Uploading PowerPoint Files

Microsoft PowerPoint provides an intuitive and clear way to display a lot of information. Like other types of documents, you can upload these files to Showpad. We convert all PowerPoint files to PDFs to ensure a great user experience while using the Showpad app.

When a prospect or customer downloads these files, the converted PPTX files will download in their original format, depending on how you, as an administrator, configured the permissions for these files.

Microsoft Office has options that let you embed fonts, for example, to match your documents with your company's branding. By using these options, the fonts, layout, and styling of the document won't change, and special characters don't become unreadable. To embed fonts in your Microsoft Office files, depending on which version you're using, please take a look at the article on Microsoft's support site. 

PPTX and PPSX PowerPoint files can play embedded media on the Web app, iOS app, and the Windows app after the conversion by Showpad. In this article, you can find out more how this works.

Note: Only PPTX and PPSX files uploaded after Nov 14, 2018 will have playback capability. There will be no migration of existing presentations in Showpad. If unsupported effects are used on videos the rendering of the video may be impeded.

See how it looks

A PPTX with an embedded gif:

Key features

• Files are converted to PDF for a great user experience
• You can upload PowerPoint documents with a file size of up to 2GB
• Microsoft Office documents with a file size of up to 500Mb are optimized for mobile usage
• For Powerpoint PPTX and PPSX files, embedded media can play in the converted document
• Hidden slides in the PowerPoint files will not be shown in the converted PDF in Showpad 
• As a customer, if enabled, you can download the original MS Office file
• Files can be restricted to PDF download only

Note: While Microsoft Office documents with a file size of up to 2GB can be uploaded and distributed, they cannot be previewed in Experiences. Reduce the file size to less than 500Mb for a better user experience.
 
See the Supported file types article to verify the recommended sizes of your Microsoft Office documents.

How Showpad handles PowerPoint Files

Hyperlinks & Asset links

For hyperlinks and asset links, we advise converting your file to PDF and then add the links in the PDFs file. Take the PDF best practices into account when doing so.

Note: Exporting to PDF from within Microsoft Powerpoint allows you to keep the links when uploading the PDF to Showpad.

Asset links are also an excellent way of achieving the same effect as an embedded video in a Powerpoint presentation.
We advise converting the Powerpoint presentation to a PDF file, upload the video in Powerpoint separately add then add an asset link behind the preview of the video.
Read more about asset links in this article.

Powerpoint files with embedded media

For Powerpoint presentations, know that some functions are native Powerpoint concepts and will therefore not be available in Showpad as the file is optimized as PDF.

If your presentation includes videos or GIFs embedded in your PPTX and PPSX Powerpoint files, these will playback in Showpad with the play settings you designated in Powerpoint. Playback ability is only compatible with these two file types. Audio files are not supported. Embedded videos and GIFs are not supported on Android.

While the asset may be downloadable, the embedded media itself is not downloadable or shareable.

You can upload PowerPoint documents with a file size of up to 4 GB. However, you will only see optimized previews on PowerPoint presentations that are under 500Mb. Your full file will be accessible by downloading the file, but will be expected to fail to process. If your files are bigger than 500MB, though you will not be able to see or browse them in Showpad, you can find, share and download them.

When looking in your library in Showpad under the processing tab, locate the PowerPoint with the error message next to it. Select the file, press the Continue button, and the presentation will be moved to your Library. It can now be made available to users through Experiences, where users can download it without a preview.

Best practices when using embedded media in PPTX/PPTS

We recommend reviewing these tips and recommendations when uploading PPTX/PPTS files that contain embedded media files:

Note: If you encounter issues with uploading these files 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 the file is downloaded by your users.

If this doesn't work, reach out to Support by clicking the Help button at the bottom, before clicking Continue or Cancel in Showpad. This will allow us to investigate what is causing the processing issues with the affected files. Assets that contain embedded media that did not process successfully will render incorrectly to users.

Setting PDF permissions

It may make sense for you and your users to restrict downloads of PowerPoint or other types of files to PDF versions. This will prevent downloaders from being able to edit the original file version, and can be an easier way to view content on their device.

Restrict to PDF works on the following file types:

• Word (.doc, .docx)
• Excel (.xls, .xlsx)
• PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx)
• iWork
• Pages (.pages)
• Numbers (.numbers)
• Keynote (.key)
• Text and Rich-text (.txt, .rtf)

As an admin, you can enable or disable this restriction by each asset. Do this by taking the following steps:

1. Go to your Library and select the asset you’d like to change permissions on.
2. Click the pencil icon next to Permissions. 
3. Click the boxes to make the asset available to download internally and/or externally. Once one or both options are selected, you can then choose to Restrict to PDF.
   

You can also choose whether to enable PDF restrictions for My Files. Here’s how:

1. Click the Gear in the upper right and choose Admin Settings.
2. Select Features, then User Content. 
3. Choose the Permissions tab. 
4. You can now tick the box for Restrict downloads to PDF within My Files. 
5. Click Apply to save your changes.
   

When this setting is applied, all files loaded by your users into My Files will be automatically restricted to download as a PDF if applicable.

Best practices for uploading other Microsoft Office documents

Learn about other Microsoft Document best practices and requirements by checking out this article.