Our video on how to import your PowerPoint slides to Boom Learning features a Mac desktop. This article shows you how to do the same thing with PowerPoint on Windows. The concepts are the same, but there are a few differences that we show you here.
If you need to view the Mac equivalent of this article, click here.
Open up your slides in PowerPoint on your PC. In this solution, we are using the Desktop Version as of July 2018 (it is possible that these menus and options will change in the future). The Office 365 online version looks slightly different.
UPDATE YOUR IMAGES SETTINGS FOR THE BEST RESOLUTION
For Powerpoint, the first step is to block PowerPoint from Compressing Images. In PowerPoint select File, Options, Advanced. Look for Image Size and Quality. Click Do not compress images in the file and change the Default Resolution to 300 ppi.
Your images may still not be of satisfactory quality. If so, you will need to change how your PC does PowerPoint to JPEG conversions. This involves using the registry editor. Please read Convert PowerPoint to JPEG (High Quality) to learn how to make that change.
CHANGE THE ASPECT RATIO OF YOUR SLIDES
As mentioned in the video, the second step is to change the aspect ratio of your slides to 7" x 5"
to fit the Boom Cards format. To do this, follow these steps:
- Click the Design tab
- Select Slide Size on the right
- Click on Custom Slide Size. The default settings look like this on the desktop. The layout is slightly different in the web app but all the elements are present.
- We need to change three settings: Widescreen to Custom, and the Width and Height to 7 in and 5 in respectively:
- Click OK
The next dialog is the critical one. You should click Ensure Fit. This will retain the aspect ratio of your images and objects on each slide.
There is a catch, however. PowerPoint may have to move the elements on each slide to keep your objects at their current aspect ratio while adjusting to a narrower format. You will need to look at each slide and, potentially, adjust or move objects to ensure you have the layout you want in the new format. Here is an example of what can happen.
Before converting to 7x5:
After:
Note that the title got moved and the text labels no longer fit quite right. It is easy to adjust these in PowerPoint, but you must make those adjustments now before the next step. Here is the fixed version of the slide with the new aspect ratio:
EXPORT OR SAVE YOUR IMAGES FILE
Once you have checked your slides and made any adjustments, you are ready to Export slides from PowerPoint.
If you are in the online Office 365 app, there is just one step: go to File, select Download As, and Download Images (it will choose JPEG for you and automatically exports all slides to a .zip file).
For the desktop application, go to the File tab and select Export (File > Export). Then select Change File Type. From the list on the right, select JPEG file interchange format.
Now click Save As. In the dialog, it will name the "file" using the name of your presentation with ".jpg" appended.
Click Save and you will see this dialog:
Here you must select All Slides to get every slide exported as separate jpg files. These will be placed in a folder which is given the name of your PowerPoint file (from the previous Save As dialog). After you do this, the folder is created and inside that folder are separate jpg files for each slide named "Slide1.jpg", "Slide2.jpg", etc.
At this point you should follow the directions given in the video on how to import these files into Boom and turn them into interactive, self-grading Boom Cards!