It is not necessary to remember that the more careful the presentation of Power point, the greater your positive impact will be on the people to whom you are going to present. In addition to having good content, you have to take great care of aesthetics. In this post we are going to see how to change slide size in power point and get the most appropriate design for our document.
At the time of carrying out this operation, one of the most important aspects that we must pay attention to is that of the correct proportion between width and height of each of the slides. Above all, we must prevent them from appearing distorted or out of square.
The most used proportion, and the one that is most visually attractive, is that of 16:9. This measurement is the default in PowerPoint. However, when projecting the presentation on a larger screen, we may encounter different sizes and proportions. In those cases we have no choice but to adapt the size of the slides to the support on which we are going to project them.
Fortunately, making these types of modifications is quite simple. We explain it below, step by step:
Select size by default
This is what we have to do if we want to change the size (or proportions) of the slides in PowerPoint to achieve a better presentation:
- First of all, we open the tab "Design". This is located in the tools ribbon at the top of the screen.
- Next, we go to the option «Slide size».
- There we will see the two standard size options we can choose from: 4:3 and 16:9. There is a specific mode called “Custom Slide Size,” which we discuss later.
The changes made will be automatically applied to all new presentations that we create from that moment on. On the other hand, if we make these changes to an already created presentation, PowerPoint will offer us two options:
- Maximize: We select this option in case we have to change the slide to a larger size.
- Ensure fit: instead: This is the option to choose when we want to adapt the slides to a smaller size.
Important: we must keep in mind that on many occasions, when we change the original proportion of the slides, many of the elements and images in the presentation can change their layout. If that happens, we'll have to readjust everything again.
Customize slide size and orientation
In the previous section we mentioned the possibility of determining the size of our slides ourselves without having to limit ourselves to choosing one of the two predetermined sizes (4:3 or 16:9). For this, it is necessary to use the option «Customize slide size».
Select dimensions
In the dialog box that appears on the screen when using this option, there is a tab called “Slide size for…” which shows a foldout with a series of additional proportions (A3, A4, Letter, 16:10, etc.).
But if these options also don't fit what we need for our presentation, we can still use the options from the dropdown menu "Personalized", where we will be able to enter the exact height and width of our slides.
Choose the orientation
In addition to changing the size of the slides in Power Point, we will also be able to choose slide orientation: horizontal or vertical. The first is recommended in the case of images or diagrams, while the second is more appropriate for documents. These options have nothing to do with the background images that can be added to a PowerPoint presentation.
Some Tips on Power Point Slide Size
No matter how expert we are in using Power Point, it never hurts to listen to tips and recommendations that will help us make a perfect presentation. We close the post with some ideas that can be very helpful:
I use the Power Point ruler
This is an especially useful resource when it comes to designing slides with template layouts or printable drawings. In these cases it is recommended check the slide format using the “Ruler” option, which is found in the "View" menu.
Editing the master slides
There is a category of slides (called "master slides") through which you can make changes simultaneously to a group of referenced slides to her. To find them and make changes to them you have to go to the "View" menu and choose the "Master Slides" option.
Preview simulation
If we know the exact dimensions of the screen or monitor where the slides are going to be projected, there is a very simple and practical way to carry out a preliminary rehearsal. We just have to change the screen format of our computer to match the projection and open the presentation to get something resembling a preview.