A PowerPoint file becomes a deck in Slides. The file is converted in your browser, and the dialog lists everything the conversion had to approximate or drop before the deck is created. Use this page to check what a conversion keeps, what it changes, and what each note means.
Import a PowerPoint file
On the Slides page, click New presentation.
Choose Import from PowerPoint. The card reads "A .pptx file, converted right in the browser."
Click Choose file and pick a .pptx file. The conversion runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded to convert it. While it runs, the row shows Converting presentation....
Read the summary. When something was approximated or dropped, the dialog shows a count such as Imported with 3 notes and lists every note; a long list scrolls. No notes means the conversion was complete.
Check the Title. It comes from the file: the presentation's own document title when it has one, otherwise the file name. You can change it here or later.
Pick the Workspace, and a Folder if you want one, then click Create.
If the deck carries pictures, they are stored after you press Create: the footer shows Uploading image N of M... and then Finishing import..., and the deck opens in the editor when the import finishes.
If the file cannot be converted, the picker shows That file could not be converted with the reason, followed by "Choose another file, or start from a blank deck instead."
What the conversion keeps
Slides keep their content and order: text, shapes, pictures, tables and charts arrive as editable elements.
A picture keeps the crop it had in the file.
Tables arrive as deck tables, with the header row, the column proportions and the text styling they had.
Charts arrive with the numbers stored in the file. Bar, stacked bar, line, area, pie, doughnut and scatter charts convert; a combined chart keeps its first supported plot.
Speaker notes come across onto their slides.
The slide size is kept from the file. A file that states no usable size is imported at PowerPoint's default 16:9.
A chart title written in the file comes across; a title PowerPoint generated from a single series name does not.
What each note means
Every note is one sentence describing one change, prefixed with the slide it happened on when a slide is known, for example Slide 4: a SmartArt graphic was skipped. A change that concerns the whole deck appears once. The notes below are grouped by area.
Note
No notes means a complete conversion: every part of the file mapped straight onto deck elements.
Charts
horizontal bar orientation is not supported; bars were drawn vertically.
percent-stacked bars were imported as stacked bars.
chart had no recognisable plot and was skipped.
additional <tag> plot in a combined chart was not imported.
<tag> chart is not supported and was skipped.
chart had no data series and was skipped.
a chart without its data part was skipped.
trailing zeros cached for "<series>" were imported as blanks so the plot stops where the data does; type 0 into the chart grid if those points are genuinely zero. A run of zeros at the end of a line or area series can be a cached placeholder rather than data.
Motion
Entrances convert where Slides has the effect: a fade stays a fade, and a fly-in direction becomes the matching Slide entrance. Everything else is approximated as a fade. Slide transitions convert where Slides has one, including fade, push, wipe, cover and pull (which arrive as the Slide transition), zoom and warp (as Zoom), flip and Morph. A plain cut is no transition at all and needs no note.
an entrance effect (preset <id>) was approximated as a fade.
exit animations were not imported. The note names the kind: exit, emphasis and motion-path animations are all left out.
the "<name>" slide transition is not supported and was removed.
Shapes, fills and other objects
group rotation was approximated by rotating each shape in place.
a mirrored group was imported unflipped.
a "<preset>" connector was approximated as a straight line.
shape "<preset>" is not supported and was skipped.
shape "<preset>" was approximated as a rectangle. A shape that carries text is kept as a rectangle rather than skipped.
a flipped shape was imported without its mirroring.
a shape without a position was skipped.
a graphic frame without a position was skipped.
a SmartArt graphic was skipped. The same sentence pattern covers an embedded object was skipped. and an unsupported graphic frame was skipped.
a non-linear gradient was approximated as a linear one.
picture fill on a shape is not supported; the shape was left unfilled.
a pattern fill was flattened to a solid colour.
A text placeholder with no styling of its own arrives as plain text. A filled box with words in it arrives as the shape plus a text box on the same frame, so you can restyle each part separately.
Pictures
a picture without a position was skipped.
a picture without embedded data (linked or empty) was skipped.
a linked (non-embedded) picture was skipped.
a picture's data was missing from the file and it was skipped.
picture format ".<ext>" cannot be shown in a browser and was skipped.
a flipped picture was imported without its mirroring.
PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, ICO, AVIF, SVG and WebP pictures convert; anything else is skipped with the format named in the note.
Tables
Table cell colours were dropped; tables take the deck table style instead.
PowerPoint table styles were approximated with the deck table look.
merged table cells were flattened onto the plain grid.
Bold text and cell alignment survive; the per-cell fills do not, because a deck's tables take the deck table style.
Slide backgrounds and layouts
Decorative shapes on slide layouts and masters are not imported; only slide content is. This note is stated once for the whole deck.
a gradient background was flattened to its first colour.
a picture background is not supported; the theme background was used.
Text
Bulleted and numbered list styling was flattened to plain "•" markers.
Mixed fonts inside one text box were flattened to the box font.
Font "<name>" may not be available; it was imported as written.
Size and spacing
a table holds more rows than its frame can show even at the smallest readable size; <n> rows stay hidden. The count says how many rows the slide does not show.
a chart reached under a table, so it was trimmed to sit clear of it instead of being drawn underneath. When several charts are affected, the note says how many.
a chart and a table overlap in a way no trim can separate without costing the chart more than half its size, so both were imported exactly where PowerPoint had them.
Large images were compressed to fit the presentation size budget. Pictures travel inside the deck, so a heavy file has its largest pictures re-encoded to keep the deck saveable; vector and animated pictures are left as they are.
The presentation is above the size budget even after image compression; saving may fail. Compress the pictures in PowerPoint, then import the new copy.
When a file cannot be converted
A file that cannot be converted stops at the picker: the alert reads That file could not be converted, the reason follows, and your earlier pick is cleared. The reasons are:
The file does not look like a PowerPoint (.pptx) presentation.
The presentation is missing a required internal part (<part>).
The presentation contains malformed XML and could not be read.
The file is not a valid .pptx presentation (its archive structure could not be read).
The .pptx file appears to be corrupted and could not be read.
Multi-part .pptx archives are not supported.
This .pptx uses the ZIP64 format, which is not supported.
Password-protected .pptx files are not supported.
The .pptx uses an unsupported compression method and could not be read.
This browser cannot decompress .pptx files - please use a current browser version.
The presentation could not be imported because of an unexpected error while converting it.
If a file is refused, save it again from PowerPoint as a standard .pptx without a password, then import the new copy.
After the import
The deck follows the app theme: colours the file took from its theme reskin with the app palette, like a deck authored in Slides; colours that were set explicitly stay as they are.
Charts keep the labels the file had. The automatic label density that a chart drawn in the editor uses is not applied, so a chart with many points can show every label it carried.
The deck opens in the editor and behaves like any other deck. To edit it, see The deck editor.
Questions, answered
What does "Imported with 3 notes" mean?
The conversion approximated or dropped three things. Each note is one sentence, and its slide number is shown when the change happened on one slide. Imported with 1 note is the same for a single change. No notes at all means the conversion was complete.
Which PowerPoint charts convert?
Bar, stacked bar, line, area, pie, doughnut and scatter charts convert. Other plots, such as 3D, radar and bubble charts, are skipped with a note. A combined chart keeps its first supported plot, and the other plots are named in notes.
Why did my horizontal bars become vertical?
Slides has no horizontal bar chart, so bars the file drew across are drawn standing up instead, and the note says so. Percent-stacked bars arrive as stacked bars. For the chart types Slides offers, see Charts and tables.
Why did the trailing zeros disappear from my chart?
A run of zeros at the end of a line or area series can be a placeholder PowerPoint cached rather than real data, so the import blanks the run and the plot stops where the data does. If those points are genuinely zero, type 0 into the chart grid.
What happens to the animations and transitions in my file?
Entrances convert where Slides has the effect: fades and fly-in directions become the deck's entrance effects. Everything else is approximated as a fade, and exit, emphasis and motion-path animations are not imported. Slide transitions convert where Slides has one, including fade, push, wipe, cover and pull, zoom and warp, flip and Morph; a transition Slides does not recognise is removed with a note. See Animations and transitions.
Why are my SmartArt graphics missing?
SmartArt, embedded objects and other unsupported objects are skipped during the conversion, and each skip is one note naming its slide. Rebuild the graphic with shapes and text in the editor. See Edit slides and elements.
Why did my table lose its cell colours?
Table cell fills are dropped on purpose, because a deck's tables take the deck table style, and the note says so. Bold text and cell alignment survive. See Charts and tables.
Why did my text lose its fonts or bullet styling?
Bullets and numbering flatten to plain markers, and a text box that mixed fonts flattens to its main font. A font that may not be available is imported as written, with a note. See Edit slides and elements.
Why don't my template's decorative shapes appear?
Decorative shapes that live on the file's slide layouts and masters are not imported; only the content of the slides themselves is. One note covers the whole deck. Place the shapes you need on the slides.
Why were my pictures compressed?
A deck carries its pictures inside the document, so a heavy file is compressed to fit the deck's size budget: the largest pictures are re-encoded, and vector and animated pictures are left as they are. If the deck is still over budget after that, a note warns that saving may fail, and compressing the pictures in PowerPoint before the import is the fix.
Why does the imported deck follow the app theme?
Colours the file took from its theme become deck theme colours, so the deck reskins with the app palette like a deck authored in Slides. Colours that were set explicitly in the file stay as they are. See Design a deck.
Which PowerPoint files cannot be imported?
Password-protected files, files split into several parts, files in the ZIP64 format, and damaged or invalid files are refused, each with its own sentence. The conversion also needs a current browser that can decompress .pptx files; an older one is told so. In most cases, saving the file again as a standard .pptx and importing the new copy resolves the refusal.