<P> A presentation program is supposed to help both the speaker with an easier access to his ideas and the participants with visual information which complements the talk . There are many different types of presentations including professional (work - related), education, entertainment, and for general communication . Presentation programs can either supplement or replace the use of older visual - aid technology, such as pamphlets, handouts, chalkboards, flip charts, posters, slides and overhead transparencies . Text, graphics, movies, and other objects are positioned on individual pages or "slides" or "foils". The "slide" analogy is a reference to the slide projector, a device that has become somewhat obsolete due to the use of presentation software . Slides can be printed, or (more usually) displayed on - screen and navigated through at the command of the presenter . The slides can also be saved as images of any image file formats for any future reference . Transitions between slides can be animated in a variety of ways, as can the emergence of elements on a slide itself . Typically a presentation has many constraints and the most important being the limited time to present consistent information . </P> <P> Many presentation programs come with pre-designed images (clip art) and / or have the ability to import graphic images, such as Visio and Edraw Max . Some tools also have the ability to search and import images from Flickr or Google directly from the tool . Custom graphics can also be created in other programs such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator and then exported . The concept of clip art originated with the image library that came as a complement with VCN ExecuVision, beginning in 1983 . </P> <P> With the growth of digital photography and video, many programs that handle these types of media also include presentation functions for displaying them in a similar "slide show" format . For example, Apple's iPhoto allows groups of digital photos to be displayed in a slide show with options such as selecting transitions, choosing whether or not the show stops at the end or continues to loop, and including music to accompany the photos . </P> <P> Similar to programming extensions for an operating system or web browser, "add ons" or plugins for presentation programs can be used to enhance their capabilities . For example, it would be useful to export a PowerPoint presentation as a Flash animation or PDF document . This would make delivery through removable media or sharing over the Internet easier . Since PDF files are designed to be shared regardless of platform and most web browsers already have the plugin to view Flash files, these formats would allow presentations to be more widely accessible . </P>

A file created by microsoft powerpoint is usually called a ____