Powerpoint Slideshow too small

Question

Hi,

I just bought a new computer, and from everything I was told, VGA ports essentially don't exist on new computers anymore - therefore, I was forced to buy one without it.

I am a teacher and use PowerPoint a great deal. The projectors that we have installed at my school really only have the option for a VGA connection. I was told that all I needed to do was buy an adapter that would connect my VGA cord through the HDMI port. I bought it and technically it works. My computer can project through my LCD projector, albeit only at a 16:9 ratio. 

There is one glaring, deal-breaking problem though. When I try to project powerpoint slide shows (all of which were made as 4:3), they appear on the screen incredibly small. Essentially, I want them projected 16:16, but instead, they come out 9:9. (I know those ratios aren't exactly accurate...i'm just trying to describe that instead of them being the full width and full height that they used to be, the are simply coming out as the HEIGHT that the widescreen version does, and to compensate and keep it square, instead of expanding the show, it shrinks it on the sides.)

I have tried everything. I have changed the slide size on PowerPoint. I have tried every resolution on the projector and computer. I have tried bypassing the adapter and simply plugging in an HDMI to HDMI cord. 

Not only does nothing work, but even worse, no matter what I do...NOTHING CHANGES. No matter how distorted the resolution is on my desktop, when I start the slideshow, it goes back to that exact size that it was before --- too small. 

If I make the slide 16:9, two problems arise. 1) My pictures, animations, text gets distorted and I don't want to have to re-adjust each Powerpoint (I have many). 2) Obviously, I am still losing size since it's fitting a square slide into a space for 16:9. All it does is stretch it width-wise and shrink it height-wise.

I'm not asking for anything revolutionary here. I simply want the basic functionality that I have had for many many years. I can't believe that I have to deal with this problem , that I am the only one who is dealing with it (I've found next to zero comparable problems online), and that I should be expected to sacrifice the quality of my work, just because I got a new computer. I just want it to do what it used to be able to do. Please help!

To summarize, how do I get my 4:3 Powerpoint slideshows to project as full screen using HDMI?

Answer 1

Did you ever find out a resolution? 

Here is my problem:

One of my computers is displaying my powerpoints differently. When I open powerpoint on this paticular pc, the pp start up screen and the pp itself show up more as a widescreen display than what I need.

The display settings are set at widescreen 16:9. The problem I am having is that the one particular pc in question is connected to my projectors and when it is projecting, it does not fill our the whole projected space (it fills out from side to side, but there is a dark, thick strip on the to and bottom).

for the past two years I have not had a problem until I just replace the VGA cable. Is there a setting that will make the pp start up box and slides more square?

Thanks for the help!

Answer 2

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, nothing there really helped. I changed the resolution for the show and...again...as soon as I played the show, nothing new happened. It still projected much smaller.

Was there something else, specifically, on that site that I may have missed?

Answer 3

Refer the article below:

http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/solving-presentationpowerpoint-problems/