# Converting PDF into Powerpoint **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 3, 2008, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-pdf-into-powerpoint/432093 "2008-01-03T04:00:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-pdf-into-powerpoint/432093/1 "2008-01-03T04:00:06Z")
I’m looking for a way to easily convert a PDF into a Powerpoint. I know it’s probably not feasible to get all the animations, individual object, whatnot back, but what I want is really simple. In fact, it’s so simple, I just did it, but it took forever my way, so I’m hoping for something quicker. I have a PDF that was made from a PPT file, so each page is exactly the same size as a slide. What I did was take the snapshot tool (I think that’s what it’s called - it’s the one with a camera icon) and basically copy each page individually to the clipboard and then paste it into a blank Powerpoint slide. Is there a faster way to do this? Can I somehow just convert all the pages into jpegs or something so I can just pop those into Powerpoint? Extra points if it can be made into a pic that’s exactly the size of the blank slide too. I’m not holding out much hope for that one, but any automation would make this that much easier. I have the free Acrobat reader, no access to the full Adobe and I don’t like to pirate software so it’s not likely I’ll get it anytime soon, and Foxit Reader. ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-pdf-into-powerpoint/432093/2 "2008-01-03T04:48:28Z")
There is likely a way, but it probably requires access to the full version of Acrobat, not just the reader. Double checking now… ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-pdf-into-powerpoint/432093/3 "2008-01-03T07:20:59Z")
How much are you willing to spend? [This page](http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00054.htm) gives a variety of free workaround methods, one being the one you’ve used. They’re all troublesome or time consuming. [PDF2Office](http://www.recosoft.com/products/pdf2officestandard/index.htm) is $59.00. That’s the cheapest I can find. ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-pdf-into-powerpoint/432093/4 "2008-01-03T17:41:25Z")
Yeah, unfortunately that first link you provided is the same one I found earlier. It seems like it should be a fairly easy process, and I have this nagging feeling that I’ve done this before, but I can’t remember how. Thanks for the help so far! ---
**Author:** ![Omphaloskeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bcef8e/32.png) [@Omphaloskeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omphaloskeptic)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-pdf-into-powerpoint/432093/5 "2008-01-03T19:19:04Z")
If you’re willing to use command-line tools, you can use [**pdftoppm**](http://linux.die.net/man/1/pdftoppm) (available for Linux-like systems, including Cygwin) to convert the PDF file to a set of PPM image files, one per page. From there you can use tools like [ImageMagick](http://www.imagemagick.org/)’s **convert** to crop to PowerPoint’s 4:3 aspect ratio, if needed, and convert to a format that PowerPoint can read (PNG is probably good if the PDF contains a lot of cartoony line drawings; JPG only if the original images are more like photographs). If you have to do this several times, it should be fairly easy to build all of this into a batch command in your favorite scripting language, to create N image files from an N-page PDF with a single command. [**pdftk**](http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/) may also be useful, for extracting individual pages of the PDF into single-page files; and [**pdfimages**](http://www.linuxcommand.org/man_pages/pdfimages1.html) can extract embedded images with no further losses (if you want not the entire PDF page but just some of the included images). ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-pdf-into-powerpoint/432093/6 "2008-01-04T06:31:45Z")
In case anybody else is interested in this, I sort of solved my problem. GSview is a great freeware tool for .ps, .pdf files, and more. I can easily export all the pages as .jpgs or whatever I want. I knew I had done this before!