Tips and Tricks

Compressing a video

Handbrake is an open source video compression tool for Mac and PCs that allows you to significantly compress video files without loss of quality. In my example, I was able to compress a video with an original file size of 97.1 MB to only 23.6 MB.

The extent of file compression possible through the Handbrake application.

The video below demonstrates how to use the Handbrake application to compress video files.

Tips and Tricks

Compressing images in Microsoft PowerPoint

When creating PowerPoint Presentations we frequently forget to optimise images that we have included in the presentation. This results in a large file size, which may be too large to email or use up unnecessary student download limits. Through the use of the Compress Picture option, it is possible to optimise all images in a presentation at one time.

Using the Compress Picture approach, I compressed an PowerPoint presentation with an original size of 21.9 MB to 3.5 MB, without loss of quality for onscreen viewing.

Reduction in file size possible by using the compress picture option in PowerPoint.

The following video demonstrates the use of the Compress Picture option in PowerPoint. This feature is also available in Microsoft Word.