PPS File (.pps): What It Is, How It Works + Sample Files

The basics

What is a PPS file?

A PPS file is a PowerPoint presentation saved as a PowerPoint Show in the binary format of PowerPoint 97 to 2003. Double-click it and PowerPoint starts the full-screen slide show at slide 1, without showing the editor; press Esc and it closes. It was the way to send a finished deck that should be watched rather than edited.

PowerPoint 2007 replaced it with PPSX, which is built on the newer XML format. Current versions of PowerPoint and LibreOffice still open PPS files, and the format inside is exactly PPT.

It's a PPT with another extension. Slides, notes, masters and pictures are stored the same way.
It isn't locked. A show only opens in Slide Show view by default; anyone can open it for editing.
It can contain macros under the same extension, unlike a PPSX.

Anatomy

What's inside a PPS file

A PPS file is a PPT file: an OLE2 compound file with the presentation as a tree of records in a stream called PowerPoint Document. This is our sample-deck.pps, four 16:9 slides, part by part, and the proof that it's the same file as sample-deck.ppt.

sample-deck.pps (hex and records)

$ xxd -l 80 sample-deck.pps   (hex columns; first 80 of the 512 header bytes)
00000000: d0cf 11e0 a1b1 1ae1 0000 0000 0000 0000
00000010: 0000 0000 0000 0000 3e00 0300 feff 0900
00000020: 0600 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0200 0000
00000030: ac00 0000 0000 0000 0010 0000 ab00 0000
00000040: 0100 0000 feff ffff 0000 0000 ae00 0000

Streams (root class 64818D10-4F9B-11CF-86EA-00AA00B929E8)
  PowerPoint Document               70,006 bytes
  Pictures                          15,378 bytes
  Current User                          44 bytes
  \x05SummaryInformation               436 bytes
  \x05DocumentSummaryInformation       472 bytes
  \x01CompObj 57 bytes ("MS PowerPoint 97"), \x01Ole 20 bytes

Current User stream:
00 00 f6 0f 24 00 00 00 14 00 00 00 5f c0 91 e3 52 11 01 00 …

PowerPoint Document stream, top-level records:
offset  record header             record
000000  0f 00 e8 03 4a 08 00 00   DocumentContainer: slide 7680 × 4320
000852  0f 00 f8 03 2c 11 00 00   MainMasterContainer (11 in a row)
00bc88  0f 00 f0 03 40 07 00 00   NotesContainer: the notes master
00c3d0  0f 00 ee 03 80 05 00 00   SlideContainer (4 in a row)
00ffe8  0f 00 f0 03 74 04 00 00   NotesContainer (4, one per slide)
0110f2  00 00 72 17 58 00 00 00   PersistDirectoryAtom
011152  00 00 f5 0f 1c 00 00 00   UserEditAtom

$ cmp sample-deck.pps sample-deck.ppt && echo identical
identical

1d0cf 11e0 a1b1 1ae1
The OLE2 signature
The first 8 bytes of every Compound File Binary file: PPT, PPS, POT, DOC, XLS and more. The file command reports "Composite Document File V2 Document" for both samples.
23e00 0300 feff 0900
Version and byte order
Minor version 0x3E, major version 3 (512-byte sectors), little-endian, sector size 2⁹ = 512. The PPT page explains the header field by field.
364818D10-4F9B-…
The class ID
The class registered for PowerPoint presentations, the same in a PPT. The \x01CompObj stream says MS PowerPoint 97 in both too.
4PowerPoint Document · Current User
The required streams
The records of the presentation, and the pointer to its latest edit. Pictures holds the drawn PNG on slide 3.
55f c0 91 e3
The Current User token
0xE391C05F means the file isn't encrypted. The next 4 bytes, 0x00011152, are the offset of the UserEditAtom, the last record in the main stream.
6DocumentContainer: slide 7680 × 4320
The document
Slide size in master units, 576 per inch: 13.333 × 7.5 inches, 16:9. The DocumentContainer also holds the slide lists and the slide-show settings PowerPoint uses when it plays the file.
7MainMasterContainer · SlideContainer · NotesContainer
Masters, slides and notes
LibreOffice wrote one master per layout of the source deck, then the four slides and their four notes pages, each as a container of shape records.
8PersistDirectoryAtom · UserEditAtom
The edit history
The persist directory maps object IDs to byte offsets; the UserEditAtom points to it. Nothing here, or anywhere else, says "show".
9identical
The proof
cmp finds no difference between the PPS and the PPT that LibreOffice wrote from the same deck. The extension is the only thing that makes this file a show.

Under the hood

What makes a PPS different from a PPT

As far as we could find, nothing inside the file. Unlike Word, whose binary templates have a template bit in the file header (see DOT), the PowerPoint binary format has no field that we, or the format registries, could use to tell a show from a presentation:

Our samples are identical. LibreOffice 24.2 saved the same deck with its "MS PowerPoint 97 AutoPlay" filter (.pps) and its "MS PowerPoint 97" filter (.ppt); the two files match byte for byte, all 90,624 of them.
PRONOM can't tell them apart. The UK National Archives' format registry says it "cannot differentiate" PowerPoint 97-2003 presentations and shows by signature, so PPS files are likely to be identified as PPT.
The MIME type is the same. Both are application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.

So programs go by the extension. In our tests, LibreOffice detected sample-deck.ppt renamed to .pps as a PowerPoint 97–2003 AutoPlay file, and the PPS renamed to .ppt as an ordinary presentation. Renaming a .pps to .ppt is a legitimate way to open it for editing, which isn't true of PPSX and PPTX, where a content type inside the file has to change too.

In LibreOffice

LibreOffice's filter for .pps is called MS PowerPoint 97 AutoPlay ("PowerPoint 97–2003 AutoPlay" in the Save As list). In its configuration, it carries a flag that starts the presentation when the file is opened. To write one on a server: soffice --headless --convert-to 'pps:MS PowerPoint 97 AutoPlay' deck.pptx.

Comparison

PPS vs PPSX, PPT and PDF

	PPS	PPSX	PPT	PDF
Opens as	Slide show	Slide show	Editor	Pages in a viewer or browser
Structure	OLE2 binary records	ZIP of XML and media	OLE2 binary records	PDF objects and streams
What marks a show	The extension only	Main part content type	(not a show)	(no show type)
Macros	Yes, same extension	No (`.ppsm` instead)	Yes, same extension	No (but JavaScript)
Video	Linked only	Embedded or linked	Linked only	Rarely played
Open standard	Documented, not a standard	Yes (ISO/IEC 29500)	Documented, not a standard	Yes (ISO 32000)

Convert a PPS to PPSX to keep it as a show in the current format, or to PPTX to edit it. If people only need to see the slides, a PDF works on any device.

How to

How to open, edit and convert a PPS file

Watch it: double-click it. PowerPoint starts the show; Esc ends it.
Edit it: start PowerPoint and use File, Open to open the .pps, or drag it onto an open PowerPoint window. Renaming a copy to .ppt also works, because only the extension differs.
Convert to PPTX or PPSX: open it for editing, then File, Save As, PowerPoint Presentation or PowerPoint Show. On a server: soffice --headless --convert-to pptx old.pps.
Convert to PDF: soffice --headless --convert-to pdf old.pps, or File, Export in PowerPoint.
LibreOffice Impress (free, Windows, Mac, Linux) opens and saves PPS files.
Keynote and Google Slides: Apple's list of files Keynote opens names only PPTX, and Google's list of files it converts names PPT and PPTX. Rename a copy to .ppt or convert it first.
In a browser: browsers can't display PPS files, so a link to one downloads it.

Troubleshooting

Common PPS problems and how to fix them

I can't edit it: it always starts the show. Open it from inside PowerPoint with File, Open, or rename a copy to .ppt.
A video shows as a black box. The binary format can only link to video files. The video has to be next to the show at the path the link expects; old forwarded shows have usually lost it.
Black bars at the sides. Old shows are usually 4:3, made for the screens of their time.
Office blocks it, or opens it read-only. Protected View applies to shows from email and the internet, and company policy can block old binary formats in the Trust Center (File Block Settings).
My file-type detector calls it a PPT. It's right about the contents: there's nothing else to detect. Check the extension if the difference matters.

Security

Is a PPS file safe to open?

PPS files deserve more care than most presentations. They can hold VBA macros without any sign in their name, they skip the editor and go straight to a full-screen show, and the old binary format has needed security fixes over the years. In 2017, Trend Micro described spam with PPS and PPSX attachments that used a mouse-over action: hovering over a link on the slide, then accepting PowerPoint's prompt, ran PowerShell that downloaded malware.

Macros: Office on Windows blocks macros in files from the internet by default; the PPT page explains it.
Action settings on shapes can start programs or open web pages on click or hover. PowerPoint asks first.
Embedded OLE objects can hold other files that run when activated.
Passwords in the binary format use RC4, far weaker than the AES encryption of PPSX.

Don't open PPS attachments you weren't expecting, keep Protected View on, and refuse prompts to enable content or run programs. Our samples contain no macros, actions or embedded objects.

Free downloads

Sample PPS files to download

Free sample PowerPoint 97-2003 Show files for testing uploads, file-type detection and converters. python-pptx built the deck and LibreOffice 24.2 wrote it; we then copied every stream into a fresh compound file without the 440 KB preview bitmap LibreOffice puts in the summary stream, as for our PPT samples. Both files were checked with olefile and converted to PDF. None contains macros.

sample-deck.pps · 88.5 KBDownload

Browsers can't show this kind of file in a page. Download it to open it in the app it belongs to.

What's inside sample-deck.pps

Browsers can't preview PPS files, so download it and double-click it: PowerPoint starts the show. These are the parts to look for.

Four 16:9 slides
A title slide, bullets with two levels, a picture and a table. Slide size 7680 × 4320 master units in the DocumentAtom.
A picture drawn by code
Slide 3: a 1280 × 720 PNG of a projector screen, stored as a BLIP record in the Pictures stream.
A table
Slide 4: in the binary format, a table is a group of shapes, one per cell, plus its border lines.
Speaker notes
One notes page per slide, as NotesContainer records. They don't show in the slide show itself.
Document properties
Title "Sample PPS file", subject, keywords and the comment "Free sample from 99helpers.com/file-types/pps", in \x05SummaryInformation.
No show marker
There's nothing to find: the bytes are the same as sample-deck.ppt. Only the .pps extension makes it a show.

All sample PPS files

Four-slide show
sample-deck.pps · 88.5 KB (90,624 bytes)
A 16:9 PowerPoint 97-2003 Show: title, bullets, a drawn picture, a table, speaker notes on every slide and slide numbers.
- Checking that a viewer or upload filter handles old shows
- Testing converters with a binary show as input
Download
The same file as a PPT
sample-deck.ppt · 88.5 KB (90,624 bytes)
Saved from the same deck with LibreOffice's PowerPoint 97–2003 filter. It's byte-for-byte identical to sample-deck.pps; only the name differs.
- Proving that only the extension makes a show
- Testing apps that should open one as a show and the other in the editor
Download

Ways to test with them

Detection: both files start with D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1 and have the same streams. A detector can only report the PPS as a show by looking at its extension.
Opening behaviour: open both in the app you're testing. The .pps should start the slide show and the .ppt should open the editor, although the bytes are the same.
Upload filters: both share the MIME type application/vnd.ms-powerpoint. A filter that treats shows differently has to use the extension.
Conversion: convert sample-deck.pps to PPTX, PPSX or PDF and check the picture, the table, the notes and the slide numbers.

Free to use for testing, teaching and demos, commercially or not, with no attribution needed. A link back to this page is always appreciated.

Put it online

Have a PPS file? Give it a link.

Drop a PowerPoint 97-2003 Show on 99helpers and it gets its own link. Browsers can't play PPS files, so visitors download it and PowerPoint starts the show; to have the slides viewed in the browser, upload a PDF version.

Put a PPS file online

Questions

PPS files, frequently asked

What is a PPS file?

A PowerPoint 97-2003 Show: a presentation in the old binary PowerPoint format that opens directly as a full-screen slide show.

What's the difference between PPS and PPT?

Only the extension. The contents use the same format, and our samples are byte-for-byte identical. PowerPoint starts the show for a .pps and opens the editor for a .ppt.

How do I edit a PPS file?

Start PowerPoint and use File, Open to open it, or rename a copy to .ppt. Then save it as a PPTX to keep an editable copy in the current format.

What's the difference between PPS and PPSX?

PPS is the binary show format of PowerPoint 97 to 2003 and can contain macros. PPSX is the XML-based show format of PowerPoint 2007 and later and can't; macro shows use PPSM.

How do I convert a PPS to PPSX, PPTX or PDF?

Open it for editing in PowerPoint and use Save As or Export. With LibreOffice: soffice --headless --convert-to pptx file.pps, or pdf instead of pptx.

Why won't the video in an old PPS play?

The binary format only links to video files. If the video file didn't travel with the show, at the path the link expects, it can't play.

Can a PPS file contain a virus?

Yes. A PPS can hold VBA macros, embedded objects and actions that start programs, and spam campaigns have used shows for this. Don't enable content in shows you didn't expect.

Related formats

Other file types explained

PPT file PPSX file POT file PPTX file PPSM file PDF file All file types

Keep going

Host a PPS file

Put a PowerPoint 97-2003 Show online at its own address.

Share a PPS file

Send a slide show as a link instead of an attachment.

Host a presentation

Publish slides people can open from a link.

Sources

Last reviewed 27 October 2026.