Choosing the right slide size is an important design consideration when creating PowerPoint presentations. The slide size impacts how content appears, what aspect ratios work best for your audience’s display equipment, and overall visual cohesion. Follow this guide to change PowerPoint slide sizes for beautifully designed and impactful presentations.

Aspect Ratios – What Are Your Options?

Aspect ratio refers to the proportional relationship between a slide’s width and height.

Common options include:

4:3 – The traditional standard used for documents, older TVs and computer monitors. Results in square-ish slides.
16:9 – Widescreen format used for modern HDTVs and computer displays. Creates landscape rectangular slides.
16:10 – Popular widescreen computer/laptop monitor ratio. Good compromise between 4:3 and 16:9.

Considerations when choosing:

What display equipment will your audience use? Match their projector/screen aspect ratio.
Will slides be viewed online or in-person? Online presentations often use 16:9.

What content/layouts are you using? Certain designs work better with specific ratios.

How To Change Slide Size in PowerPoint

Adjusting slide size in PowerPoint is easy. Here are the basic steps:

Open your presentation and select the Design tab

Click Slide Size in the Customize section
Choose from preset sizes like Standard (4:3) or Widescreen (16:9)
Alternatively, select Custom Slide Size to input custom dimensions

Additional tips

Scale or fit? PowerPoint will ask if you want to scale content to fit or maximize size on the new slide size
Be careful with pre-existing content – changing slide sizes can distort elements

Adjust slide master to format placeholders appropriately on new slide sizes

Create Custom Slide Sizes

For fully customized presentations, you can create custom slide dimensions based on pixels, inches or centimeters.

To make custom slide sizes:

Go to Design tab > Slide Size > Custom Slide Size
Enter new Width and Height values
Select units of measurement (inches, cm, or pixels)

Change Orientation between portrait and landscape
Click OK to apply

Example custom sizes:

Trade show banners – 24″ x 36″
Large formats for detailed data – 48″ x 30″
Instagram posts – 1080 x 1080px square

Custom video formats – 1280 x 720px, 1920 x 1080px

Optimize File Size

Larger slide sizes can produce huge file sizes that are tough to share and edit. Try these tips to optimize PowerPoint file size:

Compress Images: Reduce photo file sizes without losing quality

Delete Hidden Slides: Remove unused slides and hidden slide masters
Limit Animations: Simplify animations and transitions
Save as PDF: Export to PDF to dramatically reduce file size

Test on Multiple Screens

Seeing your new slide size across different displays is crucial. Be sure to:

View slides on both 16:9 and 4:3 screens
Test on mobile devices, laptops, projectors

Check how content scales across resolutions
Make final tweaks to responsively fit all devices

Design Amazing Presentations with New Slide Sizes

Adjusting PowerPoint slide dimensions takes your presentations to the next level. Match projector ratios, create Instagram-ready visuals, format video slides, reduce file sizes, and craft visually stunning slides tailored to every audience. Dynamic slide sizes help presentations stand out while improving viewing experiences.