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Q113024: PPT: May Have to Scale Cross-Platform Bitmaps for Display

Article: Q113024
Product(s): Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows
Version(s): MACINTOSH:2.0,2.01,3.0,4.0; WINDOWS:2.0,3.0,4.0,4.0a,4.0c,7.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbdisplay
Last Modified: 15-APR-2000

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft PowerPoint for Macintosh, versions 2.0, 2.01, 3.0, 4.0 
- Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows, versions 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 4.0a, 4.0c 
- Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows 95, version 7.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

You may find that a bitmap you have imported into your Microsoft PowerPoint
presentation looks good when you display it on one computer, but looks bad when
you display it on another.

The quality with which bitmaps display on the screen depends upon the two
following conditions:

- the resolution of the bitmap (dots per inch)

- the resolution of the video display driver (dots per inch)

For this reason, if the two computers are using two different display resolution
settings, the bitmap can look bad when displayed on one, but good when displayed
on the other.

This problem occurs most commonly when you have transferred files between the
Macintosh and Windows operating systems, because the standard screen resolutions
on the two different platforms are quite different. While the most common pixel
resolution on the Macintosh is 72 dots per inch, the most common pixel
resolution under Windows is 96 dots per inch.

For your bitmaps to look the same at the same percentage view after you have
converted your presentation from one platform to another, you may need to scale
the graphics. In other words, a bitmap in a Macintosh PowerPoint presentation
will most commonly need to be scaled to 75% to look the same when viewed at the
same view percentage under Windows PowerPoint. A bitmap in a Windows PowerPoint
presentation will most commonly need to be scaled to 133.33% to look the same
when viewed at the same view percentage under Macintosh PowerPoint.

NOTE: If you do not intend to deliver the presentation as an on-screen Slide
Show, you can ignore the appearance of the bitmap on the screen. Printed output
is not affected by differences in screen resolutions between platforms, and the
bitmap should print the same from either platform when using the same quality
printer.

MORE INFORMATION
================

In PowerPoint, you can use the Scale command to resize your bitmaps. In
PowerPoint 2.0, however, you must resize graphics manually. To do this, measure
the size of the object using the guides, calculate the dimensions of the resized
picture, and then use the guides to resize it.

If you intend to display the presentation as an on-screen Slide Show, you may
need to do some additional scaling to prepare the bitmap so that it looks its
best during the Slide Show. This is because PowerPoint automatically scales the
presentation to fit within the size of the current display during the Slide
Show. For this reason, the slide may display at a percentage different than the
one you are using for editing.

For more information about scaling bitmaps for on-screen slide shows, query on
the following words in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  scaling and bitmaps and movies and slide and shows and powerpoint

Additional query words: 4.00 4.00a 3.00 3.00b macppt winppt 4.00c 7.00 ppt95 2.00 2.01 scale bitmaps resize scrunched mashed movie quicktime avi video bmp dib slideshow

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Keywords          : kbdisplay 
Technology        : kbHWMAC kbOSMAC kbPowerPtSearch kbPowerPt700 kbZNotKeyword2 kbPowerptMacSearch kbPowerPt700Search kbPowerPt400 kbPowerPt200Mac kbPowerPt300Mac kbPowerPt201Mac kbPowerPt400Mac kbPowerPt200 kbPowerPt300 kbPowerPt400c kbPowerPt400a
Version           : MACINTOSH:2.0,2.01,3.0,4.0; WINDOWS:2.0,3.0,4.0,4.0a,4.0c,7.0
Hardware          : MAC x86
Issue type        : kbinfo

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