How to Change Slide Size in Powerpoint 2016

Last updated on May 8th, 2023 at 09:57 am

The steps in this article are going to show you how to change the size of the slides in your Powerpoint presentation.

1. Open the Powerpoint file.
2. Select the Design tab at the top of the window.
3. Click the Slide Size button.
4. Choose the Custom Slide Size option.
5. Set the size for your slides, then click the OK button.

New Powerpoint presentations that you create in Powerpoint 2016 are sized to fit a widescreen monitor. The exact dimensions for your presentation are likely to be 13.333 inches wide by 7.5 inches tall. These dimensions will make the presentation look good when it is shown on a variety of monitors or projectors, but may not be desirable if you are showing it somewhere else, or if you are printing it. This guide on how to print a Google Slide can provide additional information on ways to print slideshows.

Luckily you aren’t forced to use these default slide sizes in Powerpoint 2016, and you can in fact set them yourself. Powerpoint has a variety of different sizes that you can choose from, or you can elect to choose a custom size option if you don’t see one liksted that fits your needs.

How to Change the Size of Slides in Powerpoint 2016

The  steps in this article were performed in the Microsoft Powerpoint for Office 365 version of the application, but will work in most other recent versions of Powerpoint as well.

Step 1: Open your Powerpoint presentation.

Step 2: Click the Design tab at the top of the window.

Step 3: Select the Slide Size button in the Customize section at the right end of the ribbon.

Step 4: Choose one of the aspect ratio options, or click the Custom Slide Size option.

Step 5: Click the dropdown menu under Slides sized for and choose one of the options from that list, or click inside the Width and Height fields and enter your custom slide sizes. The options on the dropdown menu have slide dimensions that are already defined for the type of media that is shown. For example, if you choose the Letter Paper option, you will know that your slides are sized to fit on that type of paper. You can even adjust the orientation at the right side of this window if you would rather use Portrait than Landscape.

More About Slide Sizes in Microsoft Powerpoint

• You are not able to changer the size of a single Powerpoint slide in your presentation. The settings that you adjust above can only be applied to the entire slideshow.
• Most of the other Microsoft Office products like Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel give you a little more flexibility when it comes to changing the size of your documents. However, since Powerpoint is largely viewed as a product that is meant to operate in a digital world, the focus is more on creating something that works best when shown on a TV, monitor, or projector.
• When you change slide size in Powerpoint, and your slides already contained content, then it’s very likely that the layout of your slide elements is going to be affected by this adjustment. If you are dealing with an existing presentation, you probably were given an option to choose how Powerpoint resized your slide elements. Even if you selected an option that you think won’t affect you very much, it’s always a good idea to go back through your work and ensure that everything still looks OK.
• If your version of Powerpoint is one that is using this style of application, then these steps should work for you. However, if you are using an older version of Powerpoint, like Powerpoint 2010, then things are a little different. There is actually going to be a Page Setup button on the Design tab, and you will need to click that to adjust the size of your slides.

Find out how to make a Powerpoint version of a file from Google Slides if you are working on something in that application but either need to or would prefer to continue working on it in Powerpoint.