Guidelines for uploading Office documents Updated February 05, 2025 19:51 Office provides an easy and quick way to create documents. Upload these files to Showpad, and we will convert all Office documents to PDFs to ensure a great experience while using Showpad. When a prospect or customer downloads these files, the converted files will download in their original format (e.g., .xlsx, .docx., .pptx, etc.). If you prefer to restrict downloads to PDF versions only, you can learn how to do so in this article. Key features Uploaded Office files are converted to PDF for a great user experience For Powerpoint PPTX and PPSX files, embedded media can play in the converted document in Showpad according to the rules you defined in PowerPoint File sizes up to 500MB can be previewed and browsed in Showpad Customers can download the original Office file if enabled, or files can be restricted to PDF download only Hidden slides in PowerPoint files will not be shown in Showpad You need this to succeed Plan: eOS Expert, eOS Advanced, eOS Professional Previous plan: Showpad Coach Essential, Showpad Content Essential, or higher Permissions: Administrator Do this step by step Optimize document size Guidelines for uploading Office documents Embedded media in PPTX/PPTS Optimize document size We recommend uploading Office files with a maximum size of 500MB. In this case, files can be previewed and browsed on the user’s screen as well as shared and downloaded. It's possible to upload larger documents that range from 2 to 4 GB. However, users won't be able to preview these documents when browsing Showpad. They will only be able to search for, share, and download them. If you encounter large PowerPoint files that are not processing, you can manually activate them. Navigate to the Files library. Click the Status filter and select Failed to display the files that didn't process. Locate the PowerPoint file with an error message and click the three dots menu next to it. Click Activate anyway. The presentation is now activated and can be added to Experiences. Users will not be able to see the asset's contents in Showpad and need to download and open it on their device. Note: Files containing embedded media that have not been processed may appear incorrectly to users upon downloading. For instance, a video may be displayed as an image. If you encounter issues with uploading PowerPoint files with embedded media and processing fails, we recommend you copy and paste the contents of a PPTX into a new PowerPoint document. This can remove the specific content that blocks the processing. This way, animations, and other embedded media are preserved if users download the file. If this doesn't work, contact Support so we can investigate what is causing the processing issues with the affected files. Back to Top Guidelines for uploading Office documents Familiarize yourself with the export possibilities and settings of your Office apps. Try to create and upload your documents by taking these guidelines into account: Feature Guidelines Convert a PDF If the structure of your document is wrong after uploading, we advise converting it to PDF first. Especially for Excel files, changing the document's layout can prevent the file from looking different. Convert file types Some file types embedded in a PowerPoint presentation will not be supported when viewed in Showpad. We recommend converting that content to a supported type. All supported PowerPoint content types are listed here. Embedded fonts These are used, for example, to match your documents with your company's branding. We especially recommend to embed fonts if you have customized fonts in your MS Office documents. Embedding fonts will prevent the document's fonts, layout, and styling to change and special characters to become unreadable. Although, in some cases, certain fonts will still display differently in Showpad, even when embedded in the document. Macros in MS Office files Converting files to PDF format results in macros not being viewable in Showpad since this is a native Microsoft Office concept. It's also possible that the upload of your document fails because of this. Remove existing macros from the file if that's an option, or export the sheet as a PDF file and upload that document to Showpad. Large dataset Excel files When working with complex, large dataset Excel files, it is possible that you can't preview the file in Showpad. A workaround is to save and upload the file as an XLS file (97-2004 format) instead of a more complex XLSX file format. You can also hide large data sheet tabs to speed along processing and optimize viewing on Showpad; this will solve most processing fails for Excel files. Displaying images correctly in your document An Office document can contain many hidden objects. These can result from past manipulations, copy/paste actions from web pages, file corruption, etc., and may be difficult to trace. To remove any hidden objects that might prevent your images from being viewed correctly, you can follow these steps in the Office editor: In the menu, go to "Edit" > "Go To..." Click the "Special..." button Select "Objects" and click "OK". All objects (if any) should now be selected, even those that are usually invisible. Now that you know where the objects are located, it's just a matter of deleting the irrelevant ones to have a blank document again. Back to Top Embedded media in PPTX/PPTS We recommend reviewing these guidelines when uploading PPTX/PPTS files that contain embedded media files: Feature Guidelines Analytics Assets containing embedded media will be tracked just as other assets are. There are no specific analytics, shared insights, or Shared Spaces insights for the embedded media files individually. Auto-play videos The distinction between whether a video in a PPTX is set to play automatically or be done manually is inherited from the Powerpoint settings. The exception is when several videos are orchestrated on a slide, including at least one auto-play. In these cases, all videos become manual play. Available PPTX customization settings For embedded PPTX media on the Web App, the following settings will work: crop/trim (in space and time), rotate, flip, and turn sound on/off. For embedded media in PPTX on mobile apps, the following settings will work: rotate, flip. Compatibility Embedded PowerPoint media in Showpad are supported specifically by PPTX and PPTS file types. PDF, Google Slides, etc, are not currently compatible. Full-screen mode Double-tapping the embedded video on mobile will show the video in full screen. PowerPoint files with reduced image quality The image quality can be reduced when uploading PowerPoint files and PowerPoint files that are exported as PDFs. This can happen when using smaller PowerPoint slide sizes with images that are bigger than the PowerPoint slides. The image quality improves when you make the original slide at least as big as the image. PowerPoint files with transparency The layout and design can be broken after processing PowerPoint files that use transparent images. By changing this to solid fill, it can fix the problem. Right-click on the image in PowerPoint, format shape, fill, and solid fill. Sharing embedded media in assets While sharing assets containing embedded media is supported, it is not possible to specifically share embedded media that is part of a presentation. It is also not possible to download a media file from a single slide. Supported codecs Processing failures may occur when the video uses an unsupported codec. The codecs supported by this feature can be found here. Note that the file can still be processed even when the processing of videos fails. In this case, the video will not be available in the uploaded file. Video specifications Video files are best rendered when using a reasonable bit rate. We recommend converting to MP4 for optimal performance. Videos from streaming services such as Vimeo or YouTube will not play in Showpad. Effects added to the video can impede the rendering of the video within the PPTX/PPTS. Review this documentation to learn more about best practices for uploading video files. When applicable, we recommend using App-links to videos that can not be uploaded in your PPTX. Related articles Guidelines for uploading videos Create or delete a Custom Homepage Guidelines for web apps and HTML content Configure Coach reporting in Salesforce Follow a Path while learning