How to Upload a PowerPoint to YouTube: Step-by-Step Guide
Have you ever wondered how to upload a PowerPoint to YouTube? That’s a fairly common question among many Microsoft PowerPoint users.
After creating a PowerPoint presentation, you may want to share it on YouTube to reach a greater audience.
Unfortunately, YouTube can only accept video files. A PowerPoint presentation may have video and audio elements embedded in it, but it is still not a video file.
You need to convert your presentation to a video file to upload it to YouTube. This tutorial will show you exactly how to do that.
Step 1: Create Your PowerPoint Presentation
Create your PowerPoint presentation as you normally would. However, keep in mind that you won’t be doing a live presentation, so try to include everything you need to make a great video, including audio clips.
Your audio could be music, sound bites, a narration (your voice recordings), or a combination of all these. Make sure to use them meaningfully.
Here is how to add audio to your presentation:
1. Click the Insert tab on the ribbon
2. Click Audio from my PC
Browse through the audio files on your computer and select the one you want to add to your presentation.
3. Click the Insert button to add the file
Step 2: Convert Your Presentation to a Video
This next step on how to upload a PowerPoint to YouTube is crucial because you can’t share your file on the widely accessible video platform without converting it to a video format.
Here’s how to convert your presentation to a video.
1. Click the File tab on the PowerPoint (2010 version or later)
2. Click the Export tab
3. Click Create a Video from the list of options
You can tweak some of the settings, including slide durations, video resolution, and narrations.
You can leave the resolution to full HD if you don’t know what to select. Simply let YouTube handle the file compression.
You can simply set how long you want each slide to display, especially if your presentation doesn’t have recorded narrations and timings. For example, you can set individual slides to show for 15 seconds.
4. Next, click the Create Video box below the settings
5. Click Save on the next dialog box to export your presentation in video format
Your PowerPoint presentation is now ready for YouTube.
Step 3: Upload to YouTube
Now that you’ve converted your presentation to a video, it’s time to upload it to YouTube. Here’s how to do that:
1. Sign in to your YouTube account or click the app on your mobile device
2. Click the Create icon on the top right corner of the window
3. Click Upload video
On a mobile device, tap the circled plus sign at the center bottom of the screen and tap Upload a video .
4. Locate the PowerPoint video file and click Open
You may be asked to create a YouTube channel if you don’t already have one. You can rename the file, write a description, set the privacy, and apply other settings when the upload is complete.
Tips to Make Your Video Better
Although your presentation will be viewed on YouTube, you still need to remember a few simple tips for a great video.
- Keep the visuals as simple as they can be; presentations generally work best that way. You don’t want to clutter the entire screen. Instead, allow a few empty spaces on each slide for improved readability
- Highlight only the most essential facts. Your audience should not have to endure a long list of bullet points. Remember that you are presenting, not writing a book
- Make use of themes or templates to give your presentation a uniform feel. You might mar an otherwise good presentation unless you are an expert with lots of experience creating eye-catching yet appealing presentations
- Use audios, effects, and transitions in meaningful ways. You want to engage your audience, but at the same time, you don’t want to appear cheesy
Why You Should Share Your PowerPoint Presentation on YouTube
Learning how to upload a PowerPoint to YouTube gives you the advantage of reaching a wider audience, whether or not they have a presentation program on their computers.
While Microsoft PowerPoint is a fairly popular presentation program, not everyone has ready access to it. Some of your clients, co-workers, students, or friends may not have the software on their computers. Others may have it (or some other similar application) but don’t know how to use it.
However, just about anyone can access YouTube from a computer, smartphone, or other mobile devices. It’s as simple as searching for your video on the platform and clicking play – no downloads or any other technical know-how required.
Closely related to this is that users don’t even need a computer to view your presentation. Not many mobile devices have a PowerPoint program, but they can all play videos, whether it’s an iPod, iPhone, or mobile phone.
Also, you don’t have to worry about specific PowerPoint versions. Usually, presentations in one version of PowerPoint might not work too well on another. A video eliminates all that worry. Users can even view the presentation on a DVD player by downloading it to disk.
You can easily embed the video in your blog or on any web page. Video files have better web support than presentation formats.
In a nutshell, more people can access your PowerPoint presentation if you share it on YouTube. You can copy and share the link to your video to make it easy for people to watch it.
Wrapping Up
Hopefully, you now know how to upload a PowerPoint to YouTube. Don’t worry if your video presentation doesn’t come out as you expected at first. You can also tweak things around until you get exactly what you want. The key is to experiment with the settings during the conversion process.
You can reach more people you can ever imagine with a YouTube presentation. Remember to set proper metadata (or description) so that people can easily find your video on YouTube.
Further reading
How to Insert Microsoft Excel Data into Microsoft Word and PowerPoint
Quickly Add a Table of Contents in Microsoft Word
How to Screen Record on Windows 11
How to Create a Professional Email Signature in Word for Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Access Tutorial – Beginners Level 1 (Quick Start)
Quickly Scan and Create Documents with the Microsoft Office App
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How to Create a YouTube Video with PowerPoint
Few people nowadays have the patience or willingness to sit through multiple slide presentations. Online videos, on the other hand, are a powerful means to build user engagement in an era of lower attention spans. As long as the videos look professional, your audience will pay attention to whatever you have to say.
Follow these simple steps to convert your hard work that went in to creating a PowerPoint into an accessible and compact YouTube video.
Step 1: Clean Up Your Slides
If you want to give a professional finish to the video, try breathing life into the slides first.
Open the file with PowerPoint 2010 and click “View,” followed by “Slide Master,” to apply uniformity in alignment, bullets, fonts and spacing. After saving the Master template, go to “Slide Sorter” view and apply a minimalist, standard design. You can use an academic or corporate template as long as it’s minimal and clean.
Too much text in a slide will disrupt the attention span of the typical YouTube viewer. Get rid of bullet lists, fancy animations, flowcharts and tables. If you previously used a slide to describe something complex, break it down into easily digestible ideas spread across multiple slides.
Use screenshots and full-slide, high-resolution images to fill up your new presentation. PowerPoint 2010 allows you to insert online pictures with a Creative Commons license and from the Bing search engine.
You can also use the “Pictures with Captions” layout along with “Design Ideas” to create a robust background for video frames. Use free stock images for new picture ideas.
Step 2: Insert Audio
Background narration is the most important component of a high-quality YouTube video. You can download royalty-free music , but the best YouTube videos always come with speaker narration. Go to “Insert,” followed by “Audio,” where PowerPoint allows you to record your own voice for each slide.
There’s a chance you aren’t getting a very high-quality audio with PowerPoint alone. It’s far better to work with a pre-recorded audio clip and a tight script. You can use a voice recording app like Audiophile or an actual digital voice recorder. Our aim is to achieve professional results by filtering out echo and background noise.
For a fifty-slide presentation, you should aim for no more than ten seconds of recorded narration per slide. Go to “Slide Show,” followed by “Rehearse Timings,” to get the timings right for each slide. Import the MP3 files into their corresponding slides and play them in automatic mode.
Finally, you are only required to set up the slide show. Check the options for “Play Narration” and “Use Timings” along with “Browsed by an individual (window).”
Step 3: Insert Video Clips (Optional)
If you did a good job with rehearsed narrations and images as described earlier, you can skip this part. However, a mini video clip within a video is a powerful way to retain your YouTube viewer’s attention. Unlike in the past, playing a video clip automatically from your PowerPoint is very easy.
Go to “Insert,” followed by “Video,” where you can embed any video from YouTube’s “Share” menu and play it on your own presentation.
Always make sure that it is your own video. You can always choose Creative Commons videos from YouTube, Vimeo and other sites. Use PowerPoint’s “Playback” option which is displayed after you embed a new video.
Step 4: Save PPT as Video
After clicking “File,” followed by “Save As,” save the PowerPoint as a WMV file. Your video is now ready for upload on YouTube and any other video-sharing sites.
Step 5: Upload Video on YouTube
Upload the desired video output to your YouTube channel. If it is aimed at prospects alone, you might want to keep it private or unlisted with no embedding or comments allowed.
Do you agree that converting your PowerPoint files to a five- or seven-minute video is a good investment of time? Please let us know your thoughts. Want to make the most of your time? Learn these PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts .
Sayak Boral is a technology writer with over eleven years of experience working in different industries including semiconductors, IoT, enterprise IT, telecommunications OSS/BSS, and network security. He has been writing for MakeTechEasier on a wide range of technical topics including Windows, Android, Internet, Hardware Guides, Browsers, Software Tools, and Product Reviews.
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Basic tasks for creating a PowerPoint presentation
PowerPoint presentations work like slide shows. To convey a message or a story, you break it down into slides. Think of each slide as a blank canvas for the pictures and words that help you tell your story.
Choose a theme
When you open PowerPoint, you’ll see some built-in themes and templates. A theme is a slide design that contains matching colors, fonts, and special effects like shadows, reflections, and more.
On the File tab of the Ribbon, select New , and then choose a theme.
PowerPoint shows you a preview of the theme, with four color variations to choose from on the right side.
Click Create , or pick a color variation and then click Create .
Read more: Use or create themes in PowerPoint
Insert a new slide
On the Home tab, click the bottom half of New Slide , and pick a slide layout.
Read more: Add, rearrange, and delete slides .
Save your presentation
On the File tab, choose Save .
Pick or browse to a folder.
In the File name box, type a name for your presentation, and then choose Save .
Note: If you frequently save files to a certain folder, you can ‘pin’ the path so that it is always available (as shown below).
Tip: Save your work as you go. Press Ctrl+S often or save the file to OneDrive and let AutoSave take care of it for you.
Read more: Save your presentation file
Select a text placeholder, and begin typing.
Format your text
Select the text.
Under Drawing Tools , choose Format .
Do one of the following:
To change the color of your text, choose Text Fill , and then choose a color.
To change the outline color of your text, choose Text Outline , and then choose a color.
To apply a shadow, reflection, glow, bevel, 3-D rotation, a transform, choose Text Effects , and then choose the effect you want.
Change the fonts
Change the color of text on a slide
Add bullets or numbers to text
Format text as superscript or subscript
Add pictures
On the Insert tab, do one of the following:
To insert a picture that is saved on your local drive or an internal server, choose Pictures , browse for the picture, and then choose Insert .
To insert a picture from the web, choose Online Pictures , and use the search box to find a picture.
Choose a picture, and then click Insert .
You can add shapes to illustrate your slide.
On the Insert tab, select Shapes , and then select a shape from the menu that appears.
In the slide area, click and drag to draw the shape.
Select the Format or Shape Format tab on the ribbon. Open the Shape Styles gallery to quickly add a color and style (including shading) to the selected shape.
Add speaker notes
Slides are best when you don’t cram in too much information. You can put helpful facts and notes in the speaker notes, and refer to them as you present.
Click inside the Notes pane below the slide, and begin typing your notes.
Add speaker notes to your slides
Print slides with or without speaker notes
Give your presentation
On the Slide Show tab, do one of the following:
To start the presentation at the first slide, in the Start Slide Show group, click From Beginning .
If you’re not at the first slide and want to start from where you are, click From Current Slide .
If you need to present to people who are not where you are, click Present Online to set up a presentation on the web, and then choose one of the following options:
Broadcast your PowerPoint presentation online to a remote audience
View your speaker notes as you deliver your slide show.
Get out of Slide Show view
To get out of Slide Show view at any time, on the keyboard, press Esc .
Important: Office 2010 is no longer supported . Upgrade to Microsoft 365 to work anywhere from any device and continue to receive support. Upgrade now
When you start a new presentation PowerPoint, you’ll have the opportunity to choose a theme or template. A theme is a slide design that contains matching colors, fonts, and special effects like shadows, reflections, and more.
On the File tab, select New , and then, under Available Templates and Themes , choose Themes .
As you click each theme, PowerPoint shows you a preview on the right side.
When you find the one you want, click Create .
Tip: Save your work as you go. Press Ctrl+S often.
On the Insert tab, choose Picture .
Browse for the picture you want, and then choose Insert .
Select the Drawing Tools Format tab on the ribbon. Open the Shape Styles gallery to quickly add a color and style (including shading) to the selected shape.
Slides are best when you don’t cram in too much information. You can put helpful facts and notes in the speaker notes, and refer to them as you present. In Normal view, the Notes pane is located just below the slide view window.
On the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, click Normal .
If you need to present to people who are not where you are, click Broadcast Slide Show to set up a presentation on the web. To learn more, see Broadcast your PowerPoint presentation to a remote audience .
Tips for creating an effective presentation
Consider the following tips to keep your audience interested.
Minimize the number of slides
To maintain a clear message and to keep your audience attentive and interested, keep the number of slides in your presentation to a minimum.
Choose an audience-friendly font size
The audience must be able to read your slides from a distance. Generally speaking, a font size smaller than 30 might be too difficult for the audience to see.
Keep your slide text simple
You want your audience to listen to you present your information, instead of reading the screen. Use bullets or short sentences, and try to keep each item to one line.
Some projectors crop slides at the edges, so that long sentences might be cropped.
Use visuals to help express your message
Pictures, charts, graphs, and SmartArt graphics provide visual cues for your audience to remember. Add meaningful art to complement the text and messaging on your slides.
As with text, however, avoid including too many visual aids on your slide.
Make labels for charts and graphs understandable
Use only enough text to make label elements in a chart or graph comprehensible.
Apply subtle, consistent slide backgrounds
Choose an appealing, consistent template or theme that is not too eye-catching. You don't want the background or design to detract from your message.
However, you also want to provide a contrast between the background color and text color. The built-in themes in PowerPoint set the contrast between a light background with dark colored text or dark background with light colored text.
For more information about how to use themes, see Apply a theme to add color and style to your presentation .
Check the spelling and grammar
To earn and maintain the respect of your audience, always check the spelling and grammar in your presentation .
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If you follow this quick PowerPoint 101 tutorial, you’ll be able to identify and use the basic ones. PowerPoint’s main screen is divided into three big parts. The first one, and the bigger one, is the Slide Editor. Here it is where you’ll make any changes to the slide you’re currently working on.
In the Options dialog box, click the Customize Ribbon tab on the left. Then, in the right-hand box that lists the available ribbon tabs, select the Recording check box. Click OK. To get ready to record, select Record on either the Recording tab or the Slide Show tab of the ribbon.
Click the Create icon on the top right corner of the window. 3. Click Upload video. On a mobile device, tap the circled plus sign at the center bottom of the screen and tap Upload a video. 4. Locate the PowerPoint video file and click Open. You may be asked to create a YouTube channel if you don’t already have one.
Kids playing football | How to create a PowerPoint presentation | Steps to create powerpoint video | steps to create powerpoint videoInstagramhttps://instagr...
Step 1: Clean Up Your Slides. If you want to give a professional finish to the video, try breathing life into the slides first. Open the file with PowerPoint 2010 and click “View,” followed by “Slide Master,” to apply uniformity in alignment, bullets, fonts and spacing. After saving the Master template, go to “Slide Sorter” view and ...
Select the text. Under Drawing Tools, choose Format. Do one of the following: To change the color of your text, choose Text Fill, and then choose a color. To change the outline color of your text, choose Text Outline, and then choose a color. To apply a shadow, reflection, glow, bevel, 3-D rotation, a transform, choose Text Effects, and then ...
Use views for a different way to edit and build your PowerPoint presentation. The Views tab changes the perspective on your PowerPoint presentation. In the screenshot below, you can see the difference between the default Normal view and Slide Sorter view. Normal view shows each slide front and center.