Unable to save from and to an external hard drive

Just started to use Mac.
I work with an external hard drive and when I edit files like Microsoft PowerPoint, I cannot save at all as I do not have the permission to do so.

Most likely your external drive has a NTFS file system.
You can check this by option+clicking on the hard drive icon, selecting "get info" and looking on the information for the Format field. If it says NTFS then that's your case. If not then there is some problem with the application.
In case the hard drive is NTFS format then you can save your work on your computer only, you won't be able to save, delete or modify anything on that hard drive unless you format it with a FAT or HFS filesystem. To do this backup the data of your external drive, go to Aplications, Utilities, Disk Utility, select the drive on the list, click on the erase tab, select FAT on the Format drop down list and click erase. Copy all your files back to your external drive and you will be able to save, edit and delete files on it.
In case that the drive is not the problem (FAT, FAT32 or HFS filesystem) then go to Applications, Utilities, Disk Utility, select the drive and click on Repair Disk Permissions. That should solve most problems.
Hope this helps
Cheers

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