It's still a common problem in offices today: employees from your company's foreign branch "quickly" send you the latest presentation by email. What arrives is a 30-megabyte attachment that not only clogs up your inbox but also slows down your computer when you open it.
Furthermore, many companies still have fixed maximum sizes for email attachments. This means that you might not receive a presentation at all. However, this scenario can be prevented with a few simple measures. Today, we'll show you five tips on how to optimize file sizes .
Optimize file size: Here's how!
For presentations, you should aim for a file size of approximately 5 megabytes or less. This ensures that your PowerPoint file arrives safely as an attachment for the recipient. Follow these simple tips to reduce the file size of your PowerPoint files:
1. Remove unused slides, images, and videos
This is especially true for presentations that are edited over a long period of time and by multiple people. Often, there are a large number of hidden, older slides, which may also contain images and videos, thus increasing the file size.
In such a case, delete all irrelevant slides and content from the presentation and save a new version. This can significantly reduce the file size.
2. Compress inserted images
PowerPoint has a built-in function for compressing images in a presentation. To use it, open the presentation and select "Save As" from the "File" menu. Then click "Browse." In the window that opens, click "Tools" at the bottom and select the "Compress Pictures" option.
Select the "delete cropped image areas" option and choose 150 or 96 ppi as the target output. If your recipient intends to print the presentation, you should leave the target output at 220 ppi.
More information on the topic of compressing images in PowerPoint .
3. Discard image editing data
This option allows you to further reduce the size of presentations. Under the "File" tab, select "Options" . In the "Advanced" section, check the box next to "Discard edit data" under "Image size and quality" . Note that any changes made to the images after this step cannot be undone.
4. Do not create image effects with PowerPoint
Do not edit your graphics and photos using PowerPoint's Picture Tools . The Picture Tools offer options such as adding "Artistic Effects" to your images. However, this creates two image files in PowerPoint – one for the unedited image and one for the edited image with the artistic effect.
Consequently, the overall file size will increase because more images are attached to the presentation. Therefore, use a separate image editing program for effects and the like , and insert the finished images into your presentation from there.
5. Master check
When copying a slide from one presentation to another, it's possible to unknowingly include the master slide from the original presentation in the new one, thus increasing its file size. To avoid this unnecessary file size increase, always paste copied slides into the target presentation by right-clicking and selecting "Use Target Theme" .
Once you have finished creating your presentation, it is always a good idea to take another look at the master view. There you can check whether an unnecessary master file has been accidentally included due to copy operations and delete it if necessary.
Extra tip: Use tools to optimize file size
There are various tools you can use to reduce the size of PowerPoint and other Office files. Popular tools include PowerShrink and FileMinimizer . Both programs can shrink file sizes without any loss of quality. If you'd like to try these tools, you can download and test the free trial versions.
Conclusion: Optimize your file size easily and quickly with our tips!
Presentation files can quickly become too large. To ensure that you and your colleagues can easily edit and share your presentation, you should make sure not to exceed the 5 MB limit . Our tips will help you quickly and easily optimize your file size! Give it a try!
Do you have questions about optimizing file size or general questions about PowerPoint? Feel free to contact us by email at becker@presentationload.de . We're happy to help!
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