How can I reduce file size when making PDF from PowerPoint?

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I'm using Acrobat Distiller to create PDFs of PowerPoint presentations, and
the resulting files are enormous-- take forever to display and print. Are
there ways around this? (Happens with all images, not just transparent ones.
Have already tried Distiller's image compression.)
 
I'm using Acrobat Distiller to create PDFs of PowerPoint presentations, and
the resulting files are enormous-- take forever to display and print. Are
there ways around this? (Happens with all images, not just transparent ones.
Have already tried Distiller's image compression.)
Click to expand...

How big are the PPT files and how big are the resulting PDFs?

What sort of images are in your PPTs? How many per page on average and what
are the original file types/sizes?

Which version of Acrobat?

You're printing to the Distiller driver directly or using the PDFMaker
toolbar/buttons to make PDFs?
 
I'm hearing of this happening more and more. Do you think
it's related to Acrobat 7 (vs. earlier versions of
Acrobat)?
 
Thanks for the fast response, Steve. I'm not at work right now, so I don't
have exact figures. But just as an example, I made a test presentation of
only 8 slides so it would be quick & easy to work with. Not sure how big that
is, but the resulting pdf was nearly 3 MB. We've run through this process in
the past with a variety of presentations-- some have had metafile graphics,
some gifs, and some bitmaps. It seems to be more or less the same with all.
Number of graphics per page varies by author, but the ones my boss did, which
tend to have only a couple per page (those would be .bmp), are nearly as
large & slow as the more graphics-heavy ones (in which screenshots have been
pasted directly to PowerPoint).

We're currently using Acrobat 5, printing directly to Distiller, and using a
4-per-page layout through Distiller, not through PowerPoint.

Thanks much,
Melinda
 
I'm hearing of this happening more and more. Do you think
it's related to Acrobat 7 (vs. earlier versions of
Acrobat)?
Click to expand...

It's really hard to say w/o more information. Sometimes switching to a new
version brings new defaults that may not be appropriate for making the smallest
possible PDFs. Or adds new features that the user might not be aware of ...
ISTR that by default, Acrobat 6 adds a lot of accessibility info; that's
generally A Good Thing, but can also add bulk to the PDFs.
 
Thanks for the fast response, Steve. I'm not at work right now, so I don't
have exact figures. But just as an example, I made a test presentation of
only 8 slides so it would be quick & easy to work with. Not sure how big that
is, but the resulting pdf was nearly 3 MB. We've run through this process in
the past with a variety of presentations-- some have had metafile graphics,
some gifs, and some bitmaps. It seems to be more or less the same with all.
Number of graphics per page varies by author, but the ones my boss did, which
tend to have only a couple per page (those would be .bmp), are nearly as
large & slow as the more graphics-heavy ones (in which screenshots have been
pasted directly to PowerPoint).

We're currently using Acrobat 5, printing directly to Distiller, and using a
4-per-page layout through Distiller, not through PowerPoint.
Click to expand...

Good info to start with, Melinda. Follow up with anything else you can once you're
back at work and can check.

If you'd like to send me the test presentation to try, I'd be happy to give it a
shot. I've got a copy of Acrobat 5 handy here. Email to steve at-sign pptools dot
com (with a reminder in the body of what this is about; small words, not too many
syllables; I tend to be dull and amnesiac in the mornings. It goes downhill from
there.)

You might try removing the graphics from one slide at a time and re-PDFing the file
to see if you see a sudden dip in file size at any point. You mentioned
transparency already, but are any of the GIFs already transparent when imported?
That can whomp up a BIG PDF pronto.

WMF/metafile graphics can also bulk things up if they include curves (which turn
into gazillions of little line segments in the metafile). Again, removing this
before PDFing again would finger it if it's the culprit.

And if you haven't already tried this 'un, do Start, Settings, Control Panel,
Printers. Pick the Distiller printer. Choose Printer, Preferences and go to the
Adobe PDF tab. Choose the "Screen" job preferences setting and give it a go.
 
Steve,

Well, the powers that be have decreed that even the test presentation can't
be sent externally. Proprietary and all, y'know. :-) But your suggestion of
removing one graphic at a time has generated some interesting leads. I'm
working at a bit of a disadvantage here-- the presentations in question are
not my work, and many were created a while ago, so it's hard to determine
just how the graphics were brought in. I'm beginning to have a suspicion that
even those graphics which exist as .gif files on our network may have been
pasted directly from some other application rather than inserted via
PowerPoint's menu. I've been able to reduce pdf size by about 40% by removing
them and then inserting the gifs. Of course, nobody wants this to be the root
cause when you're talking about dozens of presentations with a couple hundred
slides apiece!

Anyway, I'll keep plugging away at this as I have time. May revisit the
issue in a future post. Thanks so much for all your help!

Best,
Melinda
 
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