non-Powerpoint presentation.

[clarion]

I have to prepare presentations fir my upcoming interviews.  As the NHS is in Mr Gates'* steely grip, it will be Powerpoint.

I have OpenOffice Impress, and I believe I can save presentations as .ppt, but what will they look like on the laptop I'll be using?  Is there anything about the formatting I need to be aware of and avoid?

[Lonewolff]

I don't know of any issues, but if you happen to be on a windows machine you could always try it in powerpoint viewer (free from microsoft) to be sure it will work properly

[clarion]

I run XP on my PC, so that may be worth a go.  Thanks for the top tip

[border-rider]

I do this quite a lot, and mostly it's OK but sometimes the position of text boxes wanders.  I always run it through on a Win machine to be sure.

[unipaul]

Any chance of using OpenOffice.org to output to pdf then use acrobat in full-screen mode to do the presentation? Can't use wizzy animations but you'll be guaranteed to see what you expect.

[nuttycyclist]

If you want it checked then feel free to mail the .ppt to me. 

[sas]

Some of the text and graphics may be out of line when you open the ppt in MSOffice. I've found there's less likely to be differences if you can modify existing ppt that works in PowerPoint. Stay away from videos if you possibly can- they won't survive the conversion from odp to ppt, and you also need to check the right codecs are installed.

[pcolbeck]

I used OpenOffice Impress to prepare the PPT that I used to get my current job. It will be fine so longs as you follow the advice already given. Keep it simple with no video or sound and check it with the free PPT reader MS provide.