A steadily increasing number of PowerPoint users are faced with the challenge of converting their old presentation templates, created in the traditional 4:3 slide format, to the increasingly prevalent 16:9 widescreen format. Unfortunately, in most cases, simply changing the paper size is not enough (Fig. 1).

It quickly becomes clear that after changing the slide format, almost nothing is as it should be. Content such as text boxes, tables, and charts are often misplaced and need to be realigned. Images and vector graphics, as well as some diagrams, are displayed distorted because PowerPoint simply stretches all the content to the new width. This usually leads to a visually unsatisfactory result. This is particularly noticeable with pie charts, which mutate into unsightly ellipses after the format change (Fig. 2).

While it's impossible to completely avoid graphical chaos in PowerPoint, following a few tricks can save a lot of time when adjusting content. Below, we'll show you the ideal approach to switching to a new slide format in PowerPoint 2007, 2010, and 2013.

In PowerPoint 2007 and 2010, Microsoft does not offer convenient options for cleanly changing formats. Users are forced to improvise a bit when adjusting slide content.

Step 1:

Open your old 4:3 presentation and create a copy of your PowerPoint file in the same directory using "Save As". For later identification, it is recommended to add "16x9" to the original filename.

This could then look something like this: my-presentation-16x9.pptx . Now you can change the newly saved presentation via the "Design" tab – "Page Setup" by clicking the "Slide Show (16:9)" option under the "Paper Size" menu item.

After you confirm your selection with OK, the change will be applied immediately to the open presentation. As you will now notice, you will encounter the display errors described above. Depending on the content of the slide and the technical quality of the original 4:3 slide, there can be drastic differences in display, which we unfortunately cannot fully illustrate here.

Step 2:

Now open the original 4:3 presentation in parallel. This is needed to replace distorted graphics in the 16:9 version. Now it's time to go through the new presentation slide by slide and adjust it. You can save a lot of time by creating a grid to which all relevant and recurring elements can be precisely aligned (Fig. 3).

To do this, display the guidelines by right-clicking, as shown in Figures 4 and 5. To enable pixel-precise positioning of the objects, you should uncheck the "Align objects to grid" option.

Starting with version 2010, PowerPoint offers smart guides, which further simplify the alignment of elements with other objects. This feature is enabled by default in PowerPoint 2010 and 2013.

Step 3:

After realigning elements like text boxes and tables on the slides, you can now replace the distorted objects. To do this, switch to the corresponding slide of the already open 4:3 presentation and copy the object using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+C , then paste it onto the corresponding slide using Ctrl+V .

This method prevents distortion of the element. Reorienting the graphic on the 16:9 slide is necessary anyway, as the new format provides more space.

New in PowerPoint 2013 is the availability of additional options when changing the aspect ratio. If you select 16:9 from the dropdown list instead of using the quick selection, a selection window appears offering the following options:

Here you can choose between "Maximize" and "Scale appropriately".

The "Maximize" option scales all objects on the slide proportionally to the maximum slide width. While this eliminates the need for manual scaling, it often requires adjustments to scaling and placement, as many elements will now appear too large.

If you choose the "Scale to Fit" option, the original content is reduced in size and centered on the slide. Since this can also lead to distortions depending on the object and requires additional placement effort, this option is generally not recommended.

Therefore, for reasons of efficiency, it is also recommended in PowerPoint version 2013 to switch to quick selection and adjust according to the procedure described above.