Converting PPT to PDF on Mac Results in HUGE file

Anonymous
2018-03-14T22:14:05+00:00

Over the last few weeks, I've had problems creating PDFs from Powerpoint. When I try to convert a 3-5mb file to a PDF it balloons up to 20-30mb which is way to large to email. 

From reading other threads, it looks like this might be a result of embedded fonts. I just had a recent update from microsoft that totes embedded fonts as a good thing, but I think it's terrible and I would like to turn them off. 

Does anyone have any suggestions? How can I turn off embedded fonts on a mac using PPT version 16.11? 

Any help would be much appreciated. Microsoft support has been utterly useless. 

Thanks!

Microsoft 365 and Office | PowerPoint | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2018-07-20T06:49:51+00:00

Hi all,

After a lot of frustration I finally figured it out.

While on Powerpoint, click on Apple and Preferences.

Click on General and change the setting Print Quality (Paper/PDF) Desired Quality to "Medium".

Hope this helps someone else, because it frustrated us for about 2 weeks.

Thanks,

Matias.

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Anonymous
2018-10-04T04:42:52+00:00

While on Powerpoint, click on Apple and Preferences.

Small correction (at least on macOS 10.13 High Sierra and Powerpoint 16.18) - You want to click on "Powerpoint", not "Apple/"

The setting is under 

   Powerpoint > Preferences > General > Print Quality (Paper/PDF)

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-08-10T04:25:49+00:00

    So why does this problem not exist in windows versions?

    I can create a file in Mac.  Open and export in Windows and its a nice compact file.  Today I had a deck that was less than 1MB native jump to 23MB after export.  No photos, no significant graphics.  Just some text, tables shapes on each page  and the Open Sans font.

    Not sure why changing a print quality setting would affect this

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-08-02T06:38:58+00:00

    hello all; 

    confirming with Matias, on mac, you can set this from preferences -->General --> Print quality

    it makes a difference from 30 MB to 3 MB 

    Best, 

    Rabih

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-07-26T02:51:27+00:00

    Hi all,

    After a lot of frustration I finally figured it out.

    While on Powerpoint, click on Apple and Preferences.

    Click on General and change the setting Print Quality (Paper/PDF) Desired Quality to "Medium".

    Hope this helps someone else, because it frustrated us for about 2 weeks.

    Thanks,

    Matias.

    This is very helpful! Worked for me. Thanks so much.

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    2 people found this answer helpful.
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