You’ve just received a PDF from a client or co-worker, and you need to add the content to your PowerPoint presentation. And I’ll bet that you don’t have the time to re-draw the presentation from scratch!
Have no fear—it’s possible to convert your PDF into PowerPoint format.
If you’re wondering how to import PDF files into PowerPoint, you’re in the right place. With the right tools and techniques, you can automate the process and import a PDF into PowerPoint with little work required.
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use tools to convert your PDF into a PowerPoint presentation. Instead of re-drawing it and taking screenshots, these tools will save you hours of time.
How to Convert PDF to PowerPoint Presentations
In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through the steps to convert PDF to PowerPoint format free with no extra apps required.
I’m going to take an example PDF and work to convert it back into a usable PowerPoint presentation. For my example, I’m actually going to use a PDF version of the Fashionist PowerPoint template from Envato Elements, an all-you-can-download source for templates.
Using a template like this illustrates a classic case. You’ve received a PowerPoint presentation, but it’s already been converted into a PDF. The task at hand is to take this PDF and convert it back into a PowerPoint presentation.
Believe it or not, Microsoft’s official documentation advises capturing screenshots slide by slide to convert it into a PowerPoint presentation. While working in PowerPoint, go to the Insert > Screenshot menu option, then grab a screenshot of your PDF presentation.
The downside to this approach on how to insert a PDF into PowerPoint is that it doesn’t keep your text editable. Often, the point of putting it back into PowerPoint is to make further changes. The official method only allows you to add content on top of the screenshots you grab.
Another option is to re-draw your presentation. Most of the time, you can copy and paste the text. This leaves you with the task of adding other content (images, charts, tables and more) to convert your PDF to PowerPoint format.
Using this method, you’re inserting the PDF into PowerPoint indirectly. This is a time-consuming approach that may result in a finished presentation that doesn’t look as good as the original.
Embed PDF Files in PowerPoint
Finally, one other option worth considering is embedding a PDF file in your PowerPoint presentation. That means that anyone who receives the PPTX will be able to open the original PDF. It doesn’t convert the file into a PowerPoint, but the original PDF is accessible.
To use this option, go to the Insert > Object option. Browse to a PDF file on your computer and ensure that the Create from File option is checked. Then, anyone who receives the PPTX can just double click the icon to open your presentation.
Screenshots and drawing your presentation is one way to convert a PDF back to PPTX format, but it’s not the only (or best) way. Keep reading to survey the tools that automate this process.
Learn More About Using PowerPoint
After you add your PDF to PowerPoint, you might need to keep tweaking it to get it just right. Depending on the PDF you received, you might not be familiar with all the tools required to emulate the presentation.
It always helps to know more about the tool so that you can spend more time preparing for your presentation. On Tuts+, we’ve built a massive library of tutorials to help you master Microsoft’s leading presentation app.
To sample two of our best tutorials, make sure to hit the links below. Both will improve your presentation skills. So, you’ll feel confident while building your PowerPoint presentation.
Another way to save time in PowerPoint is to use great templates from Envato Elements. Check out the article below to see the best templates that you can use to create great presentations with the best designs:
5 Top PDF to PowerPoint App Solutions for 2023
So far, you’ve seen cumbersome methods to convert PDF to PowerPoint presentations. While it’s technically possible to draw and re-create every element, it simply takes too long in many cases.
Luckily, many tools (free and premium) help to automate the process. In this section, you’ll see apps that help you do just that.
Many times, the PDF you received was originally created in PowerPoint. Converting it back to a PPTX format is possible, but you might find features missing no matter what tool you use. Before we dive into converting a PDF into PowerPoint format, here are a few features that might be missing if you convert back and forth:
- Custom slide layouts. Almost every app loses some of the built-in features that are included in PowerPoint templates. For example, many PowerPoint presentations feature layouts to add all the slide elements you need. But these drop-down options are missing when you convert back and forth.
- SmartArt. If the original presentation was built in PowerPoint and used SmartArt, the PDF version won’t “carry back”
- Charts and graphs. None of the tools seem to convert charts and graphs in a way that preserves the data. They do render charts out as images, but the data can no longer be tweaked in Excel. Instead, you’ll need to re-create them and re-type the data if you want to tweak them further.
In any case, using PDF to PowerPoint tools can save you hours of design work. Let’s check out five tools that help you skip past the work of converting a PDF manually:
1. Smallpdf
When choosing the best solution to convert PDF to PowerPoint, it’s important to remember the price point. Free tools like Smallpdf always warrant consideration because of the value included.
One of my favorite features built into Smallpdf is batch conversion. If you’ve got many presentations that you need to import from PDF into PowerPoint rapidly, drag-and-drop all of them at once!
Testing with Smallpdf was positive. Most of the features migrated nicely to PowerPoint and it was easy to resume editing. Text was editable and migrated in the proper font so that it was easy to adjust. But, I did have to adjust the kerning a bit so that it appeared the same as in the PDF version.
For a small fee, you can also upgrade to use an offline version. This helps protect your data and keep it stored locally.
2. PDFelement
PDFelement is a free PDF converter for Windows 10,8, 7, and Mac. With this tool, you can convert a PDF file to almost any file format. Convert a PDF file into:
- Word
- Excel
- PowerPoint
- images
- text
- HTML
- more
This software allows you to batch-convert PDF files into other formats by using the Batch Process button. PDFelement allows you to do more than embed PDF in PowerPoint. Add:
- password protection
- redactions
- digital signatures
- bookmarks
- watermarks
- hyperlinks
- and more
3. Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat is known for two things:
- its constant stream of updates
- for being the most fully featured tool to work with PDF files
One of Acrobat’s many features is a built-in tool to convert PDFs.
While most of the tools in this tutorial are web-based, Acrobat is a desktop app. One major advantage to using a desktop app to convert PDF to PowerPoint format: security. If you’re converting a sensitive document that you don’t want to upload to any server, it’s worth the investment to use an offline app.
In my testing, Acrobat provided one of the best conversions of a PDF into a PowerPoint file. Objects were preserved and easily edited once I opened the finished PPTX file in Microsoft PowerPoint.
4. XODO
Every tool in this list brings unique features to insert PDF files into PowerPoint, and XODO is no exception. Not only does it feature password PDF conversions, but it also allows you to convert partial files.
This simple, browser-based tool takes only a few seconds to convert your presentations. If you want to convert your PDF file into another Microsoft Office format, you can do so right on the same site, exporting to Word and Excel format. Think of using this template if your PDF is passworded.
5. iLovePDF
Maybe you love PDFs, but it’s time to see other apps (in this case, Microsoft PowerPoint.) In that case, iLovePDF is yet another solid choice to help you insert a PDF into PowerPoint.
In my testing, this is perhaps the best free tool when it comes to accuracy. When I used it to import a PDF into PowerPoint, the fonts were already spaced and aligned perfectly. You can also batch convert several presentations with iLovePDF, saving you hours of time while inserting PDF into PowerPoint files.
Convert PDF to PowerPoint Easily Today
In this tutorial, you saw tips to learn how to insert PDF files into PowerPoint. You don’t have to totally re-create the files from scratch to convert a presentation to PowerPoint format. Instead, try out the apps and tools to convert your PDF to PowerPoint presentation.
Before you start re-creating your presentation on a blank slate, think about one of these tools to convert PDF into PowerPoint presentations. Now that you know how to insert a PDF to PowerPoint, you’ll save hours of work that you can dedicate to preparing to present instead.
Also, don’t forget that you can use templates to avoid drawing a presentation from scratch. If you use PowerPoint templates from Envato Elements you can design a great presentation.
Editor’s Note: This tutorial was originally published in 2019. It’s been comprehensively updated with help from Sarah Joy.