File formats and compatibility
Which files Nixt Slides opens and saves, how PowerPoint features are shown, and what is kept or rewritten when you save.
Files you can open
| Extension | What it is | Notes |
|---|---|---|
.pptx | PowerPoint presentation | The main format |
.pptm | PowerPoint macro-enabled presentation | Macros are never run. They are kept in the file. |
.potx | PowerPoint template | Opens the template file itself for editing |
.ppsx | PowerPoint show | Opens for editing, not straight into the slide show |
Nixt Slides checks what a file contains, not only its name. If a file named, for example, .docx actually contains a presentation, it opens, and the status bar says the file is named one thing but its contents are a presentation, so it has been opened as what it actually is.
Files in other formats
| File | What you see | What to do |
|---|---|---|
.ppt, .pps, .pot (PowerPoint 97–2003) | “Nixt Slides reads the modern Office formats (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) and not the pre-2007 binary ones. A .ppt file is a different format entirely, not an older version of the same one.” | Open it in PowerPoint and save it as .pptx. |
.odp (OpenDocument presentation) | A message that Nixt Slides does not read OpenDocument files | Export it as .pptx from the app that made it. |
| Word documents, spreadsheets and PDFs | “Nixt Slides opens presentations, and” the file name “is a” document, spreadsheet or PDF, with a suggestion naming the app for it | Open it in Nixt Writer, Nixt Sheets or Nixt PDF. |
| A password-protected presentation | “This file is not a readable Office package” followed by details | Remove the password in PowerPoint, save, and open the file again. |
| Other file types | “Nixt Slides has no editor for” followed by the extension | Use the app the file belongs to. |
More messages are explained in Troubleshooting.
Formats you can save
| Format | How | Notes |
|---|---|---|
PowerPoint presentation (.pptx) | Save, or Save a copy as › PowerPoint presentation | Opens in PowerPoint and other presentation apps |
PDF (.pdf) | Save a copy as › PDF | One page per visible slide |
Markdown outline (.md) | Save a copy as › Markdown outline | Slide titles, text and notes |
Plain text (.txt) | Save a copy as › Plain text | All the text, slide by slide |
The PDF, Markdown and plain-text formats are described in Printing and exporting.
Save keeps the kind of file you opened: a .pptm stays a macro-enabled presentation, a .potx a template and a .ppsx a show file.
How saving treats your file
A .pptx file is a package of many parts: slides, layouts, masters, the theme, pictures, charts, notes and more. When you save, Nixt Slides writes back the parts it manages and copies every other part of the package unchanged. Within a slide, a shape you didn’t change is written back exactly as it was read.
What’s kept when you save
Kept exactly as it was
- Parts of the file that Nixt Slides doesn’t manage: macros, embedded fonts, comments, SmartArt data, chart data, video and audio files, custom XML, handout masters, and slide masters and layouts you didn’t edit.
- Every shape on a slide that you didn’t change, including charts, SmartArt, equations, video, connectors and effects.
- A slide’s animations, unless you changed animations on that slide.
- The shapes inside a group, when you only move or resize the group.
- The theme’s effect style, and its fonts for East Asian and complex scripts.
- Slide timings (“advance after” times).
Written from your changes
These are written from the presentation as it is in Nixt Slides each time you save.
| Item | What’s written |
|---|---|
| Shapes you add or change | Position, size, rotation, flipping, preset shape, solid or linear gradient fill, outline colour and width, outer drop shadow, and text |
| Text in shapes you change | Paragraph indent level, alignment, bullets (with their character) or numbering (as 1., 2., 3.), line spacing and space before and after; bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, size, font, colour and web links |
| Tables you change | Cell text, merged cells, column widths, row heights and cell shading, with thin grey borders |
| Slide transitions | If you didn’t change the type: the transition exactly as the file had it, with its new timing. If you changed the type: the new type, the timing, and the old speed and sound |
| Animations on a slide where you changed them | Entrance effects with their effect, start, length, delay and order |
| Speaker notes | The notes text, one paragraph per line |
| The slide master, if you edited it | Its items; its placeholders are kept unchanged |
| Theme | The twelve colours of the colour scheme and the Latin heading and body fonts |
| Presentation | The slide order, slide size, hidden slides, each slide’s own number, and the sections each slide belongs to |
| Document properties | Title, subject, author, keywords, description, category, last modified by and the created date are kept; the modified date is set to the time you save |
Charts and other objects you move
A chart, connector line, SmartArt graphic, equation or other object shown as a labelled box keeps everything it contains when you move it, resize it, line it up, change the slide size or duplicate its slide. Only its position, size, rotation and flipping are changed — and, for a connector line, the line colour and width a Quick style gives it.
On a duplicated slide, each chart and SmartArt graphic is saved as a copy of its own, so changing one later in PowerPoint doesn’t change the other. Pictures are shared between the two slides.
How PowerPoint features are shown
| Feature | Shown in Nixt Slides | Kept on save (if you don’t change it) |
|---|---|---|
| Text, bullets and numbered lists | Yes | Yes |
| Theme colours, including lighter and darker shades | Yes | Yes |
| Theme fonts and fonts set on text | Yes, when the font is installed | Yes |
| Text size inherited from the layout, master or the presentation’s default text style | Yes | Yes |
| Text colour inherited from the layout, master or the presentation’s default text style | Yes | Yes |
| Fill, outline and text colour from a shape’s style, as on shapes inserted in PowerPoint | Yes | Yes |
| Placeholders that take their position and size from the layout or master | Yes | Yes, taking them from the layout |
| Items on the slide master and layouts | Yes | Yes |
| Solid colour backgrounds | Yes | Yes |
| Pictures | Yes | Yes |
| Rectangles, rounded rectangles and ellipses | Yes | Yes |
| Linear gradients | Yes | Yes |
| Outer drop shadows | Yes | Yes |
| Rotation and flipping | Yes | Yes |
| Groups, including nested groups | Yes | Yes |
| Connector lines | As straight lines | Yes |
| Tables, merged cells, cell shading | Yes | Yes |
| Column, bar, line, area, pie, doughnut and combination charts | Yes | Yes |
| Other charts | As a labelled box | Yes |
| SmartArt, equations and other embedded objects | As a labelled box | Yes |
| The eight transitions on the Transitions tab | Yes | Yes |
| Entrance animations | Yes | Yes |
| Web links | Yes | Yes |
| Speaker notes | Yes, as plain text | Yes, as plain text |
| Hidden slides | Yes | Yes |
| Slide timings | Yes | Yes |
| Macros | Never run | Yes |
| Date and slide-number fields | The text saved in the file | Yes |
Opening a saved file in PowerPoint
Files saved by Nixt Slides are standard presentations. A few things to check when you share a file with someone using PowerPoint:
- Pictures are stretched to fill their frame in PowerPoint. A picture you insert gets a frame with its own proportions; if you resize the frame, keep its proportions. See Add a picture.
- Fonts must be installed on the other computer to look the same.
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