Section 7.9. Optimizing Presentations

7.9. Optimizing Presentations

Optimization in PowerPoint means keeping file size as small as possible . Depending on the number of slides, images, sound clips, and animated effects you include in your presentation, you could be looking at a hundred-megabyte-plus PowerPoint file. That's big enough to cause slow- downs and other glitches if you're trying to deliver your presentation on a laptop. But if you plan to deliver your presentation over the Web or email it to each of your department heads for sign-off, it could very well bring your network (or your recipients' virtual in-boxes) to their knees. Fortunately, you can pare down the size of your PowerPoint file by applying the strategies outlined in the following sections.

7.9.1. Go Easy on the Bling

Images and embedded sounds ( specifically , .wav files) are the primary cause of PowerPoint file bloat. Use them if they're the most effective way to communicate whatever it is you have to say. But if you can get the same point across using a couple of bullet points or an anecdote, do it.

7.9.2. Pare Down Objects Outside of PowerPoint

PowerPoint isn't a jack-of-all trades programit doesn't let you edit or optimize sound, video, or animation files. To rein in file size for these types of objects, you'll need a specially designed program, like video- or image-editing software.

PowerPoint does let you compress images after you've added them to your slides (page 257 shows you how). But you're still better off optimizing your images in a program that's specifically designed for working with images (such as Adobe Photoshop) before you add those images to your slides.

Note: Try to stick with compressed image files such as .jpg, .gif, and .png when you can. Uncompressed files such as .bmp and .tif rack up file bloat astonishingly.

7.9.3. Choose Insert over Dragging or Pasting

PowerPoint gives you a variety of ways to add pictures, spreadsheets, and other objects created in other programs to your slides. But the tidiest approach is the Insert tab. Using the Insert options to add an object to a slide can save you big bytes over adding that same object by dragging or cutting and pasting it from another program.

NOSTALGIA CORNER
A New Twist on Old Optimization Strategies

In previous versions of PowerPoint, you could help keep your file size modest by applying the following two optimization strategies:

By turning off an option called "Allow fast saves." This option told PowerPoint to tack onto your presentation file every change you (or anyone else editing your presentation) made to your slideshoweven if that change was a deletion. Turning it off told PowerPoint to save the changed file only, with no tack-ons. In PowerPoint 2007, the "Allow fast saves" option no longer exists. (Since most folks were turning it off anyway, Microsoft went ahead and pulled it.)
B y merging revisions. Every time you emailed a presentation file around your company for review, PowerPoint tacked on each reviewer's changes and comments, which boosted file size until you (the authorized owner of the file) merged the changes into a slim, finalized version. PowerPoint 2007 no longer tracks revisions, so merging in PowerPoint is no longer an option. (See the box on page 430 for details.)

7.9.4. Recycle Your Images

In PowerPoint as in life, reusing makes good sense: for the file size cost of a single image, you can display the image dozens of timesor more. To get the benefit of recycling, add images to your slide master instead of adding them to individual slides. Reusing the same graphic on multiple slides doesn't just keep file size to a minimum, it also makes good sense design-wise.

7.9.5. Get Rid of Invisible Stuff

If you edit your slides a lotadding and deleting objects, for example, or changing your objects' color or transparencyyou could end up with objects on your slides that don't actually appear, either because you've accidentally hidden then behind a larger object, because you've made them transparent or the same color as your slide's background, or because you turned off their visibility in the Selection and Visibility pane. Even if they don't appear, though, they're going to add to your file size. To check forand get rid ofinvisible objects:

Select Home Editing Select Selection Pane.

The Selection and Visibility pane (Figure 7-26) appears.

Figure 7-26. Drilling down to the Selection and Visibility pane is a pain, but it's worth it. Click to toggle the eyeball icon on and off. If it's visible, the object is visible; if it's not, neither is the object. Clicking the name of an object selects the object on your slide.

In the Selection and Visibility pane, check the object listing.

Look for objects whose listings are missing an eyeball icon, meaning they're on your slide but not visible to see if you spot anything you don't expect. For example, you may find an image you thought you'd deleted.
If you still don't spot anything amissit's hard to spot something that's not there, after allclick Show All.

All the objects you added to your slide appear on your slide.
If you do spot an object that you don't want on your slide, in the Selection pane, click the object name.

PowerPoint selects that object on your slide.
Press Delete.

PowerPoint deletes the object from your slide.

Note: The box on page 257 shows you how to tell PowerPoint to check for certain kinds of invisible objects automatically.

When you save your file, PowerPoint deducts the size of your deleted object from your overall file size.

Tip: When you're checking for hidden objects, don't forget to check your slide, notes, and handout masters as well as your slides.

7.9.6. Compress Your Images

When you crop or shrink an image in PowerPoint, the program saves the cropped digital scraps (or large version) just in case you want to change your mind and restore your image to its original dimensions later. That's great while you're still editing your slides, but when you've got them the way you want them, you need to tell PowerPoint to delete those file-size-bloating extra scraps and unused versions.

On your slide, click to select the image you want to compress. (If you want to compress all of the images in your slideshow, you can click any image.)

The Picture Tools Format tab appears Figure 7-27.

Figure 7-27. The Picture Tools Format tab appears automatically any time you click an image on a slide; click it to see the options shown here. You can use the options you find on this tab to crop, resize, or add effects to your image. When you've got it the way you want it, you can compress it to optimize your PowerPoint file size.

Click Compress Pictures.

The Compress Pictures dialog box (Figure 7-28) appears.

Figure 7-28. Clicking Options displays the Compression Settings dialog box in Figure 7-29.

Figure 7-29. Out of the box, PowerPoint assumes you want it to compress your pictures and discard any cropped-off scraps. But you can choose just how radically you want PowerPoint to be when compressing your file. Choosing E-mail as your target output squeezes your file as small as it can possibly go.

Tip: Because compressing your images changes them for good, make sure you hang onto your original uncompressed image (the one you inserted into your slideshow). That way, if you change your mind a week from now and want to revert to the full-size , uncropped, uncompressed version of an image, you can.

If you like, you can turn on the checkbox next to "Apply to selected picture only" to tell PowerPoint to compress the picture you selected in step 1 (but none of the other images in your presentation).

For maximum file optimization, you want to leave this checkbox turned off.
Tell PowerPoint how you want it to compress your file. To do so, click Options.

The Compression settings dialog box shown in Figure 7-29 appears. In most cases, the options that PowerPoint picks for you work just fine. The only time you really need to mess with them is if you intend to deliver your presentation on a computer or send it by email, in which case you can trim extra bytes by choosing the Screen or E-mail options described in step 5 below.

If you like, you can turn on (or off) the checkbox next to one of the following compression options:
- Automatically perform basic compression on save tells PowerPoint to use the compression settings you change in this dialog box automatically, every time you save your presentation.
- Delete cropped areas of pictures discards the slivers of any images you've cropped.
Tell PowerPoint what quality/compression balance it should shoot for by choosing one of the following target output options:
- Print (highest quality but lowest compression; choose this option if you plan to print your presentation).
- Screen (best balance between quality and compression, useful if you plan to deliver your presentation over the Web or on a computer projector, or if you intend to package it on CD).
- E-mail (lowest quality but highest compression; choose if you plan to e-mail your presentation, either for peer review [Chapter 15] or to deliver it to your audience).
Click OK.

The Compression settings dialog box disappears.
In the Compress Picture dialog box, click OK.

The Compress Picture dialog box disappears. The next time you save your presentation file, PowerPoint pares down your file based on your selections.

Note: Compression is a complicated beast . Not only does compressing occasionally fail to shrink file size, in rare instances it adds to it. Bottom line? Make sure you check to see that the optimization strategies you apply are shaving off bits by checking your before-and-after file sizes.

7.9.7. Don't Embed Fonts (but if You Have to, Do so Wisely)

One way to format the text on your slides is to apply fonts, or typefaces , to your text, which you see how to do on page 85. But unlike other formatting elements, such as colors and images, the fonts you choose aren't automatically added to your PowerPoint file. Instead, PowerPoint assumes it will be able to find the fonts when you run your slideshow, installed on whatever computer you happen to be running your presentation on. If it can't, it automatically substitutes one of the fonts it can find.

That's the way PowerPoint works out of the box. And most of the time, this approach works just fine. Unless you choose a wild, wacky font you found on some boutique Web site, PowerPoint will probably be able to display your slide text perfectly . After all, most computers these days come complete with the same bunch of standard fonts.

But folks who feel a bit uneasy about letting PowerPoint choose which font to displayafter all, the wrong font can mess up the slide layout you spent so much time oncan choose to embed their fonts instead. The thing is, when you embed a font, you explicitly tell PowerPoint to add all the information necessary to display the alphabet in that font. You get control, but at the cost of a bulked-up PowerPoint file. Bottom line: if you're trying to keep your file size to a minimum, don't embed fonts.

If you absolutely have to embed a fontfor example, say you work for a publisher and the purpose of your presentation is to discuss different languages, fonts, and formatting stylesyou can tell PowerPoint to embed just that portion of the font that you've actually used in your slideshow. So, for example, instead of having to add display instructions for everything from A-Z, both uppercase and lowercase, you can get away with adding just the handful of letters that make up your slide text.

To embed just enough of a font to display your slideshow correctly formatted:

Choose Office button PowerPoint Options.

The PowerPoint Options dialog box opens (Figure 7-30).
On the left side of the PowerPoint Options dialog box, click Save.

Save- related options appear.
Head down to the bottom of the dialog box and turn on the "Embed fonts in the file" checkbox.
Choose "Embed only the characters used in the presentation (best for reducing file size)," and then click OK.

The next time you save your presentation file, PowerPoint embeds (adds) font information directly into the file, but only the bare minimum it needs to display the text that's currently on your slides.

Figure 7-30. Embedding swells the size of your file, and frankly, for most presentations your audience will be just as happy (if not happier ) with Times New Roman as it would have been with FroofyLookAtMe. One caveat: choose "Embed all characters" if you're going to be passing your presentation around for feedback so your colleagues will be able to add additional text without goofing up the formatting.

Note: PowerPoint won't let you embed all fonts (for example, you can't embed PostScript fonts).

7.9.8. Download and Install an Optimization Program

As you might expect, file bloat is problem for just about everyone who uses PowerPoint. And because the program itself doesn't offer one-click optimization, several enterprising developers have created specialized programs that do .

Some of the optimization program listed in Table 7-4 are available as standalone programs; others, as PowerPoint add-ins (you can find out all about add-ins in Chapter 13). Either way, when you use a PowerPoint optimization program, you can expect a file reduction of anywhere between 30 percent and 90 percent, depending on your presentation without having to comb through each slide and apply all the optimization strategies listed on pages 255262 yourself.

Note: The information in Table 7-4 is accurate as this book goes to press, but because the software business changes so quickly, you'll need to contact the companies directly for the latest scoop. You can find additional optimization programs by searching for "PowerPoint optimization" in your favorite search engine.

Table 7-4. Popular PowerPoint Optimization Programs

Add-in Name	Notes	Price	Where to Get It
PowerPressed	PowerPoint add-in; volume discounts available	$50	www.powerpressed.com
RnR RPTools Optimizer	PowerPoint add-in; free evaluation copy available	$100	www.rdpslides.com/pptools/optimizer
Powershrink.com	Standalone program walks you through the optimization process; free trial version available	$35	www.powershrink.com
NX PowerLite	Standalone program; free evaluation copy available	$50	www.nxpowerlite.com