We explored and complained about how PowerPoint 2016 has madewidescreen (16:9) as the default aspect ratio for new presentations.Although you can change all these new presentations fromwidescreen (16:9) to standard (4:3) aspect ratioquite easily, it can be a pain to remember doing so each time you create a new presentation! Of course, if you are happy with 16:9 slides, then youneed not read the rest of this tutorial, for everyone else, we'll show how you can set your default aspect ratio to standard (4:3):
- Launch PowerPoint 2016, you will see thePresentation Gallery, as shown inFigure 1. Click the Blank Presentation Theme (highlighted in red withinFigure 1).
Figure 1: Blank Presentation Theme selected within Presentation Gallery- You will see a new widescreen slide in a new presentation, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Blank Presentation opened with a widescreen slide- Next, modify the presentation's aspect ratio from Widescreen to Standard, as explained in ourChange Presentation Aspect Ratio from Widescreen toStandard tutorial. You can see the resultant Standard (4:3) aspect ratio slide in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Slide changed to the standard (4:3) aspect ratio- Now, access the Design tab of theRibbon. Within the Themes group, clickthe More button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3, above.
- This brings up the Themes gallery, as shown in Figure 4. Within this gallery, select theSave Current Theme option (highlighted in red within Figure 4).
Figure 4: Save Current Theme option to be selected- This brings up the Save Current Theme dialog box, as shown in Figure 5. Don't change the save location sincePowerPoint chooses the default save location for you. Just provide a new name for the Theme, and click the Save button (highlightedin red within Figure 5).
Figure 5: Save Current Theme dialog box- Now, access the Themes gallery again, notice that a new Custom section (highlighted inred within Figure 6) has been added within the Themes gallery. Within this section,you will find the new Theme you saved in the preceding step (highlighted in blue within Figure 6).
Figure 6: New Custom section comprises the new Themes- Right-click this new Theme. This brings up the context menu shown in Figure 7. Within this context menu, select theSet as Default Theme option, highlighted in red within Figure 7.
Figure 7: Set as Default Theme option to be selected- You can now shut PowerPoint, do not save the single Standard aspect ratio slide file if prompted.
- Launch PowerPoint 2016 again, you will see that the Presentation Gallery now includes your new Custom Theme in the topleft position, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 8 (compare with Figure 1).Even though the thumbnail shows a 16:9 slide, don't worry, this is a 4:3 Theme, as you will see in the next step.
Figure 8: Custom theme within the Presentation gallery- Since this new Theme has an aspect ratio of 4:3, clicking the Theme's thumbnail will open a new presentation with a slide ofStandard (4:3) aspect ratio, as shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9: New presentation created with new 4:3 slide
Probably a left over from earlier PowerPoint versions, the resolution of these images has always been poor when using the standard settings. In previous versions of PowerPoint, you could somehow change DPI (dots per inch), but it did not affect the output. There are also ways to hack registry system variables (on a Windows machine, not a mac). Fortunately, it's easy to change your file associations in Mac OS X, if you follow these steps. Select a file with the format you want to change (ex: an MP3, a JPG picture, an HTML file) in the. When you create a poster in PowerPoint, you are essentially creating one big 'slide' that is your poster. The default slide size of a new PowerPoint presentation is 7.5' x 10'. As mentioned previously, the page size of 7.5' x 10' cannot be printed into a good quality poster. Therefore, you have to set the slide size to the desired size of your.
Change Powerpoint Default Size
- How do I set my slide size to default to 4:3 in PowerPoint. I am using Office Home and Student 2016.
- 1 Click the Design tab. You have to be in the Design mode to make changes to your slide sizes. 2 Click the Page Setup button. The Page Setup dialog box opens.