What Is a PPTM File?

Open and edit a macro-enabled PowerPoint presentation for free with WPS Office, Google Slides, or PowerPoint Online

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 June 13, 2023

What to Know

  • A PPTM file is a macro-enabled presentation file created by PowerPoint.
  • View and edit one for free with WPS Office, PowerPoint Online, or Google Slides.
  • Convert to PDF with FileZigZag, or use PowerPoint to save to PPTX, MP4, etc.

This article explains what PPTM files are, all the different ways you can view or edit one, and how to convert the slideshow into a different format like PDF or PPTX, or a video format like MP4 or WMV.

What Is a PPTM File?

A file with the PPTM file extension is a Microsoft PowerPoint Open XML macro-enabled presentation file. They're comprised of pages/slides that hold text, media files like images and videos, graphs, and other things pertinent to a presentation.

Like PowerPoint's PPTX format, PPTM files use ZIP and XML to compress and organize the data into a single file. The difference between the two is that PPTM files can execute macros, while PPTX files, although they might contain them, can not.

PPTM files in Windows

PPSM is a macro-enabled file similar to PPTM, but is read-only by default and immediately starts the slideshow when opened. PPTM files let you edit the contents right away after double-clicking the file.

How to Open a PPTM File

If you just need a super quick way to view the contents of the file without any editing or conversion tools, and without needing to make a user account, use GroupDocs.

However, for full editing power, use Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 or newer. If you have an older version, you can still open the file if you have the free Microsoft Compatibility Pack installed.

PPTX files can run scripts that have the potential to be malicious, so it's important to take great care when opening executable file formats like these that you may have received via email or downloaded from websites you're not familiar with. See our List of Executable File Extensions for a listing of file extensions to avoid and why.

PowerPoint Online is one of Microsoft's free PowerPoint viewers that fully supports opening PPTM files as well as saving back to the same format. Files you open there are stored in OneDrive.

Similar to PowerPoint's online editor is Google's, called Slides. It's totally free to view and edit PPTM files. Files you upload there are stored on Google Drive.

The free WPS Office works with this format as well, letting you open, edit, and save to various PowerPoint formats. That same company has an online version at WPS Cloud where you can view and edit the file.

Another way to open (but not edit) PPTM files without PowerPoint is to use Microsoft's free PowerPoint Viewer program.

The following free software can open and edit PPTM files as well, but they make you save the file to a different format (not back to .PPTM): OpenOffice Impress, LibreOffice Impress, and SoftMaker FreeOffice Presentations.

If you just want the images, audio, and video content from the file, but you don't have a PPTM reader or editor installed, you can open the file as an archive with 7-Zip. Look in the ppt > media folder for those types of files.

How to Convert a PPTM File

The easiest way to convert the file is to use one of the PPTM viewers/editors from above. Once the file is open in the program, you can save it to another format like PPTX, PPT, JPG, PNG, PDF, and many others.

To convert PPTM to an MP4 or WMV video, use PowerPoint's File > Export > Create a Video menu.

WPS Office's desktop application is one way you make image files out of the slides.

You can also use the free, online file converter FileZigZag to convert the slideshow to a variety of formats, including PDF, ODP, POT, SXI, HTML, and EPS.

Still Can't Open It?

This file extension closely resembles the PTM extension used for MapPoint map files and PolyTracker module files. If your file doesn't work with the presentation software mentioned above, check the file extension again, because it might only work with a program like Winamp (if it's a PTM file).

Another example of file extensions that can easily be mixed up for a PPTM file is PTP and PTX, which are both related to Avid Pro Tools.

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