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Compressing Images in PowerPoint


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In this computing tip, you'll learn how to very quickly decrease the size of pictures (photos, images) in your PowerPoint presentation, which will dramatically reduce the size of the final product. For example, the modifyPic.ppt presentation shown below has been reduced by 98%. (11 megabytes to 190 kilobytes).

Example of compressed document size.

PowerPoint 2003 includes an image-editing feature that allows you to change the resolution (dpi or dots per inch) of a graphic. This feature eliminates the necessity of editing your images with applications such as Adobe Photoshop or Photo Editor to make them smaller in size before inserting them into your presentation.

Reducing the resolution of your images is especially important when the presentation is intended to be viewed on-screen (as opposed to print) since computer screens can only display images at 72 dpi, even if the images are 300 dpi. Removing the extra "high resolution" pixels makes your file smaller and more manageable without compromising the quality of the images.

Follow these steps within PowerPoint to compress your images:

  • Select the image you want to compress on your PowerPoint slide. If you want to compress all the images in the presentation, you can select any image on any slide.
  • Right-click on the image and select Format Picture.
  • Select the Picture tab, and click on the Compress... button.

    Format Picture dialog box.

    NOTE: You may also select the Compress icon from the Picture Toolbar:

Select compress in Picture toolbar.

 

  • The Compress Pictures dialog box will appear.

    Compress all pictures to web/screen resolution.
  • Under Apply to, you can choose whether to apply the compression to all the pictures in the presentation or just the selected one.
  • Under Change Resolution, select the Web/Screen option if you will be primarily displaying your presentation on screen or on the web.
  • Under Options, check the Compress pictures box. If you have cropped the image using the Crop tool in the Picture toolbar, you can also select the option to delete any information that has been cropped from your picture.
  • Click OK to save the changes.

There you go! The size of your presentation has been reduced significantly.