Section 2.4. SLIDES, TEMPLATES, AND OTHER RELATED DEFAULTS

2.3. WHAT'S GOING ON WITH THESE FILE SIZES?

2.3.1. Turn Off Fast Saves Feature

THE ANNOYANCE: Okay, this makes no sense. I deleted a slide, saved my presentation, and the file size actually got bigger! What in the world is going on?

THE FIX: Select Tools Options, click the Save tab, and Save As and save your file with a new name.

Figure 2-9. Turn off Allow Fast Savesand leave it off!

Fast Saves works by appending changes to your file rather than rewriting the file when you save. This was helpful in speeding up the time it took to save a file back in the days of slower processors, but it's no longer necessary. And it's notorious for increasing file size. Fast Saves may also contribute to corrupt PowerPoint files, so it's really best to turn it off and leave it off.

2.3.2. Choose the Correct "Save as type" Option

THE ANNOYANCE: Yikes! What'd I do? I saved my presentation as a PowerPoint 97 file and it's enormous. And no, I don't have the Fast Saves feature turned on.

THE FIX: There is no such thing as a "PowerPoint 97" file. PowerPoint 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003 all share the same file format. However, when you click the "Save as type" drop-down menu in the Save As dialog box, you will see several different options. In this case, your file size increased because you chose the option with the "& 95" in its name (see Figure 2-10).

Figure 2-10. Avoid anything with "& 95" in the "Save as type" drop-down menu, unless you want very large file sizes.

It's the "& 95" part that'll getcha. PowerPoint 95 didn't maintain the internal compression of images. When you save a file with one of those "& 95" options, any images in the file become uncompressed, which causes the file size to blow up.

In the future, always choose "Presentation (*.ppt)" from the "Save as type" drop-down menu to save your work as a regular PowerPoint file.

Cut Your Files Down to Size

"Huge" is a relative term, but a lot of things can cause your PowerPoint files to grow. The following is a list of the more common causes:

• The Fast Saves option can increase file size because it appends changes to your file rather than rewriting the file when you save (see "Turn Off Fast Saves Feature," earlier in this chapter).

• If you save your presentation as PowerPoint 95 file type, your file size will increase (see "Choose the Correct 'Save as type' Option," earlier in this chapter).

• Overscanned images can also bloat file sizes. However, you should remember that PowerPoint is at the mercy of your monitor or projector, which can display only 96 (sometimes 120) pixels per inch. If you have higher resolution images, you're simply wasting pixels and causing the system to work much harder during a presentation. To understand more about this issue, visit http://www.awesomebackgrounds.com/powerpointgraphics.htm. If you need to optimize the images in your presentation, you can use the Compress Pictures tool on the PowerPoint Picture toolbar (View Toolbars Picture). Or, you can purchase the RnR Presentation Optimizer (http://www.rdpslides.com/pptools/FAQ00013.htm) for $99.95. You can also download a free trial version of NXPowerLite (http://www.nxpowerlite.com/), but it will cost you $46 if you wish to purchase it.

• Extraneous stuff on your slides, such as audio files, charts, and images, add to your file size. When you're looking for oversized images, OLE objects, etc., make sure you check the slide, handout, and notes masters as well.

• Most embedded fonts don't give you a huge file size hit, but double-byte and Unicode fonts can be huge! You may want to check the file size of the font before you embed it.

• Review Features (File Send to Mail Recipient (for Review)) are available in PowerPoint 2002 and 2003. They work by appending the recipients changes to the original file, so the file size will increase even if the change consists of deleting slides. You'd think that choosing File Send to Mail Recipient (as Attachment) would keep this from happening; however, Outlook has been known to turn on the Review feature all by itself! To turn this feature off for good, open Outlook and select Tools Options Preferences E-mail Options Advanced E-mail Options and uncheck the "Add properties to attachments to enable Reply with Changes box.

2.3.3. Ungroup Your Excel Charts After Pasting

THE ANNOYANCE: I pasted a chart from an Excel spreadsheet into my PowerPoint file, and the entire spreadsheet came along with it. I just sent confidential salary information to our whole company.

THE FIX: When you copy data or charts from Excel and paste them on a PowerPoint slide, you're actually pasting the entire Excel workbook into your presentation. Not only can this greatly affect your file size, it can also lead to embarrassing situations!

The easiest way around this is to ungroup your Excel chart when you're finished working with it. To do this, select the chart and, on the Drawing menu, choose Draw Ungroup (see Figure 2-11).

Figure 2-11. Ungroup Excel charts to prevent including unwanted data in your presentation.