PowerPoint on a TV for digital signage: slide size, export and playback

This is the route that plays with no internet. Export every slide as a picture, hand the pictures to your agent, and it builds a playlist.

1. In PowerPoint, choose File, then Save As (Save a Copy if the file lives on OneDrive or SharePoint).
2. Pick PNG or JPEG, save, and choose All Slides. Each slide becomes its own file. On a Mac, use File, then Export, which lets you type the width and height.
3. For a sharp picture on a full HD TV, export at 1920 pixels wide: type it on a Mac, or on Windows change the export resolution with Microsoft's registry setting, as the guide in the next section describes. A 1280-pixel picture still plays, only softer.
4. Give your agent the pictures.

When a number changes, export that slide again and ask your agent to replace its picture. Every playlist and screen that plays it updates, and the rest of the deck stays put. A native Player keeps its own copy of each picture, so the loop does not depend on the network.

If the deck lives in OneDrive, your agent can put its embedded view on a screen. Microsoft says the embed code comes only from PowerPoint for the web:

1. Save the presentation to OneDrive and open it in PowerPoint for the web.
2. Choose File, then Share, then Embed this Presentation, and copy what it gives you.
3. Give the embed code to your agent.

Your agent checks that the link opens without a Microsoft sign-in before it publishes. A deck that asks for a sign-in is refused, with the sharing setting named. Changes you make in OneDrive show on the page automatically. The trade-off is that the screen needs the internet the whole time, and the deck plays the way Microsoft's viewer plays it.

PowerPoint exports a slide at 96 dots per inch unless you change it, so a slide's pixels are its inches times 96. A bigger dpi gives a sharper picture. A TV is 1920 × 1080 pixels (full HD) or 3840 × 2160 (4K), and a 16:9 widescreen slide is the same shape.

The default and the shapes come from Microsoft's export guide; the other columns are the same arithmetic. To make a deck 16:9, choose Slide Size under the Design tab and pick Widescreen. A 4:3 deck is shaped differently from a TV, so it fits the screen with black bars.

A deck written for a laptop often has small type. On a lobby or break room TV, set the type large and keep each slide to one idea. Your agent can also rebuild a text-heavy slide as a built-in app, so the TV draws the type itself in large light letters on a dark ground. The Google Slides guide shows the same fix on a real deck.

No. Casting a presentation sends your computer's picture to the TV, and it ends when the computer sleeps or the meeting ends. Here the TV plays its own copy, so your computer can be off. For a deck in Google Slides, see Google Slides digital signage.

Can PowerPoint be digital signage?

Yes. A deck becomes a loop of full-screen pictures with a time for each slide, and the agent can add music, a different time for one slide and a schedule.

How do I put a PowerPoint on a TV?

Export the slides as pictures and ask your agent to play them in a loop, or embed the deck from PowerPoint for the web. The pictures play with no internet; the embed does not.

What size is a PowerPoint slide in pixels?

A widescreen (16:9) slide is 13.333 by 7.5 inches: 1280 × 720 pixels at PowerPoint's default 96 dpi, 1920 × 1080 at 144 dpi and 3840 × 2160 at 288 dpi. A 4:3 slide is 10 by 7.5 inches: 960 × 720 at 96 dpi.

Does it cost anything to show a deck?

screenRIG is free, with unlimited screens. Paid plans add business tools, more people, people to talk to, governance and contract terms. See pricing.

Next: put live numbers beside the slides with Display a Google Sheet on a TV.

• learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/powerpoint/change-export-slide-resolution
• support.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/save-a-slide-as-an-image-or-as-a-separate-presentation-file
• support.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/embed-a-presentation-in-a-web-page-or-blog