If you are running Microsoft Office and need to convert a PowerPoint Presentation to a PDF file then you can use the built in functionality of Powerpoint to achieve this. Reasons for doing this include the ability to share the file more easily with others if you know the recipients don’t have PowerPoint or the PowerPoint viewer installed.
We are currently running Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 Beta, so screen shots here are geared towards that version of the software although the same principles apply on other versions such as PowerPoint 2007.
To get started you first need to load up or create the PowerPoint presentation. When the presentation is ready click on the File option in the top menu and click the Save As button shown below.
Once done you are presented with the file manager where you need to select a location, filename and file type for the presentation. In the drop down box towards the bottom of the screen select PDF and once selected a few options will appear below which include “Standard (publishing online and printing)” and “Minimum Size (publishing online)”. Select the option you want (with minimum creating a smaller file size and standard creating a normal file size).
When you hit save Adobe Acrobat should open to display your newly created PDF file of your presentation with the same amount of pages as slides that you created.
Although this function might not be a life changing feature, it certainly can come in handy when someone doesn’t have a PowerPoint Viewer or software installed on their PC as chances are a lot more people have Adobe Reader installed.