REAL fullscreen (use every pixel)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Karl Van Houdt
  • Start date Start date
K

Karl Van Houdt

Hi all,

I spent most of the weekend searching for a solution to force powerpoint to
use every pixel on the screen.

I made my presentation on 16:9 slides (32cm*18cm), to display on a 16:9
plasma.
However, since the max res of the plasma is 1024*768, it leaves a black bar
top and down, because the graphic card of course thinks it's a 4:3 display.
I can't get my graphic card to do the job.

BUT, if powerpoint can be forced to use the real pixelarea (1024*768), then
that would be the perfect solution.
A bit like "exactfit" in flash.
Or another way to put it : do not maintain aspect ratio.

I thank everyone for their help in this matter.



Karl Van Houdt
 
That's a possible solution, although I have a few issues :

will all the animations convert as well ?
how about last minute changes ?

Karl
 
Hi all,

I spent most of the weekend searching for a solution to force powerpoint to
use every pixel on the screen.

I made my presentation on 16:9 slides (32cm*18cm), to display on a 16:9
plasma.
However, since the max res of the plasma is 1024*768, it leaves a black bar
top and down, because the graphic card of course thinks it's a 4:3 display.
I can't get my graphic card to do the job.
Click to expand...

If the resolution of the plasma display is 1024x768, then it *is* a 4:3
display. If that's forced to display at a 16:9 physical size, it'd result in
distortion, no?

But if the display is actually 16:9 (pixels as well as physical dimensions),
you might need a graphics card that supports 16:9 ratio displays. As a test,
try a laptop with a wide screen if you can locate one.
 
Thanks for your reply.
The fact that it's a 1024*768 display doesn't make it a 4:3 display, it just
doesn't have square pixels.

The problem isn't the graphics card, it's the fact that I want to force
powerpoint output to use the exact resolution of the screen,
and thus distort the show on a regular 4:3 screen.

Karl
 
Thanks for your reply.
The fact that it's a 1024*768 display doesn't make it a 4:3 display, it just
doesn't have square pixels.

The problem isn't the graphics card, it's the fact that I want to force
powerpoint output to use the exact resolution of the screen,
and thus distort the show on a regular 4:3 screen.
Click to expand...

OK, now I see what you mean. Fortunately for most, unfortunately for you,
PowerPoint's always going to fit the current slide size to the current display
resolution *without* distorting anything.

You might be able to get around this by doing the distortion yourself. If the
presentation doesn't have animations, you could export all of the slides as
images from your 16:9 presentation then import those into a new 4:3-sized
presentation and resize each image to fill the slide (forcing distortion). Our
free StarterSet addin includes a tool that would help with this; it can make
the resizing a one-click operation. http://www.pptools.com/starterset/

Another approach that might work:

Start a new 4:3 presentation using the same template as your existing 16:9 one.
Put the 4:3 one in Slide or Normal view, the other in Slide Sorter view.
Add a blank slide to the 4:3 presentation.
Select a slide in the 16:9 pres in sorter view, press Ctrl+C
Switch to the 4:3 presentation and choose Edit, Paste Special, Slide.
Repeat for each slide in the original show

The key here is selecting/copying a slide in SORTER view and pasting it into
SLIDE/NORMAL view in the 4:3 presentation.
 
Karl Van Houdt said:
Hi all,

I spent most of the weekend searching for a solution to force powerpoint
to use every pixel on the screen.

I made my presentation on 16:9 slides (32cm*18cm), to display on a 16:9
plasma.
Click to expand...

I think that was a mistake.
However, since the max res of the plasma is 1024*768, it leaves a black
bar top and down, because the graphic card of course thinks it's a 4:3
display.
Click to expand...

Hmm, that is because 1024 * 768 IS a 4:3 ratio. Your graphics card is doing
it's job properly, and it sounds like the display is too because it's
displaying your presentation just as you designed it. You are basicaly
creating the equvilant of a "letterbox" output.

Try using a standard 4:3 layout for the slide and see what happens.


Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Provider of PFCMedia, PFCPro, PFCExpress
http://www.pfcmedia.com
 
appreciate your suggestions, but I have thought indeed about
resizing/remoddeling the design.
The animations aren't the problem, it's the text (and a bit the imported
flash anim, but I can probably get these to play exact fit).
If I stretch the slide size vertically, text won't resize as well. So i
would basically have to transform all my text to bitmaps, and load them
again. It's not even the file size that i'm worried about, it's the last
minute changes.

It just feels very strange to work with a program so popular, and no one 's
ever developped a tool that leaves the user two options : (1) fit to window,
or (2) maintain aspect ratio.
Still if anyone knows about this kind of tool, or has written some VBA wich
would help, please let me know.

Karl
 
You're absolutely right about soft & hardware working as it should.
But that doesn't change the fact that there should be a way to fit to window
exactly.

And of course a 4:3 design will fill the plasma display completely. But the
text looks terrible.



Karl
 
appreciate your suggestions, but I have thought indeed about
resizing/remoddeling the design.
The animations aren't the problem, it's the text (and a bit the imported
flash anim, but I can probably get these to play exact fit).
If I stretch the slide size vertically, text won't resize as well. So i
would basically have to transform all my text to bitmaps, and load them
again. It's not even the file size that i'm worried about, it's the last
minute changes.

It just feels very strange to work with a program so popular, and no one 's
ever developped a tool that leaves the user two options : (1) fit to window,
or (2) maintain aspect ratio.
Click to expand...

You're working in a very unusual situation though; your hardware is distorting
the image and you need the software to compensate by distorting it in the
opposite direction.

How many other people need this type of "anamorphic powerpointillism"? I've
been a volunteer in this group for over ten years. This is the first request
I've seen for a feature like this.

Software developers, even the biggest ones, have limited resources to throw
into developing new features, and as users we complain about software that's
bloated with features we don't personally use or need.

That's not to minimize the problem you're having in any way, just to point out
that it's not so odd that PPT doesn't solve it. And given the limited audience
for a solution, I wouldn't be too surprised to find that there are no third
party solutions either.

Kinda leaves you between a rock and a hard place, I know. I wonder if
different hardware might be a better solution.
 
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