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Turn a PowerPoint into a training video: go through PDF, and what gets lost on the way
A training deck often holds the material for a good video, just not in the right shape. This page says what EducPilot does today, without rounding up: it does not read the PowerPoint file, it reads its PDF export. How to export, what carries over, what is lost, and when PowerPoint’s own video export is enough.
7 min read
To turn a PowerPoint into a training video with EducPilot, export the deck to PDF first, then upload that PDF: EducPilot does not read .pptx files directly. Each slide becomes a page the assistant reads and cites; it turns the deck into a plan for you to approve, then into a drawn, narrated 1080p MP4 video with burned-in subtitles, one to three minutes per objective. Slide text and pictures carry over; animations, transitions, sounds and embedded videos do not; speaker notes only if you export them or paste them as text.
What you can upload
In one sentence: your deck’s PDF, with selectable text, up to 50 MB and 300 pages; and, if you like, your notes pasted as text.
| Accepted | Not accepted (for now) |
|---|---|
| The PDF exported from PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides or any other presentation software | The .pptx, .ppt, .key or .odp files themselves: only a file that starts like a PDF is accepted |
| Up to 50 MB and 300 pages per PDF, several PDFs in one project | A deck whose slides are pictures of text (screenshots, scans): without OCR, that text is not read |
| Your speaker notes, pasted as text (up to 500,000 characters) | A PDF that asks for a password to open |
Once uploaded, the deck’s PDF takes the path of any PDF, described on the PDF to training video page.
Export the deck to PDF
| Software | Export to PDF | To keep the speaker notes |
|---|---|---|
| PowerPoint for Windows | File, Export, Create PDF/XPS Document, then Publish | Before publishing, under Options, “Publish what”: notes pages, the slide with its notes below |
| PowerPoint for Mac | File, Export (or Save As), PDF format | The PDF export cannot keep them on a Mac: File, Print, “Notes” layout, then the PDF menu, “Save as PDF” |
| PowerPoint for the web | File, Export, Download as PDF | Copy the notes and paste them as text |
| Keynote | File, Export To, PDF | Tick the presenter notes checkbox |
| Google Slides | File, Download, then the PDF format | Copy the notes and paste them as text |
Two settings matter:
- One slide per page. Export slides alone or notes pages, not handouts with several slides per page. The video cites “p. 12”: that way page 12 stays slide 12. In Keynote, leave “Print each stage of builds” unticked, as it turns one slide into several pages.
- Hidden slides only come along if you tick the option that includes them (PowerPoint for Windows, “skipped slides” in Keynote). PowerPoint for Mac’s PDF export cannot include them.
What carries over, what is lost
| In the deck | In the video |
|---|---|
| Titles, bullets, text boxes, tables | Read page by page and cited: “p. 4” is slide 4 |
| Speaker notes | Read if they are in the PDF or pasted as text; often the best material, since it is what you say |
| Photos, screenshots, diagrams inserted as pictures | Extracted and described, then shown in the scene that talks about them, credited “Source: document, p. N” |
| Charts, SmartArt and shapes drawn in PowerPoint | Their words and numbers are read; usually exported as vector paths rather than pictures, they are not reused as such: the video can redraw the numbers as a chart |
| Template logo, background and decoration | Left out when they repeat or cover the page; the video uses your project’s color, logo and art direction |
| Animations and transitions | Lost: a PDF is a series of fixed pages |
| Videos, sounds, recorded narration | Lost; the video’s voice is a synthetic voice |
Pictures, precisely. When it reads the PDF, EducPilot keeps at most 40 pictures per document. It leaves out small ones (under 120 pixels on a side, or under 1.5% of the page), banners, pictures covering 85% of the page or more (a background, a scanned slide), pictures repeated on 3 pages or more (a logo, template decoration) and duplicates. A vision model describes each of the others (photo, chart, diagram, screenshot), and the assistant only shows one when it supports what the voice says. You can exclude any of them.
What the assistant does with a deck
A deck is already cut into ideas, but it is written to be shown, not said: bullets without verbs, and the explanation in the presenter’s head. Once the PDF is uploaded:
- The text of each page is extracted, then summarised along with the deck’s outline.
- The assistant proposes a plan: how many videos, the objective of each, what stays in the deck. Nothing is produced before you approve.
- It writes a script for the ear: bullets become sentences, one idea per sentence, opening on a situation viewers recognise.
- The storyboard, then the video build up in the preview. The storyboard and its revisions use no minutes.
- You correct by annotating the frame at the right moment; only that scene changes.
The guide How to write a training video script covers this move from the written to the spoken word.
Is PowerPoint’s own video export enough?
PowerPoint can turn a deck into a video itself: on Windows, File, Export, Create a Video, as MP4 or WMV, from 480p to 4K, with your recorded narration and timings, animations and transitions. Without timings, each slide stays on screen for 5 seconds. If your slides are made to be watched and you want your own voice, that is the simplest route.
| PowerPoint’s video export | EducPilot | |
|---|---|---|
| What you see | Your slides, as they are | Scenes drawn for the video, with your pictures |
| The voice | Yours, recorded slide by slide | A synthetic voice, chosen for the project |
| The text | The slides’ text | A script written to be spoken, citing its slides |
| Length | That of your presentation | One to three minutes per objective |
| A correction | Record again, export again | A note on the frame; only that scene changes |
| Cost | Included in PowerPoint | Minutes of generated video |
Research offers a pointer, to take with care. On online course tutorials, videos drawn on a tablet held students’ attention 1.5 to 2 times as long as PowerPoint slides or code screencasts (Guo, Kim and Rubin, 2014). That measures attention, not learning, but attention comes first.
And a Word document?
Same thing: EducPilot does not read .docx files. Two ways in:
- Export it to PDF: in Word, File, Save a Copy (or Save As), then the PDF format; in Google Docs, File, Download, then the PDF format. On Windows, keep “Document” under “Publish what”, not “Document showing markup”, or tracked changes end up in the PDF.
- Paste the text: up to 500,000 characters, which becomes a project document, cited like a PDF. See text to training video.
The text and tables of an exported Word document are read; its pictures follow the same rules as a deck’s.
How many videos from one deck
Count objectives, not slides: one video per thing the viewer will be able to do, one to three minutes each. The guide How to make a training video walks through the full method, from the objective to distribution. If your speaker notes are already the words to say, time them with the voice-over duration calculator: in our published videos, a minute holds 117 to 137 words. On price, the free trial lasts 7 days, and plans start at €39 excl. VAT a month for 45 minutes of generated video.
Frequently asked questions
Does EducPilot read PowerPoint (.pptx) files directly?
No. Export the deck to PDF (PowerPoint, Keynote and Google Slides do it in a few clicks), then upload the PDF. A file that does not start like a PDF is refused, whatever its extension.
Are speaker notes used?
Only if they are in the project: export notes pages (PowerPoint for Windows, Keynote, or Print with the “Notes” layout on a Mac), or copy the notes and paste them as text. The assistant reads and cites them like any document.
Are animations and transitions kept?
No. A PDF is a series of fixed pages, and each slide becomes a single page. The video has its own animations, timed to the voice.
Can I keep my slide design?
Not as is: the video is drawn in one of EducPilot’s seven art directions, in your color and with your logo. Photos, screenshots and diagrams inserted as pictures can appear in it. To keep your slides exactly as they are, PowerPoint’s video export is the right tool.
Are my documents sent to an AI?
Yes: the deck’s text is read by an AI model to prepare the plan and the video, and its pictures by a vision model that describes them. Data is hosted in Germany. Remove unnecessary personal data from the deck before uploading.
Sources
- How EducPilot works as of 23 October 2026: PDF upload only, checked on the file’s content; 50 MB and 300 pages at most; text extracted page by page, no OCR; at most 40 pictures kept per document, under the rules above; pasted text up to 500,000 characters; .pptx and .docx files not read.
- Microsoft, Save PowerPoint presentations as PDF files (Windows, Mac and web; on a Mac, the export can include neither notes nor hidden slides).
- Microsoft, Print your PowerPoint slides, handouts, or notes (“Notes” layout).
- Microsoft, Turn your presentation into a video (MP4 or WMV, 480p to 4K, 5 seconds per slide by default).
- Microsoft, Save or convert to PDF or XPS in Office Desktop apps (Word, “Document showing markup”).
- Apple, Export to PowerPoint or another file format in Keynote on Mac and Save a document as a PDF on Mac.
- Google, Create, view, or download a file, Google Docs Editors Help.
- Philip J. Guo, Juho Kim, Rob Rubin, How video production affects student engagement: an empirical study of MOOC videos, ACM Learning at Scale, 2014.
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