By optimizing images and converting OLE objects, you can significantly reduce the size of your presentation file.

As a rule, when typing up a presentation in PowerPoint, you don’t really care about optimization, and, as a result, the final file is “bloated” to an impressive size due to the abundance of uncompressed graphics and all kinds of elements imported from other programs. This raises an urgent question: is it possible, with minimal means and without violating the structure of the document, to at least slightly reduce the volume of such a document?

This problem is partly solved by using the image compression function, present in the latest releases of PowerPoint and located in the menu "File -> Save As ... -> Tools -> Compress Pictures ...". But, as practice shows, dizzying results from this tool cannot be obtained, and not every user will have a desire to upgrade to a new version of the Microsoft Office suite.

However, there are no hopeless situations, so we recommend taking note of another recipe that will make PPT files lose weight and lose weight. The proposed method is based on the use of the NXPowerLite utility from the English company Neuxpower Solutions.

The mentioned program operates on all versions of Windows and supports presentation documents created in Microsoft PowerPoint 97, 2000, 2002, XP, 2003; OpenOffice.org Impress 1, 2; Sun StarOffice Impress 7, 8. The utility is completely independent and does not require any of the products listed above. All this pleasure costs 46.5 US dollars, but the trial version of NXPowerLite, which optimizes only a dozen files, will help save fifty "green" ones (after which you will need to enter an activation code).

Two editions of the utility are available for download - Standard Edition and Integrated Edition. The first does not require pre-installation and is launched with a couple of mouse clicks on a single 490 kb executable file. The second, on the contrary, comes with an installer (570 kb) and is integrated into PowerPoint (starting from the 2000th line) and Windows Explorer. Avoiding unnecessary clutter on the already overloaded Windows interface, let's stick with the standard version.

We launch, select the interface language (English, German, French or Danish) and dive into the settings. There are not many of them, but a couple definitely deserves attention - this is the compression level and the optimization function for objects imported from other programs.

When setting the compression level, we recommend choosing Custom compression and walking through the available options. A checkmark next to Allow image cropping will force the utility to cut parts of images that do not fit into the "frame", the Allow image resizing item activates the image size reduction function, and Allow JPEG compression is useful for compressing graphics.

Thanks to its support for OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) technology, PowerPoint documents are often replete with objects imported from third-party programs, such as Excel, Visio, etc. The included Flatten embedded documents feature of the NXPowerLite utility allows you to sacrifice this versatility in order to save space by converting all embedded modules in pictures. Naturally, editing these objects will no longer work.

It is difficult, when considering a program for data compression, to do without its modest testing. Take a look at our result obtained at the maximum compression level.

Master Class

Topic: How to make a PowerPoint presentation smaller - minimize file size

Most of us often face a problem when uploading ready-made presentations to the site, as many presentations exceed the size of 1mb. By far the easiest way is to save your presentation as a PDF. More complex and lengthy - reduce the volume of all presentation elements in advance (crop and reduce images, degrade audio quality, etc.). But what if we need a presentation in the PPT/PPTX format, and we didn’t reduce the materials in advance? In my master class, I offer an option on how to reduce a presentation in stages and quickly, using a computer.

Purpose: teaching colleagues step-by-step actions to reduce the presentation, using a computer.
Tasks:
1. To provide assistance to the participants of the uchportfolio for work on the site;
2. To convey personal experience on the proposed topic.

Steps to reduce the weight of a presentation using a computer.

Step 1
We prepare the necessary presentation. In my case, the size of the presentation is 5.19 MB. I could not upload it to the site in this size.

Step 2
Open the presentation and click the save button: File > Save As > Computer. In the window that appears, click the "Service" button.

Step 3

In the drop-down menu, select the item "Compress images", a new window will open in which you must select one of the appropriate options.

Step 4

In the window that opens, check the "Delete cropped areas of pictures" checkbox.
The Output Quality section allows you to select one of the image compression options. The more images are compressed, the worse their quality, but the less the weight of the presentation itself.
In the "Output Quality" section, select the desired option, in my case it is 96 pixels per inch and click "OK" the presentation is processed and click "Save".

PowerPoint presentations are often quite "heavy", which makes them difficult to transfer over the network and use on weak PCs and laptops. However, not many people know that the size of almost any presentation can be reduced at least several times. With the help of what techniques this can be done - we will consider in this article.

1. Save to PPTX

The PPTX format was implemented by Microsoft in Office 2007, but until now, either out of habit or guided by some other considerations, users save presentations in the outdated PPT.

Saving (or converting) to pptx can significantly reduce the file size. An illustrative example:

I didn’t change anything in the presentation except automatic conversion (conversion) from ppt to pptx using Powerpoint itself (File - Information - Convert):

2. Insert images correctly

If you paste pictures into slides using the clipboard (copy-paste), then you are doing it wrong. Use the standard image insertion feature:

Often, when using the paste method by CTRL + C / CTRL + V, a JPEG image is automatically converted to PNG or BMP format, which in itself is much “heavier”. Here is an example of the same picture in different formats at the same resolution:

By using the standard paste function, you are guaranteed to avoid this unnecessary graphic transformation.

For the same reason, always try to avoid using BMP, PSD, TIFF, etc. - convert them to lighter formats. For example, using .

3. Don't use the built-in graphics editor

Before you insert any image into your presentation, make sure it doesn't need to be edited. Otherwise, first use any third-party editor (Photoshop, Gimp, Paint, etc.) to make edits and only then paste the final version.

When you edit a picture using PowerPoint itself, it saves any edits you've made as part of the presentation. For example, if you convert an image to black and white, the program saves the original color image as well. This creates additional kilobytes that play no role and "bloats" the overall file.

4. Use graphics compression

Open the presentation, press CTRL+SHIFT+S (Save As). In the window that opens, in the drop-down list, select the "Compress pictures" option:

In the compression options, check the radio button next to the "Email" option. Save your presentation.

You can also pre-optimize the weight of images yourself by compressing them with .

5. Don't use embedded fonts

If you use some unique fonts in your presentation to give it an original design style, then the use of embedded fonts will be justified. However, if you use standard fonts, then disabling this option can significantly (two or more times) reduce the overall size of the presentation file. Example:

You can turn off embedded fonts in the PowerPoint settings: File - Options - Saving

6. Check hidden data

Microsoft Office stores by default a range of personal as well as hidden information. Go to the tab File - Presentation Checker - Document Inspector.

In the window that opens, check the boxes for the data that you do not need in the ppt file:

Particular attention should be paid to such "heavy" options as:

• Content add-ons
• Embedded Documents
• Invisible content on a slide
• Content outside the slide, etc.

For most users, checking all the boxes is the right choice - this will clear the presentation of possible garbage and reduce its size.

7. Link to files correctly

Let's say you are planning to show a video file. If you place it on a slide by simply pasting it from your computer, you will significantly increase the overall size of your presentation.

The best option would be to upload the video to a file-sharing service, such as Youtube or Vimeo, and embed it into a slide using a direct link or embed code.

It goes without saying that in this case, the PC or laptop to play the video must be connected to the Internet.

By the way, in the same way, you can place pictures in presentations by simply pointing the URL to them, and not inserting them directly into the slide. This will also greatly lighten the overall weight of the presentation.

It is far from always possible to turn around in a big way when creating a presentation in PowerPoint. Either the regulations or some other conditions can strictly regulate the final size of the document. And if he is already ready - what to do? You have to do a lot of work to compress the presentation.

Of course, plain text gives the document as much weight as any other project in the Microsoft Office suite. And in order to achieve a large size with purely printed information, you will need to fill in a huge amount of data. So this can be left alone.

The main supplier of weight for the presentation is, of course, third-party objects. First of all - media files. It is quite logical that if you stuff a presentation with large-format pictures with a resolution of 4K, then the final weight of the document can be quite surprising. The effect will be cooler only if one episode of "Santa Barbara" in good quality is uploaded to each slide.

And it's not always just the final size. The document suffers greatly from heavy weight and may lose performance during demonstration. This will be especially felt if the project was originally created on a powerful stationary PC, and it was brought to show on a regular budget laptop. So it's not far to hang the system.

At the same time, rarely does anyone care about the future size of the document in advance and immediately format all files, reducing their quality. Therefore, it is worth optimizing your presentation in any case. There are several ways to do this.

Method 1: Specialized software

The problem of falling performance of presentations due to weight is really serious, so there is enough software to optimize such documents. The most popular and simple is NXPowerLite.

The program itself is shareware, with the first download you can optimize up to 20 documents.

Fortunately, when you save, a copy of the original document is automatically created. So the initial presentation will not suffer from such experiments.

NXPowerLite optimizes the document very well and compresses images relatively sparingly, and the result is much better than with the next method.

Method 2: Built-in compression techniques

PowerPoint has its own media compression system. Unfortunately, it also only works with images.

In general, when using even the most serious compression, ordinary medium-sized pictures will not suffer. Most of all, this can affect high-resolution JPEG images (which are very fond of pixelation even with minimal compression). So it's best to pre-embed photos in PNG format - although they weigh more, they compress better and without losing visual beauty.

Method 3: Manually

The latter option implies an independent complex optimization of the document in various areas. This method is preferable because all kinds of programs most often work only with pictures. But after all, in a presentation, a lot of things can have a fair size. Here's what you should pay attention to in the process.

• First of all, images. It is worth reducing their size to a minimum level in any way possible, below which the quality will already suffer greatly. In general, no matter how large the photo is, when inserted, it still takes standard sizes. So in most cases, the compression of photos as a result is not visually felt. On the other hand, if in each document the image is cropped in this way, then the weight can be significantly reduced. But in general, it is best to perform this item using the automatic means indicated above, and deal with the rest of the files personally.
• We recommend that you stop using GIF files in your document. They can be very significant, up to tens of megabytes. Refusal of such images will positively affect the size of the document.
• Next is the music. You can find ways here to cut the quality of the audio, lowering the bitrate, reducing the duration, and so on. Although the standard version in MP3 format will suffice instead of, for example, Lossless. After all, the average size of the most common type of audio is about 4 MB, while in Flac the weight can be measured in tens of megabytes. It will also be useful to remove unnecessary musical accompaniment - to remove "heavy" sounds from the operation of hyperlinks, changing musical themes, and so on. One background audio is enough for a presentation. This is especially true for the likely insertion of voice comments from the presenter, which will add a lot of weight.
• Another important aspect is video. It’s quite simple here - you should either upload clips of lower quality, or add analogues using an insert via the Internet. The second option is generally inferior to the inserted files, but reduces the final size many times over. And in general, it is important to know that in professional presentations, if there is a place for a video insert, then most often no more than one clip.
• The most useful way is to optimize the presentation structure. If you review the work several times, in almost every case it may turn out that some of the slides can be cut out altogether, arranging several into one. This approach is the best way to save space.
• Cut or minimize insertion of heavy objects. This is especially true when inserting one presentation into another and so on. The same applies to linking to other documents. Even though the weight of the presentation itself from such a procedure will be less, this does not negate the fact that the link will still have to open a large third-party file. And this will significantly load the system.
• It's best to use the built-in design types in PowerPoint. They both look good and are well optimized. Creating your own style with unique large-sized images just leads to an increase in the weight of the document in arithmetic progression - with each new slide.
• In the end, you can do optimization of the procedural part of the demonstration. For example, rework the system of hyperlinks, lightening the entire structure, removing animation from objects and transitions between slides, cutting out macros, and so on. It is worth paying attention to all the little things - even a simple compression in the size of the control buttons twice will help throw off a couple of megabytes in a long presentation. All this together is unlikely to significantly reduce the weight of the document, however, it will significantly speed up its demonstration on weak devices.

Conclusion

In the end, it is worth saying that everything is good in moderation. Over-optimization at the expense of quality will reduce the effect of the demonstration. So it's important to find a comfortable compromise between document size reduction and media ugliness. It is better to once again completely abandon certain components, or else find a complete analogue for them, than to allow, for example, a terribly pixelated photograph to be on the slide.

for beginners and not only

Dear PowerPoint fans!
I will not dwell on the general points of creating presentations, which can be read about in any manual or found in articles on the Internet. Let's talk about specific things with specific examples. Do not look for a logical sequence in the order of my tips & tricks. Some tips may seem too simple for experienced users, but will be useful for novice users, for example, when it comes to the most common mistakes. I'll warn you right off the bat that I'm just as much of an amateur as you are. It used to take hours, or even days, to do what now I can do in a few minutes. And there is still much to be learned. It's so exciting! With white envy I envy those who can draw, know programming and use Photoshop. I make presentations in PowerPoint 2007. Unfortunately, when you save them in PowerPoint 97-2003, they get very large in size, sometimes by several times, which is not very convenient for publishing.

How to reduce the size of a presentation (continued)

There may be several solutions depending on your goals.

1. If you need to reduce the size of the presentation for sending, do not forget to archive the file.

2. If you want to save a PPT 2007 file in 2003 format, then in any case it will be larger than the original. The more graphics and fonts that were not present in the earlier version of PowerPoint you use, the greater the difference in weight between the two presentations will be. But something can still be done. advice on this topic.

3. If you've created a presentation and you're just not happy with its size, check the following:

• how many kb weighs an empty template for your presentation. You can find beautiful templates on the Internet, but a good quality background image or animation elements can be over 1 MB in size.
• choose drawings of the size and type you need, but a small amount in pixels. For example, a picture or photo in png format is always larger than jpg format.
• In PowerPoint 2007, you can compress pictures quite well right in the presentation itself. If you want to carry out this manipulation with all the pictures at once, select any of them and in the panel at the top find "work with pictures" → "format". On the left panel, click "compress pictures" (#1). Save your changes. When I looked at my old presentations where I had not yet used this feature, and tried this trick, some of the work was reduced in size several times!

One caveat: after compression, check your animations if they are in the presentation, as some of them may stop moving. You can fix the situation in two ways:

1. re-insert animation on slides
2. compress pictures one by one, i.e. not all at once, but only selected ones (No. 2).