Scaling down image file size in an existing Powerpoint Presentation

[TimMcGaw]

I have developed and archived a number of Powerpoint lectures, in which
I have mindlessly inserted images that are VERY high resolution (and
therefore MUCH larger image files than I really need).

In some of these presentations, images that should have optimally been
~640x480 for the arrangement I've used.... have often been insanely
large 2400x1700 pixel images. As a result.... I wind up with huge,
cumbersome Powerpoint presentations.

I know that I could correct this mess by individually copying each of
these images from each Powerpoint slide (sometimes up to 4 images per
slide in a presentation of 50 slides) into Photoshop; scale down image
proportionally; paste back into original Powerpoint slide; and then
delete the original huge image. However... the prospect of doing that
painful task is daunting.

Is there any way of doing a "batch" scaling of images (setting a
maximum size for images, in the manner one can do with a folder full of
images in Macromedia Fireworks?)

Thanks
Tim

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi,

You can do a batch operation of saving all the slides within a
presentation as pictures in JPEG, PICT, MBP, PNG, or TIFF.

First, make a folder for the pictures. Then use File > Save As and in
the Format selector choose one of the file formats. If you click the
options button you can select the resolution you desire.

Regardless of the setting you choose, PowerPoint 2004 will save up to
the following resoltions based on file type:

TIFF 72dpi
JPEG 72dpi
PICT 1200dpi
PNG 300dpi
BMP 72dpi
GIF 72dpi

For on-screen viewing 72dpi is fine. For printing and enlarging 300 dpi
is desirable.

-Jim

 

[TimMcGaw]

Hi Jim...I don't think I described my dilemma accurately enough.

From reading your reply... I assume you're offering me a solution of

taking my presentation and saving the component slides as jpegs.

In fact... what I want to accomplish is to retain the presentation as a
Powerpoint file, but to scale down the total number of pixels of the
individual images that are incorporated into each slide. In some cases,
a single slide will have up to 4-6 images (depending on whether the
images are statically situated on the individual slide, versus
transitioning in on mouse click). Bottom line, though, is that because
the images were imported into the Powerpoint slides as unduly HUGE jpeg
files.... I wind up with a cumberson overall Powerpoint presentation
file.

So.... assuming I've clarified the dilemma... can you offer me a
solution? Does Powerpoint save all the images of a presentation, that
have been inserted into its component slides, in some sort of folder
that I can access and then subject to a batch process of scaling down
individual jpeg size appropriately?

Thanks
Tim

Hi,

You can do a batch operation of saving all the slides within a
presentation as pictures in JPEG, PICT, MBP, PNG, or TIFF.

First, make a folder for the pictures. Then use File > Save As and in

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

So.... assuming I've clarified the dilemma... can you offer me a

solution? Does Powerpoint save all the images of a presentation, that
have been inserted into its component slides, in some sort of folder
that I can access and then subject to a batch process of scaling down
individual jpeg size appropriately?

No, unless the images have deliberately been linked, PPT stores them
internally.

You can try saving the presentation as HTML - in the Windows versions, that
gives you a way to get at the images on each slide, but you'll have to work out
the naming convention used for the images. Down size them, save them back to
their original names and then have PPT reopen the exported main html file.

If you have access to a PC with PowerPoint 2002 or later, you can use the
built-in image compression feature. Or there are several commercial add-ins,
our PPTools Optimizer included, on the market that do the compression for you
automatically. As far as I know, they're only available for PC, though.

================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Tim,

I was trying to offer a way to quickly give you consistent scaled down
pictures. Yes, each slide will be a single picture, but you can open
each slide individually in a picture editor (at the saved resolution) or
even Preview and use one of several ways to grab the pictures and put
them in place. For example, you could open each picture of slide and
then select the area you wish to use and copy and paste (this is 72dpi)
into PowerPoint. There are many other ways to bring the pictures back
into PowerPoint.

If you have hundreds or thousands of pictures you could write a Macro
that searches through your presentation and saves each picture as a file
and then deletes the original and imports the saved copy. But for a
small number of images doing it manually would probably be faster.

-Jim

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

If you have hundreds or thousands of pictures you could write a Macro

that searches through your presentation and saves each picture as a file
and then deletes the original and imports the saved copy. But for a
small number of images doing it manually would probably be faster.

Saving to a file is new in 2004, isn't it? I can't find it in X.

This seems to work in X and probably will in 2001 at a guess:

Sub ExportPictures()

With ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange(1)
If .Type = msoPicture Then
Call .Export("Macintosh HD:Test.PNG",ppShapeFormatPNG,100,100)
end if
End with

End Sub

Obviously, you'd want to use a loop that tests each shape on each slide rather
than dealing with the current selection and you'd want to alter the "100,100"
to reasonable values and give the things sequential names of some sort, but
that at least gets you a file.

I figured hint hint it might be a useful addition to your picture importer. <g>


================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[TimMcGaw]

Downloaded trial version of powerpoint tools <the "optimizer">. Opened
the files in Powerpoint 2003 (Windows version) and applied the
"Powerpoint Tools <ppt> compress image function...... worked VERY WELL.
Will now purchase licensed version.

As an aside...... I tried the simple "compress" function that is build
inot the post-2002, Windows-based versions of Powerpoint. Was not
impressed with the degree of compression that this offered. Whereas the
Powerpoint Tools <when I selected the default for web or screen-show,
i.e. ~96 dpi resolution rather than the 200 dpe resolution (since I
don't plan on "printing" my presentations), the compression was optimal
and the images still very crisp when projected on a bright, 1024x768
LCD projector.

Good product, Steve. A very useful tool. <glad I had access to a big
ol' Windows box at work..... do you plan to release a version of
Powerpoint Tools for Mac Platform, or is the market just not there?>

Thanks,
Tim

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Thanks for the kind words ... glad to hear it worked out well for you.

I doubt there'll be a Mac version though. Not that it couldn't be done, but
there's only the one of me to do it and I have my hands full keeping up with
Windows and PPT versions. <g>

And there *is* that market size thing ...

================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[google]

Thanks for the kind words ... glad to hear it worked out well for you.

I doubt there'll be a Mac version though. Not that it couldn't be done, but
there's only the one of me to do it and I have my hands full keeping up with
Windows and PPT versions. <g>

And there *is* that market size thing ...

================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

Any updaet on whether this PC-only file compression feature might be
coming to the Mac version or any suggestions for Mac based tools to do
this compression externally?

Dean

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I doubt there'll be a Mac version though. Not that it couldn't be

done, but

Any updaet on whether this PC-only file compression feature might be
coming to the Mac version

As I mentioned above, I doubt there'll be a Mac version.
Not enough hours in the day and not enough Mac knowhow between my ears.

or any suggestions for Mac based tools to do
this compression externally?

I mentioned another possible technique earlier as well. Export the PPT to
HTML, identify the large images and batch resample them down to size using an
external utility, saving the resampled files to the same names as the
originals, then reimport the html version into PPT.


================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[JohnNearSyracuse]

Hi,

You can do a batch operation of saving all the slides within a
presentation as pictures in JPEG, PICT, MBP, PNG, or TIFF.

First, make a folder for the pictures. Then use File > Save As and in