Is the size of a Power Point file (photos only) the total size of all the photographs used or does PP compress the photo files?
If your images are JPG they’re already compressed. PowerPoint won’t make it smaller than that.
If the PowerPoint presentation will only be viewed on a screen or projector, or even printed, but the pictures were taken at many megapixels, the photos can be compressed by PowerPointto result in a much smaller file.
I do this regularly, and the file size can be reduced by a considerable amount.
Our version at work will automatically compress pictures when you save the PowerPoint. There’s some way to turn that feature off, but it’s hard to find the option, and IIRC, it needs to be turned off on a document by document basis.