I was recently thrust into this situation when my high school-aged daughter’s photography teacher sent me notes for a future test via a few powerpoint presentations. I wanted to save this to my iPad so that I could help my daughter study. Reading it through the Mail app just seemed so clunky, and I didn’t want to have to save this email for the entire school year. I needed to find an app that would allow me to save these powerpoints within my iPad. Apparently, there are apps for this. Note: In your mail app, it only show four apps in the list of possible exporting choices. This doesn’t mean that there is only four possibilities. It is just that it only shows four choices. The others can be found by scrolling up and down through the list.

1. Evernote

The almighty Evernote seems to be able to do everything, including saving and viewing powerpoint presentation. At times, it seems like the only thing it won’t help you with is balancing your checkbook. Documents can be created and moved around, and synced wirelessly across the different devices. It can also handle viewing and storing your powerpoint presentations.

One disadvantage is that the presentation is viewable as slides that are connected in one long “roll.” It’s not viewable like a regular powerpoint presentation.

2. DocAS Lite

DocAS Lite is another great multi-tasker. Along with using the Mail sharing function to import a powerpoint presentation, they can also be imported from various other sources, such as iTunes, FTP, DropBox, Google Docs, etc. While other types of notes can be marked up, the powerpoint presentations are read only. Again, it’s viewable in a long “roll.”

3. DocBrowser Lite

DocBrowser Lite is typical of many other iOS mobile file viewer apps out there. It’s basic, but functional. Powerpoint presentations, as well as other types of files, can be imported through the Sharing option in email, and can also be imported directly from URLs. It, too, shows the powerpoint presentations in a long “roll.”

4. SaveAll

SaveAll works much the same as DocBrowser Lite with a few notable additions. It also includes an in-app browser. If you are importing a powerpoint from a URL, instead of going to a standalone browser and copying the URL , you can just view it within the app. Additionally, it can play other types of media, such as movies and audio.

5. Keynote app

While it’s not free, the Keynote app is the definitely the best for handling powerpoint presentation in iPad. This is also the only one that opens the powerpoint exactly the same as the desktop version of Keynote.

It has a “play” option where you can have it move from slide to slide, instead of just being in one long “roll.” Additionally, it is “editable.” The text and graphics can be edited within the powerpoint. It will also allow you to create your own keynotes and export them as powerpoints. If you are just looking for ways to save and view powerpoint presentation, spending $9.99 for the Keynote app could be an overkill. If you’re looking for more features, like the ability to create and edit slides, spending the $9.99 is the way to go.