How to compress a Word or PowerPoint file step by step

When a Word document or PowerPoint presentation is too large, share it via emaileducational platforms or teamwork tools It can become a real headache. Error messages, failed submissions, or downloads "Eternal" is the daily bread when the file has grown in size without us even noticing.

The good news is that you have a lot of different ways to Reduce the size of Word and PowerPoint files without losing qualityboth from the options themselves of Microsoft Office such as with apps and specialized online compressorsThroughout this guide we will see, step by step, all of these methods, what each one does exactly and in what cases it is worth using them so that you can choose the combination that best suits you.

Why are your Word and PowerPoint documents so large?

Before you start compressing anything, it's helpful to understand what makes a file become compressed. excessively large and difficult to handleNot all documents take up the same amount of space, even if they appear similar at first glance.

In a Word file, the file size increases significantly, mainly due to the quantity and quality of images, graphics and tables embedded, as well as by less visible elements such as custom fonts, change history, comments, or hidden parts that accumulate with There.

In the case of PowerPoint, in addition to images, something similar happens with the complex videos, audios and animations that you add to the slides. A couple of high-resolution clips or good-quality music can multiply the file size without you even noticing.

The file format itself also has a significant impact. A document saved in Older .doc or .ppt files weigh more than the equivalent in .docx or .pptx, because these new formats work internally as a compressed package, similar to a .zip, which makes better use of space.

How to see the size of a Word or PowerPoint file before compressing it

The first step in making sensible decisions is knowing exactly How many megabytes does your document take up?This way you can assess whether it really needs to be compressed or if you can leave it as is.

A quick way is to do it directly from within the Microsoft Office program itself. Open your Word or PowerPoint file on your computer and click on the tab "Archive" at the top of the window.

In the left-hand column, enter the section "Information" from the documentUpon accessing it, you will see a block with the file details: name, author, number of pages or slides and, what interests us, the size it occupies on disk.

With this simple glance you'll know instantly if you have plenty of margin or if the file size is too high. It can cause problems when sending by email, uploading to a platform, or sharing with other people. that depend on slow connections or limited data plans.

It is advisable to repeat this check after applying the different compression techniques to ensure that You really have managed to reduce the file size in a significant way, and not just by a few kilobytes.

Use modern DOCX and PPTX formats to save space

One of the simplest changes, and one that often goes unnoticed, is checking if your document is saved in a old format like .doc or .pptThese older formats are much less efficient than their successors.

Since Word 2007, Microsoft has incorporated the formats .docx for text documents and .pptx for presentationsIn addition to providing new features, internally they are compressed packages based on XML, very similar to a .zip file with all the elements ordered and compacted.

To take advantage of this, open your document in Word and go to File> Save AsIn the dialog box, expand the "Save as type" list and select "Word Document (*.docx)." Click "Save," and you'll have a modern version of the file.

In PowerPoint the process is identical: go to File> Save AsChoose "PowerPoint Presentation (*.pptx)" as the file type, confirm, and let the application create the new, optimized presentation.

This simple change of format can have a Significant size reduction without changing any of the contentTherefore, it's a good starting point before getting into more advanced settings.

Compress a Word document by reducing the size of images

In most documents, images are the real culprits behind the file size skyrocketing. Luckily, Word offers several built-in tools for this. compress the images and lower their resolution without losing quality at first glance.

One option is to use the function of "Compress images" when saving the documentOpen your file, press F12 to go directly to "Save As" and look at the "Tools" button that appears next to "Save".

In the menu for that button, choose the option "Compress images..."A window will open where you can check "Delete cropped areas of images," so that Word permanently deletes the parts you had cropped and no longer need to keep.

In that same dialog box you can select a resolution adapted to the use of the documentFor example, the "Email (96 dpi)" option minimizes the size of images intended for sharing, while slightly higher resolutions such as 150 dpi may be sufficient for documents that will be viewed on screen or printed without too much demand.

Once you select the resolution and accept, save the file again. When you check its properties again, you'll see that the The total size of the document has been reduced considerably.especially if it contained many photographs or heavy graphics.

Adjust image settings in Word for smaller file sizes

If you want to go a step further and have Word always work with lighter images in your documents, you can modify the global size and quality options that the program uses to process them.

With any document open, access File > Options Then, in the window that opens, go to the "Advanced" section. Scroll down to the "Image Size and Quality" section, where the key settings are located.

First, check the box "Discard editing data"This causes Word to remove the additional information it saves to undo changes to images, thus reducing the file size. Keep in mind, however, that by doing this you will lose the ability to restore those photos to their original state later.

Next, make sure the option "Do not compress images in the file" is uncheckedIf you had it checked, Word would always respect the images at their maximum quality and size, preventing any automatic compression.

Finally, in "Default resolution" choose a value of 150 dpi or even lower If the document will only be viewed on screens, for most common uses you don't need higher resolutions, and lowering them can save a lot of space.

Remove embedded fonts to lighten up Word and PowerPoint

Another source of weight that often goes unnoticed is... fonts embedded within the fileOffice allows you to save the fonts you've used directly in the document so that anyone can see it the same way, even if they don't have those fonts installed on their computer.

The problem is that including the entire fonts in the file can significantly increase the size, especially if you use several custom fonts. To check this in Word, go to File > Options and it goes into the "Save" category.

Within the "Maintain fidelity when saving this document" section, you will see the box "Embed fonts in the file"If you want your document to take up less space, it's best to leave this option unchecked. Uncheck it and, after saving again, you'll notice a reduction in size compared to the previous version.

If you still need to embed the font because it's essential that the formatting is respected on any computer, you can limit the impact by activating "Insert only the characters used in the document" and "Do not embed common system fonts." This way, the full font is not included, but only the characters that are actually used.

In PowerPoint the logic is similar, since the option to insert fonts is also found in the application saving preferences and it can make a presentation with few slides weigh much more than expected.

Stop change tracking and clean up the document

When working with other people on the same document, it's normal to use the change tracking and review comments to keep track of who has modified what. However, all that extra information ends up taking up quite a bit of space.

Once the content is approved and you no longer need to see every change, it's best to disable this feature. In Word, open the tab "Review" on the top tape And, in the "Tracking" section, click the "Track Changes" button to turn it off.

If you also want to apply all changes and clear the history, use the dropdown menu in the option "Accept" and choose "Accept all changes and stop tracking"The document will still look the same, but without the hidden burden of intermediate versions.

Also take the opportunity to check if there are comments, hidden sections, or embedded previous versions that you can delete. The less historical "junk" the archive accumulates, the smaller and cleaner it will be.

This streamlining of changes and revisions is especially noticeable in documents that have been extensively worked on by a team, where they have accumulated. months of notes, cross-outs, and modifications that no longer make sense to preserve.

Insert images correctly instead of copying and pasting

Something as simple as how you place images in a document can make all the difference. When you create a Copy and paste an image directly from another application or from the browserWord tends to embed it in uncompressed formats like BMP or PNG, which take up much more space.

However, if you use the option to Insert > Images > This device And if you choose the original file from your hard drive, Word will respect the format and compression of that image, avoiding unnecessarily inflating the size.

That's why it's recommended that, whenever possible, you download the image to your computer first. efficient format like JPEG Then insert it from the application menu. This way you preserve the original compression and keep the file under control.

This same advice applies to PowerPoint: correctly inserting photos and graphics from well-optimized files helps a lot. Maintain a lightweight presentation without sacrificing good visual quality..

If you already have a document full of images pasted haphazardly, you might consider replacing the largest ones with newer versions. inserted in more compressed formatsalthough it is a somewhat more manual task.

Compress a PowerPoint presentation in Windows using a ZIP file

When all you need is for the file to take up less space for sending, without affecting the internal content, you can always resort to compress the presentation into a ZIP folder directly from the File Explorer Windows.

To do this, open Explorer (in Windows 10 and 11 it's called "File Browser") from the taskbar, the Start menu or with the keyboard shortcut Windows + E. Navigate to the folder where you have saved the PowerPoint presentation.

When you see the .ppt or .pptx file, right-click on it and choose the path Send to > Compressed (zip) folder»Windows will create a new .zip file in the same location with the same name, which will contain the compressed presentation.

This ZIP file is usually smaller than the original presentation, and it's the one you should attach to the email or share with whomever you want. The recipient will only have to Double-click to open and extract the presentation on your computer, without the need for strange programs.

Note that this method does not modify the internal size of the presentation; it simply wraps it in a compressed file. It is useful for gain some margin on shippingBut if the presentation is still huge, it might be advisable to combine it with other techniques such as image and video compression.

Reduce the size of videos and audio embedded in PowerPoint

If your presentation contains video clips or audio tracks, they are likely the main reason for the file size. PowerPoint includes tools for Compress these multimedia files and adjust their quality.

In modern versions of PowerPoint for Windows, you'll find options in the menu of multimedia that allow Optimize audio and video files to reduce their size without them ceasing to look or sound good.

When compression is applied, the program re-encodes that content with settings more suitable for presentations, reducing the bitrate and resolution where possible. The result is a much lighter and more manageable presentation, especially useful when it contains many audiovisual resources.

Although the details of these buttons may vary depending on the version of Office, the idea is always the same: to let PowerPoint Re-encode embedded videos and audios to reduce file size. without you having to edit the original files.

In any case, if you're working with very long videos or videos in very high resolutions, you might also consider shortening, trimming, or converting them beforehand. more compressed formats before inserting them in the presentation.

Compress multiple Word or PowerPoint documents at once

When you have dozens of large documents, going through them one by one can take forever. In those cases, [the following appears to be a separate, unrelated sentence:] Online tools that allow you to compress multiple Word or PowerPoint files at once.

Some services, such as document compression services like Smallpdf and similar ones, offer the possibility of Upload multiple Word, PPT, Excel, or even image files. and process them in bulk. After compression, they usually allow you to download a ZIP file with all the compressed documents.

Many of these compression programs have a free basic mode and extra features like "hard compression" reserved for paid accounts or Pro versions. This advanced compression usually squeezes even more file size when standard methods fail to reduce it sufficiently.

In addition, these types of platforms also usually handle convert between compatible formats and optimize each part of the file (images, fonts, etc.), so sometimes they achieve very good results without you having to touch anything within the document.

It's important to pay attention to the privacy and security policies of these services. The most reputable ones delete your documents from their servers after a short time, for example, an hour after processing them, and allow you to store them voluntarily or generate download links to share if needed.

Use compression programs specifically designed for Word and PowerPoint (WeCompress, UPDF, and others)

In addition to generic compressors, there are specialized tools that focus on optimize Microsoft Office documents and PDF in a very aggressive way but maintaining the original appearance.

An example of this approach is WeCompress, which applies specific techniques to each component of the file: it re-encodes JPEG images more efficientlyIt reduces the number of colors in PNG and uses lossless LZW compression in TIFF, all without altering the document structure or visible design.

Another interesting case is UPDF, which presents itself as a very complete PDF editor with advanced compression features. Its trick for reducing Word documents or presentations is to first convert the file to an optimized PDF and then apply different compression levels.

The typical workflow would be: you save your Word document as a PDF, open it in UPDF, click on "Save as other" and choose the option to Reduce file size by choosing between several quality levelsThen you save the compressed PDF and convert it back to Word or PPT using the built-in conversion function.

This strategy of "converting to PDF, compressing, and converting again" can achieve significant reductions when you need a balance between minimal size and good presentationalthough it involves a few extra steps and reliance on an external tool.

When to use online compressors and what precautions to take

Online compressors are especially useful when you're looking for a quick solution, without installing anything, or when you're not familiar with the process. internal options of Word and PowerPoint and you prefer that another service do the work for you with a few clicks.

Basic usage is usually very simple: you choose a reliable compressor, upload your Word or PowerPoint file, select the your preferred compression level (normal, strong, etc.), you press the compress button and, when the process is finished, you download the new, lighter version.

However, it should be noted that when uploading documents to an external server, issues may arise. privacy and confidentiality risksespecially if they contain sensitive data, business information, or content that you don't want to leave your work environment.

That's why it's advisable to use recognized platforms and review their Terms of use and file deletion policiesAnd if in doubt, opt for the tools built into your computer or other local solutions that do not require uploading anything to the internet.

In particularly sensitive documents, it is almost always preferable to opt for the integrated Office options or desktop programs, although it may mean investing a little more time configuring the compression process to your liking.

With all these methods and adjustments, you have a wide range of possibilities to make your Word documents and PowerPoint presentations much more manageable. take up less space and send them without problems, combining Office's own tools with specialized compressors or online services as you see fit when it adds value to do so.