I am using a trial version of Vmix to evaluate its use by our woodturning club to mix multiple cameras during woodturning demonstrations and with powerpoint slide packages from guest speakers. It works great so far with multiple camera angles for our demonstrations. However, can I use a (free) powerpoint viewer program instead of purchasing an actual copy of Powerpoint from MS? I've tried a couple of the viewers but I get an error 'format error or load Powerpoint'. I've just loaded the viewers onto my laptop....do I need to do anything to Vmix to recognize a viewer or is it that it only will work with a Powerpoint program loaded?
Thanks,
Jeff

Also keep in mind the powerpoint input in vmix pre-renders the entire slides, so there will be no animations, bulletpoints will all show at once, etc...
Most of the time, it is better to input the powerpoint via NDI from an external system.
Using openoffice to display a presentation made in powerpoint, will make the presentation look different.
It's not the problem you need powerpoint for this, the problem is Microsoft does not offer a stand-alone version of powerpoint. They want you to 'rent' the entire office suite.
For 14,99 a month you can have it installed on 5 systems though, which is not that expensive.