Fonts, Video, and a 4:3 Projector: Preparing a Roadshow Deck
Priya coordinates training for a retail chain. She builds a 28-slide induction deck on her Windows laptop in PowerPoint 365 using the corporate font Futura PT and a 16:9 slide size. She embeds a short MP4 welcome video and adds a hyperlink to a staff handbook on the company shared drive. The deck will be presented at three branches. One branch has an older Windows PC running PowerPoint 2016 with no internet access. Another uses a Mac with Keynote. The third has a projector fixed at 4:3. At the first branch, headings switch to a serif fallback font, the video shows a black rectangle, and the handbook link fails. Priya has 15 minutes before the next session.
1. What should Priya change in the source file before the next branch so the headings and video behave more predictably, and why are those changes preferable to fixing each slide by hand?
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The first step is to fix the theme rather than individual slides. In Slide Master > Fonts, Priya should choose a font pair that is installed on all three presentation machines, or install Futura PT on the branch PCs. Embedding fonts (File > Options > Save > Embed fonts in the file) can help on Windows, but it increases file size and may be ignored by Keynote or blocked by font licensing, so it is a backup, not the only plan. For the video, she should confirm it is inserted as an embedded file (Insert > Video > This Device), not linked, and run File > Info > Optimize Media Compatibility or convert it to a codec the older PC supports. A black rectangle often means a codec or hardware-acceleration problem, so she should test on the actual PC and set a poster frame. The handbook link should point to a local copy in the same folder as the deck, or the key pages should become appendix slides; a shared-drive path will fail without network access. Fixing the master and media once is safer than hand-correcting 28 slides and missing one.
2. The third branch's 4:3 projector will show the 16:9 deck. What are the options, and which is the safest for a 15-minute setup?
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Changing the slide size to 4:3 is not a safe 15-minute fix. PowerPoint will ask whether to maximize content (which crops edges) or ensure fit (which shrinks and reflows every placeholder), and both can break the layout across 28 slides. The safer option is to keep the 16:9 deck and let PowerPoint letterbox it on the 4:3 projector, provided no critical text sits near the top or bottom edges. Priya should test one branch projector and set it to maintain aspect ratio rather than stretch. If the 4:3 room is the main audience, she could prepare a separate 4:3 copy in advance, but she should not resize the master deck minutes before presenting.
3. The Mac branch wants a PDF handout. How should Priya export a handout that carries the video's message, and what export settings matter?
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A PDF cannot play the embedded video, so the handout needs a text substitute. Priya should add a short summary slide or speaker notes with the video's three main points, then export with File > Export > Create PDF/XPS > Options. Under Publish what, she can choose Handouts (for example, 3 slides per page) for a compact board pack, or Notes pages if the video summary lives in the notes. She should include slide numbers, check that fonts and hyperlinks survived, enable structure tags for accessibility if available, and inspect a few pages for cropped images. Sending two files, a handout PDF and the original deck, is better than pretending the PDF preserves the video.