How to insert a PDF into a PowerPoint slideshow in 2 ways and enhance your presentations

Chrissy Montelli

Jul 17, 2020, 19:07 IST

How to insert a PDF into a PowerPoint slideshow in 2 ways and enhance your presentations

It's easy to insert PDFs into a PowerPoint.Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

You can insert a PDF into a PowerPoint either as an object or as an image.
Once the PDF has been inserted into your PowerPoint as an object, you can set it so the PDF opens when you click it.
If you insert the PDF into your PowerPoint as an image, you'll have to insert at most one page at a time.

Have you ever found a PDF that would make the perfect addition to your Microsoft PowerPoint presentation?

As it happens, you can insert PDFs into a PowerPoint presentation, which is great if you're looking to add some pizzazz to your slideshow.

Complimentary Tech Event

Transform talent with learning that works

Capability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More

There are two ways to insert a PDF into a PowerPoint presentation: as an object or as an image. Here's how to do both, using PowerPoint on your Mac or PC.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Microsoft Office (From $149.99 at Best Buy)

Acer Chromebook 15 (From $179.99 at Walmart)

Apple Macbook Pro (From $1,299.00 at Apple)

How to insert a PDF into PowerPoint as an object

This method will allow you to pull up your entire PDF in the middle of your PowerPoint presentation, which can be especially helpful when it comes to presenting data about your chosen topic.

Make sure that your PDF isn't open in any other program before proceeding. PowerPoint won't be able to use the PDF if another program has it open.

1. With your chosen PowerPoint presentation open, select the slide into which you want to insert a PDF.

2. Click on the "Insert" tab, then click on "Object." If you don't see the Object option, it might appear as a smaller icon without any text — it looks like a blue box inside of a white box. It'll be located in the "Text" sub-menu.

3. In the pop-up box that appears, click on "Create from file." Then, click on "Browse," and find and select the PDF file on your computer. Click "OK" when you're finished.

4. You've now inserted your PDF into your PowerPoint presentation, but there's still one more step you need to take in order to have your full PDF within the slideshow. Click on the "Insert" tab, then click on "Action."

5. In the pop-up box that appears, click on "Object action:" and click "Open" in the drop-down menu. Click "OK" when you're finished.

This should set the PDF to open when you click on its icon in the slideshow presentation.

How to insert a PDF into PowerPoint as an image

This method won't insert an entire PDF into your PowerPoint presentation, but rather only a single page or so.

However, it's much simpler, and is useful for incorporating small amounts of content from the PDF into your presentation. If you don't want to open the entire PDF whenever you reference it, this is the method for you.

1. Open your PDF file so that the area you want to insert is completely visible. For example, if you want to insert a specific diagram contained within the PDF, make sure you can see the entire diagram on your screen.

2. Now, take a screenshot of the area you want to insert, and copy that screenshot to your clipboard.

To take a screenshot on a PC, among other options, you can press the Print Screen, or PrtSc, key. This key is usually located on the right side of your keyboard.
To take a screenshot on a Mac, among other options, you can press Command + Shift + 4. This will turn your cursor into an aiming reticule. Now, hold down the Control key as you click and drag your mouse across the area of the screen you want to screenshot.

3. Open your PowerPoint presentation and click on the slide in which you'd like to insert the PDF content. On the slide that you choose, right-click and select one of the Paste options (it doesn't matter which one) to paste the screenshot into your PowerPoint.

Once you've inserted the screenshot into your PowerPoint presentation, you can move, resize, crop, and edit the screenshot like you would any other picture or image.