You may want to convert your PowerPoint (PPT) presentation to a PDF file for many reasons. Maybe you need to share your slides with others who don't have PowerPoint installed on their devices, or you want to ensure that your presentation retains its structure and formatting across the board.

Or perhaps you're looking for a way to protect your content and control who can access or edit it. Whatever your reason, converting a PowerPoint presentation to a PDF without needing a third-party app is easy. Let's dive in!

1. The Export Option

First, click on the File tab in the main menu.

Navigate to the File tab

Then click Export on the left sidebar, ensure Create PDF/XPS Document is selected, then click Create PDF/XPS.

The Export option - Export tab

In the pop-up box that appears, you can click Options to customize the appearance of the final PDF document.

The Export option - Options

The Range section of the Options box lets you set the specific slides you want to add to the PDF file. By default, All is selected to include all the slides in the PDF document.

The Export option - Range Section of Options

You can change this to Current slide to only save your current slide view, Slides to specify a range of slides, or Selection to save specific slides you've selected.

To save specific slides, you can also hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard and select the slides you want to add (from the slide thumbnails in the left bar) before navigating to the Export option.

The Publish options let you choose the appearance of your slides in the PDF file. You can choose to publish as:

  • Slides (Default): Each slide appears as a page on its own.
  • Handouts: Place multiple slides on one page.
  • Notes pages: Include the text in the notes section under each slide.
  • Outline view: Extract text in the slides and present them in an outline.

You can also include hidden slides, frame all slides, and include comments in your PDF document. When you're done, click OK.

The Export option - Publish options section of Options

You can choose to Optimize for standard (higher quality and larger file size) or minimum size (slightly lower quality and smaller size). Then specify the location (e.g., Desktop) to save the PDF file, enter a File name and click Publish.

The Export option - Publish

2. The Save As Option

Instead of using the export option, you can use the Save As command. First, navigate to the File tab. Then select Save As from the left sidebar, enter your file name, select PDF as the file type, and click Browse to choose a location to save the file.

The Save As option

In the dialog box that appears, you can configure the PDF settings using the Options box (as we did previously in the Exports section).

Instead of navigating to the Save As section, you can hit Ctrl+Shift+S on your keyboard to directly open the Save As dialog box.

3. The Print Option

Another way to save your PPT as a PDF is to use the Print option. Navigate to the File tab and select Print from the left sidebar. Alternatively, you can just hit Ctrl+P on your keyboard.

Under the Settings group, you can specify the layout of the slides (set to Full Page Slides by default) and also choose the specific slides to include in the final PDF document (set to Print All Slides by default).

These settings are very similar to the ones available in the Options box we looked at in the previous methods. The only difference is that this method gives you a preview of the final output.

Set the printer to Microsoft Print to PDF and click Print.

The Print option in PowerPoint

In the dialog box that appears, enter the file name, specify the location to save it, and click Save.

4. Email as an Attachment

This final method lets you directly email your PPT as a PDF with a single click. But first, we need to add this command to the Quick Access toolbar.

So click on the down arrow of your Quick Access toolbar and select More Commands from the drop-down menu.

Customize Quick Access toolbar in PowerPoint

Ensure All Commands is selected. Then select E-mail as PDF Attachment from the list of commands, click Add, then OK.

Add Email as PDF attachment to Quick Access toolbar

Now that you have the E-mail as PDF Attachment command in your Quick Access toolbar, you only need to click on it to attach your PPT as a PDF in a new email.

Access Email as PDF attachment from Quick Access toolbar

Your Outlook account automatically opens with the attached PDF version of your slide deck. Now all you need to do is add the addresses to which you want to send the file, add a message, and hit Send.

Outlook opens in PPT

The Limitations of Converting a PPT File to a PDF

Converting PPT to PDF doubles as one way to reduce your PowerPoint Presentation's file size. However, it comes with its limitations.

All the transitions and cool animations you've added to your presentation will not be applied to the PDF document. In addition, any content that is outside a slide's frame will not appear in the final PDF document. So ensure that all relevant content that you want to have in the PDF is in the slide frame.

Convert From PPT to PDF Like a Pro

If you've made it to this point, you should be able to easily and confidently convert your PPT files into PDFs. Whether you need to collaborate with colleagues, distribute your slides to clients, or archive your work for future reference, the PDF format ensures compatibility and accessibility across different platforms and devices.

You can also convert your PowerPoint presentation to Google Slides to get the best of both worlds.