Turn a slide deck into a GIF

To turn a slide deck into a GIF, open the .pptx in Deck and export the deck as an animated GIF. Deck runs in a browser tab at madosuite.com, so you do not need PowerPoint, and the file stays on your own device.

Why a GIF

A GIF plays on its own wherever images work. Nobody has to download a deck, open an app or click through slides. That makes it handy for:

A README or a docs page that shows how something works, step by step.
A chat message, where a link to a deck gets ignored and a moving picture gets looked at.
A social post that sums up a talk in a few frames.
A preview of a longer deck, before people open the full file.

What you need

A .pptx file, or nothing at all: you can build the slides in Deck from scratch.
A browser. Madosuite is free and needs no account.

Madosuite runs a Linux machine in your browser, on your device. Files you bring in live in that machine’s home folder. They are not uploaded to us.

Steps

Go to madosuite.com and open Files.
Press Upload and pick your .pptx.
Open it with Deck.
Trim the deck for the GIF (see the tips below). Save a copy first if you want to keep the full deck as it was.
Export the deck as an animated GIF.
Open Files and download the GIF.

If you start from scratch instead, open Deck from the dock, pick one of its eight themes and a layout, and add your slides before step 5.

Tips for a GIF people will actually watch

A GIF has no sound, no pause button and no slide numbers to click. Plan for that.

Use fewer slides. A GIF of forty slides is a long, heavy file nobody watches to the end. Pick the slides that tell the story, often three to six, and delete the rest in your copy.
Make every slide readable at a glance. One idea, few words, large text. Viewers may see each frame for only a moment.
Drop speaker-only content. Notes do not show in a GIF, so anything you only say out loud is lost. Put the key line on the slide or leave the slide out.
Think about where it will show. A chat window or a README column is narrow. Deck supports custom slide sizes, so you can set the size before you design the slides. Changing the size of a finished deck can move things around, so check every slide after.
Keep fills simple. Large gradients, photos and soft shadows make a GIF bigger and can look banded, because GIF uses a limited set of colours. Flat colours and clean shapes keep the file small and sharp.
Check the result. Open the downloaded GIF in your browser and watch it loop once before you post it.

When a GIF is the wrong format

A GIF is good for a quick look, not for reading in detail.

If people need to read every word, export a PDF instead. Deck exports PDF with selectable text, including notes pages; see how to export slides to PDF with speaker notes or the PPTX to PDF tool.
If you need a still image, for a thumbnail or a cover, export the slides as PNG or JPEG instead.
If you will present live, keep the .pptx. Deck has a full-screen slide show and presenter view.

Limits

Deck is in alpha, heading for beta. Its makers estimate it is about 55% ready for real work. Things to watch:

SmartArt is basic. Slides built on SmartArt may not look the same as in PowerPoint. Check them before you export.
Animations and transitions you set for a slide show are part of presenting. Do not count on every one of them showing up the same way in the GIF; look at the result.
Audio and video on slides belong to the slide show. A GIF has no sound.
Known shortfalls are listed by the app’s makers; complex decks may show other differences.

Your files live in the browser’s storage for madosuite.com. Clearing the site’s data deletes them, so download the GIF and the .pptx you want to keep.

If you are leaving PowerPoint behind, the PowerPoint alternative page compares the two.

Go to the PPTX to GIF tool or the Deck app page.