How to reduce ProwerPoint Presentation File Size
Save PowerPoint Files as PDFs
First, open the PowerPoint presentation to be saved as a PDF. Select the “File” tab and then click the “Export” option in the left-hand pane.
You’ll then be at the “Create PDF/XPS Document” tab. Here, select “Create PDF/XPS.”
Window’s File Explorer will appear. Select the location in which you would like to save your new file. You can see that the “Save as type” is now PDF. You can also rename the file as you like.
You may also notice the “Optimize for” options at the bottom-right of the window:
- Standard: This is a high-quality version of the document, ideal for when you only plan to publish it online or print it out.
- Minimum Size: This is a lower-quality version of the document. It’s also suitable for publishing online, but ideal for when you need to send the document as an email attachment, as it reduces the size of the file.
You can also set specific options to adjust how the file appears. To do this, click the “Options” button underneath.
The “Options” window will appear, and you have several options to choose from. Here’s a brief overview of what’s available:
- Range: Export all slides, the current slide, or a selection of slides from your presentation.
- Publish Options: You can choose to export only comments, handouts, or outline view here by selecting the “Publish What” option. You’re also able to dictate how many slides appear on each page, flip the slides horizontally or vertically, or give the slides a frame.
- Include Non-printing Information: Include document properties or structure tags.
- PDF Options: Make the document PDF/_A compliant.
Once you’ve adjusted the options, click “OK.”
Finally, back at Windows File Explorer, click “Publish.”
Convert Your Presentation to the PPTX Format
Converting the file is as simple as pressing a button and choosing the file type. Go ahead and open your PPT file, head over to the “File” tab, and then click “Convert.”
Windows File Explorer will appear. You’ll notice the Save As type is set as “PowerPoint Presentation.” This is the PPTX file type. Click “Save.”
Your PPT file will now be converted to a PPTX file. As you can see, the size of the file has been reduced.
HTG Presentation 2 is our PPT file, and HTG Presentation 3 is our PPTX file. Merely converting the file type reduced the size by 335 KB.
While this isn’t a breathtaking drop in file size, It managed to reduce a Word document file size from 6,001 KB to 721 KB. It all depends on what’s inside the file. With any luck, this will be the only step you need to take. If not, continue on preform steps below to see if you can reduce the PPTX file size further.
Insert Your Pictures—Don’t Copy and Paste
You can see in the above screenshot that the PNG file is 153KB compared to the 120KB JPG file of the same image. Each time you copy and paste a JPG file to PowerPoint, and it gets converted to PNG, you’re adding a bit of unnecessary file size to the presentation. Using the insert function will ensure your images are inserted as intended.
Do Image Edits in an Image Editor—Not in PowerPoint
When you insert an image in PowerPoint, it’s best to make sure that it doesn’t need any edits. If it does require edits, you’re better off doing it in an image editor. Why? When you use PowerPoint to edit your image, it stores all of those edits as part of the presentation. For example, when you change an image to black and white, PowerPoint retains the full-color image as well. That’s a lot of extra bites being stored.
If you don’t have an image editor (you do) or you simply must use PowerPoint, be sure to tell PowerPoint to discard all of that excess data saved from the edits. It won’t save you as much space as working in a dedicated editor, but it will help.
Compress All of the Images in Your Presentation
You can compress images in PowerPoint one at a time or all at once. If you’re looking to do the latter, here’s how.
Open your presentation, head over to the “File” tab, and then select “Save As” in the left-hand pane.
Next, select “More Options,” which you’ll find under the area where you would name your file and choose the file type.
The “Save As” window will appear—this time with a few extra options available to you. Next to the “Save” button, click “Tools.”
In the drop-down menu that appears, select “Compress Pictures.”
The “Compress Pictures” window will appear. Here, you can choose the resolution type of the images (based on PPI) in the presentation. You’ll also notice that you’re not able to select the “Apply only to this picture” option in the “Compression Options” group. That’s because, due to the way we accessed this tool, this option isn’t available.
Note: If you do want to compress a single picture, select it and then head to Picture Tools Format > Compress Pictures.
Once you’re happy with your selection, click “OK.”
Be sure to save your presentation afterward.
Don’t Use Embedded Fonts
We get why you might want to embed fonts—you might be making a themed presentation and, as a result, anyone you may be sharing the presentation with is not likely to have those special fonts available to them. Embedding the fonts in your presentation could prevent issues down the line, but it comes at the cost of increased file sizes.
In general, unless you are sure you need to display a particular font, we recommend turning off font embedding.
Head over to the “File” tab and select “Options” at the bottom of the left-hand pane.
On the “Save” tab, untick the “Embed fonts in the file” checkbox and then click “OK.”
We saved a copy of our presentation with all fonts embedded, without fonts embedded, and with only the fonts used in the presentation embedded. Look at the difference if file sizes:
Link to Files Instead of Embedding Them
Consider the difference in file size if you embed an entire video in your presentation instead of linking back to it. Embedding an entire video will significantly increase the size of your presentation. There are certainly some valuable benefits when embedding a file vs. linking to it (such as when the recipient might not have internet access to play the video), but most company do have restriction and limitation on how big an email can be send and receive(both internal and external). You are actually better off linking to a video file instead of embedding it into your presentation.
Related Articles
End of Support and Service Announcement: Mobile MS Outlook APP
Due to security reasons and issues with the Microsoft Outlook Mobile ONLY APP, the dahautech.com Exchange mail server no longer supports Microsoft Outlook Mobile APP(ISO and Android only). If you are experiencing any connection issue with our mail ...Open and close Outlook Data Files (.pst)
MS Office Outlook 2016 Open an Outlook Data File (.pst) Select File > Open & Export > Open Outlook Data File. Note: Depending on how Outlook is set up, it's likely the folder where the .pst file is stored will open automatically. If it doesn't, ...Auto Forward Emails To A Specific Person When Out Of Office By Creating Rules
You can create rules to auto forward all emails or specific emails to a desired person you want, please do with following steps: 1. Click Rules > Manage Rules & Alerts, in the popped out Rules and Alerts dialog box, click New Rule under the Email ...Skype Meeting buttons are missing in Outlook
To resolve this issue, you can manually enable the Skype Meeting Add-in for Microsoft Office 2016 in Outlook. To do this, follow these steps: Start Outlook. On the File menu, select Options. In the navigation pane, select Add-Ins. On the Manage menu, ...Change your presence status in Skype for Business
Your presence information is a quick way for other people to see your availability status. Presence is automatically set based on your Outlook calendar, but you can change it manually if you want to. Choose the appropriate statusTip: The presence ...