Use compatibility mode to work with different versions of PowerPoint

Turn on compatibility mode

Saving your PowerPoint presentation (.pptx) as an earlier version, such as PowerPoint 97-2003 (.ppt), automatically turns on compatibility mode.

1. Open a PowerPoint presentation.

2. On the File tab, click Save As, and then click Browse.

3. In the Save As dialog box, in the Save as type list, click PowerPoint 97-2003 Presentation (*.ppt).

4. Click Save.

   Note: After you click Save, you might get a compatibility checker alert like the one below, telling you which features might be lost or degraded when saving the presentation in the earlier version.

   

5. Open the file in an earlier version of PowerPoint.

   Note: To find out which PowerPoint features could change or become unavailable, see PowerPoint 2013 and 2016 features behave differently in earlier versions.

Turn off compatibility mode

To turn off compatibility mode, simply save the presentation in PowerPoint (.pptx) format.

1. Open the presentation in PowerPoint.

2. On the File tab, click Save As, and then click Browse.

3. In the Save As dialog box, in the Save as type list, click PowerPoint Presentation (*.pptx).

4. Click Save.

Run Compatibility Checker

To ensure that your presentation does not have compatibility issues that cause reduced functionality or fidelity in earlier versions of PowerPoint, you can run the Compatibility Checker. The Compatibility Checker finds any potential compatibility issues in your presentation and helps you create a report so that you can resolve them.

1. Open the presentation that you want to check for compatibility.

2. Click the File > Info, and then next to Inspect Presentation, click Check for Issues > Check Compatibility.

   Note: To check your presentation for compatibility every time that you save it, in the Microsoft PowerPoint Compatibility Checker dialog box, select the Check compatibility when saving in PowerPoint 97-2003 formats check box.

Convert your presentation to a later version of PowerPoint

If you no longer need to work in compatibility mode because people you work with have upgraded to later version or you want the full functionality of PowerPoint, you can convert a PowerPoint 97–2003 presentation to a file formatted for your version of PowerPoint. Converting saves the presentation as a .pptx file.

1. In PowerPoint, open the presentation that you want to convert to the most recent PowerPoint format.

   The presentation automatically opens in compatibility mode.

2. Click the File > Info.

3. Next to Compatibility Mode, click Convert., and then click Save in the Save As dialog box.

See also

About compatibility mode in PowerPoint