Answers from ELIC

   
 

Welcome to “Answers from ELIC”, a monthly collection of short retorts to the quirky queries coming from Cuesta computer users.

Reduce the size of pudgy PowerPoint presentations

Q: I have lots of images in my PowerPoint presentation and now it’s too big to store on a floppy diskette or to e-mail! What can I do?

A: Obesity! ‘Seems American’s aren’t the only ones with “weight” problems.

Faced with a smorgasbord of delicious digitized photos, it’s hard to say “no” when adding “just one more” image to your presentation. But keeping track of bytes is as hard as counting calories, so it’s not uncommon for PowerPoint presentations peppered with graphic files to become “bloated”.

Fortunately, if you’re using PowerPoint 2003, the solution to shrinking your on-screen offering is quick-and-easy. Finally, a diet that works!

  • From PowerPoint 2003’s menu bar, select File > Save As…
    The Save As dialog box will appear.

  • Select Tools from the upper-right of the Save As dialog box.
    A drop down menu will appear.

  • From the drop down menu, select Compress Pictures.
    The Compress Pictures dialog box will appear.

  • If you’re going to display your presentation on screen only, select Web/Screen under Change resolution. If you plan to print your presentation, select Print under Change resolution. Then click OK.
    A Compress Pictures confirmation box will appear.

  • At the Compress Pictures confirmation box, click Apply.
  • At the Save As dialog box, click Save.

Your presentation will be saved as a file smaller than the original. (Note: Changing the resolution to “Web/Screen” reduces more than “Print”.)

Unfortunately these instructions only apply to PowerPoint 2003 users. If you’re still using PowerPoint 2000 you have two options:

  • Use a tool like Photoshop to convert all of your original images to JPEG and reduce the size of the images to 800 x 600 (or less). Then, one-by-one, replace the images in your PowerPoint presentation with the smaller, converted JPEG images.
    - OR -
  • Contact your department head and request that your division be upgraded to Office 2003 as soon as possible.

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