It's all dependent upon the file associations set on the target system - - often
out of your control. If you open Windows Explorer and go to Tools > Folder
Options > File Types and locate and select .PPS, you can see how the file
association is set up on your machine. It's set to open in PowerPoint.
However, click on the Advanced button and you'll see another dialog with a list
of Actions. You'll see "Show" in bold type. That means it is the default mode
for opening the file, i.e., directly into Slide Show mode.
Select the "Show" action and click on Edit. You'll see something like
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 2002\Office10\POWERPNT.EXE" /s "%1"
Yours will vary dependent on the path to the PowerPoint exe file. However,
notice the /s? That tells PowerPoint to open the file in Slide Show mode. The
%1 is a placeholder for the file name. So, when you click on a .PPS file on
your system, Windows says, "Ah, that's a PPS file. The default action for that
file is "Show". I'll send it to PowerPoint and I'll tell PowerPoint to open it
in slide show mode.
So, you would need to go through the above steps and see if PPS is listed in the
File Types list and what the settings are. If they don't match the above
settings, change them and your PPS file should then open in slide show mode on
that system too.
