How to Insert a PDF into PowerPoint Document.

Professional woman smiling and sitting at her laptop.

Present your PDFs seamlessly on PowerPoint. Learn how to insert a PDF into a PowerPoint deck with Adobe.

When you’re giving a presentation, whether it’s virtual or in person, you’ll want to make sure that it goes as smoothly as possible. Presenting can be stressful enough without adding extra steps to it.

If you need to display and talk through a PDF document during your presentation, trying to find the file while pausing your slideshow can be challenging, distracting and waste precious time. Luckily, there’s a way around this – you can insert a PDF directly into your Microsoft PowerPoint presentation with Adobe’s useful tools.

Make your presentation appear fluid and professional and find out how to insert a PDF into PowerPoint with our helpful guide.

What You’ll Learn.

How to Insert a PDF into PowerPoint.

There are many ways you can insert a PDF into a PowerPoint to enhance your presentation and showcase some eye-catching data:

Be sure to finalise your PDF.

First and foremost, before you embed a PDF into a PowerPoint, your document needs to be ready to present. This is because you can’t go back and edit your PDF within PowerPoint, so be sure to finalise and proofread your document before you add it to your deck.

Adobe Acrobat online services offer you a range of professional PDF editing tools to re-arrange, sign and share your files securely. Access your PDFs from anywhere on any device on your Adobe cloud.

Inserting a PDF into PowerPoint as an Object.

One way to import a PDF to PowerPoint is by inserting it as an object. This creates a shortcut within the presentation, quickly and seamlessly opening the file with your PDF reader so you don’t have to find it manually while you present.

Here’s how to do it:

  1. Open your presentation deck in Microsoft PowerPoint.
  2. Navigate to the slide you wish to insert your PDF into.
  3. From the top toolbar, click the Insert tab.

Insert Object on PowerPoint.

  1. Find the Text section and select Object. You can hover your mouse over each icon to help you find it.

Insert Object dialog box on PowerPoint.

  1. From the Object window, click Create from File.
  2. Click Browse to find your PDF.
  3. Select OK to add your PDF to the slide as an object. It will look like an image, which you can arrange how you like.

Insert PDF object results on PowerPoint.

How to Open a PDF as an Object from a Slide Show.

So, your PDF is looking great in your presentation, but how does it work during the slide show? To open the document as a high-quality file with your PDF reader, you’ll need to assign an action to it.

  1. Select Insert from the top toolbar.
  2. Click the PDF image so it becomes highlighted.

Highlighted PDF object on PowerPoint.

  1. In the Links section of the Insert toolbar, click Action.

Insert Action on PowerPoint

  1. From the Actions Settings box, choose whether you want to open it with a Mouse Click or with Mouse Over (which will open the PDF by hovering your mouse over the image).
  2. Select Object action, and make sure Open is selected.

Action Settings dialog box on PowerPoint.

  1. Click OK to accept your changes.

Now, when you click your PDF image in Slide Show mode, it will automatically open your document with your PDF reader.

Add a PDF to PowerPoint as an Image.

If you don’t need to view your document in a PDF reader during your presentation, you can also insert a PDF into PowerPoint as an image.

To do this, simply complete the steps to insert the PDF as an object, but don’t assign an action to it.

Alternatively, you can also insert a single page of your PDF as a screenshot image. Just follow these instructions for similar results:

  1. Open the PDF file in your PDF reader and select the page you wish to insert to PowerPoint.
  2. Launch PowerPoint and find the slide that you’d like to insert the PDF image into.
  3. Select Insert > Screenshot. This tool lets you take a screenshot of any open window on your computer.

Insert Screenshot on PowerPoint.

  1. Select the window with your PDF reader. PowerPoint will automatically insert a screenshot of that window into the slide.
  2. Use the Picture Format tab to crop and resize the image to your liking.

Insert PDF into PowerPoint as a PPT File.

Finally, if you’d prefer to integrate your PDF document into your PowerPoint in the form of presentation slides, there is another way to achieve this. You can embed a PDF into PowerPoint by converting it into a PPT (PowerPoint) file.

You can quickly convert any PDF file to PPT using Acrobat online:

  1. Head to Adobe Acrobat online services and select Convert PDF to PowerPoint.

Convert PDF to PowerPoint tool on Adobe Acrobat online.

  1. Drag and drop your PDF file into the drop zone or click Select a file to find your PDF.
  2. Download your new PowerPoint file.

To embed the slides into an existing PowerPoint presentation, open your PowerPoint deck and select Home > New Slide > Reuse Slides. You can locate your new PDF to PPT file by selecting Browse > Choose Content.

As a side note, it’s also possible to convert your PPT to PDF quickly and easily using Adobe’s online tool. This makes it easier to share with others after the presentation.

How to Insert Multiple PDFs into PowerPoint.

If you have multiple PDFs to display in your PowerPoint presentation, there’s a simple solution. Just repeat the process above with each PDF file to achieve your desired results.

You can also assign an action to multiple objects in a single presentation, so you can open each one in your PDF reader while you present your deck.

Alternatively, you can insert your PDF files as images, or convert them to PPT files, and arrange them in your presentation however you like.

Presenting data has never been so easy!

FAQs

How do I present a PDF like a PowerPoint presentation?
You don’t always have to use Microsoft PowerPoint to present your PDFs. Instead, you can click through your document in full-screen mode on your PDF reader just like a slideshow. Using Adobe Acrobat, simply navigate to the top toolbar and click View > Full Screen Mode. Then, click your mouse to go through your document page by page.
Can you hyperlink a PDF in PowerPoint?
Yes. In fact, it’s easy to hyperlink a PDF in PowerPoint when you know how. Simply open your PowerPoint presentation and select Insert from the top toolbar. Then, from the Links section, click Hyperlink. From the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, locate your PDF from your files, and click OK to insert the hyperlink.
How do I edit a PDF in PowerPoint?
Unfortunately, you won’t be able to edit your PDF document in PowerPoint once you insert it into a presentation. However, you can convert a PDF to a PowerPoint file and edit it in the PowerPoint application like any other PPT file slides. Alternatively, simply edit the existing version of your PDF outside of PowerPoint, and then re-insert it.

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