A5. Producing video and/or GIF

With the release of PowerPoint 2013 version on 29 January 2013, it became possible to produce video in MP4 format in addition to Microsoft’s proprietary WMV (Windows Media Video) output.

The same version also saw the default slide-aspect-ratio changing to 16:9 from the erstwhile 4:3.

These 2 changes saw PowerPoint’s acceptance as a video maker, and not only for creating presentations.

In the present release, it’s also easier than before to produce animated GIFs.

Output options for PowerPoint GIF & video

In the present release of PowerPoint, you can produce GIFs in 4 different sizes (see the screenshot below):

Small → Low quality, 240p at 15fps (240px height at 15 frames/sec)
Medium → Moderate quality, 480p at 15fps
Large → High quality, 720p at 24fps
Extra Large → HD quality, 1080p at 24fps

Similar to GIF, you can produce MP4 videos in 4 qualities & commensurate file sizes (see screenshot below):

Standard → Smallest file size, lowest quality, 852×480 pixels
HD → Medium file size, moderate quality, 1280x 720 pixels
Full HD → Large file size, full-high quality, 1920×1080 pixels
Ultra HD → Largest file size, ultra-high quality, 3840×2160 pixels

The quality of your video or GIF output will depend on permissible file-size limits of social media platforms and also on what your requirements are.

2 examples of PowerPoint GIFs

Making GIFs with PowerPoint is not difficult. Here are 2 examples of that.

The first GIF is the result of some Entrance and Emphasis animations done in just one slide … while the 2nd GIF is a collection of 3 static images on 3 slides set apart by 1 second each, with no animation and no transition.