Powerpoint slide formatting issues on different PCs

Question

Here's two images of the same slide - both with the same font embedded and in 16:9.

It was created on the latter which is a larger laptop screen (but still 16:9), both opened on window PCs.

The font size is fine on the original but not on the latter.

What can I do about it? It's even more of an issue if I send the deck to a conference organiser and they want to create a single deck of all presentations to be used during the day.

Answer 1

The bold version of the font is not embedded or available in the second screen shot. PowerPoint fakes the bold weight be adding an outline to the regular weight. This is why the "bold" text looks thinner and is narrower in the second screen shot.

Once you get the rue bold working, then you'll have to make the second column of the table a little wider to fit the bold text.

Answer 2

Hi, Alex Atherton

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A forum.

Sorry for this unwanted experience that you're having. What you are seeing is almost always caused by one of two things: PowerPoint is not truly using the exact same font data on the second PC (so it substitutes or measures spacing slightly differently), or the text boxes are behaving differently because of AutoFit and placeholder settings, which makes text “reflow” and appear larger or smaller.

Here are some suggestions you can try:

Re-embed the font, and embed it for editing

On the authoring PC, turn on Embed fonts in the file, and choose the option that embeds all characters if someone else may edit the deck. The presentation carries the font with it, reducing the chance of substitution and layout shifts on another Windows PC. Also note that some fonts cannot be embedded due to licensing, in which case PowerPoint may still substitute.

Check AutoFit on the problem text boxes (this is a big one for tables)

If a table cell or text box is set to AutoFit, PowerPoint may resize text differently on another machine, which changes line breaks and spacing. Set the affected boxes to Do not Autofit (or use Shrink text on overflow consistently) so the layout stays stable.

Standardize how slides are brought into other decks

When a conference organiser merges multiple decks, formatting often changes during import. If they use Reuse Slides, ask them to tick Keep source formatting. This works because it preserves your original master styles and textbox behaviors instead of forcing theirs onto your slides. If they must apply their theme, a controlled approach is to select the slides and use Reset to reapply the destination placeholders cleanly, then fix only once.

Give the organiser a “locked” delivery option

Alongside the .pptx, provide a PDF version and request they present the PDF if they are compiling a single master deck. PDF output is less vulnerable to font substitution and reflow, and font embedding also helps with reliable PDF conversion.

Last resort for absolute consistency: convert critical text to non-editable artwork

If a specific slide must never move (tables, titles), converting that content to shapes or an image prevents reflow entirely, at the cost of easy editing.

Hope this helps. Feel free to get back if you need further assistance.

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