Editing Microsoft PowerPoint (section)

===Creation at Forethought (1984–1987)===
PowerPoint was created by [[Robert Gaskins]] and [[Dennis Austin]] at a software [[Startup company|startup]] in [[Silicon Valley]] named [[Forethought, Inc.]]<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gomes |first=Lee |date=June 20, 2007 |title=PowerPoint Turns 20, As Its Creators Ponder A Dark Side to Success |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB118228116940840904 |url-access=subscription <!-- but archive is ungated --> |department=Portals |newspaper=Wall Street Journal |issn=0099-9660 |edition=US |volume=CCXLIX |issue=143 |page=B1 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240528060821/https://www.webcitation.org/6sthPU4jp?url=https://filetea.me/n3wpdnAIxrfQpWtQBrQFab9sg |url-status=live | archive-date=May 28, 2024 |access-date=August 22, 2017 |quote=PowerPoint's two creators ... Robert Gaskins was the visionary entrepreneur ... with major programming done by Dennis Austin, an old chum ... .}}</ref> Forethought had been founded in 1983 to create an integrated environment and applications for future personal computers that would provide a graphical user interface, but it had run into difficulties requiring a "restart" and new plan.<ref name="Brock-2017-re-Forethought">{{Cite journal |last=Brock |first=David C. |date=October 31, 2017 |title=The Improbable Origins of PowerPoint |url= https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-improbable-origins-of-powerpoint |department=History |journal=[[IEEE Spectrum]] |publication-date=November 2, 2017 |volume=54 |issue=11 |pages=42–49 |issn=0018-9235 |doi=10.1109/MSPEC.2017.8093800 |s2cid=27013411 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171102205858/https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/cyberspace/the-improbable-origins-of-powerpoint |url-status=live |archive-date=November 2, 2017 |access-date=November 2, 2017 |quote=PowerPoint was not at all in their original plan. ... [the founders] Pohlman and Campbell's idea was to bring a graphical-software environment like the Xerox Alto's to the hugely popular but graphically challenged [IBM] PC. ... Rather than liquidate the firm, management and investors decided to "restart" Forethought ... .|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

On July 5, 1984, Forethought hired Robert Gaskins as its vice president of product development<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-history">{{Cite book |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |title=Sweating Bullets: Notes about Inventing PowerPoint |year=2012 |publisher=Vinland Books |isbn=978-0-9851424-0-7 <!-- hardcover ed --> |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RC_5OCQQJ7YC |access-date=August 12, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170624031005/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/sweating-bullets/gaskins-sweating-bullets-webpdf-isbn-9780985142414.pdf <!-- webpdf ed --> |url-status=live |archive-date=June 24, 2017}}</ref>{{Rp|page=51}} to create a new application that would be especially suited to the new [[Graphical user interface|graphical]] personal computers, such as the [[Macintosh 128K|Apple Macintosh]] and later [[Microsoft Windows]].<ref name="Brock-2017-re-PowerPoint">{{Cite journal |last=Brock |first=David C. |date=October 31, 2017 |title=The Improbable Origins of PowerPoint |url= https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-improbable-origins-of-powerpoint |department=History |journal=[[IEEE Spectrum]] |publication-date=November 2, 2017 |volume=54 |issue=11 |pages=42–49 |issn=0018-9235 |doi=10.1109/MSPEC.2017.8093800 |s2cid=27013411 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171102205858/https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/cyberspace/the-improbable-origins-of-powerpoint |url-status=live |archive-date=November 2, 2017 |access-date=November 2, 2017 |quote= ... Forethought began to develop a software product of its own. This new effort was the brainchild of Robert Gaskins, an accomplished computer scientist who'd been hired to lead Forethought's product development.|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Gaskins produced his initial description of PowerPoint about a month later (August 14, 1984) in the form of a 2-page document titled "Presentation Graphics for Overhead Projection."<ref name="presenter-proposal">{{Cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-powerpoint-original-proposal-1984-aug-14.pdf |title=Presentation Graphics for Overhead Projection |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |date=August 14, 1984 |website=PowerPoint History Documents |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151106153939/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-powerpoint-original-proposal-1984-aug-14.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=November 6, 2015 |access-date=August 21, 2017}}</ref> By October 1984, Gaskins had selected Dennis Austin to be the developer for PowerPoint.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2012/06/102745695-01-acc.pdf |title=Beginnings of PowerPoint: A Personal Technical Story |last=Austin |first=Dennis |date=2009 |website=Computer History Museum, Archive |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141112105359/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2012/06/102745695-01-acc.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 12, 2014 |access-date=August 21, 2017 |quote=In October ...I joined Forethought ... . }}</ref> Gaskins and Austin worked together on the definition and design of the new product for nearly a year, and produced the first specification document dated August 21, 1985.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/austin-gaskins-powerpoint-design-1985-aug-21.pdf |title=Presenter [PowerPoint] Design |last1=Austin |first1=Dennis |last2=Gaskins |first2=Robert |author-link2=Robert Gaskins |date=August 21, 1985 |website=PowerPoint History Documents |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107153656/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/austin-gaskins-powerpoint-design-1985-aug-21.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=January 7, 2016 |access-date=April 22, 2015}}</ref> This first design document showed a product as it would look in Microsoft [[Windows 1.0]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Foster |first=Edward |date=July 1, 1985 |title=Microsoft Ships Windows: Once Written Off Because of Delays, Windows Now Seen as a Contender Against Topview |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EC8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA17 |department=News, Software |newspaper=InfoWorld |issn=0199-6649 |volume=7 |issue=26 |page=17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170824182047/https://books.google.com/books?id=EC8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA17#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live |archive-date=August 24, 2017 |access-date=August 24, 2017 |quote='We're quite happy to have people know our plan is to leverage our Mac experience with Microsoft Windows,' says Robert Gaskins, vice president of development.}}</ref> which at that time had not been released.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.technologizer.com/2010/11/20/the-secret-origin-of-windows |title=The Secret Origin of Windows |last=Trower |first=Tandy |author-link=Tandy Trower |date=November 20, 2010 |website=Technologizer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110123114439/http://technologizer.com/2010/11/20/the-secret-origin-of-windows-2/comment-page-1/ |url-status=live |archive-date=January 23, 2011 |access-date=August 23, 2017 |quote=Windows 1.0 shipped on November 20th, 1985 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

Development from that spec was begun by Austin in November 1985, for Macintosh first.<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-history" />{{Rp|page=104}} About six months later, on May 1, 1986, Gaskins and Austin chose a second developer to join the project, Thomas Rudkin.<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-history" />{{Rp|page=149}} Gaskins prepared two final product specification marketing documents in June 1986; these described a product for both Macintosh and Windows.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-powerpoint-marketing-analysis-1986-jun-27.pdf |title=Presenter [PowerPoint] Product Marketing Analysis |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |date=June 27, 1986 |website=PowerPoint History Documents |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107154620/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-powerpoint-marketing-analysis-1986-jun-27.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=January 7, 2016 |access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-powerpoint-summary-and-review-1986-jul-15.pdf |title=Presenter [PowerPoint] New Product Summary and Review |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |date=July 15, 1986 |website=PowerPoint History Documents |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107161645/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-powerpoint-summary-and-review-1986-jul-15.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=January 7, 2016 |access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> At about the same time, Austin, Rudkin, and Gaskins produced a second and final major design specification document, this time showing a Macintosh look.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/austin-rudkin-gaskins-powerpoint-spec-1986-may-22.pdf |title=Presenter [PowerPoint] Specification |last1=Austin |first1=Dennis |last2=Rudkin |first2=Thomas |last3=Gaskins |first3=Robert |author-link3=Robert Gaskins |date=May 22, 1986 |website=PowerPoint History Documents |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107154652/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/austin-rudkin-gaskins-powerpoint-spec-1986-may-22.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=January 7, 2016 |access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref>

Throughout this development period, the product was called "Presenter". Then, just before release, there was a last-minute check with Forethought's lawyers to register the name as a trademark, and "Presenter" was unexpectedly rejected because it had already been used by someone else. Gaskins says that he thought of "PowerPoint", based on the product's goal of "empowering" individual presenters, and sent that name to the lawyers for clearance, while all the documentation was hastily revised.<ref name="Indezine-2012">{{cite interview |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |subject-link=Robert Gaskins |interviewer=Geetesh Bajaj |title=PowerPoint at 25: Conversation with Robert Gaskins |url=http://blog.indezine.com/2012/08/powerpoint-at-25-conversation-with.html#Named |date=August 13, 2012 |access-date=August 21, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150404114624/http://blog.indezine.com/2012/08/powerpoint-at-25-conversation-with.html |url-status=live |archive-date=April 4, 2015}}</ref>

Funding to complete development of PowerPoint was assured in mid-January 1987, when a new Apple Computer venture capital fund, called Apple's Strategic Investment Group,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ranney |first=Elizabeth |date=May 5, 1986 |title=Apple Proceeding With Strategic Investment Plans |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qi8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA3 |department="Just Heard" column |newspaper=InfoWorld |issn=0199-6649 |volume=8 |issue=18 |page=3 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240527085758/https://www.webcitation.org/6Ym7tmtXq?url=https://filetea.me/t1swkwPNQcNT1OVxxWVGlbCeA |url-status=live |archive-date=May 27, 2024 |access-date=August 24, 2017 |quote=[Strategic Investment Group head Dan] Eilers stressed ... 'we are going to make minority investments in companies that add value to Apple computers and thereby increase the sales of Apple computers over time.' }}</ref> selected PowerPoint to be its first investment.<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-history" />{{Rp|pages=169–171}} A month later, on February 22, 1987, Forethought announced PowerPoint at the Personal Computer Forum in [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]]; [[John Sculley]], the CEO of Apple, appeared at the announcement and said "We see desktop presentation as potentially a bigger market for Apple than desktop publishing."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mace |first=Scott |date=March 2, 1987 |title=Presentation Package Lets Users Control Look |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1TAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA5 |newspaper=InfoWorld |issn=0199-6649 |volume=9 |issue=9 |page=5 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240527085435/https://www.webcitation.org/6Ym2krMYP?url=https://filetea.me/t1sKNh0ZTl2S8xyckHWoi2ywg |url-status=live |archive-date=May 27, 2024 |access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref>

PowerPoint 1.0 for Macintosh shipped from manufacturing on April 20, 1987, and the first production run of 10,000 units was sold out.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-history-of-forethought-1987-may-25.pdf |title=Forethought Restart Completed (A Brief History) |page=9 |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |date=May 25, 1987 |website=PowerPoint History Documents |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107154610/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-history-of-forethought-1987-may-25.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=January 7, 2016 |access-date=August 24, 2017 |quote=We completed PowerPoint so as to ship it on schedule on April 20. By early May, we had shipped about $1,000,000 worth of PowerPoint and exhausted the first printing of 10,000 copies.}}</ref>