Powerpoint: Compress and Optimize Presentations (ppt) to Decrease Size
Posted by MickeyMouse in Microsoft Powerpoint
Powerpoint will save pictures in a poorly compressed format by default. By asking powerpoint to compress these pictures, you can optimize your presentations more efficently. With this decreased size you can email them and transport them easily.
To allow for maximum amount of editing later, powerpoint saves pictures within presentations in a poorly compressed format. When working on a presenation locally, this is highly desirable because it gives you the most flexabilty in editing later. However, when trying to get your huge ppt file small enough to fit into an email or on a USB drive, this can be a problem. Here’s how to decrease the sizes.
Please note that many people use a pretty painful and manual process for this. This tutorial shows you the quickest way.
Compress PowerPoint In Versions Before 2007:
1. Open your powerpoint presentation
2. Click File Menu and then Save as
3. In the save dialog box, click the Tools drop down menu
4. Select Compress Pictures
5. Select All Pictures in document
6. Select Web/Screen unless you need to be able to print the presenation in high quality.
7. Select Compress pictures and Delete cropped areas of pictures
8. Click OK
9. Confirm that you want to Compress Pictures (if the dialog appears)
10. Save your presentation to a new file name (example: oct_reports_compressed.ppt)
11. Click Save
Compress PowerPoint In Office 2007:
1. Open your PPT file
2. Click the SAVE floppy icon in the upper left hand corner
3. Click the Tools drop down menu besides the save buttom
4. Select Compress Pictures
5. Click Options
6. Check Automatically perform basic compression on save
7. Check Delete cropped areas of pictures
8. Check the appropriate target output (print, screen, or email)
9. Click OK
10. Click OK to the Apply compression settings now dialog
11. Save file to different file name (ex: my_report_compressed.ppt)
The Conversation
Follow the reactions below and share your own thoughts.
November 03, 2008 at 4:47 pm, jef said:
it didn’t work for 2007 powerpoint
December 18, 2008 at 2:55 am, DeadlyPersona said:
In 2007, you have to click File – Save As and then look all the way to the bottom on the left-hand side and you should see Tools with a drop-down arrow. And I found it only compressed my file from 420kb to 400kb.
August 19, 2010 at 6:29 pm, Jcrawford said:
Thanks for the extra tip. I would have been all day looking for that.
November 11, 2008 at 1:47 pm, nikhil said:
fantastic……..God Bless You!!
December 08, 2008 at 5:46 pm, Lorena said:
hmmm, I didn’t find the “tools” drop down menu in ppt 2007. Instead, by selecting a picture, I got the format tab at the top. Then to the far left a “compress picture” button. This brought up a dialog box that followed along with step 6 on in the above instructions.
December 18, 2008 at 2:55 am, DeadlyPersona said:
In 2007, you have to click File – Save As and then look all the way to the bottom on the left-hand side and you should see Tools with a drop-down arrow. And I found it only compressed my file from 420kb to 400kb.
March 16, 2009 at 2:43 pm, Anonymous said:
PowerPoint 2000 didn’t have a “Compress Pictures” option on the Save As->Tools menu.
March 16, 2009 at 2:59 pm, Anonymous said:
FYI – The methods above only work for office 2002 and later. This link tells you a somewhat slower way that works in office 2000:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA011168821033.aspx
Basically, you “cut” or “copy” the big pictures, then Edit->Paste Special and paste them back as a JPG or PNG. Apparently, PowerPoint pastes them as bitmaps by default.
April 10, 2009 at 5:23 am, Itchy said:
Thank you much!!! 11M -> 3M
Project emailed — thanks for the help.
April 17, 2009 at 3:56 pm, Whatever said:
Went from a 7.21 to 3.56! Thanks! I had made a presentation that I thought was pointless because I couldn’t email it!
April 20, 2009 at 4:48 am, dipak said:
thanks , extra ordinary, it works and very useful
May 16, 2009 at 10:15 pm, Hannah said:
THANKYOUU!!!!!
June 29, 2009 at 12:09 pm, Anmol said:
thanxx a tonne.. god bless u… it reduces the size straight by 50% (depending upon the images contained of course)… great tip.. i was finally able to email the once 11.5 MB file after i compressed it to 3.36
i used to consider myself a pro but didnt know this.. thanks again !!
August 10, 2009 at 7:00 am, AP said:
Thanks for your idea. My file went from 29MB to 8MB using the compression tool.
November 03, 2009 at 9:14 pm, Anonymous said:
I cannot find the tools menu. it is not on the “Save As” pop down menu
June 01, 2010 at 8:37 pm, Mercedes said:
You have to click “Save as” to open the dialog box. Then you see the ‘tools’ menu. Click File/save as/ then you see the tools.
February 24, 2011 at 5:46 pm, Rhomzombus said:
I’ve looked where you suggest and still cannot find the tools menu with 2007 version.
March 19, 2011 at 9:18 pm, Jenny said:
In PowerPoint 2007, click the Office button, then Save As. In the dialog box that opens up, look at the very bottom, immediately to the left of the ‘Save’ button. That’s where the Tools menu is. Click the down arrow next to it, and choose the bottom option: Compress pictures.
December 17, 2009 at 12:20 pm, bhairu said:
Many Thanks Sir / Madam,
I am try to your suggested points i like very great full of yours all points.
Thanks for your idea. My file went from 86.3MB to 2.85MB using the compression tool.
Fantastic……..God Bless You!! Once again thanks.
Best Regards,
Biradar
Sangli-Maharashtra
January 01, 2010 at 9:11 am, Anonymous said:
its very good information . thanks
January 02, 2010 at 12:31 pm, Alejandro said:
Brilliant, it reduced the size of my ppt from 30 MB to 6 MB!
February 23, 2010 at 5:23 pm, Julia said:
It really helped!!! thank you!!
March 11, 2011 at 9:23 am, Tommy_x70 said:
yess for me toooo
March 01, 2010 at 2:49 pm, strength avenger said:
thanks a lot. saved me a lot of time coz i need to send some powerpoints to groupmates of mine for a project. it did reduced the size of the powerpoint to half.
March 13, 2010 at 7:46 pm, dangermouse said:
Compressing your image in PPT is very useful. But in my experience, “Automatically perform basic compression on save” means that you are going to compress your images multiple times while working on a presentation. That means that your images get degraded repeated as you work on a show. “Automatically perform basic compression on save” is one of the first things I turn off, actually.
May 03, 2010 at 9:18 am, nick said:
Really good instructions, thanks!
May 21, 2010 at 6:46 am, S.S.Banerjee said:
Thanks, Succedd
May 25, 2010 at 10:53 pm, colleen said:
i followed the steps, it compressed the files, but now my links to other ppt’s don’t open.
my presentation is linked to 2 other presentations and i compressed all of them so i can send them in a zip folder, contained together. now the links won’t work…
July 28, 2010 at 4:22 pm, Alex Bell said:
Well I did as you suggested. Found all the dialogue boxes on my French version of ppt. for Mac version 12.2.0 2008. Didn’t make one iota of difference to the file size. Completely stumped. My 16 page file weighs 40Mb! A complete pain.
August 19, 2010 at 6:50 pm, Jpr said:
what are you talking about – there is NO TOOLS menu when you click on SAVE AS – the help in powerpoint is about as useless as the white pages. I am totally confused –2007 is a total diaster as far as I am concerned – runnign a 25 meg ppt file under i7 processor with 6 gig memory and win 7 64 bit, runs 10 times slower than my old xp laptop with a same size file – when will these idiots at microspoft wake up and create products that are productivity tools rather than productivity destroyers…its time for ANYONE to create an alternative…a real alternative…please….
August 26, 2010 at 3:38 pm, Steve said:
Jpr-Click the Office Button, click the Save as arrow, choose Power Point Presentation, select tools in the lower left corner, select compress pictures, select options, then choose your compression settings. I hope this helps.
October 12, 2010 at 9:42 pm, jack said:
wow my ppt 48 mb to 2 mb awesome
October 13, 2010 at 12:40 am, David Kirk - Founder/Editor said:
Glad we could help!
October 15, 2010 at 2:13 pm, Nkilongosi said:
thank you, it helped me a grt deal, a 31mb file was able to be compressed to a 2.2mb file, thank you for the grt help
October 22, 2010 at 2:26 pm, Chris McElwee said:
Thank you very much, worked a treat without any noticable difference in image quality
November 17, 2010 at 10:50 pm, Robin88 said:
help me please! In 2007, I can’t find the “tools” button on the “save as” menu like everyone is saying. All I have is “options” which does not help. Also, when I try to click on the picture and format it from there, there is no “compress picture” button there either! I’m on a Mac, if that makes a difference. Can anyone please help me? My ppt is 230 MB right now, and I need to compress it! Thanks.
November 24, 2010 at 8:30 pm, Lisa_lee123 said:
I am working on Powerpoint for Mac and there is no Tools button at all. I’ve already ‘saved as’ and compressed the photos to ‘least’ and my powerpoint is still 28 MB. Anyone know what else to do?
January 10, 2011 at 1:04 pm, Riddhi said:
Cool… It worked well on my ppt… Thanks
March 03, 2011 at 6:12 pm, Peterh said:
i have PP 2002 I do as you say but it come up wil w message you must select a shap . Tried selecting every slide in the presentation then Autoshapes. Neither works. Any Ideas
Peterh
July 31, 2011 at 2:10 pm, DWB said:
Thank you !!!!!!!
February 14, 2012 at 5:06 am, Carolina said:
I have problems converting a powerpoint made in 2007 to 2003….I know how, but the size file increases because I suppose the images are converted too as bmp.
My goal is sending the presentation by e-mail as so many people do.
Some clue?
Thanks
March 26, 2012 at 7:44 pm, laura said:
I import several high resolution 4×6 pic’s into ppt and crop them to create a slide (open house announcement). I have to save as .jpeg in order for the photo center to print the announcement…which looks great on the computer..but when i get the finished product … the pictures are “pixelated” …… can ppt save as original resolution????
May 11, 2012 at 10:37 am, ridhima said:
i am not getting the options for compressing “all pictures”, the check box has vanished…dnt know what to do!! using 2007