3 Ways to Reduce PowerPoint File Size

PowerPoint presentations often contain large image, audio, and video files that can quickly increase the file size. While there are no strict limits on PowerPoint file sizes, large files can be difficult to share via email or upload/download from the cloud.

Fortunately, there are several easy ways to compress PowerPoint files without sacrificing too much quality. In this article, we will walk through 3 methods to optimize PowerPoint files for easier sharing.

Step 1: Compress Images in the Presentation

The most common way to reduce PowerPoint file size is by compressing the images. High resolution photos may look nice but all those extra pixels come at a cost.

Follow these steps to compress images:

1. Select any image in the PowerPoint slide.
2. Go to the “Picture Format” tab.
3. Click on “Compress Pictures” in the Adjust group.
4. In the compression settings, choose the default resolution or lower. For web presentations 144ppi is usually sufficient.
5. Check the box for “Delete cropped areas of pictures” to remove unused image data.
6. Click OK to compress all images.

Repeat this process testing different compression levels until you find a good balance between file size and image quality.

Step 2: Reduce Size of Audio and Video Files

After images, audio and video files take up the most space. Fortunately, PowerPoint provides built-in tools to compress the media files without having to edit them externally.

Follow these steps:

1. Go to the File tab and select Info.
2. Click on “Compress Media”.
3. Choose one of the compression presets based on intended usage. The lowest quality will provide maximum compression.
4. Click Close once compression is complete.

Review both audio and video quality after compressing to ensure it meets your standards. If needed, re-compress using different settings.

Step 3: Save PowerPoint as a PDF

An easy way to dramatically reduce file size while retaining all images, fonts, formatting etc is to save the presentation as a PDF file.

Here is how to convert to PDF:

1. From the File tab, choose “Export” then “Create PDF/XPS Document.”
2. Select “Create PDF/XPS.”
3. Choose standard or minimum size PDF output option.
4. Validate all slides are included and click “Publish.”

The resulting PDF file will be much smaller than the original PPTX in most cases. If the PDF is still too large, use online compression tools to further reduce size.

Bonus Tips for PowerPoint File Size

Here are some additional ways to optimize PowerPoint file size:

• Delete hidden slides and unused media files
• Convert 3D models to 2D images
• Change default resolution of new images inserted
• Use a presentation file compression utility like PowerShrink
• Store audio/video externally and link to files instead of embedding

Conclusion

While there are no maximum file size limits, large PowerPoint files can be difficult to email and share. Using the techniques in this article, you can easily compress PPTX files by 2x-5x without significant loss of quality.

Compressing images, audio, and video along with converting to PDF are three straightforward ways to reduce PowerPoint file bloat. Combine these methods with the bonus tips to optimize presentations for easy sharing, uploading, and downloading.