How to Send a Presentation to a Client: PDF or PowerPoint?

Send a PDF you exported yourself as the copy your client reads and forwards. Add the editable file (.pptx, .key, or the live deck) only if your client will present the deck or change slides. That way everyone reads the deck the way it looked on your screen, and only the person who needs to edit gets the file that can change.

Start with what your client will do next

Your client will…	Send	Why
Read it, on a laptop or a phone	A PDF you exported	It looks the way you checked it, without PowerPoint or Keynote
Forward it to their boss or team	The same PDF	The people it reaches never saw you present it
Present it themselves	The PDF, plus the editable file if they need to change slides	They may need to change a date or reorder slides
Keep editing it after you’re done	The editable file (.pptx, .key, or the cloud deck)	A PDF can’t be edited

If only the first two rows apply, send the PDF alone. Adding the editable file “just in case” gives your client two versions to choose between, and the editable one is the one that can look different on their machine.

Why the reading copy should be a PDF you exported

A .pptx file is not a picture of your slides. PowerPoint on the other computer redraws every slide using the fonts installed there. If your font isn’t installed, PowerPoint swaps in another one, and line breaks, spacing and layout can shift. The font menu still shows your font’s name when it isn’t installed, so the swap is easy to miss.

Embedding fonts helps (File → Options → Save → “Embed fonts in the file” on Windows; PowerPoint → Preferences → Save on a Mac), but some fonts can’t be embedded because of their license, and embedding makes the file bigger. A phone without PowerPoint shows the file in whatever viewer it has, with whatever fonts it has.

A PDF you export yourself fixes the slides as you saw them. That’s the version you checked, so that’s the version your client should read.

When a PDF is the wrong choice: if the deck depends on embedded video, animations or transitions, a PDF drops them, and a video shows up as a still image. Send the editable file or export a video, and tell your client which one to open.

Make the reading copy work without you

A deck built to be presented may not make sense on its own. Before you export:

• Title slide: the client’s name, the deck name, and the version and date, for example “v1 — 14 October 2026”. Every copy then shows whether it’s the current one.
• Slides that need your voice: if a slide only worked with what you said in the meeting, add one line of takeaway text. A standard PDF export leaves speaker notes out, and you may not want them seen anyway.
• Hidden and old slides: remove them from the copy you export.
• Size: photos are what make a deck heavy. Work in a copy of the deck, because compression can’t be undone once saved. In PowerPoint, select a photo, use Picture Format → Compress Pictures, and clear “Apply only to this picture” (Windows) or choose “All pictures in this file” (Mac). On Windows, the PDF export also has an “Optimize for: Minimum size” option. In Keynote, File → Export To → PDF lets you lower the Image Quality. Check the file size before you send.
• File name: Northwind-Campaign-Results.pdf still makes sense in someone else’s downloads folder; deck_v7_FINAL2.pdf doesn’t. If you attach it, add the version (…-v1.pdf). If you send a link you may update, keep the version on the title slide instead of in the name.

Then open the PDF on your own phone. If you can’t read a slide there, your client can’t either.

Attachment or link

Once the reading copy is a PDF, it’s a PDF like any other. Attach it if it won’t change and fits: Gmail allows 25 MB per email, attachments grow by about a third in transit, and your client’s mail server may accept less. Send a link if you might correct it after sending or it will be forwarded, and open the link in a private window before you send it, to make sure it doesn’t ask your client to sign in. How to send a PDF to a client covers both choices and how to correct a file after sending.

Be careful with the share link from the tool you built the deck in. A link from Google Slides, Figma Slides, Canva or PowerPoint for the web points at your working file. Depending on the tool and its settings, your client may be asked to sign in, or may see an “open in” button, your speaker notes, or comments. They will also see any change you make after sending. That’s useful while you’re still reviewing the deck together. For the finished deck, send a fixed copy.

Keynote, Google Slides, Figma Slides and Canva

• Keynote: a .key file needs Keynote, which runs only on Apple devices (or at iCloud.com in a browser). Export a PDF. If they will edit in PowerPoint, also export a .pptx and check it, because fonts and effects can change in that conversion.
• Google Slides, Figma Slides, Canva: download a PDF for the reading copy. Share the live deck only if your client is going to work in it with you.

Example: a campaign-results deck

An illustrative example.

Marco is a freelance marketing consultant. He has finished a 24-slide deck on last quarter’s campaign results for an online furniture store: charts, product photos, and his recommendations for the next quarter. He built it in PowerPoint in the store’s brand typeface, and the .pptx is 46 MB.

Priya, the store’s marketing lead, will read it on her phone, forward it to the two founders, and present slides 6–11 (the recommendations) at a team meeting next week. She wants to change the meeting date on slide 6.

Priya has two jobs, so Marco sends two things:

1. The reading copy. A PDF exported from a copy of the deck with the photos compressed, about 8 MB. The title slide says “Campaign results Q3 — v1 — 14 October 2026”. The two chart slides that only made sense with his commentary each get a one-line takeaway. Priya will forward it, so it goes as a link, which he opens in a private window and on his phone before sending.
2. The editable file. The .pptx, with his notes and the two hidden slides removed, labeled as the version to edit, with a note that it uses the brand typeface, which has to be installed on the laptop Priya presents from. At 46 MB it can’t go as a Gmail attachment, so it goes as a link.

What he doesn’t send: a link to his working file, which still holds his notes and two hidden slides from the first draft; or the .pptx alone, which the founders would open on their phones with substitute fonts, if it opened at all.

If Priya weren’t presenting, Marco would send only the PDF.

Sending the reading copy with Litehost

Litehost gives you a link to a fixed copy that is separate from your working file. Upload the PDF you exported, and your client gets a public link that opens in the browser without signing in. A PDF with slide-shaped pages opens in Slides view, one slide at a time, with a Download button for the PDF.

• You can upload the .pptx instead. Litehost turns it into a PDF for viewing when you upload it, and the Download button gives your client the original .pptx. The conversion runs on Litehost’s server with stand-ins only for Arial, Times New Roman, Courier New, Calibri and Cambria, so any other typeface, including Aptos, the current Office default, may be swapped for a different font. If your deck uses another font, upload the PDF you exported. Either way, open the link yourself before you send it. This 32-second video shows a .pptx going from upload to the link your client opens.
• Keynote files aren’t previewed. Your client would be asked to download the .key file. Export a PDF.
• Size and plans. The quick try at the end of this page takes a file of up to 2 MB and lasts about 15 minutes unless you sign in to keep it: enough to see what your client would get from a small export. A new account gets Pro free for 7 days, with no card. After that, the Free plan holds 5 MB and its links stay online while they’re opened at least once every 90 days; Starter, currently $8 a month, holds 500 MB. Marco’s 8 MB PDF is over Free’s 5 MB: it works during the trial, and after that it needs Starter.

You don’t need Litehost if the PDF won’t change and fits as an attachment, if a Drive or OneDrive link to the exported PDF already opens signed out, or if your client will keep working in the deck with you.

Before you press send

• You know whether your client needs to read, forward, present or edit.
• The reading copy is a PDF you exported, with the version and date on the title slide.
• Slides that needed your voice have a line of text.
• You opened it on your phone.
• Any link opens in a private window without signing in.
• The editable file, if you send one, is labeled and names its fonts.