How can I convert PowerPoint 2010 to HTML (where's the Save As Web Page command)?

Problem

Office 2010 has removed the ability to save as HTML that you might have used in older versions.

Solution

If you're interested in converting your presentations to HTML/web pages, there are several options.

Use an older version of PowerPoint to do the job

Save your presentation to PowerPoint 97-2003 (*.PPT) format then open it in PowerPoint 2000, 2002 or 2003 and save as Web Page from there.

Of course, you may not have older versions of PowerPoint lying around. In that case, read on ...

PPTools Starter Set -- FREE

PPTools Starter Set is a free add-in that includes a number of helpful tools, including one that can save to HTML even from PowerPoint 2010 (but not from later versions).

If you hold down the CTRL key while clicking its help ( ? icon ) button, it roundtrips your presentation to HTML and back. Mostly this feature is there to help users recover corrupted PowerPoint files, but it may be useful to you because it leaves the HTML files in your TEMP folder. Assuming you start with a presentation called Thing, it'll create a Thing_Repaired.htm file and a Thing_Repaired_Files folder with all the needed support files for the presentation. You can upload these to any web server you like.

If you don't know where your TEMP folder is, try this:

• Use the RUN command (click Start/Vista Orb/etc. then Run)
• In the text box that appears, type: %TEMP%
• Click OK to open an Explorer window on your TEMP directory, wherever it may be.

This creates HTML that acts and looks exactly like the HTML from earlier PowerPoint versions. However, some of PowerPoint's newer features aren't compatible with HTML (that's one of the reasons Microsoft removed the Save as Web Page feature from PowerPoint 2010). In other words, the translation may not be perfect.

To save as Single File HTML (MHT)

This VBA snippet will save the current presentation to C:\Temp\SingleFile.MHT. You can edit it to choose a different location if you wish.

Sub SaveAsMHT()
With ActivePresentation
  Call .SaveAs("c:\temp\SingleFile.mht",ppSaveAsWebArchive,false)
End With
End Sub

Again, this does not work with versions later than 2010.

See How do I use VBA code in PowerPoint? to learn how to use this example code.

PPTools PPT2HTML

If you want more control over the HTML results, need it to work in any browser, need it to be accessible etc, you might want to have a look at PPtools PPT2HTML. It's a commercial add-in, but the free demo is fully functional, doesn't time out and lets you test it thoroughly.

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