Make screenshow fill a wide screen display

PPTools
Shape Styles brings the power of styles to PowerPoint. Apply complex formatting with a single click
Merge Excel, CSV or tab-delimited data into PowerPoint presentations to create certificates, awards presentations, personalized presentations and more
FixLinks prevents broken links when you distribute PowerPoint presentations
Optimizer saves disk space and bandwidth, shrinks your PowerPoint presentations to the right size for email, screenshow or printing
PPT2HTML gives you full control of PowerPoint HTML output, helps meet Section 508 accessibility requirements
Prep4PDF preserves interactivity in PowerPoint presentations when you convert to PDF
Image Export converts PowerPoint slides to JPG, PNG, GIF, WMF and more

Problem

You have a laptop with a wide-screen display. When you start a PowerPoint slide show, it doesn't fill the screen. Instead, it leaves black on either side. Or maybe it fills the screen but distorts the pictures on your slides.

Can't it fill the screen instead? Without making messes?

Solution

Yes, it can. PowerPoint will display your slides as large as it can without cropping. If the proportions of the slide don't match the screen proportions, then it can't fill the full screen, so it fills in the rest with black.

If you want PowerPoint to completely fill the screen with your slides you simply have to make your slides the same proportion as the screen. Start by making a copy of your presentation to work on, then do this (assuming a wider-than-average screen):

• Choose File, Page Setup
• Increase Slide width; the ratio Slide width / Slide height should be the same as Screen width / Screen height

How big should you make the page?

PowerPoint MVP Austin Myers has a free program that figures this out for you

To calculate the value yourself, you need to know the width and height of your screen in pixels. To get this:

• Right-click the Windows desktop
• Choose Properties from the pop-up menu
• Click the Settings tab of the Display Properties dialog box
• Under "Screen area" you'll see the current setting as Screenwidth x Screenheight in pixels
• Make a note of the values there, then click OK to close the dialog box

(On Mac, use System Preferences, Displays to get the current display Resolution setting)

Now use this formula to get the correct value for your PowerPoint Slide width:

Slidewidth = (Screenwidth x Slideheight) / Screenheight

In other words:

• Start with Screenwidth and Screenheight (in pixels, from Display Properties) and Slide height (from PowerPoint's File, Page Setup dialog box)
• Multiply Screenwidth by Slide height
• Divide the result by Screenheight
• That's the value to use for Slide width in the Page Setup dialog box

Note: As Keith Ratner of SkillzDesign pointed out on the PPT newsgroup recently, keep your slide width at 10" and the height proportional to your intended screen size so you can print to normal letter/A4 size paper without having to remember to checkmark "Fit to page" every time you print.

What if the presentation's already done - and set up for a normal 4:3 ratio screen?
You have a bit more work cut out for you.

• Open the presentation (we'll call it O for Original) and save it to a new name (we'll use W for Wide).
• Calculate the slide size you need to use and change W's File, Page Setup, Slide Size to match. The graphics may become distorted; don't worry, we'll fix that in the next few steps.
• Open O again so that you have both presentations open at once.
• Use the Window menu options in PowerPoint to arrange both presentations side by side.
• Now step through both presentations a slide at a time. When you find a graphic that's been distorted in W, delete it, then select it in O and copy/paste it into W. You may want to do the same with text boxes, or perhaps to the text placeholders on the slide master.

You'll probably have to make a few other tweaks to the layout, but on the whole, this should get you there with minimal stress.

Automate it with VBA
This little macro will paste Metafile images of each of the slides in your source presentation into the new wider presentation, size them to fit the new slide height (less a safe margin you can specify yourself) and center them on the page.

It only works in PPT 2003 (or possibly higher, but not in earlier versions)

Sub ImportAndCenter()
' Imports an image of each slide in a source presentation into the target presentation
' sizes it appropriately and centers it
' Run this with two presentations open
' The presentation you want to import INTO should be the active presentation

    Dim oSourcePres As Presentation
    Dim oTargetPres As Presentation
    Dim oSourceSlide As Slide
    Dim oTargetSlide As Slide
    Dim oSh As Shape
    Dim dSafeMargin As Double

    ' EDIT THIS IF YOU LIKE:
    ' This forces the pasted slide to be a bit smaller than the slide you're pasting into
    dSafeMargin = 18    ' margin is in points; 72 points to the inch
                        ' and will be added both top and bottom

    If Presentations.Count <> 2 Then
        MsgBox "You should have two and only two presentations open before running this macro."
        Exit Sub
    End If

    Set oTargetPres = ActivePresentation
    If Presentations(1).Name = oTargetPres.Name Then
        Set oSourcePres = Presentations(2)
    Else
        Set oSourcePres = Presentations(1)
    End If

    ' Test
    Debug.Print oTargetPres.Name
    Debug.Print oSourcePres.Name

    For Each oSourceSlide In oSourcePres.Slides
        Set oTargetSlide = oTargetPres.Slides.Add(oTargetPres.Slides.Count + 1, ppLayoutBlank)
        oSourceSlide.Copy
        Set oSh = oTargetSlide.Shapes.PasteSpecial(ppPasteEnhancedMetafile)(1)

        ' maintain shape's aspect ratio
        oSh.LockAspectRatio = msoTrue

        With oTargetPres.PageSetup
            ' match pasted shape to new slide's height
            ' this assumes pasting from a "normal" aspect ratio slide
            ' into a wider than normal one
            oSh.Height = .SlideHeight - (dSafeMargin * 2)


            ' if going the other way, comment out the above and uncomment this
            'osh.Width = .SlideWidth

            ' center the shape
            oSh.Left = (.SlideWidth - oSh.Width) / 2
            oSh.Top = (.SlideHeight - oSh.Height) / 2

        End With
    Next

End Sub

See How do I use VBA code in PowerPoint? to learn how to use this example code.

Using a Plasma display?
Mike M, famous on the PPT Newsgroup for both his technical prowess and unusual dietary proclivities, warns that plasma screens are more prone to burn-in than other types. That is, if you leave anything on the screen for extended periods of time, it's liable to burn the image into the screen so that it's visible there even when nothing's being projected. That's an expensive mistake!

More info here:
LCD TVs versus Plasma TVs

Contents © 1995-2008 Stephen Rindsberg, Rindsberg Photography, Inc. and members of the MS PowerPoint MVP team. You may link to this page but any form of unauthorized reproduction of this page's contents is expressly forbidden.

content authoring & site maintenance by

Friday - The Automatic FAQ Maker