Why convert slides to PDF
PDFs are the lowest-friction way to share a deck with someone who may not have PowerPoint installed — they open everywhere (browser, phone, Apple Preview, Adobe Reader) and look identical to what you designed. Particularly useful for handouts, attachments, and sending a final version of a deck where editability isn’t desired.
What carries over
- One slide per PDF page, at the slide’s aspect ratio (16:9 by default, 4:3 if the source uses it)
- All static content: text, shapes, images, charts, tables
- Slide order and slide-master backgrounds
What gets flattened
- Animations render in their initial state — PDF can’t animate
- Slide transitions are dropped — PDF pages just turn
- Embedded video and audio show as a static frame — the playback can’t come along
- Speaker notes aren’t included unless you’ve added them as on-slide text
If you need an interactive version of the deck for a remote audience, export to MP4 from PowerPoint instead — PDF is for sharing the visual content only.