How to reduce the size of your PowerPoint file?

If you want to email a PowerPoint slide deck to someone or put it on a network share or web site for someone to download, it's nice if the deck is as small as possible.

There are quite a few reasons why your files might get huge. We're going to look at why it happens, how you can fix it, and what you can do to prevent it from happening again.

 

1. Turn off fast saves

Open the PowerPoint file you want to compress, click Tools menu, and then find Options and click it; later choose Save tab, and then turn off the check box of Allow fast saves. Doing this forces PowerPoint to remove excess data from the presentation you save.

After turned off fast saves, you should save your PowerPoint presentation again with a new name. The steps are that on the File menu, find Save as and click it, type a new name for the PowerPoint presentation in the File name box, and later click OK.

Tip: It's a good idea to save a copy of your presentation before continuing, in case of your mistaken operation.

 

2. Watch out for oversize image files

Frequently, images don't need to be much larger than 1024x768 pixels. If your images are larger than this, the size of your presentation files is probably larger than they should be.

How can you avoid this or how to solve this problem? There I would like to tell you that PowerPoint 2002 and later versions have a great feature of compressing images and remove unneeded data. See How to compress image files in PowerPoint.

 

3. Watch for embedded objects, pasted or dragged graphics

If possible, bring images into PowerPoint by doing the following: On the Insert menu, point to Picture, and then click From File.

When you copy and paste (or drag) an image or a graphic that includes an image from another program into PowerPoint, PowerPoint may create an embedded OLE object. Then OLE object includes a Windows®Metafile (WMF) picture of the image. PowerPoint normally compresses images very efficiently, but it can't compress images in WMFs, so copying and pasting or dragging images into your files can make your files quite large.

Embedded objects are easy to shrink. After you no longer need to edit the image (by double-clicking it), do the following: Right-click the image, point to Grouping on the shortcut menu, and then click Ungroup. Next, immediately right-click the image again, point to Grouping on the shortcut menu, and then click Regroup. Ungroup throws away the OLE data and leaves just the picture – in a form that PowerPoint can now compress.

Tip: Incidentally, it's ok to copy and paste images from one slide to another within PowerPoint. PowerPoint stores only one copy of the image no matter how many times you use it, so reusing an image can actually help keep your file sizes down.

 

4. Check the master slides

When you check your presentation for oversize images and embedded OLE objects, don't forget to check the slide, title, notes, and handout maters as well as the individual slides.

Also check each notes page in Notes Page view (graphics on the notes pages don't appear in the Notes pane in Normal view in PowerPoint 2000 and later).

 

5. Don't save as PowerPoint 95 – compatible PPT files

If you save to any format that includes "PowerPoint 95" in the name, PowerPoint files that include images will get very large. That's because PowerPoint 97 and later compress images, but PowerPoint 95 doesn't. Later versions of PowerPoint have to uncompress images to make them compatible with PowerPoint 95.

Because all versions from PowerPoint 97 and later use the same file format, there's really no need to save to another version unless you specifically need to share your presentation with someone who only has PowerPoint 95. Even then, you may be better off sending them a copy of the new PowerPoint 2003 viewer along with your PowerPoint presentation file in normal format. The overall file size – including the presentation file and viewer – may be as small or smaller, and they will be able to see your presentation just as you intended it, rather than in a PowerPoint 95 version with allyour neat animations and transitions missing.

 

6. Beware the mysterious, unseen element

On the slide or master where you suspect there's something that's making the file size grow:

• To select everything on the slide, click Select All on the Edit menu or press Ctrl + A.
• Cancel the selection for elements that you know you want to leave unchanged by holding down Shift while clicking each element.
• Press Delete to remove all selected elements, whether they are visible or not.

 

Of course there is another way:

• To zoom out so that you can see the entire slide and the area surrounding it, on the Standard toolbar, click the arrow in the Zoom box, and then click 25% in the list.
• Press TAB repeatedly to select each element on the slide or master in order.
• If something off the slide or something that you can't identify becomes selected, delete it, and then save the presentation.

 

7. Embed only the fonts you need

When you embed a font in your presentation, the presentation may grow by as much as the size of the font file. Before you decide to embed, check the size of the font file. Some of the new Unicode fonts are enormous!

Tip: More recent versions of PowerPoint enable you to embed only the specific characters used in the presentation. This can cut down dramatically on the amount of font data that needs to be embedded.

 

8. Review those Review features

PowerPoint 2002 introduced a new review feature: on the File menu, point to Send To, and then click Mail Recipient (For Review). When you choose this option, the PowerPoint file retains all the original information AND any changes in any way, even if the change is deleting material or whole slides.

Whoever originally sends the presentation in this way becomes the Sender; only the Sender can accept reject changes that have been made to the file. After the Sender does this and then saves the presentation, the file goes back to a reasonable size.

If you're the Sender, here is how you can review and merge changes:

• Open the presentation.
• Click Yes when you are asked if you want to merge changes.
• Apply the changes that you want to retain.
• Click End Review on the Reviewing toolbar. At this point, PowerPoint deletes the excess review information its been saving.
• Save the presentation.

 

9. Be sure Outlook hasn't activated Review feature

Outlook might automatically turn on the review feature even when you sned the presentation by using other email options. To prevent outlook from automatically activating this feature:

• Open Outlook.
• On the Tools menu, click Options.
• Click the Preferences tab, and then click E-mail Options.
• Click Advanced E-mail Options.
• Under When sending a message, clear the Add properties to attachments to enable Reply with Changes check box, and then click OK.

 

Summary

PowerPoint has powerful functions and widely used in many important fields including business, education, everyday life, etc. However, even though, there are also some limits to its magical powers. Fortunately, by using the suggestions above, you can be helped to use it much freer.

 

What are the advantages of reducing the size of a PowerPoint file?

1. Save computer space.
2. Release the pressure of CPU.
3. Improve the speed of running the machine.
4. Easier and better to distribute. (View How to make PowerPoint easier distribution by converting PowerPoint to Video)

-- [Reshipment] Authorship by Steve Rindsberg, Microsoft MVP and co-creator of PPTools