How to compress Powerpoint files, reduce slide size

PowerPoint presentations often have lots of pictures, gifs, embedded videos, charts, graphs, and other content, so it’s no surprise that PowerPoint files are often large.

Large files often take up a lot of storage space, slow down playback performance, and can’t be sent via email because the size limit is exceeded.

Here are some tips to help you reduce PowerPoint file size.

1. Convert presentation to PPTX . format

Microsoft released the PPTX format in Office 2007. However, there are many people who still use the PPT format. The PPTX version compresses all content in the presentation, so if you have a PPT file and convert it to a PPTX file, you’ll see the file size decrease.

Converting files from PPT to PPTX is very simple, you just need to press the button and select the converted file. First open your PPT file, access the tab Filethen click Convert.

On the Windows File Explorer window, you will see the Save As typechoose PowerPoint Presentationthis is the PPTX file format, then click Save.

Now your PPT file will be converted to PPTX file. As you can see, the size of the file has been reduced.

HTG Presentation 2 is a PPT file and HTG Presentation 3 is a PPTX file. Only converting file types, you have reduced 335 KB.

2. Insert images into your presentation instead of copying and pasting them

Users find it more convenient to copy and paste images into PowerPoint than using the Insert function. This won’t be a problem if you don’t care about the file size. When copying and pasting an image, it can be reformatted to BMP or PNG. Both of these formats are larger than JPG.

As you can see in the image above, the PNG file is 153KB in size when compared to the JPG file which is only 120KB. Every time you copy and paste a JPG file in PowerPoint, it converts to a PNG, adding unnecessary file size to your presentation. Using the Insert feature will ensure your images are inserted in the correct format.

3. Edit images before inserting into the presentation

When inserting pictures into PowerPoint, you should make sure they don’t need any editing. If so, edit them with photo editing software before inserting.

When using PowerPoint to edit photos, it stores all those edits in the presentation. For example, when you change an image to white and black, PowerPoint will keep the image in that color.

If you don’t have an image-editing application or must use PowerPoint, you should make sure PowerPoint removes all that redundant data that isn’t saved in the presentation. However, this way does not save as much space as using a professional photo editor.

4. Compress all images in the presentation

You can compress pictures in PowerPoint at the same time. To compress an image, open the presentation, go to the tab File and then select Save As in the left pane.

Next, choose More Options below the file name and file type.

On the window Save As appears, click Tools next to the Save button.

Choose Compress Pictures in the drop-down menu that appears.

On the window Compress Pictures appears, select the image resolution type (PPI-based). You cannot select option Apply only to this picture in group Compression Options Because of the way we access this tool, this option is disabled.

Note: If you want to compress a single image, select it, then go to Pimage Tools Format > Compress Pictures.

When finished, click on OK.

Then remember to save the presentation.

5. Stop embedding fonts in your presentation

Users need to embed fonts because they want to create special presentations like creating a Star Wars themed presentation where the default PowerPoint font is not available. Embedding the font in the presentation is not a problem, but it will increase the file size.

In general, unless you need to display a special font, you should turn off the font embedding option.

Access to tab File and choose Options at the bottom of the left pane.

On the tab Saveunchecked Embed fonts in the file and then click OK.

Here is an example of the same presentation with embedded fonts, no embedded fonts and only the embedded presentation fonts. Let’s see the difference in file size:

6. Link to other files instead of embedding them

Consider the file size difference if you embed the entire video in the presentation instead of linking to it. Embedding the entire video will significantly increase the size of the presentation. Many people use this method because it is convenient for the recipient when they do not need an Internet connection to play the video, but if size is an issue for you, it is not recommended to do it this way.

7. Don’t save presentation thumbnails

Office allows users to save a thumbnail image of the presentation so that the file can be previewed when searching for files in File Explorer. Windows has become more sophisticated, so it no longer needs the help of Office applications to do this. But, the option is still available.

Below is a test showing the difference in file size with this option on and off.

With the option to save thumbnails enabled, you will see a file size of 2,660 KB, and without this option enabled, the file size is reduced to 2,662 KB, a reduction of 7 KB.

To disable this feature, open the presentation, go to tab Fileand then select Properties on the right hand side and select Advanced Properties.

Now you will see the tab Summary of window Properties. At the bottom of the window, uncheck Save preview picturethen click OK.

8. Remove personal information and hide them from the presentation

Microsoft Office stores your personal information (such as author names) and hidden attributes in the presentation. Removing this information can save you a bit of space.

Open presentation, go to tab Fileselect option Check for Issues, then choose Inspect Document.

Windows Document Inspector appear, select Document Properties and Personal Information and then click on Inspect.

In the next window, select Remove All to delete information, saving you a few KB of space.

9. Turn off AutoRecover

Note: You should only do this if absolutely necessary.

AutoRecover is an essential Office tool that backs up documents on a regular basis and provides recovery in the event of a power outage or shutdown that you haven’t saved yet.

Each time Office uses AutoRecover, it adds a bit of size to the file. To turn off AutoRecover, go to tab File and choose Options at the bottom of the left pane.

On the tab Save of window Optionsunchecked Save AutoRecover information ever xx minutes.

If you save and exit the presentation right away, you won’t notice a difference. However, over time, as you continue to work on that presentation, the AutoRecover feature will add several KB to your file.

10. Copy everything into a new presentation

While you’re creating your presentation, PowerPoint saves various things in the background to help you work it out. However, this is information you don’t need, so copying the content to a new presentation can be a good solution to this problem.

While this is a bit of a hassle since you need to copy and paste each slide into the new presentation, this new version won’t save any background information, AutoRecover information, or previous versions of the file. You will see a change in the file size.

11. Extract and compress presentations

As mentioned earlier, the PPTX file is a compressed file (that’s why it’s smaller than the old PPT file). This means you can open it with a tool like 7-Zip or WinRar, extract all the files from PPTX, add them to the compressed archive, then rename the file to the PPTX extension.

However, this method when used with Word files damaged the file and on PowerPoint files it only reduced a little space. So if you do this, you should back up a copy in advance to prevent problems from happening.

Above are all the tips to reduce the size of PowerPoint presentations. Hope the article is useful to you.