Pages

Wednesday, 13 January 2016

Getting Illustrator vectors in to Mac Powerpoint and keeping them editable

UPDATED 31/07/17 for Office Mac 2016. 
Original method from Kerry Clark in this article.

How to Get Illustrator Vectors Into Mac PowerPoint


I always run into this problem. Someone wants a map or design in Microsoft PowerPoint®. But it has to be editable. No problem if I build it in PowerPoint. But, I don't work that way. It's way harder than it needs to be. I prefer to work in a program that's built for vector-based image building.

  1. Go ahead and build your file in Illustrator.
  2. Export your art as an EMF (enhanced metafile).
  3. If you don't have OpenOffice, download it. It's free. (It's a great program, by-the-way, even if you already have Microsoft Office.) The reason you need to do this is that PowerPoint for the Mac will convert vectors into non-editable raster images. However, OpenOffice will.
  4. Import your EMF artwork into OpenOffice (in Presentation mode).
  5. Right-click the art and select Break.
  6. Save this file as a PPT file. OFFICE 2016 NOTE: If you are using Office 2016 you should save it in the ODF format (an ODP extension on your file). You may even get a warning about compatibility when you save as PPT from within OpenOffice. If you 'allow' the change in format to occur, you will end up with an ODF format (ODP extension) file as well.
  7. Office 2016 MUST have internet access, as when you open your created file it will connect to Microsoft servers to enable ODP file conversion.
  8. The file will be read-only once converted, so save as a PPT from within Powerpoint and you can then edit that newly created file.

7 comments:

  1. Sadly it does not work on ppt 2016 for mac :( the emf does break on Open office but when saving as ppt it saves as a file with no recognizable format and it will not open in ppt... Maybe someone knows the latest (2017) way of importing vector as a ppt shape?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have updated the guide to show how to open in Office 2016. You need to save as an ODP file and then allow Office online to convert the file. Hope that helps, and thanks for catching the error with the latest release.

      Delete
  2. Hi Steve,

    Just like Galia I haven't been able to save my file with the extension needed by PowerPoint MAC. Could you please expand on "allow Office online to convert the file", how do I do that?

    Thank you for your help!
    Lucia

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Lucia.

      You just need to ensure that Office 2016 has access to an active internet connection and is not blocked with a firewall rule etc. The request to convert the file should then appear automatically when you open the ODP file.

      Delete
    2. Hi Steve,

      I eventually managed to save the file! It's really a useful process, thank you so much for your help and for taking the time to provide detailed instructions!!!

      Best,
      Lucia

      Delete
  3. Mind blowing effort, In case you need any online converter for files then use this;

    Simple File Converter

    ReplyDelete