Succeed Training Converting PowerPoint Presentations to PDF files for use in Succeed modules This guide explains how best to convert learning materials which were originally PowerPoint presentations into Portable Document Format (PDF) for display within Succeed. Bearing in mind that these PDF versions are most often printed out by students, it is best to optimise the presentation before converting it to PDF. This guide explains how to do this. Why bother to do this? There are several reasons for doing this: 1) PowerPoint is a proprietary software product and if files are merely uploaded to Succeed in this format the end user (student) will have to have the PowerPoint software package or a viewer for PowerPoint files on their computer in order to be able to view the files. This may not always be the case by default, it would be incorrect to make the assumption that all users will be using a Microsoftbased computer. Converting files to PDF means that end users will be able to view the file through one of a number of free applications called readers, the most commonly used of which is Adobe Acrobat Reader. End users can download and install such applications from the web for free and thus there is no perceived additional financial burden the university is placing on students to view their learning materials, such as there would be if the University of Stirling obliged everyone to go out and purchase PowerPoint before they could see the files. 2) When converted to PDF, files can be optimised so their file size is reduced, meaning they download and open faster than the original PowerPoint file might have done. 3) When converted to PDF, presentations may be displayed at numerous slides per page, meaning end users have less pages to print out to have a complete record of the slides in printed format. 4) When converted to PDF, presentations may be displayed in black and white, meaning end users will use up the print cartridges on their printers less quickly and the print jobs they send to networked printers at the university will take less long to be delivered and prevent queues. Page 1 of 9
Optimising a PowerPoint Presentation Before converting a PowerPoint presentation to PDF it is best to optimise the file first. This process involves the removal of any unnecessary elements from the file and the compression of any remaining items, such as images, in an attempt to reduce the file size. As this will potentially radically alter the appearance of your PowerPoint presentation, it is recommended that you save the original copy in the style and layout in which you created it, and create an additional copy to work with whilst making the optimised version. To do this most easily, merely open the PowerPoint presentation and then save it with a different filename in the same folder. For example, if your original PowerPoint presentation was called Lecture 1.ppt you could save your version to be optimised as Lecture 1 optimised for PDF.ppt. Step 1 - Removing the PowerPoint Theme One of the items added to a PowerPoint file which might greatly increase its file size is the theme. This is the choice of background colours and layout used to enhance appearance. Unless this is integral to the appearance of the file in its PDF version, it should be removed. To remove a theme follow these steps: 1. Open the presentation file in PowerPoint. 2. Click the Design tab on the ribbon. 3. From the list of available Themes click the Office Theme (as shown in Figure 1). Figure 1 - Applying the Office Theme 4. This theme (which is minimalist in appearance and has white backgrounds for the slides rather than coloured ones) is applied to the presentation. 5. Save the presentation. Page 2 of 9
Step 2 - Removing Images Before converting your PowerPoint presentation to a PDF, have a think about any images you might have used in the slides. Are they copyright-cleared? Images which breach copyright should not be used at all and should be removed from presentations anyway, not least before they are placed in a virtual learning environment. For advice about the use of images in presentations, please see your Library Liaison and Development (LLD) Team representative within Information Services: http://www.stir.ac.uk/is/staff/about/teams/aldt/. There plenty of image stores on the web which contain images free for educational use or licensed under the Creative Commons licence. The JISC Media web site is a great source of information on this topic: http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/. We would like to draw particular attention to their pages on the copyright laws surrounding image reproduction: http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/roles-and-responsibilities-images-forteaching-and-research. For any copyright-cleared images left over, have a think about whether you actually need them in the version you are converting to PDF. Are they integral to the understanding of the slide? If not, and they have only been used for decoration, then you should delete these prior to conversion to PDF to reduce the file size. Step 3 - Optimising Any Remaining Images If you still have images in your PowerPoint presentation which you must include then you should optimise these before converting to PDF. Ideally you should do this by optimising the image file using some image editing software (such as Photoshop or Pixlr) before inserting the file into the PowerPoint presentation in the first place (for example, a.gif image file saved at 256 colours will take up less file size than will a high resolution.png or.jpg file). Images should also be cropped or resized prior to insertion into the presentation rather than cropped or resized whilst in PowerPoint itself. If you are not able to do this or don't have the software to do this, you may still 'compress' your PowerPoint presentation to help reduce its file size. To do this follow these steps: 1. Open the file in PowerPoint. 2. Scroll to a slide containing and image and click once on it to select it. 3. The Picture Tools tab will appear in the ribbon at the top of the screen (Figure 2). Page 3 of 9
Figure 2 - The Picture Tools menu 4. Under Picture Tools menu click the Format tab. 5. In the Adjust part of the ribbon (displayed on the left), click the Compress Pictures option (as shown in Figure 3). Figure 3 - The Adjust options 6. The Compress Pictures dialogue displays (Figure 4). Figure 4 - The Compress Pictures dialogue 7. Ensure the Apply only to this picture option is deselected. 8. Ensure the Delete cropped areas of pictures option is selected. 9. Set the Target Output to (E-mail 96 ppi). 10. Click OK. 11. Save the PowerPoint presentation. Page 4 of 9
Step 4a - Converting to Colour Handouts You only need to follow these instructions if you wish to retain colour in your PDF file as this is integral to the understanding of the slides. Otherwise, use the instructions in Step 4b - Converting to Black and White Handouts to convert your slides to black and white handouts. To convert to colour handouts follow these steps: 1. Open the PowerPoint presentation. 2. From the File menu select Save As. 3. The Save As dialogue appears (Figure 5). Figure 5 - The Save As dialogue box 4. Ensure the Save as type option is showing PDF (*.pdf) as shown in Figure 5. 5. Ensure the Optimize for Minimum Size (publishing online) option is selected, as shown in Figure 5. 6. Click the Options button. 7. The Options dialogue is displayed (Figure 6). Page 5 of 9
Figure 6 - The Options dialogue box 8. In the Publish What pull down menu select Handouts (as shown in Figure 6). 9. In the Slides per page select the number of slides to be displayed per page in the PDF file to be created (as shown in Figure 6). 10. Click OK. 11. To confirm the conversion to PDF has been successful, Adobe Acrobat Reader (or the software you have on your computer to display PDF files) will open to display the colour PDF with the required number of slides per page. Step 4b - Converting to Black and White Handouts Unless colour is integral to the understanding of the slide, PowerPoint slides should be converted to black and white PDF Handouts, showing several slides per page. This will save students printing costs and colour ink cartridges, as well as speeding up the delivery of print jobs. Having previously been available in Office 2003, in Office 2007 and later the option to convert your PDF presentations into black and white PDF files has disappeared. Colour ones only may be produced through the PowerPoint interface (as explained in Step 4a above). To work around this and produce black and white handouts it is necessary to install and use some software called PDF Creator. This application is available from the Run Advertised Programs area. To install PDF Creator (you only need to do this once on your machine) follow these steps: 1. Click the Start button and then select Control Panel. 2. Double click on the Run Advertised Programs option. The Run Advertised Programs dialogue box is displayed. 3. Scroll to find and then double click on the PDF Creator - Install option (Figure 7). Page 6 of 9
Figure 7 - The Run Advertised Programs dialogue box 4. This installs the PDF Creator on your machine. You only need to do this once. Once installed, to convert a colour PowerPoint presentation into a black and white PDF file with x slides per page follow these steps: 1. Open the presentation in PowerPoint. 2. From the File menu select Print. 3. The Print dialogue box appears (Figure 8). Page 7 of 9
Figure 8 Arranging the Print Settings to create the Black and White PDF 4. From the Printer pull-down menu (the list of available printers) select PDF Creator (as shown in Figure 8). 5. From the Slides pull-down menu select Print All Slides (as shown in Figure 8). 6. From the Print Layout pull-down menu select the required layout in the PDF (Figure 8 shows 6 slides Horizontal) 7. From the Colour/Grayscale pull-down menu select Grayscale (as shown in Figure 8). 8. Click Print. 9. The PDF Creator takes a short while to process the print job you have just sent it, so don t worry if nothing happens for a short while. 10. The PDF Creator dialogue appears (Figure 9). Page 8 of 9
Figure 9 - The PDF creator dialogue box 11. Add a Subject and Keywords to the file properties if required. This is optional. 12. Click Save. 13. The Save As dialogue box appears (Figure 10). Figure 10 - The Save As dialogue box 14. Navigate to the location you wish to save the PDF and click Save. 15. You now have a black and white PDF of your PowerPoint presentation with the number of slides you wished per page. When the relevant PDF file has been created it can be uploaded to the relevant Succeed module in the usual manner. It is worth editing the title of the item once in Succeed to indicate that it is a (black and white) PDF version for printing purposes. It may also be helpful to indicate to students the size of the file so they understand that a larger file may take a while to download and print. eld, Information Services May 2015 Page 9 of 9