1. Putting pictures into PowerPoint – file size issues. There are several ways of putting pictures into a presentation, this presentation deals with the issue of how to do this without creating a massive file – this can be important, for example if the presentation is to be copied to floppy disk for it to be given at a different site or printed from a different computer. (Much of what is covered here about presentations created in PowerPoint also applies to MS Word documents.)

2. inserting pictures and file size This presentation, stored in PowerPoint 2002 format was stored in a file that took up 13 Kb of disk space when it consisted of only the first slide, adding three more slides with only titles on increased the size to 15 Kb. Adding the duck in the paddling pool from clipart increased the size to 33Kb – clipart (the pictures made up from drawing objects) is usually quite space efficient.

3. inserting pictures copy & paste This photograph of some ducklings added over 160 Kb to the file size! it is now 205 Kb. That is because I used copy and paste. This is by far the simplest method and is OK if you only have one or two pictures. However it stores the picture in a very inefficient file format within PowerPoint, called BMP. A more efficient method is to use JPG. I have added the picture again using JPG format and this has only added 6 Kb! a massive saving in disk space that would allow you to have lots of photos in the presentation. There is a small penalty in quality, but generally this is not a problem.

4. Solutions to the size effect... So we can see that simply copying a picture from another program and pasting it into the presentation is an inefficient use of disk space. How can we get round this? Two ways: If the picture is on the internet and you want to copy it into your presentation (assuming you have addressed any copyright issues) simply right click and choose the "save picture as" option. Most pictures on the internet are stored in the more efficient JPG (jpeg) format and so will store to your drive in this format (you can check this, the filename will be of the form filename.jpg) Once saved to disk use Insert, Picture, From file to insert the picture. the second way is slightly more involved but works for practically any situation...

5. Solutions to the size effect... (continued) Copy the picture from the source (a right mouse click over the picture then choose copy is easiest) – you can even use this method to reduce the size of existing presentations. Start the "paint" program. (under Start, Programs, Accessories...on a SHU PC it is Start, Programs, Tools and Accessories, Accessories) Once in the Paint program choose Paste from the Edit menu. You may be asked if you want to "enlarge the bitmap" if the picture you want to paste is bigger than the current canvas – if so answer yes.

6. When the picture looks reasonable choose Save As from the File menu and change the file type to JPEG (.jpg) – this is the format that saves space. Then click Save. If your picture is smaller than the canvas you can reduce the size of the white canvas by clicking on the white area then clicking and dragging the bottom right corner. Once back in PowerPoint, use Insert, Picture, From file to insert the picture.

7. work on hard drive & copy to floppy To see how big your file will be, use File, Properties then click the Statistics tab. In the illustration here the file will be 428818 bytes, this is approximately 420 Kb, a floppy disk can hold a maximum of about 1400Kb (1.38 Mb) This file will easily fit on an empty floppy. To send it there, the best method is to save and close the work then use Windows Explorer to copy it to floppy. Alternatively, save as usual to the hard disk or networked disk then use Save as from the File menu and change the destination to Save in drive A: Floppies are cheap and unreliable – save it on two. Also be aware that older versions of PowerPoint cannot see work done in newer versions – so you may need to alter the version, this is also in the "Save As" dialog.