Hmm ok hang on a sec, I can help you get over this particular hurdle I think.
(He says, as his computer updates windows lol)
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that would be great! I truly appreciate your all your help. What is a good program to use?
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so, you can save as an svg, but i don’t know if PPT has a way to convert text to outlines when it saves an SVG.
if you’re able to save as a PDF, then that will work. i printed from PPT to the “Microsoft print to PDF” printer and then imported that file and it worked.
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Gimp is an easy program to learn and this is Gimp’s result as well. Both Inkscape and Gimp are free and together very powerful for getting to what you need for great results on Glowforge.
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So this is a pretty hot topic, comes up from time to time. Here’s one of the threads about the matter:
Generally, the top contenders are Illustrator, Affinity Designer and Inkscape. (Cue @rbtdanforth to talk about using gimp to do it all, thought I think he’s the only one who uses it for vector).
It comes to personal choice and cost (inkscape is free, illustrator has a monthly cost, etc).
It’s a learning curve no matter what way you go, but once you get the hang of it you can do just about anything with all of the programs I mentioned.
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Gimp’s main ability is raster manipulation so raster files frequently need cleaning up before going to vector. Gimp does not have the power Inkscape has for manipulating vector files though it has some and a much more powerful raster-to-vector ability. Likewise, Inkscape has a lot of ways to manipulate vector files but is very lame in manipulating raster files. I tend to use them as two halves of the same program as together they are really Awesome!
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I just downloaded Inkscape but figuring that out is going to be another day. lol thank you and everyone one for helping me. I hope I can figure this out tomorrow.
Shelly
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I would also download Gimp and learn the two programs together 
JPGs make a horrid mess of a black-and-white image and cleaning that up in Gimp is very easy just by increasing the contrast. Small images can also be very jaggy (Inkscape has a lot of problems with jaggy) In Gimp you can double the pixels and it smooths out the jaggy, making even the Gimp result smoother.
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Seconded, that’s the same setup I use, I’ve just never investigated the vector elements of gimp like you have. One of these days I’ll come up against something that Inkscape can’t do and you’ll be the first person I ask – I don’t know of anyone else who has even tried the stuff you do with Gimp.
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Okay, everyone is trying to send you to better programs and to be fair, there are better programs but I always say the program that you are good with is best. So, to get a usable file from PowerPoint click :export: create PDF/XPS document, then click the icon to the right. This will import to the 
just great.
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They have pretty good documentation:
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Frequently I see folk give up because there is not enough resolution in a jpg to get a decent vector in Inkscape. Increasing the contrast cleans up the “almost white” and the “almost black” that is the hallmark of a jpg image. Do it too much and you will have all the pixels either all white or all black and thus extremely jaggy at the edge. Double the pixels and suddenly gray is back along those edges.
The key to vectors is the masking. There are a great many ways to manipulate the masking, adding, subtracting, smoothing, etc. At that point, it is very easy to save the mask as a vector ( Gimp calls it a Path) and you can even manipulate the path (though not as easily as in Inkscape). At that point, you can export all the paths as an SVG and bring it to Inkscape. Inkscape is somewhat weirded at the details but by insisting it keep all the results you can use Union on each vector and it will lose the outline around the fill but that is easy to restore.
At that point I clean up whatever I missed cleaning up of the vectors in Gimp and Voila you have a very much better result than just taking the jpg and trying to have Inkscape tell jaggies from actual corners.
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I’m not laughing at you! We all have to start somewhere. And some people don’t make ANY of their own designs! So kudos to you for trying and for asking for help!
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I was such a newbie when I started and downloaded Inkscape…it doesn’t take long to understand it and everyone here is helpful if you get stuck!! Good luck!
And now, with the responses, I think I’m going to have to download Gimp and give it a try. BTW, I also have Illustrator but have gotten so used to Inkscape, end up switching to it because that’s what I started with and understand!
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c
will the glowforge cut or engrave on vinyl records?
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You should NEVER cut or engrave anything made of vinyl. It is toxic to you and will corrode and destroy your Glowforge immediately. We have seen a few photos of the insides of machines after vinyl has been used and it’s pretty ugly. I’m glad you asked before trying it.
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What @Xabbess said! if you want to make a cut record start with thin black acrylic and go from there. You can add good-looking recording lines and make it look like the real thing.
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Yes, me too…! Thank you!!!
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Thank you.
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