Compress pictures to reduce the size of your PowerPoint presentation
Thursday, November 05, 2009 12:20 PM
While pictures improve the Powerpoint presentation's appeal, they increase the file's size.
Microsoft Powerpoint
Pictures comprise a huge part of most PowerPoint presentations. While they can improve the presentation's appeal, they can also increase the file's size.
If your presentation slows down or is too large to easily manage or distribute, check the file's size as follows:
- 2003 and earlier: Choose Properties from the File menu and click the General tab.
- 2007: Click the Office button, choose Prepare, and then Properties. In the Document Properties pane, choose Document Properties and then Advanced properties. (Why are so many things so much harder in 2007?)
Anything larger than 7 MB will be hard to transfer via email, which is probably the most common method for sharing files. It doesn't take long for a presentation to grow well beyond that benchmark.
If distributing the file via email is your only problem, compress the file (using WinZip or some other compression software) and send it on its way. PowerPoint 2007 has zip compression built in, so compressing a large 2007 presentation file won't help much (if at all).
You can build a slimmer presentation from the get-go, if you know how. When creating the presentation, reduce the size of images before you embed them. Although you have more control over the finished product, this route isn't always practical. You might not have the right software or the expertise or perhaps the sheer number of pictures might make that solution burdensome.
Regardless of why your file is large, you need a quick solution, and PowerPoint's Compress Picture tool just might be it. This tool will reduce the size of your presentation by reducing the size of the embedded picture files. Before launching this tool, save your presentation. Then, do the following:
- Right-click on any picture in the presentation and choose Show Picture Toolbar. In PowerPoint 2007, click on any picture to activate the Picture Tools tab.
- Click Compress Picture (the fifth icon from the right on the toolbar).
- In the Compress Pictures dialog box, choose the most appropriate settings. You can compress just the selected picture or all the pictures in the presentation. To reduce the size of the presentation, you should reduce all the pictures. The resolution setting will depend upon your needs but the Web/Screen setting will reduce the pictures the most. Use the Print or No Change options only if you really need to retain a higher resolution. A Web or screen presentation doesn't require a higher setting.
- Click OK. When PowerPoint warns you that compressing might reduce the quality of some pictures, click Apply. Usually, the reduction is inconsequential to the viewer, but check the reduced format before distributing the file.
If the file is still too large to email, try gmail.com--it handles larger files than other providers.
Microsoft Word
Five ways to select text with your mouse
Selecting text is a common task in Word.
You can use the mouse to highlight text by dragging the cursor over it, but that can be tedious and a bit cumbersome--and fortunately, unnecessary. Here are a few easy selection techniques for mouse lovers:
- To select a word, double-click it.
- To select a single line of text, click in the left margin next to the line.
- To select a sentence, hold down [Ctrl] and then click anywhere in the sentence.
- To select a paragraph, click three times in the paragraph. Alternatively, click twice in the left margin next to the paragraph.
- To select the entire document, click three times in the left margin.
- Display the filename in a custom header.
- Display the filename in a cell using the Cell() function.
- Choose Header and Footer from the View menu.
- Click Custom Header or Custom Footer.
- The resulting dialog box will offer three positions--Left, Center, and Right. Click inside the appropriate section.
- Click the File Path or the FileName icon.
- Click OK twice.
- Cell() includes brackets, which you probably won't want if your only purpose is to just display the name.
- Cell() always displays the full pathname, including the current sheet. The custom header/footer option never displays the sheet name.
- Cell() displays the name in a sheet, which you can see while working in the file. You'll see the header/footer only in Print Preview or on the printed page.
- Cell() displays the workbook's name only once, in the cell where you inserted it. The header/footer option displays the name on each printed page.
- Cell() doesn't automatically update if you save the workbook's name. You must press [F9]. The header/footer updates automatically.
Microsoft Excel
Easily display a workbook's name
A few days ago, I was reminded of how hard some of us work, unnecessarily.
A client sent a workbook for auditing--it wasn't performing well. I found a macro that displayed the workbook's name in a cell. Now, the macro wasn't slowing anything down and there's nothing wrong with taking that route. However, unless there's a good reason for running a macro (someone has to remember to do so) there are two easier ways to display a workbook's name:
Let's tackle the easiest solution first. To display the workbook's name in a cell, enter the function =Cell("filename"). This function will display the workbook's full name. If the workbook hasn't been saved, the function displays an empty string ("").
Displaying the file's name in a header or footer is a bit more traditional. To do so, complete the following steps:
Excel won't display the header in normal view. To see the header, you must click Print Preview or print content.
There are a few more differences between these two name-displaying methods:
The method you choose for displaying the workbook's name will depend on how you intend to use it. If displaying the workbook name is your main purpose, the Cell() function seems limited. In addition, there's nothing wrong with using a macro to display a workbook's name, but there are easier ways to get the job done.
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