A reader wrote me the following:
I import graphics from InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop. I say import, but sometimes I do copy/paste out of indesign…a NO-NO i’m sure. Anyway, the deck looks great. I send it out to everyone — they make any last minute changes and sometimes send back for me to approve. This is where I’m guessing the compression is taking place and making most every graphic look awful. Is there a way to stop this?
The reader is right. A new “feature” of PowerPoint 2007 is that PowerPoint automatically compresses pictures when you save the file. This is usually OK, but in certain situations, it degrades the images unacceptably. (And it makes animated GIFs stop working, but few people use them any more.)
Selecting an image in another program and pasting into PowerPoint is not a good idea. Save the image as a separate file and then insert it as a picture in PowerPoint.
You can stop PowerPoint 2007 from compressing images automatically, but it’s very hard to find this setting! When you change the setting, it applies to the file, so the setting should stick with the file.
Here are the steps:
- Select a picture on a slide.
- Under Picture Tools, on the Format tab, go to the Adjust group and click Compress Pictures. You see this Compress Pictures dialog box
- Click the Options button to display the Compression Settings dialog box.
- Uncheck Automatically Perform Basic Compression on Save check box.
- Click OK twice.
Luckily, PowerPoint 2010 doesn’t automatically compress pictures when you save.
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It’s worth reinforcing the point that turning compression off ONLY works for the current presentation, and that if you save your presentation before turning it off … well. Too late. You can turn automatic compression off completely, for all presentations though:
PowerPoint 2007 makes pictures blurry, loses GIF animation
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00862.htm
PPT 2010′s defaults are no longer set to compress on save, though it’s still possible for a presentation to be set up with compression on. But it’s still going to bite you: if you insert a picture onto a slide that has an empty content or picture placeholder, the picture will pop into the placeholder. Some people love that, some hate it. There are ways around it if you’re one of the latter. But either way, PPT 2010 WILL compress the image when it goes into a placeholder, like it or not.
Steve,
Thanks for clarifying with your usual thoroughness!
Ellen
Interesting, Ellen!
I’ve been compressing both by default and manually, mainly to decrease filesize, but now an other question arises: is there a loss of data (pic quality) after every save? Both I and my customers save the same files numerous times… pics should completely disappear after some rounds. Right?
But since they do not disappear, Ppt seems to distinguish between the first “save and compress” and perform subsequent saves without compression, right again?
Any thoughts?
Rgds,
B.A.
B.A.,
Yes, I think you’re right. Obviously, images aren’t compressed again and again. I think it only compresses new images, but I’m not absolutely sure. I personally haven’t seen any signs of continual degradation.
i AGREE WITH ALLEN “Yes, I think you’re right. Obviously, images aren’t compressed again and again. I think it only compresses new images, but I’m not absolutely sure. I personally haven’t seen any signs of continual degradation.”
Thanks for this post Ellen, however, I can’t seem to find the “picture tools” under the format tab. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.
Oh just found my answer in PowerPoint Help.
This may be useful for other visitors so I’ll post it below…
To turn compression off (but only for the current presentation) in PowerPoint 2007:
Choose File, Save As.
- In the Save As dialog box click Tools.
- Choose Compress Pictures.
- On the Compress Pictures dialog box, click Options.
- On the Compression Settings dialog box that appears, remove the checks next to “Automatically perform basic compression on save” and “Delete cropped areas of pictures”.
- Optionally remove the check next to “Delete cropped areas of pictures”.
- Click OK to dismiss the Compression Settings dialog box.
- Click OK to dismiss the Compress Pictures dialog box.
- Back in the Save As dialog box, you can either go ahead and save or cancel. The compression options you just set will be preserved either way.
More info about PP 2010 can be found here too.