.POT File Extension
Microsoft PowerPoint Template (Legacy)
| Developer | Microsoft |
| Popularity |
3.4 | 26 Votes |
What is a POT file?
A POT file is a template created by PowerPoint, a program used to create slide show presentations. It contains the default layout, formatting, and styles for a slide show. POT files are used to create multiple .PPT files with the same formatting.
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You will most likely only come across a POT file if you are using PowerPoint 97 through 2003 or working with someone who uses those versions of the software. If you use PowerPoint 2007 or later and save your presentation as a template it will be saved in the Open XML format with the .POTX extension.
POT files come installed with PowerPoint allowing you to create presentations such as school reports, financial quarter summaries, or family photo slide shows from templates with pre-defined formatting and styles. You may also create your own custom templates for reproducing presentations specific to your needs.
How to open a POT file
You can open and edit POT files with Microsoft PowerPoint in Windows and macOS. PowerPoint is the best option for opening POT files because it fully supports the formatting of the template.
Several other presentation programs can open POT files but they may not fully support the formatting of the template. Alternative programs include Corel Presentations (Windows), Apple Keynote (Mac), Kingsoft Presentation (multiplatform), and Apache OpenOffice Impress (multiplatform). If you are a Mac user simply looking to view a POT file, you can use Apple Preview, which comes bundled with macOS.
You can also upload POT files to Google Slides, which is a free web (and mobile) application that allows you to view, edit, save, and convert the presentations.
Programs that open POT files
Portable Object Template
| Developer | N/A |
| Popularity |
3.1 | 13 Votes |
A POT file may also be a text-based object template that may be referenced by Java programs, GNU gettext, or other applications. It is often used to store properties and other basic information. Most commonly, POT files are used to create templates for user interface text translation files, referenced by GNU gettext.
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GNU gettext is a toolkit that helps programmers and translators produce user interface translation files. The toolkit allows developers to programmatically produce a POT file, which contains the original, untranslated version of each of a program's strings.
Developers can then copy their POT file and provide the copy to a translator, who fills the file in with translated strings. The file containing both the source and translated text is then saved as a .PO file. It is this file that the developer's program will reference when a user selects a different language.
How to open a POT file
You can open and edit a POT file in any text or source code editor, such as Microsoft Visual Studio Code (cross-platform) or GitHub Atom (cross-platform).