Convert PowerPoint to HTML
A deck in a browser is a document, not a presentation. Every slide is there and the text is real text that can be searched, selected and read by assistive software, which a picture of a slide never allows. What does not survive is the performance: the transitions, the builds and the timing that made it a talk rather than a handout.
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What it does
- All slides are included, not just the first
- Text stays selectable and searchable rather than becoming pixels
- Animations, transitions and timing are not carried
How to use PowerPoint to HTML
- 1
Upload the deck
A PowerPoint file. All of its slides will appear in the output, in order.
- 2
Slides become sections of a page
Each slide is emitted as markup with its text and images, so the whole deck reads top to bottom in a browser.
- 3
Style it for the destination
The output carries the deck's own formatting. On a site with its own design that is usually the first thing to strip.
How it works
The deck's package is read and each slide is emitted in order as markup: text boxes become text, images are extracted and referenced, and shapes are rendered or approximated depending on what they are.
The output is a document rather than a slideshow. There is no navigation between slides and no playback; the page simply continues.
Why this beats a set of images
Three properties survive that a picture of a slide destroys. The text can be searched with the browser's own find. It can be selected and copied. It can be read aloud by assistive software and indexed by a search engine.
For a handout, a reference page or anything that needs to be accessible, that difference is the entire argument.
What is left behind
The performance. Transitions, entrance and exit animations, timings, and anything triggered by a click are properties of a running slideshow and have no meaning in a static document. Each slide arrives with all of its content visible.
Speaker notes are a separate question and are worth checking in the output before publishing anything, since a deck's notes are frequently not for the audience.
PDF or HTML
Choose PDF when the appearance must be fixed and the file will be printed, filed or signed. Choose HTML when it will be read on a screen, needs to be searchable or accessible, or has to be published somewhere without asking the reader to download anything.
Speaker notes do not come with it
Worth knowing before you publish something. A PowerPoint deck carries two layers: the slides an audience sees, and the notes the presenter reads. Only the first becomes the page.
Usually that is what you want. Occasionally it is not — a deck circulated for reading rather than presenting often has the actual argument in the notes, with the slides carrying only headings. Converted, that deck becomes a page of headings and nothing else.
Check what is in the notes before converting. If they matter, the honest answer is to write the page from them rather than expecting the slides to stand alone.
Examples
Handouts for people without PowerPoint
Anyone with a browser can read it, search it and copy from it, and a screen reader can read it aloud. That is more than a PDF gives and far more than a set of images would.
A deck built around timed reveals
Each slide shows its complete content because a page has no playback. For a handout that is an improvement; if the reveal was the point, the deck should stay a deck.
Frequently asked questions
Does every slide appear, or just the first?
Every slide. This is the main difference between converting to HTML and converting to an image: a page has no length limit, so the whole deck is emitted in order. Only the single-image targets, PNG and JPG, are restricted to the first slide, because one image file can hold one image.
Is the text still real text?
Yes, and it is the strongest reason to choose this target. The words remain characters in the markup, so they can be searched by a browser, copied by a reader, indexed by a search engine and read aloud by assistive software. Converting a deck to images destroys all four of those properties at once.
What about animations and transitions?
They are not carried. A static page has no playback, so each slide shows its content in full rather than revealing it in stages. For a handout this is usually what you want, since a reader is scanning rather than watching. If the sequence carries meaning, keep the original deck for presenting and use the page for reference.