What Is a POTX File?

This is a presentation template created by PowerPoint and compatible with free presentation software

By
Tim Fisher
Photo of Tim Fisher, Lifewire GM and Writer
Tim Fisher
Senior Vice President & Group General Manager, Tech & Sustainability
  • Emporia State University
Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the SVP and General Manager of Lifewire.
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Updated on July 20, 2023

What to Know

  • A POTX file is a presentation template file created by PowerPoint.
  • Open one with PowerPoint and free alternatives, like OpenOffice Impress and SoftMaker FreeOffice.
  • Convert to PDF, PPT, and other formats with FileZigZag.

This article describes what a POTX file is, including how to open or convert one on your computer.

What Is a POTX File?

A file with the POTX file extension is a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation template file used to maintain the same layout, text, styles, and formatting across multiple PPTX files.

Like Microsoft's other Open XML files (e.g., PPTM, DOCX, XLSX), the POTX format uses a combination of XML and ZIP to structure and compress its data.

Prior to Microsoft Office 2007, PowerPoint used POT files to create similar PPT files.

POTX files in Windows 11

How to Open a POTX File

POTX files can be opened and edited with Microsoft PowerPoint, Planamesa NeoOffice for macOS, and with the free OpenOffice Impress and SoftMaker FreeOffice.

If you're using a version of PowerPoint older than 2007, you need to have Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack installed to open the file.

Microsoft's free PowerPoint viewers work with this format, too. Follow that link for more on how to access PowerPoint Online, plus a desktop program that's perfect if you just want to view a POTX file without PowerPoint.

If you find that an application on your PC does try to open the file, but it's the wrong application or you'd rather have another installed program open it, learn how to change which program opens POTX files by default in Windows.

How to Convert a POTX File

There are two main ways to convert a POTX file to a different file format like PPTX, PPT, OPT, PDF, ODP, SXI, or SDA.

Assuming one of the above programs that support the format is already installed, or you're using the online version of PowerPoint, the easiest solution is to open it there and then save it to a new format.

Another way is with a free file converter. My favorite way to do this is with FileZigZag because it runs online, so all you have to do is upload the POTX file to the website and choose a format to convert it to. It supports lots of export formats, including HTML, ODP, OTP, PDF, PPT, SDA, SXI, VOR, and others.

Still Can't Open It?

If your file doesn't open with the presentation software I mentioned above, then there's a good chance you're misreading the file extension. This can happen rather easily since so many file extensions look similar.

For example, OTX looks almost identical to POTX and could even appear at first glance to be related to PowerPoint in some way. In reality, OTX files are used with a program called theWord. OXT is another one that isn't related to PowerPoint.

PTX files are similar. If you follow that link, you can see that there are several formats that use that file extension, and none of them are even remotely related to PowerPoint.

If your file has an extension that isn't explained on this page, search for it on Google or at the top of this page (we might have an article on it) to learn more about the format and what program you need to have on your computer or other device to open/edit/convert it.

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