Learn how to compress your images in PowerPoint to reduce your image file size by as much as 80%, making it easier to share your file with other people. Reduce PowerPoint file size by compressing images. To compress images in PowerPoint, first select one or multiple (shift+click) pictures in your presentation. The Picture Format tab should then appear in the main PowerPoint ribbon. Navigate to it and select the Compress Pictures option.
I have a 10-slide presentation that is a whopping 234 MB!
This is because each of its slides has a different high-resolution image as its background.
(I know that the large filesize is due to these photos because I tested this by temporarily setting all slide backgrounds to a solid color, and the file size dropped to 1.5 MB.)
I've already tried the 'Compress Pictures' feature mentioned here, but it seems not to affect background images.
I've searched all over the internet and have only found articles mentioning that approach and never mentioning the resolution of background images.
I'd really rather not need to manually resize large photos every time I'm about to use one as a slide background in Powerpoint.
UPDATE about why I care about this:
I think my Powerpoint presentations are the most beautiful I've ever seen because each slide has a different gorgeous photo as its background (with its brightness dimmed 40% so that white text is readable).
But these files are so big that my computer has difficulty running Powerpoint (even though I have a blazing fast new system with lots of RAM). Plus, I more quickly run out of local disk space or online storage space if the files are enormous.
Ryan
RyanRyan
2 Answers
Ok here's how you do it. Drop an image in to one of the slides and then perform the 'Compress Image' feature. When you do, deselect the checkbox that applies it to only that image. Run it. Then all images in the entire deck will be optimized, including the background images. I just did it and it made the 96m file 26m.
Joe PortoJoe Porto
Hm, that's a good question. Have you tried placing the image on a slide master (instead of the slide background) and then compressing images?
Otherwise, what I would do is first place the full image (how you want it to appear) on your slide, then compress all images in your deck, and only then make the image your slide background. That should do it.
CamilleCamille
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