This article shows you how to reduce the size of a PowerPoint presentation by compressing the images it contains. You can perform this procedure on both a Windows computer and a Mac. Alternatively, if you are using a Windows system, you can delete the data relating to the various versions of the document that is stored in the file. There is currently no way to delete this data from PowerPoint for Mac version as well.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Compress Pictures in Windows
Step 1. Double click on an image
The tab will be displayed Format of the PowerPoint ribbon at the top of the window.
- If you haven't opened the presentation yet, double-click the document icon.
- You can select any image in the file to view the card Format.
Step 2. Press the Compress images button
It is located within the "Rule" group of the "Format" tab, just below the tab Transitions. A pop-up window will appear.
Step 3. Uncheck the "Apply to this image only" checkbox
It is the first option listed within the pop-up window that appears. This way all the images in the document will be compressed.
Step 4. Choose the Email resolution (96 ppi)
This item is visible in the "Destination Output" section at the bottom of the "Compress Images" dialog box.
Step 5. Press the OK button
The compression settings will be applied to all images placed in the slideshow. This will reduce the size of the PPT file.
Method 2 of 3: Compress Pictures on Mac
Step 1. Access the File menu
It's located in the upper left corner of the screen inside the Mac menu bar.
If you haven't opened the presentation yet, double-click the document icon
Step 2. Choose the Reduce File Size option
It's located at the bottom of the drop-down menu.
Step 3. Access the Image Quality drop-down menu
A list of options will be displayed.
Step 4. Choose the item Recommended for sending by e-mail (96 ppi)
This will reduce the visual quality of the images in the document to 96 ppi. This is a resolution that is normally lower than that used by most images.
Step 5. Select the Remove cropped image areas check box
This will remove any unused image data from the presentation.
Step 6. Select the All images in file check box
The new settings will be applied to all images inserted in the slideshow.
Step 7. Press the OK button
The size on disk of your PowerPoint presentation file should be significantly reduced.
Method 3 of 3: Delete Change Data (Windows)
Step 1. Access the File menu
It's located on the left side of the PowerPoint ribbon.
If you haven't opened the presentation yet, double-click the document icon
Step 2. Choose the Options item
It is located at the bottom of the menu that appeared on the left of the program window.
Step 3. Select the Advanced Settings option
It is located in the middle of the list of items visible within the left pane of the "PowerPoint Options" dialog box.
Step 4. Select the Ignore change data check button
It is located within the "Image Size and Quality" section at the top of the main pane of the "PowerPoint Options" window. In this way, any information stored within the presentation that is not needed will be deleted.
Step 5. Press the OK button
It is located at the bottom of the window.
Step 6. Press the "Save" button
It features a floppy disk icon and is located in the upper left corner of the program window. Changes made to the file will be saved and unused data will be deleted from the presentation reducing its size on disk.
Advice
- To reduce the size of a PowerPoint file, always use the JPEG format for the images you insert in your presentation rather than other formats.
- When creating a PowerPoint presentation try to always use the default background for individual slides. This way the resulting file will be much smaller than what you would get using a custom background for example with an image.
- If you can't reduce the size of the PowerPoint file to be able to send it by email, you can upload it to a clouding service (for example Google Drive) and share it using only the link to the latter rather than the entire file. In this way, the recipient of the e-mail can conveniently download the presentation to his computer directly from Google Drive.
