How to Convert Word Documents to PowerPoint Presentations

Feb. 25, 2021

Converting Word documents to PowerPoint presentations has always been a hassle. Whether you rely on one of those online format converters or manually paste/import the contents, the quality of output is almost never perfect. With this concern in mind, Microsoft has nowreleased a new featurethat lets you generate PowerPoint presentations from Word documents through the web-based version of Microsoft Word.

Transform Word Documents into PowerPoint Presentations

Before we begin, I’ll point out the limitations of the feature. For now, the feature is available only in English. In addition, it doesn’t support Internet Explorer and Safari browsers. Notably, itsupports only text content at the moment and other media content like images won’t be automatically addedto the presentation. However, you can always add media to the presentation later.

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1. Open the Word document in Office Online. You should upload the file to OneDrive to open it from Word’s web version. After it opens,click on File -> Transform.

2. From the Transform section,click on ‘Transform to PowerPoint presentation’and wait for the next page.

3. Word will now urge you to pick a design theme for the presentation. Choose one of the available templates andclick on ‘Transform’to generate the presentation file.

4. In a few seconds, a new presentation based on your Word document will be generated. Once ready, you canclick on ‘Open Presentation’to open it. You can also access the presentation file from your OneDrive.

To test this feature out, I downloaded a sample Word document and transformed it into a presentation. The output looked useable and you can use it for presentations with a few tweaks. Moreover, as Microsoft outlines, the company also adds relevant imagery, icons, videos, themes, and fonts to the presentation using AI in the transformation process. That said, the tool will be a bit more useful if the company manages to bring media content transfer in the future. Here are a few sample presentation slides generated with this method:

So, that was our short guide demonstrating Microsoft’s latest tool to help you generate presentations from Word documents. We hope this helps you easily create presentations on a deadline. If you’re looking for an alternative solution to Microsoft PowerPoint, take a look at our list ofMicrosoft PowerPoint alternatives.

Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.