . However, this brings with it some challenging questions for a historical dictionary. In Early Modern English, the meanings listed above are not distinguished in spelling, and there is no evidence that they were perceived as different words by contemporaries. (There is no evidence that metal and mettle have ever been distinguished in pronunciation as opposed to in spelling.) There are frequent puns on the different meanings in Early Modern writers. Compare the two following instances, both from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar :

See whe’er their basest mettle be not moved. (I.i.61.) Well, Brutus, thou art noble, yet I see Thy honourable mettle may be wrought From that it is disposed. (I.ii.305–7.)

Or this from Henry IV Part Two :

For from his [ sc . Hotspur’s] metal was his party steeled, Which once in him abated, all the rest Turned on themselves, like dull and heavy lead. (I.i.116–i8.)

However, there is no reason to assume that these are anything other than puns on distinct meanings of a single polysemous word. (To the extent that contemporary speakers make any clear distinctions between homonyms and polysemous words: compare discussion in Koskela, this volume.) A distinction in spelling begins to be found with any consistency only from the early eighteenth century. (The two quotations above from Shakespeare show modernized spellings, as do most modern editions of his works. In the early Quartos and Folios the spelling in fact varies considerably, and there is no consistent distinction between ‘metal’ and ‘mettle’: see OED3 ’s etymology section quoted later in this section.)

In a case like this, a historical-etymological approach and the teleological perspective of contemporary English pull in different directions. The (almost) universally applied spelling distinction between metal ‘metallic substance’ and mettle ‘a person’s character, disposition, or temperament’ reflects a perception that these are distinct homophones in contemporary English, and no synchronic dictionary of modern English will have any difficulty in deciding to make them separate dictionary entries. It likewise seems reasonable that a historical dictionary like OED with a teleological perspective anchored in contemporary English will have two separate entries, metal and mettle . On the other hand, there is no doubt that they show a shared origin, and what limited evidence inferences we can make about perceptions in previous stages in the history of the language suggest that speakers did not perceive these to be separate words. The key difficulty for OED is therefore how to distribute material between the two entries.

One approach could be to try to identify a point in time at which some writers began to make a clear distinction in spelling. Numerous English dictionaries, both monolingual and bilingual, survive from the Early Modern period onwards, and we might therefore look to these for help. Searching mettle in Ian Lancashire’s Lexicons of Early Modern English ( LEME ) database suggests that John Kersey’s New English Dictionary of 1702 is the earliest to clearly distinguish the two groups of meanings on the basis of spelling. Kersey has the following two entries, in their respective alphabetical places in the wordlist, two pages apart in his dictionary:

A similar approach is taken in the sixth edition (1706) of Edward Phillips’s New World of Words (which was edited by John Kersey), and also by Nathan Bailey’s Universal Etymological English Dictionary of 1721. However, Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language includes a sense defined ‘courage; spirit’ under the headword metal as well as separately under the headword mettle . Johnson’s entry mettle has the etymological comment ‘corrupted from metal , but commonly written so when the metaphorical sense is used’, while the corresponding sense at metal has the comment ‘in this sense it is more frequently written mettle ’. Johnson does not make any explicit comment about diachronic change, but his approach is probably motivated by his extensive use of quotations from authors of the preceding century (and earlier): in this instance, both the sense at metal and the entry mettle are illustrated by quotations from a writer of the seventeenth century, Edward Hyde, first earl of Clarendon (in addition to other authors, including Shakespeare, in the case of mettle ).

Given this situation, it would thus be possible to place all evidence up to 1702 at the entry metal , and all evidence for senses now (almost) always spelt mettle at the entry mettle , on the grounds that this is the point at which dictionaries begin to recognize and codify the distinction. (Or, in a variant of this approach, all evidence for the figurative senses from 1702 onwards spelt mettle could be placed at mettle , but any examples that retain the spelling metal for these senses could be placed at metal .) Although feasible, this would place a good deal of weight on the evidence of a cluster of early eighteenth-century dictionaries, which might well not accord precisely with what was suggested by a close analysis of spelling frequencies in large text databases; in this particular case, both Early English Books Online ( EEBO ) and Eighteenth-Century Collections Online ( ECCO ) could be drawn on to help provide an impression of frequencies either side of 1700. It would also be a solution that would not be so easily applied in periods for which the data are less rich, and also for earlier periods in which consistent graphic distinctions between homophones are less commonly found unless etymologically motivated.

The solution that is instead generally adopted by the OED is one that is applicable in a much wider set of cases (including splits in pronunciation not clearly flagged by most historical records, as in the case of recreate ), and one that is also applicable, in outline, for most other historical dictionaries of modern languages with long recorded histories. The split that is made is semantic, with those senses that are today normally realized by mettle placed at the entry mettle , and those which are spelt metal at metal . Thus, the entry mettle includes examples (in the sense ‘A person’s character, disposition, or temperament’) with the spelling metal , as shown by its listing of forms (with ‘15’ meaning ‘1500s’, ‘15–‘ meaning ‘1500s to the present day’, etc.):

The etymology section presents a fairly detailed account of the spelling history (and residual continuing variation), keyed in to particular senses and particular illustrative quotations in the main body of the entry:

It is also essential that the existence of this entry is flagged at the entry metal , in this case (since metal is a significantly more substantial dictionary entry for a much higher-frequency word than mettle ) with a clear but discrete note at the end of the listing of spellings (which includes mettle as a spelling for the meaning ‘metallic substance’ and related meanings):

14.6 Conclusions

At the heart of every historical dictionary is the, conscious or unconscious, assumption that each of its constituent units, each dictionary entry, is the history of a word. Identifying a shared immediate origin is a crucial starting point, and if this can take the form of a secure etymology (rather than the assumption lurking behind every statement of ‘etymology unknown’ that a common origin seems plausible but lacks the support of an established starting point), then most historical lexicographers will feel a certain degree of comfort. However, words are units in complex systems, showing complex patterns of mutual influence, and historical dictionaries have to find flexible ways of identifying, reflecting, and documenting at least the most important of these patterns; even ‘external’ influence from words in other languages will often occur during the history of a word, and not only at the initial point of origin. The identification of homonymy in historical dictionaries depends fundamentally on whether two units identical in form do or do not have a shared origin, but the application of this basic principle must be flexible enough to reflect those instances where language users’ association of units of distinct origins leads to mutual influence or even merger. In other cases, uses that show a single origin can become entirely dissociated in speakers’ minds; when this is accompanied by the selection of a particular variant form realizing a particular meaning, a dictionary will encounter a considerable challenge to the working assumption that ‘one dictionary entry = one word history’. Additionally, the ‘origin’ of many (perhaps most) words may be better conceptualized not as radiation emanating from the Big Bang of a single point of origin, but as the gradual coming together of multiple similar but distinct innovations each contributing to the emergence and growing establishment of a new lexical item. Such processes can rarely be traced in detail, still less documented in a dictionary, but an awareness of their likelihood can help lexicographers escape the danger of mistaking the necessary constrictions of dictionary form for the complex and often messy realities of the histories of words.

For an interesting recent appraisal of the OED ’s place among historical dictionaries and also in the broad field of etymological lexicography, see Considine (2013) . On etymological dictionaries sensu stricto, i.e. dictionaries the primary purpose of which is to convey etymological information, see Buchi (this volume).

For an explanation of basic etymological methodology using this pair of words as its starting point, see Durkin (2015) ; on etymological methodology in general, especially as applied in historical dictionaries, see Durkin (2009) .

On difficulties of this sort in the history of English words of Latin and/or French origin see Durkin (2014: 129–32, 251–53) .

See detailed discussion of this phenomenon in Durkin (2014: 223–80) .

There is some doubt whether the meaning ‘place where ships ride at anchor’ shown by the same range of forms in English and in some other Germanic languages does in fact show the origin as the word meaning ‘action of riding’, but this is not centrally relevant to the discussion of the word meaning ‘path or way’: see further Durkin (2013) .

For further examples see Durkin (2009: 68–9) .

For further discussion of both lexical mergers and splits and the challenges they pose for historical dictionaries see Durkin (2006 , 2009 : 79–88).

• About Oxford Academic
• Publish journals with us
• University press partners
• What we publish
• New features  
• Open access
• Institutional account management
• Rights and permissions
• Get help with access
• Accessibility
• Advertising
• Media enquiries
• Oxford University Press
• Oxford Languages
• University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

• Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
• Cookie settings
• Cookie policy
• Privacy policy
• Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

• Collections
• Publications
• K-12 Students & Educators
• Families & Community Groups
• Plan Your Visit
• Public Tours & Group Reservations
• This Is CHM
• Ways to Give
• Donor Recognition
• Institutional Partnerships
• Buy Tickets
• Hours & Admission
• Upcoming Events

Chm Blog Curatorial Insights , From the Collection , Software History Center

Slide logic: the emergence of presentation software and the prehistory of powerpoint, by david c. brock | october 04, 2016.

In many parts of our world today, group communication centers on visual materials built with “presentation software,” often crafted by a speaker him or herself. As a result, meetings now generally depend on the use of personal computers, presentation software in the guises of product or service and display by digital projectors or flat-screens.

A humorous sample PowerPoint presentation supplied with the very first version in 1987. This clip was created with PowerPoint 1.0 for Mac running in a Mac Plus emulator.

So central have these visual materials become that the intended functioning of digital files, programs, computers, and peripherals has become an almost necessary condition for public communication. Choice of presentation software has even become a mark of generational and other identities, as in whether one uses Facebook or Snapchat. Millennials and Generation Z choose Google Slides or Prezi. Everyone else uses PowerPoint, its mirror-twin by Apple called Keynote, or, for political expression and/or economic necessity, LibreOffice. Membership in a highly technical community can be signified by using the typesetting program LaTeX to build equation-heavy slides.

It is PowerPoint, nevertheless, that has become the “Kleenex” or “Scotch Tape” of presentation software. A “PowerPoint” has come to commonly mean any presentation created with software. Microsoft rightly boasts that there are currently 1.2 billion copies of PowerPoint at large in the world today: One copy of PowerPoint for every seven people. In any given month, approximately 200 million of these copies are actively used. PowerPoint is simply the dominant presentation software on the planet. 1

It may come as a surprise, then, to learn that PowerPoint was not the first presentation program. Rather, there were several programs for personal computers that performed similarly to PowerPoint in many respects, which appeared starting in 1982—fully five years before PowerPoint’s debut. PowerPoint’s ubiquity is not the result of a first-mover advantage. 2

Further, many of PowerPoint’s most familiar characteristics—the central motif of a slide containing text and graphics, bulleted lists, the slide show, the slide sorter, and even showy animated transitions between slides—were not absolute novelties when PowerPoint appeared. These elements had been introduced in one form or another in earlier presentation software.

Here, the principal developers of PowerPoint—Dennis Austin and Tom Rudkin—describe the structure of the source code defining slides. Austin and Rudkin worked closely with the product’s architect, Bob Gaskins. This document is in a collection of materials donated to the Computer History Museum by Dennis Austin.

From 1982 through 1987, software makers introduced roughly a dozen programs for several different personal computers that allowed users to create visual materials for public presentations as a series of “slides” containing text and graphic elements. Frequently, these slides were printed on paper for incorporation into a photocopied report and transferred to a set of transparencies for use with an overhead projector. Other presentation programs allowed slides to be output as a sequence of 35mm photographic slides for use with a slide projector, a videotape of a series of slide images, or a digital file of screen-images for computer monitors. Makers and users called these programs “presentation software,” and just as commonly “business graphics software.” “Business” here is significant, I think. 3

Early presentation software was most commonly used to create overhead presentations. In this clip, Dennis Austin—a principal developer of PowerPoint—demonstrates the use of overhead projectors and presentations.

The six years from 1982 through 1987 saw the emergence of presentation software (including PowerPoint), with multiple makers introducing competing programs offering many similar capabilities and idioms. Why did multiple, independent software creators develop presentation software for personal computers at just this moment?

I believe that an analytical framework that I developed with historian Christophe Lécuyer to understand episodes in the history of solid-state electronics can also help us to unpack this very different case from software history. Our framework consists of three “contextual logics” that we argue shaped the emergence of the planar transistor, the silicon microchip, the simultaneous-invention of silicon-gate MOS technology, and, as Christophe and Takahiro Ueyama recently show, the history of blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs). 4

In their 2013 article, “The Logics of Materials Innovation,” Christophe and Takahiro describe these logics beautifully:

This framework distinguishes different types of contextual challenges that shape the creation of new materials and manufacturing processes: the materiality of substances, tools, and fabrication techniques (referred to as “material logic”); the needs, demands and interests of intended customers (“market logic”); and the competitive tensions among laboratories, firms, and nations (“competitive logic”). These material, market, and competitive logics are not determinative, in the sense that they do not lead to necessary outcomes. But they are particularly stable over time and provide powerful resources and constraints to innovators and their patrons.

The implication seems straightforward: People from similar backgrounds, in similar organizations, facing a common, structured set of contextual logics, will do similar—but not identical—things. But can these logics that help make sense of the history of semiconductor electronics, a technology deeply about materials, also give insights into the history of the ne plus ultra of the digital—software itself? I think it can. Competitive logic, Market logic, and Material logic: Let’s consider them in that order, and see what they can mean for the “prehistory” of PowerPoint.

Competitive logic centered on software makers. In the first half of the 1980s, makers of presentation software were typically connected to companies. There were, of course, makers of non-commercial software of various stripes—hobbyist, open source, libre and the like—but they do not appear to have been a factor in early presentation software. Rather, the makers of presentation software were what I call “integrated software manufacturers,” “software publishers,” and “author houses.” Sometimes the boundaries between these maker-types are blurry, but I think the categories are useful.

Integrated software manufacturers, ranging from cottage firms to public companies, wrote code, manufactured it mainly on magnetic media, wrote and printed technical documentation and guides, and distributed it in shrink-wrapped boxes. For integrated software manufacturers of this era, think of Microsoft, Lotus Development, and MicroPro International." Software publishers" did everything that the integrated manufacturers did, except write the code. Rather, they entered into contracts on a royalty basis with those who did write programs. Software publishers ran the gamut from stand-alone companies that only produced software written by others, to firms that published a mix of programs written internally and externally, and also to computer makers like Apple, who published software written by others under their own label as well as selling their own programs. Code authors ranged from individual sole proprietorships to “author shops,” partnerships between two or more programmers in an LLP or a small company.

The origins of Microsoft, perhaps the best-known integrated software manufacturer.

These author shops, publishers, and integrated manufacturers were, by 1982, competing in a growing market for personal computer application software: Spreadsheets, word processors, databases and “business graphics” programs that often used data from spreadsheets to generate line-graphs, pie-charts, bar-graphs, and other standard plots used in business, science, and engineering. This battle for market share in applications for personal computers was the ‘competitive logic’ for presentation software’s emergence. 5

“Market logic” centered on the intended users of software, and, in the case of presentation software, focused to the communication practices of white-collar workers in the United States (and, perhaps, elsewhere), particularly “managers” and “executives.” Contemporary commentators noted that personal-computer “business” software like spreadsheets represented a turn in “office automation,” the opening of a new phase in which software users would expand beyond specialists and secretaries to managers and executives. Personal computers with new software would be in the offices of Mahogany Row in addition to the accounting department and the typing pool.

For example, in September 1982, John Unger Zussman, a columnist for InfoWorld, noted: “…the market is changing. An examination of the changing word-processor marketplace can tell us a lot about the maturation of microcomputers and give us a clue to the role of micros in the office of the future. ‘There’s an expanding concept of reality in the modern office,’ says Gary Smith, NCR’s director of marketing. Software oriented toward managers, such as spreadsheet and slide-show programs and electronic mail, has increased the demand for distributed data processing. It is now legitimate for a computer to appear on a manager’s desk—or a secretary’s. The personal workstation, says Smith, is becoming ‘the major focus of white-collar productivity.’ This was not always the case. In the past, computers were the province of the data-processing department…and, besides, managers wouldn’t be caught dead typing at a keyboard…word processing became a stepping-stone into the automated office…the introduction of microcomputers into the office of the future seems to be more a process of infiltration than one of direct assault.” 6

In this 1979 commercial, Xerox presented just this vision of the office of the future.

In a 1984 article in the Proceedings of the IEEE titled “A New Direction in Personal Computer Software,” MIT Sloan School professor Hoo-Min Toong, with his postdoc Amar Gupta, identified the crux of the market logic to which presentation software was a response: The time that executives and managers spent in meetings. They write: “Top managers are noted to spend four-fifths of their time attending meetings—delivering or receiving presentations and reports, communicating, and gathering information for subsequent meetings. Meetings are the most prominent, time consuming element of an executive’s job.” They continue: “At present, business personal computers only represent information in numeric form, in text, and in simple charts and graphs. A crucial missing component is the ability to present and manipulate visual, pictorial data…A new layer…will bridge the gap from the present position…to supporting business communications with sophisticated images and color.” 7

Toong and Gupta’s diagram of the proportion of an “executive’s” time spent in meetings. © 1984 IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from Proceedings of the IEEE.

Toong and Gupta then discuss a newly released example of such “presentation graphics software,” VCN ExecuVision, offered by the book publisher Prentice-Hall. VCN ExecuVision, which ran on the IBM PC, cost $400 but also required libraries of images and icons, that is, “clip art,” at $90 per floppy disk. Users could create “slide shows” of multiple “slides” that the user could craft with text, clip art, and geometric shapes, as well as pie, bar, and line graphs, with the completed slide show either printed or displayed on the PC monitor.

The idiom of the slide was directly adapted from the world of 35mm photographic slides. “Seeing a single slide is one thing,” Toong and Gupta write, “seeing an aggregate of slides is another. VCN ExecuVision supports slide shows in which the transition from one slide to another can be controlled either manually (pressing a key causes display of the next slide) or automatically… More significant is the support of animation techniques which give an illusion of seeing a running movie rather than a slide show…VCN ExecuVision brings sophisticated graphical capabilities to the realm of personal computers thus vastly expanding the horizons of personal computer applications in all four domains – office, home, science, and education.” Continuing their celebration of ExecuVision, Toong and Gupta illustrated their journal article with three full-color pages of ExecuVision slides, replete with images having the unmistakable aesthetic of clip art. Presentation software and clip art may have been born together.

Sample slides from VCN ExecuVision. © 1984 IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from Proceedings of the IEEE.

Evidently, ExecuVision was the creation of Toong himself—in a Cambridge, Massachusetts author shop called Visual Communication Network Inc.—before the program had been sold or licensed to Prentice Hall. Toong filed articles of incorporation for the firm in October 1983, with his brother and a former MIT industrial liaison as the other directors. His brother was listed as the president and a Sloan School building was the firm’s address. Toong’s connection to ExecuVision is not mentioned in the article. 8

Lotus’ announcement of Executive Briefing System. Courtesy of the Kapor Archive.

Toong’s ExecuVision was, in late 1983, a new entrant into the presentation software market that two new integrated software manufacturers, located in neighborhoods on opposing sides of the MIT campus, had already enjoined. On one side was Mitch Kapor’s startup, Lotus Development. Kapor created his new firm on a windfall from two programs he had written that were published by Personal Software, Inc., later renamed VisiCorp. VisiCorp was also the publisher of the breakthrough spreadsheet program VisiCalc, written in Cambridge by Software Arts Inc., the “author shop” of Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston.

Mitch Kapor had written a statistical analysis and data graphing program for the Apple II called TinyTROLL, which he sold through a partnership with his friend and then MIT finance PhD student Eric Rosenfeld who had suggested the program to Kapor. The partnership was called Micro Finance Systems, and Kapor was approached VisiCorp to adapt TinyTROLL to work with data imported from VisiCalc. Kapor soon delivered VisiPlot and VisiTrend, programs that took VisiCalc spreadsheet data and generated pie, bar, and line graphs from them, as well as performed various finance-relevant statistical functions on the data. Kapor and Rosenfeld’s Micro Finance Systems received hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties for VisiPlot and VisiTrend before VisiCorp bought them outright for $1.2 million. With his share in the windfall, Kapor set up an integrated software manufacturer of his own, Lotus Development, and, in 1982, the firm released its first product, Executive Briefing System, for the Apple II. Todd Agulnick, a 14-year-old high school student, had been hired by Kapor and wrote the BASIC code for Executive Briefing System under his direction. 9

Lotus’ $200 Executive Briefing System was centered on the color video display of the Apple II. In brief, a number of programs for charting and graphing like VisiPlot offered the “BSAVE” command. Instead of routing data to immediately render an image on the video display, BSAVE sent the very same data to a stored file. In this way, a “screen shot” could be rendered on the video display at a later time, shared with others, archived for future use, etc. Lotus’ Executive Briefing System treated BSAVE’d files—these screen shots—as “slides” that could be modified and then displayed on the Apple II’s video display as a “slide show” for a “presentation.” Executive Briefing System users could edit slides of charts and plots by adding text and/or clip art of lines, geometric shapes, or “ornamental” motifs. Slides were arranged in slide shows, and saved to floppy disk. While the program allowed a slide show to be printed—as a paper report or for transparencies for overhead presentation—it focused on slide shows for the video display. A variety of animated “transitions” between slides were available, such as fades, wipes, and spinning-into-view. 10

An early Executive Briefing System demonstration. This clip was created by running an image of the demonstration disk in an Apple II emulator.

David Solomont’s Business and Professional Software Inc., another integrated software manufacturer developing products for the Apple II, was located at 143 Binney Street just a 25-minute walk across the MIT campus—and past Hoo-Min Toong’s office—from Kapor’s Lotus Development office at 180 Franklin Street. Like Kapor, Solomont’s firm had earlier developed a plotting and charting program for the Apple II to work with VisiCalc spreadsheets. Solomont struck a deal with Apple to license the plotting program, which was sold by Apple under the company’s brand as “Apple Business Graphics.” Soon thereafter, arriving on the market about the same time as Lotus’ Executive Briefing System, came Solomont’s “Screen Director” program in 1982. 11

A 2015 CHM oral history interview with David Solomont.

Screen Director, made for the then-new Apple III computer, fully embraced treating a computer running Screen Director like a 35mm slide projector. Users could organize BSAVE’d image files from programs like VisiPlot and Apple Business Graphics into various “slide trays” for presentation on the video display. While Screen Director did not allow for the editing of existing image slides, it did provide for the creation of text slides and for a limited set of animated transitions between slides. Screen Director even shipped with the standard two-button wired controller for slide projectors, but modified to plug into the Apple III for controlling Screen Director slide shows. 12

A 1982 print advertisement for Business and Professional Software’s Screen Director program.

So far I have described a meaning for “competitive logic” and “market logic” in the case of presentation software, and some early programs from 1982 through 1984. But what of “material logic?” Material logic here includes personal computers themselves, specifically personal computers with graphics capabilities that were expanding in the early 1980s. The computers’ physical performativity, their material agency, constituted a resource, medium, and constraint for software makers and users. Existing programs widely used on these computers, like spreadsheets and plotting programs, were themselves a critical part of the material logic. Software, like hardware, has an unavoidable materiality. At the most abstract, a computer program can be considered to be a specific pattern. In practice, every instance of a program is a pattern in something material, including the body of an author.

Finally, the material logic for presentation software included operating systems centered on the graphical user interface, or GUI. This style of computing had been pioneered at Xerox PARC in the late 1970s, most famously on the Xerox Alto computer. The Alto inspired other efforts to bring the GUI into personal computing during the first half of the 1980s: Apple’s Lisa and Macintosh computers, Microsoft’s Windows software, and VisiCorp’s VisiOn software to name but a few. 13

This material logic was especially important in the creation of PowerPoint. In 1983, two Apple managers, Rob Campbell and Taylor Pohlman, left the firm and created a new integrated software manufacturer, Forethought Inc. Simply put, they left Apple to bring a Xerox Alto like GUI operating system to the IBM PC. By 1986, however, Forethought Inc. had a change of plans. This story—of Forethought’s creation of PowerPoint—and other stories about what PowerPoint and its competitors can tell us about software history, will be the subjects of upcoming essays by me on the @CHM blog.

For more information about the development of PowerPoint, please see our Guide to the Dennis Austin PowerPoint Records .

• Oral history interview with Shawn Villaron, PowerPoint manager at Microsoft, date, forthcoming/in process.
• Indeed, a wonderfully helpful list of presentation software offerings from 1986 compiled by Robert Gaskins, the initiator and architect of the original PowerPoint project, can be found on pages 131-134 of his painstakingly detailed and comprehensive memoir, Sweating Bullets .
• One place in which these identifying names for the presentation software genre were evident was, and is, the pages of the trade magazine InfoWorld . Google Books has a large number of issues of the periodical available with full text and search. On the more general use of the genre names, see this Google Books NGram .
• See Christophe Lécuyer and David C. Brock, Makers of the Microchip: A Documentary History of Fairchild Semiconductor (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010); David C. Brock and Christophe Lécuyer, “Digital Foundations: The Making of Silicon Gate Manufacturing Technology,” Technology and Culture , 53 (2012): 561–97; and Christophe Lécuyer and Takahiro Ueyama, “The Logics of Materials Innovation: The Case of Gallium Nitride and Blue Light Emitting Diodes,” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences , 43 (2013): 243-280.
• See, for example, Martin Campbell-Kelly, “Number Crunching without Programming: The Evolution of Spreadsheet Usability,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing , 29 3 (July-September 2007): 6-19 and Thomas J. Bergin, “The Origins of Word Processing Software for Personal Computers: 1976-1985,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing , 28 4 (October-December 2006): 32-47.
• The article may be viewed in InfoWord on Google Books.
• Hoo-Min D. Toong and Amar Gupta, “A New Direction in Personal Computer Software,” Proceedings of the IEEE , 72 3 (March 1984): 377-388.
• Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Articles of Organization, Visual Communications Network, Inc., October 13, 1983.
• Mitch Kapor, “Reflections of Lotus 1-2-3: Benchmark for Spreadsheet Software,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing , 29 3 (July-September 2007): 32-40; David C. Brock telephone call with Todd Agulnick, July 15, 2016.
• Rik Jadrnicek, “ Executive Briefing System, a slide-show program ,” InfoWorld, May 17, 1982, 47–49.
• Oral History of David Solomont , Computer History Museum, 2015. Or watch it on YouTube .
• Richard Hart, “ Screen Director helps you present ‘slide shows,’ ” InfoWorld, November 8, 1982.
• See Michael Hiltzik, Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Comptuer Age, (New York: HarperCollins), 1999.

About The Author

David C. Brock is an historian of technology, CHM's Director of Curatorial Affairs, and director of its Software History Center. He focuses on histories of computing and semiconductors as well as on oral history. He is the co-author of Moore’s Law: The Life of Gordon Moore, Silicon Valley’s Quiet Revolutionary and is on Twitter @dcbrock.

Join the Discussion

Related articles, fifty years of the personal computer operating system, amplifying history, a computer for the rest of us.

College of Arts and Sciences

History and American Studies

• What courses will I take as an History major?
• What can I do with my History degree?
• History 485
• History Resources
• What will I learn from my American Studies major?
• What courses will I take as an American Studies major?
• What can I do with my American Studies degree?
• American Studies 485
• For Prospective Students
• Student Research Grants
• Honors and Award Recipients
• Phi Alpha Theta

Alumni Intros

• Internships

Presentation Guidelines

GOAL: The point of your talk is to share your research paper’s thesis and your arguments in support of it. Obviously, you cannot discuss everything that your paper covers – just as you cannot discuss everything in your paper that your research uncovers.

THE CRITERIA FOR THE PRESENTATION:

• clarity of thesis
• organization and development of the argument
• introduction, argument’s main points, and conclusion
• historical detail and accuracy
• delivery (eye contact, posture, movements, voice, pronunciation, grammar)
• adherence to the time limit

THE INTRODUCTION:

• The presentation must have a clear introduction that explains what your talk will be about. It should make clear how your talk will be organized and your main points.
• It is almost impossible for an introduction to be too explicit in its explanation of your topic, thesis, and organization. Do not be afraid to list, for instance, the four main points of your argument.

THE BODY OF THE PRESENTATION:

• The supporting arguments for the thesis presented in your introduction must be clearly organized and carefully and explicitly (if briefly) explained.
• Assume that your audience is smart, but completely unfamiliar with your topic. Remember that your listeners cannot “reread” your talk in order to understand parts that you do not make clear.
• The audience has only your quickly passing spoken words to help understand your presentation, so your organization and your explanations must be more explicit than in your paper and must use organization and content appropriate to a talk, not to a paper.
• For example, explain in your introduction that you will discuss four points; list them. As you reach each during your talk, announce that you are now on point one. “Too obvious” is not a phrase often associated with oral presentations.

THE CONCLUSION:

• You should reiterate the key points of your presentation.
• You should discuss the direction that future research should take.
• You should come up with a clear, structured ending.

VISUAL AIDS:

Do not forget that what is clear and simple to you will likely be complex and confusing to your audience; your audience may benefit from a visual aid.

Use visual aids or handouts to illustrate your points—or perhaps use the blackboard, either at the outset for reference or during the talk for explanation/emphasis.  [This visual aid could just be a map, chronology, picture or photograph of the person/topic/event being studied.]  Bear in mind, however, these points:

• Make sure all aids looked “professional.”  Sloppy, marginally relevant, materials are worse than none at all.
• If handouts (or other visual aids) are not brief and easy to read, your audience will be reading rather than listening.
• Never use a visual aid without telling listeners when to refer to it (e.g., “As you can see on the handout” and “As the diagram on the board demonstrates”). A quick nod in the direction of the board or at a handout is not sufficient.
• If you do use PowerPoint, remember that it should augment your presentation, not BE the presentation.
• Do a practice run in the room with the computer ahead of time.
• Bring the presentation on multiple formats (CD-ROM, USB Flash Key, email attachment).

OTHER SUGGESTIONS:

• Do not write out your presentation verbatim. You should use carefully constructed note cards. Many professors will require you to turn the note cards in immediately after your talk.
• It is important that your graded presentation is NOT the first time you deliver your talk before an audience. Receive advice and encouragement–as well as a taste of standing before an audience–before you speak for a grade. Adjust your presentation according to the advice you receive about clarity, organization, mannerisms, etc. Practice also to make sure you are taking full advantage of your allotted time, that you do not run over, and that time signals do not fluster you.
• If the classroom is available–as it usually is on weekends and most evenings–use it for practice sessions.
• You should take advantage of the various resources that the  Speaking Center  can provide.
• Be reasonable about nervousness; everyone has “butterflies” when they address a group.
• You will feel more nervous that you look.
• Remember that you have an understanding audience, one that is going through the same things you are.
• Also remember that this assignment is a learning exercise; you are NOT expected to be flawless; you are expected to be new at this process. In other words, this presentation is no different from your graded written assignments. It is a learning exercise to help you do better in future presentations.

How have History & American Studies majors built careers after earning their degrees? Learn more by clicking the image above.  

Recent Posts

• History and American Studies Symposium–April 26, 2024
• Fall 2024 Courses
• Fall 2023 Symposium – 12/8 – All Welcome!
• Spring ’24 Course Flyers
• Internship Opportunity – Chesapeake Gateways Ambassador
• Congratulations to our Graduates!
• History and American Studies Symposium–April 21, 2023
• View umwhistory’s profile on Facebook
• View umwhistory’s profile on Twitter

• Ad Creative Eye-catching designs that perform
• Social Media Creative Engaging assets for all platforms
• Email Design Templates & designs to grab attention
• Web Design Growth-driving designs for web
• Presentation Design Custom slide decks that stand out
• Packaging & Merch Design Head-turning apparel & merch
• eBook & Digital Report Design Your digital content supercharged
• Print Design Beautiful designs for all things printed
• Illustration Design Visual storytelling for your brand
• Brand Identity Design Expertise & custom design services
• Concept Creation Ideas that will captivate your audience
• Video Production Effortless video production at scale
• AR/3D Design New creative dimensions that perform
• AI-Enhanced Creative Human expertise at AI scale

Etymology － The origin and story of word

Jul 27, 2014

160 likes | 733 Views

Etymology － The origin and story of word. Henry Chang 96501063. Etymology. Etymology is the study of the derivation of words, including an account of their origin and subsequent linguistic history. _ － Charles W. Dunmore The story behind the words. I diot.

Share Presentation

• 2nd edition
• samuel augustus maverick
• origins com

Presentation Transcript

Etymology－ The origin and story of word Henry Chang 96501063

Etymology • Etymology is the study of the derivation of words, including an account of their origin and subsequent linguistic history. _ －Charles W. Dunmore • The story behind the words

Idiot • Ancient Athens－the origin of democracy • The word ”idiotes” “a private person” • “one who was ill-informed about public affair” • An idiot→ignorant

Maverick • a person who does not behave or think like everyone else but who has independent, unusual opinion • an unbranded calf or yearling. -Oxford • Ex: He is the maverick of senate • Dallas Mavericks

Maverick • Around 1850, in San Antonio • Samuel Augustus Maverick • Four hundred cattle • Hire a black man to manage • Not brand his calf and cattle

Procrustean • enforcing uniformity or conformity without regard to natural variation or individuality -Oxford • Ex: put them on procrustean bed • Procrustes, son of poseidon • Thesues , hero of Athens

Havoc • Noun: a situation in which there is a lot of damage, destruction or disorder. – Oxford • Origin:15th • Old Meaning: a signal to plunder • Old French: “crier havot” • Anglo-Norman : havok • →English:havoc

Knight • Old English: boy, young men • 10th century: male servant • →military servant、soldier • Modern：a rank in the nobility without military service

Reference • Charles W. Dunmore and Rita . Fleischer, Studies in Etymology 2nd edition. R. Pullins Company, 2008. • 丁連財，縱橫英文時空。台北市：書林，2002。 • Word-origins.com

• More by User

Story Telling

Story Telling. Unit 4. What is a Story?. A story is something that is told to us either by word of mouth or in print. (written down) You can find stories in books, magazines, newspapers and just from people telling you one. Different types of Stories.

750 views • 5 slides

History of Influenza

History of Influenza. Etymology of “Influenza”. “Flow of liquid” or “influence” Used to express belief in the impact of the stars on appearance of epidemics. Greek “influentia”. Oxford-English Dictionary. Online Etymology Dictionary. www.fluvirustoday.info. Etymology of “Influenza”.

1.35k views • 17 slides

Etymology by Dominic de Neuville

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.

416 views • 12 slides

Word origins

Word origins. What is in a word ?. To know the origin of words is to know how men think, how they made their civilisations. Key idea. For Example. Politics – comes from the word ‘polis’ meaning ‘city state’ or ‘community’ Democracy – ‘demos’ meaning people and ‘kratis’ meaning ‘power’.

828 views • 7 slides

The study of word origins. Etymology. Where do the words we use come from? . English is a blend of words from many other languages These words made their way into the English language in many ways Occupation by other countries/cultures English occupation of other countries/cultures

620 views • 30 slides

The Liturgy of the Word

The Liturgy of the Word . What stories do you know from the Bible that should be read out at Mass? Choose one story. Why should it be read out? . To define liturgy To describe how the Liturgy of the Word tells the story behind the celebration of the Mass

929 views • 6 slides

Lesson 11 AP – PowerPlus Purple

Lesson 11 AP – PowerPlus Purple. etymology. The history of a word; the study of word origins. demotic. Relating to ordinary people. crescendo. A gradual increase in intensity, force, or volume. impresario. An entertainment producer or manager. Canard . A deliberately misleading story.

250 views • 16 slides

Origin Myths

Origin Myths. Stories of How Life Began . What is an origin myth?. MYTH is a word that derives from the Greek ‘mythos’ which originally meant ‘speech’ or ‘discourse.’ Origin myths are stories that attempt to explain how the world and all the things in it, including humans, came to be.

518 views • 8 slides

What is your definition of transformation?

What is your definition of transformation?. Etymology: Latin. Etymology: Old French. Choose one etymology of the word, and explain how the definition has changed over time OR how it has stayed the same. List at least three synonyms for transformation.

417 views • 13 slides

Tell Me the Story of Jesus

Tell Me the Story of Jesus. #156. Psalms 119:11; Colossians 3:16. Tell me the story of Jesus, Write on my heart every word; Tell me the story most precious, Sweetest that ever was heard. I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Psalms 119:11.

648 views • 28 slides

Etymology terms

Etymology terms. Euphemism . A word or phrase that is considered less offensive or less vulgar than the one it replaces “she passed away today”. Colloquial language . Everyday language; usually applies to the spoken word. Cognates .

585 views • 24 slides

55-Word Short Story

55-Word Short Story. Yes…just 55 words. HOW DO I WRITE A FIFTY-FIVE WORD STORY?. Must have: At least one character At least one quote (“dialogue”) A setting A plot-twist What is a plot-twist? When a story has an unexpected turn or ending. STEP ONE: Find your idea.

603 views • 15 slides

6 Word Memoir

6 Word Memoir. What is a memoir? . ( memoirs ) an autobiography or a written account of one's memory of certain events or people . A “life story.” . What’s your story?. What do you consider to be your “ life story” ?

227 views • 5 slides

Ideology and War

Ideology and War. How was WWII an ideological conflict?. ideology ī-dē-ä-lə-jē (noun): 1 : visionary theorizing 2 : a systematic body of concepts especially about human life or culture Etymology (origin): French idéo-, from Greek idea. Defined by: www.m-w.com.

212 views • 8 slides

Story Elements

Story Elements. What makes a good story?. A good story has certain common elements that we will soon see. When you see a word highlighted in red , mark it on your vocabulary sheets. You will be referring to these words over and over again throughout this year. Characters.

259 views • 7 slides

WORD OF THE DAY

WORD OF THE DAY. Week 1 Words 1-5. Etymology: Latin – habitus (condition, demeanor, behavior) Other forms/Synonyms: Tendency, fixation, bent. Definition: an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary a particular practice, custom, or usage.

182 views • 6 slides

Courage. What is your definition of courage?. What is the Latin etymology of the word courage? Old French? Old English?. Choose one etymology of the word, and explain how the definition has changed over time OR how it has stayed the same. List at least three synonyms for courage.

756 views • 14 slides

The Word of God

The Word of God. Annual Family Retreat May 2010. STORY TIME. John has just finished grade 9, his averages were excellent. His parents were so happy for his great achievement. His dad bought him a cell phone (the latest iphone in the market). STORY TIME.

727 views • 50 slides

Commercial Bank Prepared By: Kamran

Commercial Bank Prepared By: Kamran. Origin and Evolution of Banking. There are various views about the origin of the word bank. One view is that it is derived from an Italian word banque which means a bench .

556 views • 34 slides

How Will We learn all these words ? Etymology and Vocabulary Across the Content Areas

How Will We learn all these words ? Etymology and Vocabulary Across the Content Areas. B.Selah Lee- Bey. What is Etymology. The key to developing ones’ vocabulary is etymology. Etymology : The study of the origins of words. Etym (true sense; origin) + ology (the study of ).

1.02k views • 83 slides

Blog > The History and Evolution of PowerPoint

The History and Evolution of PowerPoint

04.20.20   •  #ppt #history #versions.

On April 20, 1987, the first version of PowerPoint was released. Because we love the software so much (and we know many of you readers do, too!), we wanted to celebrate PowerPoint’s 33rd birthday with a whole article dedicated to its origins, history, and use cases! 95% of presentations are created with PowerPoint, 30 Million PowerPoint presentations are given everyday, and 500 million people all over the world are using the software. So without further ado, let’s dive into the success story of PowerPoint - with the early beginnings and the development throughout the different versions (except for version 13, which was skipped due to triskaidekaphobia concerns ).

Timeline & Version History

5. july 1984: the idea was created.

Robert Gaskins was hired by Forethought Inc. as vice president of product development. His task was to create a new software for graphical personal computers like Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh. Already 1 month later, Gaskins came up with the idea of PowerPoint. Back then, the project description was labeled as "Presentation Graphics for Overhead Projection". For the next year they continued to work on the first specification of the software.

November 1984: Start of development

Development officially started under the name "Presenter". However, they started to work on the Macintosh version first. The first developer besides Gaskin was Thomas Rudkin, who joined after 6 months.

January 1987: Funding by Apple

To continue development, the team needed more money. Apple's Strategic Investment Group selected the company for its first investment. One month later, when they announced the software at the Personal Computer Forum in Phoenix, famous Apple CEO John Skully reportedly said "We see desktop presentation as potentially a bigger market for Apple than desktop publishing".

21. January 1987: The name PowerPoint was established

Originally, they chose to keep the name "Presenter" for the final software. However, to everyone's surprise, when they tried to register the trademark, their lawyers replied that the name was already used by another software product. The team had to find a new name quickly and thought about "SlideMaker" and "OverheadMaker". According to Gaskins, one night he came up with "Power point" randomly under the shower. Initially, nobody liked it, but when his colleague Glenn Hobin independently had the same idea (he saw a sign on an airport reading "POWER POINT"), they took it for an omen and stuck with the name. The reason why the name now is a single word with an upper-case P is that back then it was required in the naming of all Macintosh software applications. The common belief that PowerPoint got its name because it "empowers" people is therefore wrong.

20. April 1987: PowerPoint 1.0 (Macintosh)

The first 10.000 copies of the first version of PowerPoint for Macintosh shipped from manufacturing by Forethought Inc. The release was received quite well by the media, commenting it "People will buy a Macintosh just to get access to this product."

July 1987: Acquisition by Microsoft

In early 1987 Microsoft started an internal project to develop a software to "create presentations". Shortly after, they heard that a company called Forethought had nearly finished such a software. The successful release of PowerPoint 1.0 convinced Microsoft to buy the company entirely.

May 1988: PowerPoint 2.0 (Macintosh)

One year later, the second version of the software was introduces. It included color, more word processing features, find and replace, spell checking, color schemes for presentations, guide to color selection, ability to change color scheme retrospectively, shaded coloring for fills.

May 1990: First Windows version of PowerPoint

Almost 3 years later, the presentation software was finally released for Windows PCs. It was announced at the same time as Windows 3.0 and was using the same version number as the current Macintosh variant (2.0).

May & September 1990: PowerPoint 3.0

It was the first application designed exclusively for the new Windows 3.1 platform. New features were: full support for TrueType fonts (new in Windows 3.1), presentation templates, editing in outline view, new drawing, including freeform tool, flip, rotate, scale, align, and transforming imported pictures into their drawing primitives to make them editable, transitions between slides in slide show, incorporating sound and video.

February & October 1994: PowerPoint 4.0

The new version included among others: Word tables, rehearsal mode, hidden slides. Moreover, Microsoft first introduced a standard "Microsoft Office" look and feel (shared with Word and Excel), with status bar, toolbars and tooltips.

July 1995: PowerPoint 95 (new version naming)

To align PowerPoint with all other Office applications, Microsoft decided to skip versions 5 and 6 and instead call it PowerPoint 95.

October 2003: PowerPoint 2003

The 2003 version was the first to include the now called "Presenter View": tools visible to presenter during slide show (notes, thumbnails, time clock, re-order and edit slides). Furthermore, it included an option to "Package for CD" to write presentation and viewer app to a CD.

January 2007: PowerPoint 2007

It brought a new user interface (a changeable "ribbon" of tools across the top to replace menus and toolbars), SmartArt graphics, many graphical improvements in text and drawing, improved "Presenter View" and widescreen slide formats. Another major change was the transition from a binary file format, used from 1997 to 2003, to a new XML file format.

June 2010: PowerPoint 2010

This release added: sections within presentations, a reading view, save as video, insert video from web, embedding video and audio as well as enhanced editing for video and for pictures.

October 2012: PowerPoint for Web was released

The first time ever, the presentation software could be used in your web browser without any installation.

January 2013: PowerPoint 2013

Changes: online collaboration by multiple authors, user interface redesigned for multi-touch screens, improved audio, video, animations, and transitions, further changes to Presenter View. Clipart collections (and insertion tool) were removed, but were available online.

July 2013: First PowerPoint app for Android & iPhone

Finally the famous presentation software came on your mobile device with the first versions for Android and iOS. Giving presentations but as well basic editing of slides was already supported on the small screens. However, there wasn’t an iPad optimized version just yet.

September 2015: PowerPoint 2016

September 2018: PowerPoint 2019

New things in 2019: Morph transition, easily remove image backgrounds, inserting 3D models and SVG icons and a handy Zoom feature.

Are you interested in even more details on the story? You're lucky! Robert Gaskins gave an interview at the 25th anniversary of PowerPoint where he reveals even more on the history of the famous presentation software.

Modern use cases of PowerPoint

Most people use PowerPoint mainly for creating presentations, but did you know that there are many other ways of using the software? PowerPoint is not just for presenting plain slides to your audience - it can do much more - here are some interesting use cases you might not know about:

Games are a great way to lighten the mood during a presentation. Also, they engage the audience. Memory, Charades, or PowerPoint Karaoke - your options are endless! You can choose whatever suits your own presentation style and preference. If you don’t feel like thinking of games yourself, check out the best PowerPoint Games article , where you will get a lot of inspiration, creative game ideas and even a Memory template.

The times of boring, uninspired PowerPoint slides are long gone! Instead, we want to see interactive elements that engage the audience in new, exciting ways! Add Q&A sessions, get your audience’s feedback, share media and capture your audience with stories and unexpected elements! If you want to learn more about audience engagement and interaction, check out our blog post on 10 tools to boost Audience Engagement ! (Also, if you want to save time and energy, you can download SlideLizard , which allows you to create polls, do Q&A sessions, share media and slides and get audience feedback - all in one place!).

Quizzes are extremely popular, and you can create them easily with PowerPoint. We promise that your audience will love them! You can even take your quiz to the next level by matching the design of your quiz to popular quiz shows, like "Who wants to be a Millionaire" (actually, we designed a Who wants to be a Millionaire template with the original design and sound effects so you don’t have to do it yourself). Our advice for quizzes: Use a PowerPoint add-on that allows you to do live quizzes, like SlideLizard . That way you can easily let your audience vote via their smartphones or laptops.

Do you know the struggle of talking in front of a shy audience that doesn’t seem to open up? If you do, you’re definitely not alone: many presenters have to cope with this issue everyday. But there’s good news: By using some icebreaker questions at the beginning of your presentation, you can - well - break the ice. From "How are you feeling today" to "What would your superpower be" you could ask anything, really. Especially funny icebreaker questions (e.g. "Have you ever…?") are known to be very effective. You could even do more than one of these questions in the beginning (to be sure the ice is really broken). We've created a list of 20 great icebreaker questions , which you can use as inspiration.

Common struggles

PowerPoint is easy and intuitive to use - which is the reason why it has become the most used presentation software in the first place. However, there are several little struggles users sometimes have to deal with. They are all easy to solve though, and we will show you how.

Sometimes, the wrong language is set in the beginning, or you would simply like to add another language to your existing one. You can easily change that in the settings. In our blog post, you will get a detailed tutorial on how to install a new language pack and switch to your desired language .

Occasionally, PowerPoint files can get really big in file size. The reason for that are usually pictures or videos within the slides. To save a lot of storage space, you can compress your PowerPoint’s file size (without losing quality!). To learn how to do it, read this detailed step-by-step tutorial on reducing PPT file size .

This problem occurs often: You design a perfect presentation with custom fonts on your computer at home, but once you want to give that presentation on a different computer, all your beautiful custom fonts are gone and replaced with default fonts. That’s really annoying, but can be solved by embedding fonts into your .pptx file .

Templates are so useful, as they save so much time. The sad thing is that not that many people actually use them. We want to contribute to changing that by teaching you how to make your own custom design template for PowerPoint . And if you don’t feel like creating a template yourself, you can download one of ours for free:

• the wonderful Blue Alps template
• the simplistic Elegant Architecture template
• the fresh Caribbean template to get that summer holiday feeling

When was PowerPoint created?

The idea of PowerPoint came up in 1984. In the following years, development started under the name "Presenter". In 1987, the first version of PowerPoint for Macintosh was released. The first Windows release followed in 1990.

When did PowerPoint come out?

The first version of PowerPoint for Macintosh came out on April 20, 1987. The initial Windows version followed 3 years later, in May 1990.

Who created / invented / developed PowerPoint?

Robert Gaskins is one of the inventors of PowerPoint. He developed the first version with the help of his colleagues at Forethought Inc., Dennis Austin and Thomas Rudkin. Microsoft bought the company in 1987.

How old is PowerPoint?

The first version of PowerPoint was released on April 20, 1987, which means that PowerPoint celebrates its 33rd birthday in 2020. However, it was for Macintosh only, the Windows version was release in May 1990.

When did PowerPoint become popular?

According to Google Trends, PowerPoint had its peak in popularity in November 2009 (measured by number of searches). However, PowerPoint was already a popular presentation software in the 1990s.

Related articles

About the author.

Pia Lehner-Mittermaier

Pia works in Marketing as a graphic designer and writer at SlideLizard. She uses her vivid imagination and creativity to produce good content.

Get 1 Month for free!

Do you want to make your presentations more interactive.

With SlideLizard you can engage your audience with live polls, questions and feedback . Directly within your PowerPoint Presentation. Learn more

Top blog articles More posts

7 PowerPoint presentation ideas for a successful presentation

Modern mountains - Free PowerPoint Template

Get started with Live Polls, Q&A and slides

for your PowerPoint Presentations

The big SlideLizard presentation glossary

Manuscript speech.

For a manuscript speech, the speaker has an entire manuscript to read from. The benefit is that, as every single word is scripted, no important parts will be missed. However, speeches that are fully written down often seem unnatural and may bore the audience.

Personal Response System (PRS)

A Personal Response System (PRS) provides lecturers, presenters or teachers with the opportunity to ask a group of students or their audience questions. The questions are usually in a multiple choice format. PRS increase student engagement and provide an opportunity to receive instant feeback.

Solution Presentation

A solution has already been found during a solution presentation. The only thing that remains is to find a solution on how to realize the decision.

Interpersonal communication

Interpersonal communication is face-to-face communication. It means that people exchange information and feelings through verbal and non-verbal messages.

Be the first to know!

The latest SlideLizard news, articles, and resources, sent straight to your inbox.

- or follow us on -

We use cookies to personalize content and analyze traffic to our website. You can choose to accept only cookies that are necessary for the website to function or to also allow tracking cookies. For more information, please see our privacy policy .

Cookie Settings

Necessary cookies are required for the proper functioning of the website. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information about the number of visitors, etc.

History Infographics Templates

Discover the past through captivating visual storytelling with Venngage's history infographic templates. Effortlessly create timelines, events, and historical narratives that engage and inform audiences of all ages.

Other infographic templates

• Informational
• Statistical
• Human resources
• Graphic design
• Black history month
• Environment
• Real estate
• Cinco de mayo
• Memorial day
• Mental health
• Photography

Popular template categories

• Presentations
• White papers
• Letterheads
• Newsletters
• Business cards
• Certificates
• Invitations
• Social media
• Table of contents
• Magazine covers
• Price lists
• Album covers
• Book covers
• See All Templates

Researched by Consultants from Top-Tier Management Companies

Powerpoint Templates

Icon Bundle

Kpi Dashboard

Professional

Business Plans

Swot Analysis

Gantt Chart

Business Proposal

Marketing Plan

Project Management

Business Case

Business Model

Cyber Security

Business PPT

Digital Marketing

Digital Transformation

Human Resources

Product Management

Artificial Intelligence

Company Profile

Acknowledgement PPT

PPT Presentation

Reports Brochures

One Page Pitch

Interview PPT

All Categories

A Brief History of Presentations: How Bill Gates and Microsoft Monopolized All Cave Walls

It’s a warm summer evening. The year - 15,000BC. Far away in the caves of Lascaux (France), a primitive homo sapiens has just returned from his daily hunt. His mind in the zone: a creative zone. He lets his hands sway holding whatever colored stone or tool he has, and he paints and etches these murals of horned bulls and other such fauna; murals that will amaze archaeologists into thinking that the basic instinct of visual communication has been with us since time immemorial. Besides, these cave drawings are also a remarkable example of humans’ fascination with presentations.

Before we were clicking and typing away in our computer programs to make a colorful document, there were tools deep-rooted in a chapter of the history of presentations. Modern-day technology has made it possible to create stunning presentations and other visual content in PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Keynote; something that is a far cry from where it all began. In this blog, we trace the timeline of how we came around to making presentations and communicating business ideas and information with their help.

1. Cave paintings

The earliest evidence of human communication and projection of ideas can be traced back to prehistoric times in the form of cave paintings made by the early age humans in Lascaux. These spark the notion that the surface of the cave walls served as a huge slide to the human mind. The prehistoric man described what he may have seen in his surroundings and painted it onto this slide to bring the world’s first-ever presentation to life 20,000 years ago. Sure, he couldn’t write what he had in his mind for us to read, but he could do something even better. He projected what he had seen onto a surface, a concept that forms the basis of any modern-day PowerPoint presentation.

2. Hieroglyphs

Yes, we all went “Ooh” and “aah” when we first came across the drawings of Egyptian gods in the Hollywood classics The Mummy , The Mummy Returns, and The Scorpion King . If archaeological inspection has found anything while digging through the tombs of the revered rulers buried under the Egyptian tombs, it is that with the passage of time, reaching 3000BC, the human intellect had figured out how to use symbols to portray an actual story about those resting in the catacombs. This means that ancient Egyptians actually collected data about the emperors throughout their lives and then presented it to those visiting the tombs. As eyes spanned chamber after chamber, one could find ways to know the deceased through these hieroglyphs (or kill them if they were raised from the dead). Fascinating things lie under those pyramids, don’t they?

3. Bar chart

Transcending ahead to the mid-1300s, there was the advent of bar graphs or bar charts. Reportedly devised and represented in The Latitude of Forms , a bar chart projected a case of uniformly accelerated motion with the help of comparative bars. The classic bar chart quantified the qualities in a more decipherable manner that would give the audience more leverage in understanding the data quickly. With bar graphs, the human mind was able to extrapolate thoughts and data, a concept that modern-day infographics derive from.

4. Chalkboards and whiteboards

This will take all of us back to those old school days. But for some, the chalkboard or blackboard, and its fancy cousin, the whiteboard, emerged from the most rudimentary concepts of learning at school. In ancient times when classrooms had not come into being, students in early settlements used clay slabs as boards to write by etching them with a stylus (which evolved into the current pen or pencil).

In fact, later in the 1600s, teachers were piqued by the wonders a wooden slate and chalk can do for efficient learning. The result of that evolution became a much larger wooden slate hung against a wall and the use of chalk to write on it. Chalkboards thus became synonymous with the most economical way of giving presentations back then. The cheapness of wood and the utility of the duster or eraser made chalkboard a remarkable tool for teacher’s assistance. You could draw your mind to it and just erase it for the next chapter.

Later with the advent of marker ink and whiteboards, it became even more practical to project ideas and lessons without having to worry about coughing on the chalk dust. Thus, communication through whiteboards became a milestone in the history of presentations.

The modern-day presentations have whiteboards and chalkboards to thank for bringing in the need to develop flexible tools to manipulate and edit data in an adaptive manner.

5. Flip charts

Another means of communication whose origins can be traced back to classrooms are the paper flip charts. With printed posters fastened with metal clips, a flip chart enabled a teacher to present detailed information with diagrams. This was an improvement over the chalkboard usage as it eliminated the time lapse involved in copying the printed material onto a bigger surface. Textbooks were aligned according to the lecture content with each poster on the flip chart, which found several teaching applications in the medical courses.

In fact, so versatile were the flip charts that even businesses took notice and started using them to present ideas and pitch entrepreneurial avenues to investors. Slowly and steadily, the flip chart gave birth to poster cards. Businesses used all data and figures and presented them onto sequenced cardboard posters which the presenter went through one by one on a board affixed to a wooden or metallic stand. Soon, the presentations started becoming more refined and data-oriented than before. There was a tool with the presenter, and ideas just flew off the shelf with it.

Instinctively, this laid down the basic groundwork for the slideshows that we see in PowerPoint presentations today.

6. Projectors, filmstrip, and more

While technology and optical advancements kept on growing with the passage of time, it was not until the early 1800s that the first-ever projector was developed. Called by the name “the magic lantern”, it used a flaming candle to project transparencies onto a screen. A transparency was a thin transparent strip of paper or glass through which light can pass and the designs on the strip could be replicated onto a screen.

With the advent of electricity, the projector got modernized. Inventors started figuring out how the very first overhead projector could be used to effectively disseminate information in classroom or business meeting setups. Teachers, in fact, used overhead projectors with transparencies late into the 80s and even early 90s.

However, as the human tryst with knowledge and experimentation kept growing, so did the projector. The average business leveraged this to improve their meeting productivity and corporate communication strategy. With the camera and design technologies climbing new heights, soon the meeting room presentation started employing thin strips of negatives of written and organized information. These filmstrips were able to replicate the contents printed on the reel in the sequential form with each frame capturing each ‘slide’.

Consequently, the slide projector came into action in the 1950s. By this time, corporates had understood how visual content could lead to enhanced learning and information supply. A slide projector used specially designed slides that were prepared much before a meeting and then arranged onto the projector column that used a similar concept as the magic lantern. The only difference was that this time, the light source was powered by electricity. The presenter could present up to 80 slides on a specific topic. To enhance the functionality, however, the presenters also started using pre-recorded voiceovers that were played alongside the presentation for better dissemination of information. An outstanding and revolutionary example of this projector remains the Kodak Carousel Projector, which revolutionized the way lectures were delivered.

Then along came PowerPoint

A significant issue with the slide projectors was the amount of people and resources it went into preparing the slides. Not only that, while transparencies were cheaper than slides, these were not easy to make for an individual and needed a specialized designing resource at work. Moreover, lack of editing capacity and re-usability was also a key issue. A significant drawback was of the portability of the slides and the usual wear and tear and other glitches.

However, it was only due to these drawbacks that need arose for having presentation creating programs, which eventually catapulted the famous PowerPoint on the scene.

Launched in April of 1987, PowerPoint, initially named “Presenter”, was developed by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin while working at a Silicon Valley giant, Forethought Inc. The program was launched for Apple Macintosh primarily, and was pitched with its look and feel on the Microsoft Windows 1.0, which was yet to be released back then.

PowerPoint 1.0 was used for producing overhead transparencies in the Macintosh computer. It was only after Microsoft acquired PowerPoint for $14 million in July 1987 that its later versions were used for creating colorful slides that could be used in projectors. It was only after PowerPoint 3.0 was released for both Windows and Macintosh that it began picking up pace.

But before we delve into how PowerPoint became the unconquerable giant it is today , here are some fun facts that add to the run-up to its dominance.

• PowerPoint was Microsoft’s first significant acquisition in its days of competition with early Macintosh computer.
• Did you know that Bill Gates earlier had been for keeping PowerPoint as part of Microsoft Word and not as a separate application? In fact, the earliest versions of Office Suite did not even have PowerPoint as its part. It was only later in the early 1990s that it was sold as part of the Office bundle software.
• Within three years of its launch and acquisition by Microsoft, PowerPoint reported poor sales. It was only after launch of later versions of Windows after 1991 that the sales picked up and PowerPoint grabbed more than half the market share of computer graphic presentation creation software.

How PowerPoint made a difference

At the time of its inception and distribution, PowerPoint had brought together a revolution in the field of presentation in day-to-day official communication. Besides its application with a projector, there were several reasons why the software gathered much traction:

• PowerPoint enabled teachers, businessmen, entrepreneurs and other presenters to create slides at their own discretion and ability instead of waiting for a design vertical to do it for them.
• With each successive version, PowerPoint got more flexibility, intuition, and robustness. Not only could one represent facts and figures, but also could process data with bar graphs, pie charts, funnels, line graphs, and much more.
• Coupled with a portable computer and projector, one could present an entire business pitch deck like this to a group of audience in a meeting.
• It alleviated the pain points that presenters faced regarding portability and distribution. The slides could be printed on paper and even distributed with linked files on a CD-ROM. With the development of data storage technologies, it became even more portable and usable.
• PowerPoint’s linkage with Office Suite apps like Word and Excel added to its popularity. One could just input figures into the excel sheet of each PowerPoint file and then simply choose an infographic to represent that information.
• With each successive version, Microsoft kept improving upon its original concept of “slide master” (or templates as we call them) with additional design variants and more readymade slides to give users a head start in making an eye-catching presentation.
• PowerPoint also enabled users to embed a presentation into a webpage or a blog, or run it as a slideshow, or simply record it as a video.
• The latest version of PowerPoint is capable of churning out stunning animations, audio-visuals, infographics coupled with video insertion as well.

PowerPoint gave the user everything they needed to make eye-catching content. But the term “Death by PowerPoint” also stayed with it persistently. Then again, the point remained that it depended on the presenter to use it precisely and use it better. In fact, a classic example of impressing the audience right off the bat was this pitch deck by dating app Tinder. The focus remained on captivating the audience with an interesting pain point and giving the solution immediately. More needs to be seen on how human instinct for presenting and communicating information enables better and smarter usage of PowerPoint.

What the future holds     

Technology is never a bowl of water kept on a table. It is an ever-flowing river of faster and better things. With each wave of genius that methods of presentations have borne, the role of virtual reality and artificial intelligence has become even more prominent. In fact, Microsoft has teased how it plans to use artificial intelligence to make its Office Suite products including PowerPoint more efficient and user-friendly. With time, the tech giant has also forayed into Android and web applications, taking PowerPoint to the user’s fingertips.

While more and more web tools are also coming up (Google Slides, Prezi), the basic concept behind presentations remains efficient communication of ideas. It only remains to be seen how the man who etched murals in Lascaux will keep captivating the minds of his audience with ideas and information in the years to come.

Related posts:

• [Updated 2023] 25 Best Aviation PowerPoint Templates for the Air Transport Industry
• [Updated 2023] Top 25 Brainstorming PowerPoint Templates for Stimulating Out-of-the-box Thinking!
• 25 Best Modern PowerPoint Templates For Winning Presentations
• 25 Best Banking and Finance PowerPoint Templates For Financial Experts

Liked this blog? Please recommend us

Why Every Team Needs a Subscription to Our Collection of PowerPoint Templates... No! Seriously They Do!!

Battling Coronavirus: Dumbledore’s Wise Message Guides Us in These Dark Times

9 Beautiful Presentation Lessons from Kung Fu Panda

PowerPoint Tutorial #1- Cool Way to Create an Envelope for Your PowerPoint Presentation

This form is protected by reCAPTCHA - the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Digital revolution powerpoint presentation slides

Sales funnel results presentation layouts

3d men joinning circular jigsaw puzzles ppt graphics icons

Business Strategic Planning Template For Organizations Powerpoint Presentation Slides

Future plan powerpoint template slide

Project Management Team Powerpoint Presentation Slides

Brand marketing powerpoint presentation slides

Launching a new service powerpoint presentation with slides go to market

Agenda powerpoint slide show

Four key metrics donut chart with percentage

Engineering and technology ppt inspiration example introduction continuous process improvement

Meet our team representing in circular format

• Privacy and Cookie Policy
• Ancient History
• Our Free Lesson Plans and Classroom Activities
• Archaeology
• Early Humans
• Mesopotamia
• Free Use Clipart
• American History

Native Americans

• New World Explorers

13 Colonies

• Revolutionary War
• Creating a New Nation and US Constitution

Western Expansion

• The Civil War
• Industrial Revolution
• Roaring 20s

Great Depression

• World History
• African Kingdoms
• Middle Ages
• Renaissance Reformation and More
• Age of Exploration
• Holidays Around the World
• FAQ, About Us, Contact
• Show More Show Less
• Powerpoints

Free Presentations in PowerPoint format for American History

Explorers, Colonization

Salem Witch Trials

French and Indian War

Trouble in Boston, Road to Revolution - Events Leading Up to the American Revolution

Continental Congress

• Declaration of Independence

American Revolution

• Articles of Confederation

Constitution

Bill of Rights, Amendments

3 Branches of Government

Jefferson & New Republic

• Louisiana Purchase
• Lewis & Clark

Western Expansion, Pioneers

Oregon Trail

• War of 1812
• Monroe Doctrine

President Andrew Jackson - Champion of the Common Man or King Andrew? Revival & Reform

• Manifest Destiny
• Trail of Tears

Wild Wild West

Slavery and Industry

Underground Railroad

Brink of the Storm - Events Leading Up To the American Civil War

Reconstruction

Growth of the West

Transcontinental Railroad

Industrial Growth

Immigration, Factories

Populist Party

Gilded Age, Progressive Era

Woman's Suffrage Movement

Imperialism

World War I

Roaring 20's

Harlem Renaissance

1929 Wall Street Crash

FDR and the New Deal

World War II

Rebellion & Reform

Segregation

Civil Rights Movement

Cuban Missile Crisis

Modern Times

Wars and Actions

US Military

Patriotic Symbols

US Geography, Maps

Index of Lesson Plans and Classroom Activities for American History

Explore American History

For kids and teachers, creating a new nation.

• Native Americans in Olden Times
• The 13 Colonies
• Road to Revolution
• The American Revolution

Creating a New Government

• 1st and 2nd Continential Congress
• The Constitution
• 3 Branches - Executive, Legislative, Judicial
• Checks and Balances
• Bill of Rights
• Constitutional Amendments
• Jefferson and theNew Republic
• The Oregon Trail
• Wagon Trains
• Pioneer Life & Frontier Life
• The Alamo 1836, Texas Revolution
• Mexican - American War 1846-1848

Brink of the Storm and the Civil War

• Events Leading up to the American Civil War
• The Industrial Revolution
• American Civil War - 1861-1865
• People of the Civil War - Lincoln, Davis, Grant, Lee, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Dred Scott and more
• 13th Amendment ending slavery forever
• Reconstruction, Carpetbaggers & Scalawags
• 14th & 15th Amendments

Growth in the West

The nation grows, world war i, the great war, the roaring 20s, the great depression, slavery in america, segregation for kids - civil rights, us holidays.

GAMES! American History Games

QUIZZES - Interactive, with Answers for Student Review

For Teachers

Free for Classroom Use - American History Powerpoints and Presentations

American History Lesson Plans, Units, Activities, Projects for Teachers

Full American History Index for Kids and Teachers

Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Presentations > Presenting: PowerPoint, a retrospective

Presenting: PowerPoint, a retrospective

The world’s most popular presentation software (with up to 95% market share today) had humble beginnings when it was introduced in 1987. Back then, Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” was topping the charts, people were lining up to see The Princess Bride, and computers were evolving new capabilities in displaying colorful graphics — forever changing the way we interact with our digital assistants, as well as each other.

As Microsoft 365 celebrates ten years of Office apps on the cloud, let’s take a look at the history of PowerPoint , one of the cornerstones of Microsoft’s software suite.

What was the point of PowerPoint?

When PowerPoint came onto the scene, most group presentations in classrooms and conference rooms used overhead projectors. Remember those machines? They relied on transparent sheets that you printed or wrote text directly on, then illuminated by a bulb and aimed at a blank wall. They were bulky, displayed limited visuals, and oftentimes blurry or difficult to focus.

Tell your story with captivating presentations

Powerpoint empowers you to develop well-designed content across all your devices

Instead, PowerPoint was developed to take advantage of new graphics processing capabilities on computers. Its earliest versions could also produce overhead transparencies, but later versions would take advantage of 35mm slides and video projectors, keeping in line with new technological advancements.

A small Silicon Valley startup called Forethought developed PowerPoint 1.0 in 1987. Throughout its three-year development period it was called Presenter, but the name had been taken. One of the key figures at Forethought, Robert Gaskins, thought of “PowerPoint” from a sign he had seen on an airport runway: he imagined the software empowering the user to create and share compelling points in a presentation. The name stuck, and the software sold out upon its first production run.

Microsoft makes PowerPoint a core component of Office

PowerPoint’s popularity caught the attention of Microsoft executives, who visited Forethought shortly after its release. At first, it took them some effort to convince Bill Gates, who wanted to integrate presentation capabilities into Microsoft Word, which had been released four years earlier. But he eventually understood that this wasn’t just a software component, it was an entire genre of capabilities. He signed off on buying Forethought, bringing PowerPoint into the Microsoft fold.

It was a young Microsoft’s first significant software acquisition, for $14 million in 1988 (or $35.5 million today). By taking over Forethought’s headquarters in California, it gave Microsoft a much-needed presence in Silicon Valley.

PowerPoint was core to Microsoft right from the start. When Microsoft Office launched in 1989, what would become the world’s most popular productivity suite included just three programs: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

PowerPoint gets folded into Microsoft 365

When Office 365 debuted in 2013, it wasn’t just a software update. These key programs now lived on the cloud, made for mobile life: Sales of laptops were now outpacing desktops; smartphones were smarter and more powerful than ever; and people were doing the Harlem Shake and hitting up Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop.” Now, PowerPoint and others featured dedicated mobile versions for both Android and iPhone. You could create and edit a presentation from anywhere, all while using AI-driven tools to design and animate slides in new ways.

The cultural impact of PowerPoint

As much as PowerPoint has become a staple of business, scientific, and educational presentations, it’s also unlocked new and unexpected avenues of creativity. Here are some of the ways that PowerPoint has expanded into the public consciousness:

• WordArt and animations: You couldn’t miss these stylized texts in the 1990s and 2000s. WordArt added fun special effects like shadows, outlines, and stretches to create eye-catching titles, while PowerPoint’s bouncing, fade-in, and sunburst animations still remain popular.
• PowerPoint parties: Gather your friends and give your silliest presentation on something you love! It’s a twist on the elementary school presentations you might now be nostalgic for—and with drinks, costumes, friends, and fun themes, giving presentations in person or over Microsoft Teams has never been more fun.
• As an artistic medium: PowerPoint’s visual focus and animation capabilities have enabled creatives to express themselves, from users known as “the Prince of PowerPoint” to David Byrne of The Talking Heads. On TikTok, the #powerpoint hashtag has over 4.3 billion views, with user-created tutorials on how you can make your presentations more eye-catching, aesthetically pleasing, and creative.

Over the past four decades, PowerPoint has evolved to keep up with the way we use our laptops and mobile devices—and it’s more powerful, AI-driven, and full of design possibilities than ever.

Get started with Microsoft 365

It’s the Office you know, plus the tools to help you work better together, so you can get more done—anytime, anywhere.

Topics in this article

More articles like this one.

How to create an educational presentation

Use PowerPoint to create dynamic and engaging presentations that foster effective learning.

Five tips for choosing the right PowerPoint template

Choose an appropriate PowerPoint template to elevate your presentation’s storytelling. Consider time length, audience and other presentation elements when selecting a template.

How you can use AI to help you make the perfect presentation handouts

Learn how AI can help you organize and create handouts for your next presentation.

How to use AI to help improve your presentations

Your PowerPoint presentations are about to get a boost when you use AI to improve a PowerPoint presentation.

Everything you need to achieve more in less time

Get powerful productivity and security apps with Microsoft 365

Explore Other Categories

PowerPoint Version History and Evolution To This Day [2022]

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter

By Nikolay Kaloyanov

in Insights

2 years ago

Viewed 10,782 times

Spread the word about this article:

On April 20, 2022, PowerPoint celebrated its 35th birthday. Since then, a lot of things have happened in the software market – we have witnessed the dot com hype, the digital transformation, mobile phone usage increase, and lots of other technological advancements.

But one thing remained – the commanding presence of PowerPoint in the market that nowadays consists of many great presentation software . Has it always been the same? Let’s find out in this article.

Article Overview: 1. Date of Birth 2. Microsoft’s PowerPoint Acquisition 3. PowerPoint version history 3.1. PowerPoint 1.0 3.2. PowerPoint 2.0 3.3. PowerPoint 3.0 3.4. PowerPoint 4.0 3.5. PowerPoint 95 /or PowerPoint 7.0/ 3.6. PowerPoint 8.0/9.0/10.0 3.7. PowerPoint 11.0 3.8. PowerPoint 2007 3.9. PowerPoint 2010 3.10. PowerPoint 2013 3.11. PowerPoint 2016 3.12. PowerPoint 2019 3.13. PowerPoint 2021

1. Date of birth

Robert Gaskins, Co-Founder of PowerPoint. Source: IEEE Spectrum

Every major application has 2 moments that are remembered – the day when it’s launched and the year it goes viral. While the initial idea of the software came up in 1984, the program was launched 3 years later by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin.

Robert Gaskins was clear that the multi-billion presentation industry was dated, and it needed a change. That’s why he deeply believed personal computers would change the game. Initially named “Presented”, trademark issues led to the team picking the name “PowerPoint”.

Interestingly, it was made to work on Macintosh, and some of the initial funding came from no one but Microsoft’s arch-rival Apple. The name of the initial company made by Gaskins and Austin was Forethought Inc.

2. Microsoft’s PowerPoint Acquisition

When Microsoft acquired PowerPoint in 1987 for $14 million in cash(or around $35.63M current money), it was considered a bold move. PowerPoint was a unicorn and it was Microsoft’s first big acquisition.

Bill Gates’ company wasn’t a huge player at the time – in fact, it generated just under $200m in revenue in 1986, compared to Apple’s $1.9 billion and IBM’s staggering $51.25 billion.

Putting things into the perspective, Microsoft wasn’t a major player at the time, and PowerPoint 1.0 didn’t help much either. In fact, many were wondering if the huge investment would be worth it.

Well, 3 decades later it’s easy to summarize the influence that Microsoft PowerPoint has had. 89% of people are using PowerPoint, and over 35 million presentations are created a day .

3. PowerPoint version history

PowerPoint has undergone a metamorphosis over the years and that’s obvious. A lot of things have changed and clients have become more demanding. Let’s see how each version looks like.

Pre-Office Era

PowerPoint’s time before it was added to the “elite group” of Microsoft Office tools was very interesting. This is the time when the biggest advancements were made.

3.1. PowerPoint 1.0

Forethought released PowerPoint 1.0 in 1987. It had a black-and-white user interface and 9 menus, and it was available on Macintosh computers. It was a breakthrough, and quite understandably – received amazing feedback back in time.

3.2. PowerPoint 2.0

PowerPoint 2.0 was the first version that was launched after the acquisition. Needless to say, people expected to see changes, and they would do. The most notable change was the introduction of colors – with the second version users could edit color schemes and make more customizations. Also, a lot of other features (such as the “find and replace” tool) were introduced for the first time.

3.3. PowerPoint 3.0

In the history of PowerPoint, there was hardly any bigger update than the transition from 2.0 to 3.0. Most of the features we use today were created for MS PowerPoint 3.0 – including audio, video, and of course – the ability to add presentation templates . This version was the one to come up with slide transitions.

3.4. PowerPoint 4.0

This update didn’t see many big changes but has laid the foundation of what we know as Microsoft Office – a combination of apps that can be utilized by companies (Word, Excel, etc.).

Part of Microsoft Office

PowerPoint history could have been totally different if it was only offered as a standalone product, rather than as a part of something bigger. Fortunately, PowerPoint has been able to share some of the great fonts that were available in Word and import tables from Excel. But it hasn’t always been like that.

3.5. PowerPoint 95 /or PowerPoint 7.0/

PowerPoint 95 took a completely different path. Its code was rewritten in order to be optimized for Windows 95. On top of the improved user experience, presenters could now create more animations and add symbols and clipart. With the Microsoft toolbar, you could easily get access to other Microsoft applications, and for the first time, you could write meeting minutes, thanks to the “Meeting Minder” feature.

3.6. PowerPoint 8.0/9.0/10.0

We’ll combine these 3 versions, as they are the updates before Windows XP took place. We saw PowerPoint advance to a powerhouse. It finally was able to save as HTML files, and during this period the first attempts at collaboration were made (via SharePoint). Also, the first animated GIFs were given life.

3.7. PowerPoint 11.0

PowerPoint 11 is part of Windows Office 2003 and has played its role in the new era in PC software – Windows XP. It gave presenters more freedom regarding their notes, clock time, etc. Other than that, you could use a camera, and enjoy a better overall experience. The legacy 35mm slides were removed.

The end of binary formats

Although still fairly reliable, binary formats were not considered a new technology in 2007. That is why the launch of Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 has put an end to them. The new XML format (.pptx) could make presentations more efficient and interoperable with other pieces of software. Not only that, it would significantly increase the security of the files.

3.8. PowerPoint 2007

PowerPoint 2007 (or PowerPoint 12.0) brought a lot of changes. Apart from the one we mentioned above, there a whole lot of things that took place. Apparently, the UI became more mature and intuitive. Design-wise, new 3D effects, and rotations appeared, as well as SmartArt graphics that allowed you to create all sorts of diagrams. However, what really made PowerPoint 2007 shine is how it became print-friendly – with Print Preview and the support of PDF format. Last but not least – you could finally track presentation changes, and digitally sign documents.

3.9. PowerPoint 2010

PowerPoint 2010 (or PowerPoint 14.0) didn’t bring that many changes but rather improved the layout of 12.0. Still, this PowerPoint version brought a lot of goodies – such as importing videos from the Internet, and different embedding options – including video and audio, plus editing options.

3.10. PowerPoint 2013

PowerPoint 15.0 was rather an addition, than a separate program but it was the first time PowerPoint was available on the web, and collaborations were finally possible. On top of that, the first versions for iOS and Android were released. 2013 was a year to remember for the developers.

3.11. PowerPoint 2016

PowerPoint 2016 was another grand release. It provided an option to collaborate in real-time (something that wasn’t present in 15.0), presentation translations, and brand new Morph transitions that are smoother than standard animations.

3.12. PowerPoint 2019

PowerPoint 2019 doesn’t have the “wow” effect but this is because the previous versions have already delivered most of the great experience. In fact, a few awesome features appeared: vector file imports, inserting 3D models and 360-degree view, export as 4K video, and a great background removal feature.

3.13. PowerPoint 2021

This is the latest version of PowerPoint.  While it doesn’t add a lot of things, it finally equals its biggest rival Google Slides in terms of online collaboration . You can now co-author with other people, and write comments to which others can reply.

PowerPoint hasn’t always been the leading presentation software.  There was a certain period when Microsoft engineers were wondering if they have wasted their hard-earned money but it wasn’t long after when PowerPoint took off and became one of the most dominant niche programs of all time, and certainly one of the most iconic names in the digital era.

If you find our content valuable, why don’t you check some of our other PowerPoint-related articles:

• How to Insert GIFs into PowerPoint: The Quick Step-by-Step Guide
• How to Convert Your PowerPoint Presentation into Google Slides
• How to Get Started with PowerPoint + Guide and Resources

Add some character to your visuals

Cartoon Characters, Design Bundles, Illustrations, Backgrounds and more...

Like us on Facebook

Subscribe to our newsletter

Be the first to know what’s new in the world of graphic design and illustrations.

• [email protected]

Browse High Quality Vector Graphics

E.g.: businessman, lion, girl…

Related Articles

How to find good infographic topics that will get you the right audience, infographic design guide: 10 must-follow steps, 6 trends for the classrooms of the future: what will change, brief guide to choose right logo for your brand, what is facial animation software & how to get started with it, enjoyed this article.

Don’t forget to share!

• Comments (0)

Nikolay Kaloyanov

Nikolay is a copywriter with vast experience in Technology, Marketing, and Design. When he isn't playing with words and crafting texts, he watches sports and asks questions. He is a funny person...until you put him on a diet.

Thousands of vector graphics for your projects.

Hey! You made it all the way to the bottom!

Here are some other articles we think you may like:

21 of the Best Educational Cartoon Channels for Both Learning and Entertaining

by Lyudmil Enchev

25 Engaging Visual Content Marketing Examples Feat. Illustrations

by Iveta Pavlova

Top Adobe Photoshop Alternatives in 2022

Looking for design bundles or cartoon characters.

A source of high-quality vector graphics offering a huge variety of premade character designs, graphic design bundles, Adobe Character Animator puppets, and more.

• WEATHER ALERT Coastal Flood Advisory Full Story

Son of Holocaust survivor passes down father's story to the next generation

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, New Jersey (WPVI) -- Jeffrey Zeiger is the son of a Holocaust survivor; and, is devoted to sharing his father's stories as much as he can.

His father, Shelley Zeiger, was sheltered by a kind man named Anton Suchinski.

"The story involves a non-Jewish person who hid my family, buried them on the ground for 18 months. Six people got into that hole, 18 months without getting out," said Zeiger.

This inspiring story of survival was shared by Shelley Zeiger until he unfortunately passed away in 2013.

Afterwards, Jeff Zeiger decided to carry the responsibility to share this story for future generations.

He gives school presentations that not only recount the history of the tragic events; but also teach moral lessons.

"The story has a couple of lessons that are even valuable to kids today regarding bullying and treating people with respect. I think it's a message that resonates. I have thousands of letters from the kids that I've spoken to," said Zeiger.

Check out the video above to learn more and see his impact at Egg Harbor Township High School .

Related Topics

• COMMUNITY & EVENTS
• EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP
• COMMUNITY JOURNALIST
• SURVIVOR STORY
• HOMETOWN HERO

Broadway musical debuting in Del. highlights kindness of a small town

Phillies unveil tribute to honor team's trailblazers who made history

Organization works to preserve 125 years of history at Montco cemetery

This ultra-rare piece of Disney animation technology found in SF

Top stories.

Boy dies after being hit by driver in Del.; 12-year-old also injured

Pa. school district faces investigation over alleged antisemitism

Police holster-activated body cams aim to increase transparency

Violent crash leaves South Jersey animal sanctuary in ruins

Major changes coming to real estate industry | Here's what it means

Encampment in Kensington set to be cleared out by Philly officials

• 38 minutes ago

How Philadelphia police plan to crack down on aggressive driving

AccuWeather: A few showers and storms possible overnight

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

'Unfrosted': Jerry Seinfeld's movie about the fictional history of Pop-Tarts

NPR's A Martinez talks to comedian Jerry Seinfeld about his new Netflix film, Unfrosted . It's a made-up history of Pop-Tarts, and the cereal rivalry between Post and Kellogg's.

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

• Baltimore Orioles
• Boston Red Sox
• New York Yankees
• Tampa Bay Rays
• Toronto Blue Jays
• Chicago White Sox
• Cleveland Guardians
• Detroit Tigers
• Kansas City Royals
• Minnesota Twins
• Houston Astros
• Los Angeles Angels
• Oakland Athletics
• Seattle Mariners
• Texas Rangers
• Atlanta Braves
• Miami Marlins
• New York Mets
• Philadelphia Phillies
• Washington Nationals
• Chicago Cubs
• Cincinnati Reds
• Milwaukee Brewers
• Pittsburgh Pirates
• St. Louis Cardinals
• Arizona Diamondbacks
• Colorado Rockies
• Los Angeles Dodgers
• San Diego Padres
• San Francisco Giants

Sports. Honestly. Since 2011

Pirates rookie pitcher dominant in historic performance.

• May 5, 2024
• Carly Wimer

Despite not factoring into the decision, Pirates rookie pitcher Jared Jones delivered a historic performance in Saturday’s win against the Rockies. Given his historically great start to his career, it’s hard to believe that Jared Jones (2-3) has a losing record . 

After a modest showing in his last outing, the rookie right-hander was nearly perfect against the Rockies on Saturday. Jones went seven scoreless innings, allowing just one hit while striking out 10 batters and walking none. He got 17 whiffs on 96 pitches and reached 100 mph on his fastball before receiving a standing ovation as he walked off the mound.

His electric performance on Saturday put him in multiple categories of team and league history. Jones became the first pitcher in Pirates history to throw seven shutout innings with one hit, no walks, and 10 strikeouts. At 22 years and 237 days old, Jones is the second-youngest Pirates pitcher with 10 strikeouts and no walks in a game. He is also the first pitcher since 1901 with 50 strikeouts and five or fewer walks in his first seven career starts.

Pirates Rookie Jared Jones Makes History

Pittsburgh has been trying to manage his workload as a rookie who pitched just 126 ⅓ innings last season. Jones was ready when Pirates manager Derek Shelton let him pitch the seventh for the first time in his career.

“Obviously, I’ve had a short leash before, which was to protect me,” Jones said. “Having him let me go out for the seventh, yeah, it pumped me up.”

Jones added another pair of strikeouts in the seventh finishing one of the Pirates most dominant starts in recent memory.

Jared Jones is the first pitcher in Pirates history to record an outing of: 7.0+ shutout innings 1 or fewer hits allowed 10 strikeouts Zero walks pic.twitter.com/cW63RdzH3h — Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) May 4, 2024

Jared Jones now has four starts, seven strikeouts, and zero walks. On Saturday, he surpassed Stephen Strasburg  for the most strikeouts in a pitcher’s first seven career games.

“I’m just going out there and doing me,” Jones said afterward. “I’m sure I’ve had some spurts in my career where I’ve pitched just like this.”

Jack Suwinski delivered a pinch-hit walk-off in the ninth inning lifting the Pirates to a 1-0 victory over the Rockies. Suwinski snapped a 0-for-12 skid with his RBI single as the Pirates snapped a five-game losing streak. Jared Jones, Colin Holderman and David Bednar combined for Saturday’s one-hitter, marking Pittsburgh’s fourth win in their last 18 games.

Main Photo Credits: Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

Cleveland Guardians to Promote Top Prospect, Place Outfielder on Injured List

The Cleveland Guardians have been one of the best teams in Major League Baseball this season, thanks to a surprising offense. Unfortunately, a key piece

Padres Continue To Bolster A Strong Offense

The San Diego Padres feature one of the best offenses in Major League Baseball. However, that didn’t stop them from adding a two-time defending batting

San Diego Padres Ace Heads to the Injured List

Before Sunday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the San Diego Padres placed starter Joe Musgrove on the 15-day injured list with triceps tendinitis. In his

Five Player the Angels Should Consider Trading Early This Season

The Angels are having another tough open to the season here in 2024.  With Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon both going down with injuries, the

Send Us A Message

Advertisement

Robert parish tells epic larry bird tash talking tales with the boston celtics, share this article.

If ever there were a prize for the greatest trash-talker of all of the history of the Boston Celtics organization, it would undoubtedly go to Hall of Fame Celtics forward Larry Bird . And few men were there to see it live and in the flesh more than fellow Celtics Hall of Famer Robert Parish was.

Chief witnessed some truly epic examples of what the Hick From French Lick could do to opposing players with the power of his words backed up by preternatural on-court capabilities. And it was not all that long ago that Parish told some of those tales on the CLNS Media “Michael Coopers Showtime” podcast, itself hosted by a man who witnessed some of those games himself.

Take a look at the clip embedded below to hear those tales for yourself/

If you enjoy this pod, check out the “ How Bout Them Celtics ,” “ First to the Floor, ” and the many other New England sports podcasts available on the CLNS Media network.

Listen to the “ Celtics Lab ” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ

More .Analysis

Dialing in on matchups in the boston celtics' east semis series with the cleveland cavaliers, celtics center alum jared sullinger signs new deal with puerto rico's cangrejeros de santurce, previewing the boston celtics - cleveland cavaliers 2024 nba east semis, boston alum grant williams doesn't know when he became the bad guy, boston's kristaps porzingis expects to heal at a 'historic rate'.

Follow all of your favorite New England teams at Celtics Wire and Patriots Wire!

Celtics Lab 256: Cleveland Cavaliers emerge to face Boston in the East semis - what you need to know

Grant Williams reveals what it was like changing coaches from Ime Udoka to Joe Mazzulla

Boston big man Kristaps Porzingis on his injured calf, potential return

Former Celtics floor general Shane Larkin inks new 4-year deal with Anadolu Efes

Toughness means something different to the Boston Celtics

Want the latest celtics news.

Sign up for our newsletter to get updates to your inbox, and also receive offers from us, our affiliates and partners. By signing up you agree to our Privacy Policy

An error has occured

Please re-enter your email address.

Thanks for signing up!

You'll now receive the top Celtics Wire stories each day directly in your inbox.

Most Popular

The boston celtics have retired 24 jersey numbers - these are the players so honored, what to expect in boston's series against cleveland, porzingis explains why he's talking cautious approach with calf injury: 'i'm not super close yet', the nba's eastern conference playoffs are the boston celtics' to lose.

Please enter an email address.

Thanks for signing up.

Please check your email for a confirmation.

Something went wrong.

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

Tyla Wears a Sand Sculpture to the 2024 Met Gala

By Hannah Jackson

Tyla is trading water for sand at the 2024 Met Gala .

For her inaugural Met, the singer turned to Balmain to help her bring her fantastical look to life. Latching onto time as the operative word from the night’s Garden of Time dress code, the Balmain team fashioned Tyla a dress made of sand—a nod to the sands of time.

Olivier Rousteing, creative director of Balmain, was particularly intrigued by the idea of ephemerality for Tyla’s dress. “The inspiration behind this creation stemmed from a desire to redefine boundaries and transform a transient material into an everlasting masterpiece,” he tells Vogue. “The idea of sculpting a garment from something as ephemeral as sand ignited my imagination, and I could not be happier with the end result.”

“We were looking to do something creative, something completely different for my first Met Gala,” Tyla says. “So when Balmain showed me the idea and sketch, I just knew it was perfect. The idea was crazy, and I loved it. I’m excited and a little nervous, but I’m looking forward to having a fun night at The Met!”

The strapless dress was made to hug every inch of the singer’s body before flaring out into an organza mermaid train. Made with three colors of sand and mixed with micro crystal studs, the dress shines with Tyla’s every move. In another wink to the night’s theme, she will also carry the Balmain hourglass clutch.

Though it’s her first Met, Tyla is already proving herself a fashion force. For the 2024 Grammys , the South African singer donned a pistachio Atelier Versace number held together by Swarovski crystal-dotted fishnet. Now, Rousteing anoints her a true fashion star.

“Tyla pushes the boundaries of music in a similar way that I push the boundaries of fashion with Balmain,” he says. “I could not think of a better woman to wear this look that I feel is a manifestation of imagination, innovation, and the transformative power of art.”

By Lilah Ramzi

By Christian Allaire

See All the Celebrity Looks From the Met Gala 2024 Red Carpet :

Met Gala 2024 : See Every Celebrity Arrival, Read the Latest Stories, and Get Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Access Here

More on the 2024 Met Gala

The Best Dressed Stars From the 2024 Met Gala

Met Gala 2024 Red Carpet: See Every Celebrity Look, Outfit, and Dress

An Exclusive Look Inside the 2024 Met Gala

Where to Rewatch the 2024 Met Gala Livestream

Crystals! Skinny Brows! Wigs! The Best Beauty Looks from Met Gala 2024

Follow Along with Live Updates from the 2024 Met Gala

“Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” Is The Costume Institute’s Spring 2024 Exhibition

Never miss a Vogue moment and get unlimited digital access for just $2 $1 per month.