Share a presentation as a PDF

Export a presentation as a PDF file to generate a finished document that can be printed or shared. You can customize export options to produce a PDF with custom properties, such as a specific page range.

To share a presentation as a PDF file, do the following:

1. With the presentation view active, on the Disseminate tab in the Output group, click Export Presentation to open the Export Presentation pane.

   Note:

   The Export Presentation button is unavailable if there are no pages in the presentation or if there is a broken data source. You can repair data sources in the Page Properties pane.

2. In the Export Presentation pane, review the location and name for the output PDF file specified in the Name text box.
3. Review or update the PDF Options parameters, including Compression, Image Size, and Resolution.

   The Resolution option controls the quality of rasterized data going into the export. The default setting is Best, meaning the full resolution of the requested export. Change to a lower option to down sample the rasterized data to a fraction of the chosen dots per inch (dpi).

4. In the Fonts group, confirm Embed Fonts is checked to support proper display of the exported presentation.

   This way, if anyone reading the PDF does not have Esri fonts installed, the content will display correctly.

5. Click Export.

   A progress bar appears at the bottom of the pane.

   Note:

   The Export Presentation pane is contextual. It shows the export progress for the currently active view.

6. When the export is finished, click View exported file to open the file in your default PDF viewer.

Export options

The Export Presentation pane provides settings that give you control over the export process. For example, you may need to set additional settings such as image compression, password protection, or which pages to export.

PDF file settings

Advanced PDF settings that control image format compression and security include the following:

• Compress vector graphics compresses the vector content streams in the PDF file. Uncheck this option if clear text is required for troubleshooting.
• Image Compression specifies how the raster streams in the PDF files are compressed. The default option is None, or you can choose RLE, Deflate, LZW, JPEG, or Adaptive.
• Under the Security tab, Use password to restrict opening the document allows you to add a password to protect who can view the resulting PDF.

Page range

Click the Page Settings tab to export a portion of a presentation using a page range. You can export all pages in the presentation, the last page in the presentation, odd pages only, even pages only, or a defined set of pages (for example, 1–5; or 1, 3, 5; or 1, 3, 5–10).