How to convert PPT to PDF

Exporting a PowerPoint presentation to PDF is very easy: just go to the Office “File” menu, select the “Export” item and you’re done. However this feature is only included in the most recent versions of the Microsoft suite (2007 onwards), and then not everyone has a copy of Office installed on their PC, right?

With today’s guide, we will therefore see how to convert PPT to PDF using some online services that allow you to copy the content of PowerPoint presentations (including images and other graphic content) into PDF files that can be viewed in all software suitable for the purpose. The services in question are all free and protect the privacy of users by automatically deleting, within a few hours, all the files that are uploaded to their servers.

It would be a real shame not to take advantage of it. In any case, do not worry, if for any reason you want to avoid using online solutions, there are also alternative software to Office that allow you to convert PPT and PPTX files to PDF in a totally free way: you can find them at the end of the post. But now let’s proceed in order and deepen the part relating to the Web services I mentioned earlier.

SmallPDF

SmallPDF is one of the best online services for editing, converting and creating PDF documents: it supports not only PowerPoint presentations, but also Word documents, Excel sheets, JPG images and other file types . It’s completely free, requires no registration, and works with any browser. Its only limitation is that it allows you to treat only one file at a time, for the rest we can say that it is flawless.

To use it, connect to its home page and drag the PowerPoint presentation to be transformed into PDF in the browser window. Wait a few moments for the file to be uploaded online and processed and start the download on your PC by pressing the Download file button . Easier than that?

iLovePDF

iLovePDF is a very valid alternative to SmallPDF Its free basic plan, without registration, allows you to convert only one file at a time and has an upload limit of 200MB; the paid one, which costs 3.99 euros per month, instead allows you to process up to 3 files at a time and raises the upload limit to a total of 300MB. Let’s see how it works.

To convert PPT to PDF with iLovePDF, link to its home page and drag the presentation to be transformed into PDF in the browser window. Then press the Convert to PDF button and wait for the document to be processed first and then automatically downloaded to your PC.

CloudConvert

If you want to convert multiple presentations at a time, I highly recommend you try CloudConvert . Unlike SmallPDF and iLovePDF is not a service dedicated entirely to PDF files, it is a “universal” converter capable of handling any kind of file (from Office documents to multimedia files) and is completely free.

To find out how it works, connect to its home page and drag the presentations to be transformed into PDF in the browser window. Then click on the Start conversion button and wait for the files to be uploaded online and converted. At the end of the procedure, press the download button that appears next to the name of each document and the files in PDF format will be downloaded instantly to your PC.

CloudConvert also allows you to merge the content of two or more presentations into the same PDF file. Just expand the merge all into one drop-down menu (bottom right), select the pdf item from it and press the Start conversion button.

LibreOffice

If you need to convert particularly heavy presentations or, much more simply, prefer to rely on offline solutions, give it a try LibreOffice . You should already know this by now – this is an excellent free productivity suite that’s compatible with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

LibreOffice can be used to create, edit and export to PDF any typical Microsoft Office file format: from PowerPoint PPT and PPTX presentations to Word DOC and DOCX documents through to Excel XLS and XLSX spreadsheets.

To download it to your PC, connect to its official website and press the Download version x button . When the download is complete, open the LibreOffice_xx_Win_x86.msi file and click first on Next twice consecutively, then on Install and finally on Yes and Finish to complete the setup.

You are using a Mac ? Then know that after downloading LibreOffice – the procedure to follow is the same as just seen together for Windows – you must also get the language pack to translate it into Italian (which on Windows is not needed as it is included in the basic installation package).

Then go back to the suite’s website and click on the Translated User Interface button . When the download is complete, open the dmg package that contains LibreOffice and copy the suite icon in the OS X Applications folder . Then open the dmg package of the language pack, right-click on the LibreOffice Language Pack icon  , select the Open item   from the menu contextual and presses the Install button  to translate LibreOffice into Italian.

At the end of the installation, to convert your presentations into PDF, open LibreOffice, click on the Open button and select the PPT (or PPTX) file to be processed. Then go to the File menu > Export to PDF format , click on the Export button in the window that opens and wait a few moments for the document to be exported. Mission accomplished!