权威解答：PPT是PowerPoint的缩写吗？

在里看到他的一篇文章，根据他的推理，PPT并不是PowerPoint的缩写，而是有可能是PowerPoint Presentation的缩写，我很喜欢他的推测。现在PPT好像已经成了一个约定成俗的语类了，但是到底PPT是怎么来的，它是不是就是 PowerPoint的缩写呢？本着求证的态度，找了很多资料，可惜都没有答案。最后决定给写封信询问一下，他是PowerPoint最初的编写者，应该最有发言权。老人家非常热情，回了一封非常详细的解释，大概总结一下意思如下：
1.PPT并不是PowerPoint的缩写，而是简称。（这个要怪我的英语水平不好，在Gaskin看来， acronym（缩写）和abbreviation（简称）是不一样）。
2.最初他编写PowerPoint的时候是给苹果系统写的，但当时他们已经预见到了微软将来可能一统江湖，所以在文件命名的时候还是遵循了微软的规则，就是后缀名不能超过3个字母，文件名不能超过8个字母。
3.在起名字的时候，很自然的就把PowerPoint的前中后三个字母提取出来成为后缀名，接着又衍生出一个系列如PPS（PowerPoint show)等。
4.在新的微软系统中，已经没有了后缀名只能3个字母的限制，所以2007版的就有4个字母的后缀名了，如PPTX，这个X是基于XML而来的。
虽然最后的答案还是没有出人意料，但总算也了解到了事情的来龙去脉，是一份不错的收获。将Gaskin的原信附上，大家一起学习吧。
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Dear Eddie Liu,

Thanks for writing about the meaning of "PPT".

"PPT" is not properly an acronym for PowerPoint, because

"Acronyms ... are abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name. These components may be individual letters (as in CEO) or parts of words (as in Benelux or Delmarva)."
--

An acronym can be formed by taking the initial letters of multiple words, sometimes only the important words, for example

BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation
CNN: Cable News Network
USA: United States of America
(there are other types as well).

So an acronym is a special kind of abbreviation formed from initial components such as letters, and "PPT" was not made up that way.  (All acronyms are abbreviations, but most abbreviations are not acronyms.) The need for the abbreviation "PPT" came about in this way.  In Microsoft's early MS-DOS system and later in Windows, every filename ended in a dot (".") followed by a short "file type".  (See )  In MS-DOS in the 1970s, and then in early versions of Windows built on MS-DOS, the file type had to be only 3 letters.  A filename had a maximum of 8 letters, then the dot, then a 3-letter file type, so this naming format was called "8+3".  When PowerPoint was invented, we had to decide on a 3-letter abbreviation to identify its files to the operating system.

Even though PowerPoint was developed first for Macintosh, we knew from the very beginning that the most important target would be Microsoft Windows, so we planned for it all along. In English, abbreviations of single words are often formed by taking the first letter of the word and the last letter of the word, adding between them the most important letters from the middle to show what the word sounds like.

For example, MR:  mister
JR:   junior
DR:  doctor
REVD:  reverend
MGMT: management

We made "PPT" as an abbreviation for PowerPoint, by taking the first 'P" and the last "T", adding between them the middle "P": PowerPoinT.  This was natural, because in English "power" is a common word all by itself, and "point" is a common word all by itself, so people understand "PowerPoint" as a combination of the two words--further indicated by the fact that we capitalized both "P"s.

"PPT" was a natural English abbreviation for the word "PowerPoint" and it was the right length (3 letters) to be an MS-DOS file type.

As to the others, any computer program deals with many types of files.  Each file type required a different 3-letter abbreviation.  We made up other file types by making them similar to "PPT"--for instance, "PPS" for "PowerPoint Show".  Since they all start with "P", you can sort a list of files by their file types and find all the ones for the PowerPoint program sorted together.

Much later (as you say, starting with PowerPoint 2007), Microsoft introduced new files formats, the XML-based formats.  By this time, file types could be longer than 3 characters because the foundations of Windows had been entirely rewritten.  For example, in early versions of Windows, HTML files could only have the file type "HTM" ("index.htm"), but now you often see HTML files of file type "HTML" ("index.html").

Microsoft used this freedom to make 4-letter file types for the new formats, by using the old file types ("PPT", "PPS") and adding an "X" (from "XML"), resulting in new file types "PPTX", "PPSX" and so forth. This way you can look at a listing of one of the new files and see instantly that it is, for example, "the XML revision of a PPT file".
I hope this explains how "PPT" came about.

Best regards,
Robert Gaskins

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