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Best Practices for Excel (.xlsx) and PowerPoint (.pptx) files

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Vodori’s robust generator creates resolution-independent renditions across a variety of native file types, enabling inline substantiation and commenting functionality. These renditions are designed to scale gracefully across devices and screen sizes, maintaining visual consistency regardless of file size or viewing context, since they are not tied to fixed print dimensions.

Annotations in Vodori are positioned using relative coordinates that are stored separately from the rendition itself, ensuring they stay properly aligned even as the document is resized.

This article covers how Vodori’s rendition service interprets Excel (.xlsx) and PowerPoint (.pptx) files by default and what to expect when reviewing these file types. We also offer some workarounds and best practices, depending on your intended outcome.

 

About Excel file renditions

While Excel files (.xlsx) are complex for any rendition generator service to interpret, Vodori provides a viewable rendition of .xlsx files. This process renders the entire content area within the "used" print areas as defined by Excel. These areas include all cells with values, formatting, or comments—even those in distant cells that may have been inadvertently edited. By default, the rendition includes all sheets, including hidden ones. However, it may not fully respect all print and page settings from the original file.

 

Best practices for Excel files

For the most accurate rendition during review, we recommend uploading your own PDF rendition when submitting Excel files.

How? Many Excel settings influence how a file is printed or exported to PDF, which can make generating an accurate rendition tricky. Here are some tips for success:

  1. Set a print area for each sheet. By default, Excel does not define a specific print area. Instead, it uses the "used range"—from cell A1 to the furthest cell with content or formatting. To control this, manually set a print area using: Page Layout > Print Area > Set Print Area. You can also scale content to fit a maximum number of pages wide and tall using: Page Layout > Page Setup > Scaling. This allows the content to be shrunk to fit pages without changing fonts or column widths.

  2. Select the appropriate orientation and set page margins. Excel defaults to Portrait orientation. Change this under: Page Layout > Orientation. Adjust page margins via: Page Layout > Margins to control spacing.

  3. Adjust formatting as needed. Font size, column width, and row height affect how much of the worksheet fits on a printed page. If not using the scaling option, you can manually adjust these settings to optimize layout.
  4. Configure your print options. Choose whether to repeat header rows at the top, show gridlines, or display row/column headings using Page Layout > Page Setup > Sheet.

  5. Preview and export. Use File > Print to preview the final output. Once satisfied, export the file using File > Save as PDF or File > Print to PDF. Use this PDF to provide your own viewable rendition for the job in Vodori.

If all else fails, you can take screenshots of the sheet(s) in your workbook and combine these images into a single image or PDF file and then upload this as a rendition. 

 

About PowerPoint file renditions

Vodori provides a viewable rendition of .pptx files as a flattened, static PDF, displaying each slide in successive order. Animations, embedded videos, and other interactive elements are not available in the rendition. Speaker notes and hidden slides are also not visible.

 

Best practices for PowerPoint files

First, evaluate whether reviewers need a rendition viewable in Vodori. As a reminder, Vodori supports all file formats — including those without a generated rendition. In these cases, reviewers can simply download the file to review it in full. Depending on the complexity of the file and your desired outcome, this approach may be easier than incorporating all content into a submission with a rendition.

If specific requirements exist for what must be visible in the rendition, consider uploading the .pptx artwork as a Supporting Material instead of the file itself. However, if it's critical that the job's file be the native format--such as if you're using Portals to disseminate the content--then you should do the opposite. Upload the assets that will help support the reviewers review as Supporting Materials. 

 

Speaker Notes

If speaker notes are minimal, they can be manually added as annotations. If full speaker notes need to be provided, they may be uploaded as a Supporting Material. Supporting Materials must be downloaded to be viewed, so this approach does not allow reviewers to view and comment on speaker notes inline.

If speaker notes require inline annotations, upload the "Notes Pages" export of the PowerPoint file as the document's file in Vodori** and upload the native .pptx file as a Supporting Material. Alternatively, submit both assets as separate jobs for review and approval, or use a "Concept Review" job (or similar) to route the speaker notes.

To export speaker notes from PowerPoint, save the file as a PDF as Notes pages.

  1. Go to File > Save As.

  2. Choose PDF as the file format.

  3. Click Options before saving.

  4. Under "Publish what," select Notes pages (not slides).

  5. Save.

**Reminder: If it is critical for the job's file to remain in its native format—such as when using Portals to disseminate the content—this approach should not be used.

Embedded Videos

Option 1:

If your presentation includes embedded videos, and those videos are separately approved assets in the Library, you can link to them as Supporting Materials. Use an inline annotation on the slide containing the embedded video to direct reviewers to the linked asset.

If the embedded video is not a separate asset in Vodori, the video file can be uploaded as a Supporting Material. However, Supporting Materials must be downloaded to be viewed, so this approach does not allow reviewers to view and comment on the video inline.

If embedded videos require inline annotations, submit both the presentation and the video as separate jobs for review and approval, or use a "Concept Review" job (or similar) to route the embedded video for feedback.

Option 2: 

You can export your PowerPoint as an MP4 video to preserve embedded videos, animations, and slide timings. Once the MP4 file is created, upload it as the artwork in Vodori** and upload the original .pptx file as a Supporting Material. This approach allows reviewers to take advantage of Vodori's video review capabilities while reviewing a mock presentation of the slides. 

**Reminder: If it is critical for the job's file to remain in its native format—such as when using Portals to disseminate the content—this approach should not be used.

 

How to Produce an MP4 from a Microsoft PowerPoint file

Before exporting:

  • If you want slides to advance automatically at specific times:

    • Go to Slide Show > Rehearse Timings.

    • Walk through your presentation; PowerPoint will record how long you stay on each slide.

  • If you don’t set custom timings, you can apply a default time per slide during export (like 5 seconds per slide).

✅ Embedded videos will play through automatically based on their own length when you export — no special timing needed for slides with videos.

 

To export as MP4:

  1. Open your PowerPoint file.

  2. Click File > Export.

  3. Choose Create a Video.

  4. Under Create a Video, adjust settings:

    • Presentation Quality (choose "Full HD" or "Ultra HD" if available for best quality).

    • Set Use Recorded Timings and Narrations to "Yes" (if you rehearsed timings) — or set the number of seconds to spend on each slide manually.

  5. Click Create Video.

  6. Choose MPEG-4 Video (*.mp4) as the file type.

  7. Save.

The resulting MP4 video will have the following features:

  • Animations will play automatically.

  • Embedded videos will play through fully on their respective slides without needing extra configuration.

  • The video file will stay on a slide until all content finishes (animations + videos), based on your set timings or default behavior.

 

Animations

Reference Option 2 above related to producing an MP4 for embedded videos. Animations play in an exported MP4. Once you have your MP4 file, you upload this as the artwork in Vodori** and upload the .pptx as a Supporting Material. Follow the instructions below to produce the MP4. 

**Reminder: If it is critical for the job's file to remain in its native format—such as when using Portals to disseminate the content—this approach should not be used.

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