PowerShrink 1.2
Read more about the PowerShrink 1.3 Update...
Reviewed: Geetesh Bajaj
Date Created: December 19th 2004
Last Updated: February 26th 2009
A Typical Scenario
About PowerShrink
Download and Installation
Using PowerShrinker
Pricing and Support
In Conclusion
A Typical Scenario
Let us look at the profile of a typical PowerPoint user. He or she creates presentations from templates contained within PowerPoint or downloads some from the many sites online. They insert pictures and create charts. Most of them also copy and paste content from other applications into PowerPoint slides. Some of them add music scores and sound effects - or even video clips and Flash movies. The typical PowerPoint user also does not change any of the default options in PowerPoint like turning off fast saves.
What is the result? Often, it is a fifteen slide presentation that has ballooned to the ungainly size of 15 mb or more. And then you are expected to email that presentation to someone who has a dial-up internet access - can things get worse?
That's when a product like PowerShrink can help.
About PowerShrink
PowerShrink is a PowerPoint compression product from TopByteLabs Computing, a software company based in Sweden.
My contact at TopByteLabs Computing for this review was Michael Weber - thank you, Michael.
I asked Michael about how PowerShrink evolved: "We had a lot of problems with big PowerPoint presentations.The users wanted to email the presentations, but they were too large. I knew that there were some PowerPoint compression programs already available but we wrote our own application."
For more info about the company and the PowerShrink product, visit their site...
Download and Installation
You can download a 20 use trial version of the product from the PowerShrink website. The entire download is just one file (PowerShrink.exe) that weighs a little over 800 kb. Once you've downloaded the file, just double-click it to start the application.
You'll be prompted to enter your license key details or continue in trial mode.
Using PowerShrinker
Using PowerShrinker is deceptively simple. Just provide the program with a PowerPoint presentation on your hard disk and choose a location to save the compressed file (or let PowerShrink save it in the same folder as the presentation).
I chose to compress a file that weighed 1.14 mb - in the next screen I chose the Normal Compression option.
PowerShrink started the compression operation.
Sometime between the compression process, it asked me if I wanted to flatten embedded objects - I agreed.
Finally my compressed presentation weighed 550 kb from the original 1.14 mb with no perceptible change in quality.
Pricing and Support
PowerShrink costs US$34.95 and all sales are through online purchase. You are provided a license key that converts your trial version into a full version.
Support options include an online FAQ and email support.
In Conclusion
PowerShrink does a capable job of compressing PowerPoint presentations - it's quick and easy to use and does not cost too much.
Advanced users might be able to attain the same results if they use optimized content or fine-tune their PowerPoint environment but for everyone else, PowerShrink is a good investment. This is especially true if you often need to email your presentations.
