Problems Opening PPS and PPT Files in Email

Do you get a lot of emails that have PPT or PPS file attachments in them? If you do, chances are you've seen the following error message .

"This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the Folder Options panel."

Let me explain the problem and offer a solution.

First, in case you were wondering, PPT and PPS files are PowerPoint files. Since these files were created in PowerPoint to begin with, you will either need to have PowerPoint or the PowerPoint Viewer installed on your computer to see them.

Folks who have Microsoft Office installed on their computer, may or may not have PowerPoint installed. To check, click START and then ALL PROGRAMS and look for PowerPoint in the list of programs (be sure to check the Microsoft Folder too). When looking for "Powerpoint" in the list of programs, look for "PowerPoint Viewer" too.

Folks who don't have PowerPoint installed, can download and install the free PowerPoint viewer.
Once the program is installed, you'll be able to open PPS and PPT files. However .... you probably still won't be able to open them from email without taking an extra step.

For some reason, many email programs (like Outlook Express) have trouble recognizing these files and associating them with the PowerPoint Viewer - even when you configure the software correctly.

The way to work around this is to save the attachment to your desktop first, then open the file.

Don't try and open PPT and PPS attachments while in email. This will usually result in the error message above. Just download (or save) the attachment to your desktop first. Then you can minimize your email and double click the file's icon on your desktop to open it.

How to Open Emails with PowerPoint Attachments

One of the common email problems folks have is opening PowerPoint (or .pps and .ppt) attachments. There's a lot of cool stuff in PowerPoint format which is often forwarded to others via email, but if you don't have PowerPoint on your computer, you can't open the attachments.

Luckily, Microsoft provides an easy fix for this problem. You can download and install a free PowerPoint Viewer from the Microsoft website. This viewer will allow to view and print PowerPoint presentations, but not create or edit them. For most folks, this is fine.

You can get the PowerPoint viewer by clicking here, or by searching "PowerPoint viewer" in Google.

It's also worth noting that Microsoft also provides free viewers for Word and Excel which you can download and install. Again, these viewers allow you to open, view and print Word and Excel documents (but not create or edit them).

You can get the Word Viewer by clicking here.

You can get the Excel Viewer by clicking here.

Keep in mind that if you already have Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint installed on your computer, then you don't need to download and install the viewers.

Some new computers come with the PowerPoint viewer already installed, so it's a good idea to check your programs list before downloading and installing it.