PowerPoint

There are two ways in. Pick by plan, and by whether you want to check the result before anyone sees it.

	Upload the .pptx	Export a PDF yourself
Plans	Paid plans	Every plan
Effort	None: we convert it	A minute in PowerPoint
Result	Very close to PowerPoint, not identical	Exactly what PowerPoint exported

Either way, each slide becomes one page, at the slide’s own shape. A 16:9 deck becomes a landscape document, which is what pitch mode is built for.

Before you export

• Slides with builds become one page with everything showing. An animation that reveals bullet points one click at a time arrives as the finished slide. That’s what a still page of that slide is; PowerPoint’s own PDF export does the same.
• Video and audio don’t play from the page. Each slide is a still page in the reader. To put a video back, add it as a video overlay on that page (paid plans). See Links and video overlays.
• Slide size is set in Design → Slide Size. Widescreen (16:9) is PowerPoint’s default and suits the reader well.

Export a PDF on Windows

1. File → Export → Create PDF/XPS Document → Create PDF/XPS.
2. Under Optimize for, choose Standard for the best image quality, or Minimum size if the file is large. See Getting a PDF under 50 MB.
3. Click Options… to pick a slide range or include hidden slides. Leave Publish what on slides, not handouts or notes.
4. Click Publish.

Links on slides are kept as links in the PDF.

Export a PDF on a Mac

File → Export (or File → Save As), then set File Format to PDF.

Links on a Mac

Microsoft notes that PowerPoint for Mac doesn’t reliably keep hyperlinks when saving a PDF. If your deck has links you want clickable, export it from PowerPoint for the web instead (below): save the deck to OneDrive, open it in the browser, and download the PDF from there.

The Mac version has no option to include hidden slides or notes, or to pick a smaller file size. For image quality, PowerPoint → Preferences → General → Print Quality (Paper/PDF) sets it to High, Medium or Low.

Export a PDF from PowerPoint for the web

File → Export → Download as PDF. Microsoft notes that PDFs from the web version keep hyperlinks and tend to be smaller. There are no advanced options here; for those, open the deck in the desktop app.

Upload the .pptx instead

On a paid plan, upload the .pptx (or older .ppt) directly. We convert it with LibreOffice, which reads PowerPoint well but isn’t PowerPoint, so treat the result as very good rather than identical. The most common difference is a font: if your deck uses a font we don’t have, a similar one stands in. Export a PDF yourself when the exact look matters.

We keep your original, so if a conversion isn’t right you can replace it with a PDF without changing the link.

If the file is too big

Large decks are nearly always large because of photos. In PowerPoint, select a picture and use Picture Format → Compress Pictures, apply it to all pictures, and choose a lower resolution (Microsoft suggests 150 ppi or lower for a smaller file). Then export again. More in Getting a PDF under 50 MB.

Checklist

• Each slide is one page; builds show their final state
• Clicked a link in the exported PDF and it opened
• Under 50 MB
• Videos to add back as overlays, if any