Reduce size of Powerpoint presentation

[Toni_Fladmark]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

Help! Please! I am on Powerpoint 2008 for Macs and I need to e-mail a Powerpoint presentation. I have reduced every image that I imported into Powerpoint to a low res PDF.

Each PDF that I imported is approx 200kb. After I have only FOUR slides (4 lo-res PDFs each at only 200 KB, so it doesn't even total one megabyte) the Powerpoint file size is 21 MEGABYTES! I don't understand how the PPT file can be so huge. How can 4 images of 200kb equal a 21 MB document???

I have tried a thousand graphic tricks, cut the document into individual pages and saved each page as a low-res of approx 200 kb and I still get a massive Powerpoint file. Same thing happens with JPEGs, though it totals a little less than 21MB. Turning on compression in the Finder or in PPT preferences has no effect. I've changed the names of the files, everything that I can think of...

What am I doing wrong? I'm on CS3 if that's any help.

Interestingly, if I save it as a .pptx, it is much smaller, approx 2.8 MB rather than the 21 MB, but unfortunately, I don’t think that people I need to e-mail it to will all have the .pptx upgrade – I really need to send as PPT.

Anyone have any ideas for me? I kid you not, I have spent 4 days trying to make this work and I am out of time. Even my graphic designer is scratching her head! Anyone know how I can get around this problem?

Thank you so much!
Toni

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Instead of importing PDFs, try creating images from the part of the PDF that you're
interested in, then using Insert, Picture, From File to bring the images into PPT.

This describes several approaches:

Import PDF content into PowerPoint
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00054.htm

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

Help! Please! I am on Powerpoint 2008 for Macs and I need to e-mail a Powerpoint

presentation. I have reduced every image that I imported into Powerpoint to a low res PDF.

Each PDF that I imported is approx 200kb. After I have only FOUR slides (4 lo-res PDFs each

at only 200 KB, so it doesn't even total one megabyte) the Powerpoint file size is 21
MEGABYTES! I don't understand how the PPT file can be so huge. How can 4 images of 200kb
equal a 21 MB document???

I have tried a thousand graphic tricks, cut the document into individual pages and saved

each page as a low-res of approx 200 kb and I still get a massive Powerpoint file. Same thing
happens with JPEGs, though it totals a little less than 21MB. Turning on compression in the
Finder or in PPT preferences has no effect. I've changed the names of the files, everything
that I can think of...

What am I doing wrong? I'm on CS3 if that's any help.

Interestingly, if I save it as a .pptx, it is much smaller, approx 2.8 MB rather than the

21 MB, but unfortunately, I don’t think that people I need to e-mail it to will all have the
.pptx upgrade – I really need to send as PPT.

Anyone have any ideas for me? I kid you not, I have spent 4 days trying to make this work

and I am out of time. Even my graphic designer is scratching her head! Anyone know how I can
get around this problem?

 

[Toni_Fladmark]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your reply, Steve!

Yes, that is exactly what I had tried. I cut the original 18 page Indesign document into 18 separate pages, and made a low res PDF of each page individually (each document/single page PDF was approx 200kb) Then I opened Powerpoint and exactly as you said, clicked on insert, picture. And I'm still at a 21MB document after inserting only 4 low-res PDFs...

As to the other suggested ways to manage this (I found your great page last night! - "Import PDF content into Powerpoint"), I am on Acrobat 8 professional and there doesn't seem to be a snapshot tool.

If I try the other method, opening the the low-res PDF in Acrobat and saving as a .png file, its unreadable - and unfortunately much larger - 780 kb... so I'm sure if I did it with a higher quality PDF, I'm back to large large files...

Do you have any other thoughts for me? I just don't understand how 4 lo-res PDFs of 200kb each can become a 21MB document...

Sincerely,
Toni

 

[bbolin]

Toni,

When inserting INDD PDFs into PPT, open the PDF in Photoshop, make it 150 dpi at 600px height max, and save for web as .png with shadow or bevel, or .jpg. Then insert the .png or .jpg file into PPT. When it is cropped or the size you want, compress the image size. Should be a very small file! (I do this in PC on PPT 2007 all the time. If you save in compatibility mode for 2003, it will be slightly larger file.)

Another thing you might try is using Insert/ Picture/ from header ribbon instead of the link in the middle of the content area. That seems to make files larger too.

Hope this helps,
Bren

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your reply, Steve!

Yes, that is exactly what I had tried. I cut the original 18 page Indesign

document into 18 separate pages, and made a low res PDF of each page individually
(each document/single page PDF was approx 200kb) Then I opened Powerpoint and
exactly as you said, clicked on insert, picture. And I'm still at a 21MB document
after inserting only 4 low-res PDFs...

OK, but that's not what I suggesteed. Don't insert PDFs. Make IMAGES (PNG, JPG,
etc) from the PDFs and insert the images.

As to the other suggested ways to manage this (I found your great page last

night! - "Import PDF content into Powerpoint"), I am on Acrobat 8 professional and
there doesn't seem to be a snapshot tool.

I don't have Acrobat on the Mac or a recent version of Acrobat of any kind, but
even the free Reader has the snapshot tool on the Windows versions; I doubt it's
missing on Mac. Will some kind soul sort us out on this one, please? Thanks!

If I try the other method, opening the the low-res PDF in Acrobat and saving as a

png file, its unreadable - and unfortunately much larger - 780 kb... so I'm sure
if I did it with a higher quality PDF, I'm back to large large files...

You never know until you try. Start with the higher res file and export to JPG
instead, for example.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Steve;

The feature is available in Acro 8 but it isn't on the toolbar by default...

I don't have Acrobat on the Mac or a recent version of Acrobat of any kind,
but
even the free Reader has the snapshot tool on the Windows versions; I doubt
it's
missing on Mac. Will some kind soul sort us out on this one, please? Thanks!

The Snapshot Tool is in Tools> Select & Zoom or go into Tools> Customize
where you can add it to the toolbar from the Select & Zoom Toolbar group.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi Steve;

The feature is available in Acro 8 but it isn't on the toolbar by default...

Thanks, Bob.

So they've jumped on the Hide'n'Seek UI bandwagon too, have they?

Urk.

 

[Toni_Fladmark]

Thank you, Bren! I'll give that a try!

Toni

Toni,

When inserting INDD PDFs into PPT, open the PDF in Photoshop, make it 150 dpi at 600px height max, and save for web as .png with shadow or bevel, or .jpg. Then insert the .png or .jpg file into PPT. When it is cropped or the size you want, compress the image size. Should be a very small file! (I do this in PC on PPT 2007 all the time. If you save in compatibility mode for 2003, it will be slightly larger file.)

Another thing you might try is using Insert/ Picture/ from header ribbon instead of the link in the middle of the content area. That seems to make files larger too.

Hope this helps,
Bren

 

[Toni_Fladmark]

Thanks everyone, CyberTaz, Bren, Steve - I'm traveling right now but will give all your tips a try! Anyone know where to find snapshot on Acrobat 8 for Macs? I tried the search and the help, but they often don't give good answers - its probably not called snapshot now...

Thank you!
Toni

 

[CyberTaz]

As I replied to Steve's inquiry:

Thanks everyone, CyberTaz, Bren, Steve - I'm traveling right now but will give
all your tips a try! Anyone know where to find snapshot on Acrobat 8 for Macs?
I tried the search and the help, but they often don't give good answers - its
probably not called snapshot now...

Thank you!
Toni

The Snapshot Tool is in Tools> Select & Zoom or go into Tools> Customize
where you can add it to the toolbar from the Select & Zoom Toolbar group.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac