Wide screen presentations

[Katrina]

Does anyone know if it is possible to format a powerpoint
presentation for wide screens? And if not, do you know
of what other software available currently has the
ability?

 

[Kathryn Jacobs]

Yes, you can. Go to File --> Page set up and set the page size to custom,
then set the dimensions as you desire.(16 by 9 is the usual.)

--
Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft PPT MVP
If this helped you, please take the time to rate the value of this post:
http://rate.affero.net/jacobskl/
Get PowerPoint answers at http://www.powerpointanswers.com
Cook anything outdoors with http://www.outdoorcook.com
Kathy is a trainer, writer, Girl Scout, and whatever else there is time for
I believe life is meant to be lived. But:
if we live without making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived

 

[Mike M.]

Here are some page sizes in inches we use for wide screens:
42" Plasma - 20.40 H x 36.31 W
50" Plasma - 24.40 H x 43.20 W
60" Plasma - 29.50 H x 51.95 W
30" LCD - 15.40 H x 25.73 W
40" LCD - 20.60 H x 34.30 W

 

[Kathryn Jacobs]

Baffling occurs here - I thought the same thing you did Adam. Mike, could
you explain why there is any difference if the ratios are the same?

--
Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft PPT MVP
If this helped you, please take the time to rate the value of this post:
http://rate.affero.net/jacobskl/
Get PowerPoint answers at http://www.powerpointanswers.com
Cook anything outdoors with http://www.outdoorcook.com
Kathy is a trainer, writer, Girl Scout, and whatever else there is time for
I believe life is meant to be lived. But:
if we live without making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived

 

[Mike M.]

It wouldn't be PowerPoint unless it was baffling! <g> I will try to
explain. Here goes... Because that is the way my predecessors did it! Now
that I got that out of the way, your questions made me wonder why also. On
a 42" Plasma I created two blank presentations. I put the same 48 Point
title and image in each. On one I set the Page Size to 16 x 9, on the other
36.31 x 20.4 (some magic number someone came up with). During creation of
the presentations the title and image occupied much more of the slide on the
16 x 9 page (as would be expected). When I ran the show with my sizes,
everything looked like it did when I created the show. When I ran the 16x9
show, the text and image were significantly larger (stretched?) and the
slide was letter boxed on the plasma. The letter box was about 3 inches on
top and bottom. So I guess the reason is to build the presentation to fit
the screen size being used and avoid having PowerPoint stretch/shrink/mess
with shapes. I use PPT2002. If you set a Page size of 16" x 9" and put
some text on it then displayed on a very large (160 x 90") 16:9 ratio
monitor the text would be very large. The effect we want with our large
screens is to display more information at a reasonable font/image size. We
have been working with displays from 10 x 7.5 to 60" plasmas and always
found it better to use the closest page size that matches the physical
screen size. Does this make sense or am I alone in an alternate universe?

 

[Kathryn Jacobs]

It makes sense, but I am wondering why it is happening. 16x9 should be 16x9.
Yes, you are going to see it as larger on the 160x90 display. Other than
larger, it shouldn't be any different.
On the other hand....
I can understand there being a difference between 16x9 vs. 36.31 x 20.4, as
the ratios are different:
1.7777777777777777777777777777778 vs. 1.7799019607843137254901960784314

--
Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft PPT MVP
If this helped you, please take the time to rate the value of this post:
http://rate.affero.net/jacobskl/
Get PowerPoint answers at http://www.powerpointanswers.com
Cook anything outdoors with http://www.outdoorcook.com
Kathy is a trainer, writer, Girl Scout, and whatever else there is time for
I believe life is meant to be lived. But:
if we live without making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived

 

[John O]

It makes sense, but I am wondering why it is happening. 16x9 should be
16x9.

Ah, but remember they tried to redefine the centimeter once....



John O

 

[Mike M.]

We are really talking about two different things here; an Aspect Ratio and a
page size in inches. You can have many page sizes that are 16:9 Aspect
Ratios and the content on them will look different (size wise) when show on
a particular device. At least I had fun playing around with this and seeing
my kids pictures get morphed as I changed sizes. Anyhoo, to the OP I
suggest trying different page sizes of a 16:9 Aspect Ration and seeing the
differences.

 

[Mike M.]

No, I think we agree (sort of, in some way). The reason our customers use
larger screens is to fit more information on them. Not display the same
information larger. So on a 30" LCD we fit X lines of text (and other
content) at a readable size while on a 60" Plasma we can fit X+ lines of
text at the same size. On our 10" LCDs I would be lucky to fit Gary
Coleman's head. <g>

Hmmm, "modern measurements". Is that some kind of jab? At least we don't
have to, "Look Right" when crossing the street. ;-)

 

[Mike M.]

In our environment the audience is roughly the same and they are standing
close to the displays regardless of what size they are. That is why we
mostly use the larger screens to display more info. However, our customers
are free to build their content as large as they want using WYSIWYMG
PowerPoint. The OP is probably long gone but it was an interesting
conversation anyway and explained some different uses of PPT.

Cheers Adam, time to head to the local for a pint of Old Peculiar.

 

[Mike M.]

I'll try it out next time. I recently fell for a couple of new ales while
in Dublin; Kilkenny and Smithwicks. Of course the locals thought I was
daft for passing up Guinness for them, but I just wasn't hungry! <g>
Maybe this winter I can find one of these:
http://www.worthingtons.ws/whiteshield.htm.

 

[Echo S]

I'll try it out next time. I recently fell for a couple of new ales

Fell for, or fell after? <g>

Echo

 

[Mike M.]

A friend from Burton-upon-Trent brought me a few bottles over a couple of
years back. It really was difficult to pour because it had about an inch of
yeast and such in the bottle. Very nice flavor though. The brew that keeps
on brewing.

 

[Mike M.]

Hmmm, I guess it's just semantics and a matter of timing. You drink a few
and your semantics go fuzzy and your timing is off. A little later,
everything seems to be in a 16:9 ratio. ;-)

 

[Mike M.]

I spent some time working there a few years ago with a buddy named Chris
Cobb. Lots of nice pubs and a few good curry shops. I hope to return for a
visit some day. Long way from Florida though.

 

[Mike M.]

Great minds drink alike! With me it is never very long before I degenerate
to a food topic. Something to do with my parasite friends I picked up a few
years back. :-O Not to mention my fond memories of the pub and curry
crawls in B-o-T and Coventry. The beer and curry acts as a balm to soothe
the wounds left by extensive PowerPoint use.