Engageli's "File Share" feature allows instructors to share PDF documents with the class. We'll also allow instructors to upload PowerPoint files (i.e. PPTX file extension) for sharing, which we'll first convert to PDF format.
If you are planning to utilize a PPTX file, it is important to be aware of common issues that can be encountered during our conversion process. In this article, we will discuss common issues that users can encounter when uploading a PPTX file.
Font Substitution
If your PowerPoint presentation uses fonts that aren't available on our system, we'll automatically replace them with similar alternatives during the conversion. This font substitution may cause text to shift or overlap in the final output. Below is a sample image of an original PowerPoint slide as seen in Microsoft PowerPoint:
Below is what this slide looks like when converted to PDF in Engageli:
You can notice significant issues caused by the font substitution: the styling of some of the replacement fonts are very different from the original ones and there is overlapping of text in some areas.
To avoid this issue, you have two options:
- Export the PDF using your original PowerPoint software. This method preserves the fonts exactly as intended. However, please note that any slide notes included in your presentation will not carry over, since PDF format doesn’t support them.
- Use only fonts supported by Engageli in your PowerPoint file. This ensures compatibility and prevents layout issues, but the trade-off is a more limited font selection, which might affect the visual uniqueness of your presentation. Below are the fonts that are supported by Engageli:
Arial (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Calibri (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Comic Sans MS (Regular, Bold)
Courier New (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
DejaVu Sans (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
DejaVu Sans Condensed (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
DejaVu Sans Mono (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
DejaVu Serif (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
DejaVu Serif Condensed (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
FontAwesome (icon font with thousands of icons)
FreeMono (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
FreeSans (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
FreeSerif (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Georgia (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Hack (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Impact (Regular)
Inconsolata (Regular, Bold)
Lato (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Liberation Mono (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Liberation Sans (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Liberation Serif (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Mononoki (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Monument Extended (Regular, Ultrabold)
Noto Music
Noto Sans (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Noto Sans CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean variants)
Noto Sans Display
Noto Sans Math
Noto Sans Mono (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Noto Sans Symbols
Noto Sans Symbols2
Noto Sans UI
Noto Serif (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Noto Serif CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean variants)
Noto Serif Display
Noto Serif UI
Open Sans (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Open Sans Condensed (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Open Sans Extra Bold
Roboto (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Tahoma (Regular, Bold)
Terminus (Regular, Bold)
Terminus Bold
Times New Roman (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Trebuchet MS (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Verdana (Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Webdings (Regular)
Unsupported Objects
There may be objects in your PowerPoint document that Engageli is unable to properly migrate into the PDF document during the conversion process.
Below is an example PowerPoint slide, as seen in Microsoft PowerPoint:
You will notice the table cells have a bevel effect, giving them visual depth. There is also text outside the table that has been decorated with a yellow highlighter. Below is an image of the resulting PDF in Engageli after the conversion:
Notice that the bevel effect and yellow highlight have disappeared.
The issues in this example are minor and many users may find these deficiencies acceptable. However, if you wish to attempt to address this, you can try the below workarounds:
- Export the PDF using your original PowerPoint software. This method preserves the objects exactly as intended. However, please note that any slide notes included in your presentation will not carry over, since PDF format doesn’t support them.
- Use creative workarounds. In the above example, you can consider using a different cell styling that is similar to the bevel effects. For the text highlighting, consider using a different pen tool to simulate the same effect.
Placeholder Content Re-Appearing
When adding slides to your PowerPoint document, you'll often be working with pre-defined layouts that include placeholder text. This text is meant to be either removed or replaced with your own content. However, in some cases, deleted or replaced placeholder text may unexpectedly reappear in the Engageli PDF version of the presentation.
Below is an example of a brand new, untouched slide that uses a layout that contains placeholder text, as seen in Microsoft PowerPoint:
Below is the updated slide with the placeholder text replaced with our own text.
When this PowerPoint document is converted to PDF in Engageli, we can see that portions of the placeholder text has reappeared, as shown below:
While the exact cause is unclear, we've observed that this tends to happen with slides using complex layouts or slides whose layouts were changed retroactively. Below are the options you have to address this:
- Export the PDF using your original PowerPoint software. This method will eliminate the issue entirely. However, please note that any slide notes included in your presentation will not carry over, since PDF format doesn’t support them.
- Try changing the layout of any affected slides. For affected slides, set their layout to one that doesn't contain the problematic object. If the layout is being used for multiple slides and so the issue appears repeatedly throughout the document, consider removing the problematic item the layout entirely.