To convert a PowerPoint SlideShow file (.pps) to a regular PowerPoint file, just rename the file extension from .pps to .ppt. That’s it! This works the other way round too i.e. from .ppt to .pps.
I checked with multiple .pps and .ppt files and they were exactly the same after conversion, even the file size. I did not realize that it was this simple. I thought PowerPoint does some kind of conversion when saving a .ppt file as .pps. But apparently, it just renames/changes the file extension.
More info: http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00185.htm
Powerpoint
Set paragraph indentations in Powerpoint 2003
I was having a hard time figuring out how to set paragraph indentations in Powerpoint. For some reason, Powerpoint does not have the “Format > Paragraph > Special” option like Word does. I was working on a Powerpoint template which had the first paragraph set to “Hanging” (i.e. the first line of the paragraph is more left indented than the other lines in the paragraph). The trick is to set the indents using the ruler (View > Ruler).
More details are here:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HP051952391033.aspx?pid=CH063500521033
The only drawback with the above approach is that when you want to make the line a bullet, the bullet is too near the text. In such a case, you can adjust the bullet settings by dragging the ruler indent marker again. The other way (which is quicker) is to click once on the numbered list icon and then again on the bulleted list icon.