How to convert PowerPoint to PDF

Have you been asked to transfer the contents of some PowerPoint presentations into PDF files, in order to make them easier to consult, but you don’t know how to do it? Do not worry. This is a very simple operation that, if desired, can be performed completely free of charge. Just use the right tools.

To find out what these “right” tools are and understand  how to convert PowerPoint to PDF using them, read on. In fact, below you will find a list of software and online services that allow you to reach the goal in an extremely fast and intuitive way. In short, all you have to do is take your presentations, open them (or drag them into the browser window, in the case of online services) and press a button. Easier than that?

The resulting PDFs will contain all the text, images and graphic elements present in the original presentations. There will be no qualitative losses and the documents will be freely viewable with any program suitable for reading files in PDF format, you will not need Office or other special software. So, are you ready to get started? Good job!

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Convert PowerPoint to PDF from computer

Let’s start this guide by trying to understand what are the software that you can possibly use to convert PowerPoint to PDF. There are several, listed below are those that in my opinion represent the best in the category. As I already told you at the beginning, you won’t have to do anything particularly complicated, don’t worry.

PowerPoint

Probably the thing will be foreign to many but the simplest way to convert PowerPoint presentations to PDF files is to use the famous Microsoft software in question. So, if you are using a version of Office equal to or higher than 2007, you can export your presentations to PDF simply by clicking on the File button located at the top left (or on the Office logo , if you are using PowerPoint 2007) and selecting the items Export> Create PDF / XPS Document> Create PDF / XPS from the menu that opens.

Alternatively you can also go to the File> Save As menu and select the PDF option from the Save As drop-down menu , it’s pretty much the same thing. If you are using the 2007 version of Office and do not find the option to export documents to PDF, you can cope with this by installing the Office 2007 Save as PDF add-in made by Microsoft.

If you don’t have Office on your computer and don’t know how to download and install it, read my article on how to download Office . I remind you that this is a paid solution but eventually it is possible to download a trial version that can be used free of charge for a limited period of time.

LibreOffice

If you do not have Office, or a version of Office that supports exporting documents in PDF format, you can contact LibreOffice . Haven’t you ever heard of it? Bad. It is an amazing productivity suite, free and open source, compatible with all Microsoft Office files and equipped with the PDF export function. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

To download it on your PC, connect to its official website and click on the Download xxx version button . Then open the software installation package (eg LibreOffice_4.4.4_Win_x86.msi ) and complete the setup by clicking on Next twice in a row and then on Install , Yes and Finish .

If you are using a Mac, after downloading LibreOffice and installing it on your computer, copying it to the Applications folder of macOS / OS X, you must return to the suite website and download the Italian translation package (which in the Windows version is included in the package of basic installation). To do this, click on the Translated User Interface button .

When the download is complete, open the package in .dmg format that contains the Italian translation file, right-click on the LibreOffice Language Pack icon  inside it, select the Open item   from the menu that opens and click on the Install button  to proceed with installing the language pack.

Now here we are! To convert PowerPoint to PDF with LibreOffice, start the program, click the Open button and select the presentation you want to convert. Then select the item Export in PDF format from the File menu , press the Export button in the window that opens and you’re done.

Preview

Do you have a Mac? Well, know that you can export PowerPoint presentations with a tool available “standard” on your Apple-branded computer: Preview , the default image and document viewer of macOS / OS X.

To use it, just right-click on the presentation you want to convert, select Open with from the menu that opens and click on the Preview item  .

Then click on the wording  File located in the upper left part of the menu bar, select the Export as PDF … option , indicate the name you want to assign to the file and the location on your computer where you want to save it and then click on the button Save . Done!

If when you go to open the presentation converted to PDF the various slides that made up the PowerPoint file are shown upside down, use the button representing a square with an arrow located in the upper right part of the Preview window to orient them in correct way. You can also change the orientation of all the pages of the PDF at the same time by selecting them with the combination of keys cmd + a and then clicking on the appropriate button always located in the upper right part of Preview.

Convert PowerPoint to PDF online

Do you need to convert multiple presentations at the same time? Don’t feel like installing other programs on your PC? No problem. There are online services that allow you to transform PowerPoint presentations into PDF documents directly from the browser, without resorting to plugins or special extensions. Let’s immediately do a couple of examples, among the best.

CloudConvert

The first of the online resources that I want to suggest you use for the purpose in question is  CloudConvert . It is one of the best online conversion services. It can process almost any kind of file, not just Office documents, and requires no registration in order to function. It also has no upload limits and also allows you to merge the content of multiple presentations into a single PDF.

To use it, connect to its home page and drag all the PowerPoint files you want to transform into PDF into the browser window. If you prefer, you can also “manually” select the files to act on by first clicking on the Select files button . If, on the other hand, the file you want to convert is online or on a cloud service, click on the arrow next to the file selection button and choose the desired option from the menu that opens.

Then press the Start conversion button , wait for the processing of the documents to finish and download the files in PDF format on your computer by clicking on the download button that appears next to their names. If you have not made any changes to the default settings of the browser you are using, you will find your converted file in the Downloads folder of your computer.

If you want to combine the contents of multiple presentations into a single PDF, before starting the conversion procedure, expand the combine all into one drop-down menu at the bottom right and select the pdf item from the latter. Then click on the Start conversion button and wait for the final document to be generated.

Before starting the transformation of the file you can also define some parameters of the PDF file that you are going to obtain (for example you can define which slides to include in the final PDF, whether or not to optimize the file, etc.). To do this, click on the wrench button next to the file name. Then click on the Okay button to confirm and apply everything.

Online2PDF

Online2PDF is another web service that allows you to convert PowerPoint to PDF totally free. Like CloudConvert, it does not require registration to be used and allows you to unify the content of two or more presentations into a single PDF, however it has an upload limit: it allows you to process a maximum number of 20 files at a time for a total weight of 100MB.

To find out how it works, connected to its main page and drag the presentations to convert to PDF in the box located at the bottom. If you want, you can also select the files to act on manually, by clicking on the Select files button .

Now, using the drop-down menu located next to the item  Mode:, indicate if you want to transform each file individually ( Create a new PDF file for each page ) or if you want to merge the content of multiple presentations ( Standard conversion ). Then click on the Convert button  and wait for the documents to be processed first and then downloaded to your PC, everything happens automatically.

If you want, before starting the conversion procedure you can also set some aspects of the final file by clicking on the Compression , View , Protection , Header / Footer and Layout tabs at the bottom and then intervening on the various available items.