Convert PPT to PDF
A PowerPoint 97–2003 deck comes out as PDF pages and opens where PPT files no longer do.
Convert PPT to PDF when the file came from an early PowerPoint version: a phone usually refuses to show such a deck, mail viewers break the layout, and a PDF opens the same way everywhere.
What happens when you convert PPT to PDF
The binary PPT stopped being the main format back in 2007, and current editors open it with reservations: some effects drop out, the layout shifts. PDF settles the compatibility question, because the page is assembled in advance.
A slide becomes a page and the order holds. Old decks were usually built in 4:3, so the PDF pages stay nearly square, the way they were designed.
- Slide text stays text: search finds it and the cursor selects it.
- Animations, transitions and speaker notes never reach the pages.
- Pictures and diagrams keep the places they held on the slide.
- Typefaces from the nineties that no longer exist on any machine are swapped for close ones, and line lengths shift a little.
A deck saved by a modern PowerPoint belongs on the neighbouring page, the PPTX to PDF converter. The written part of the same mailing is handled by the DOCX to PDF converter.
How to convert
- Upload your PPT file to this page.
- Check that the target format is PDF.
- Start the conversion and wait for the finished file.
- Download the PDF and page through it before you send it on.
Where PPT files still turn up
- Sorting out an archive of lectures or training decks collected before the move to a newer PowerPoint.
- Sending an old deck to a client who has no office suite at all.
- Attaching slides to a report as a single file alongside the text.
- Publishing material on a site, where a reader opens the PDF from the page without installing anything.
- Submitting a deck to organisers who accept PDF only.
Frequently asked questions
How does PPT differ from PPTX here?
The result is identical, slides become pages. The source is not: PPT is binary and comes from PowerPoint before 2007, and newer files go to the PPTX to PDF converter.
Do slide animations survive?
No. The page is static, and objects that used to appear on a click stand there from the start.
Why are the pages nearly square?
The slide sets the proportions, and old decks were built in 4:3. Printed on A4, such a page leaves margins along the sides.
More about the formats
What the format is, how to open it and how it differs from the others.