How to show PowerPoint slides in Portrait orientation

01.01.20  •  #PowerPointTips

Contents

In this tutorial you'll learn how to switch your PowerPoint slides from landscape to portrait orientation. You can either watch our video, or follow the steps below:

Video

Step #1

Go to the Design tab and click on Slide size and choose Custom slide size in the dropdown.

Step #2

In the dialog, under Slides switch from Landscape to Portrait and click on OK. Depending on the size of your slidedeck, this may take a few seconds.

Step #3

Now you can select how the contents of your existing slides will be resized to portrait format. There are two options available:


  1. Maximize
    Images and content are scaled to fill the whole slide. Attention: it's possible that images get cut off on left and right!
  2. Ensure fit
    Images and content are fitted so that they are fully visible.

Depending on the size of your presentation, this may take a few seconds.

Result

Now all your slides are in portrait format! However, if you use graphics as background images in some of your slides, changing the orientation can cause unexpected distortion of the images. You'll need to correct this manually.


About the author

Daniel Amerbauer

Daniel is the Co-founder and CEO of SlideLizard. Perfectionist by nature, but also a passionate designer and developer.



Top blog articles
More posts

The Right Way to do a Question Slide in your PowerPoint Presentation

Microsoft Copilot: A Comprehensive Review of the AI tool

LIZ AI Produktbild
LIZ AI - Autopilot for PowerPoint

Your existing systems. Automatically orchestrated and centrally connected.

LIZ AI connects directly with your enterprise systems and automatically turns data into presentations. Content is intelligently generated, updated, and visualized directly in PowerPoint. Presentations are created in the background, stay up to date at all times, and automatically match your corporate design - without manual effort.

Learn more about LIZ AI

The Glossary for Presentations & AI

.ppsm file extension

A .ppsm file is a macro-enabled PowerPoint slideshow that opens directly in presentation mode and supports embedded VBA macros. It combines the instant-launch behavior of .ppsx files with the automation capabilities of macro-enabled formats. This makes .ppsm files useful for interactive or automated presentations, though they carry the same security considerations as other macro-enabled Office formats.

Learn more

Agentic Slides

Agentic Slides are presentation slides that autonomously respond to changes in connected enterprise systems. Rather than being static documents, Agentic Slides pull live data from sources like CRM, ERP, or BI tools and update their content automatically. When KPIs shift or new information becomes available, the relevant slides are refreshed without manual effort. The concept makes presentations a living part of an organization's data infrastructure.

Learn more

.ppsm file extension

A .ppsm file is a macro-enabled PowerPoint slideshow that opens directly in presentation mode and supports embedded VBA macros. It combines the instant-launch behavior of .ppsx files with the automation capabilities of macro-enabled formats. This makes .ppsm files useful for interactive or automated presentations, though they carry the same security considerations as other macro-enabled Office formats.

Learn more

Online Communication

Online communication encompasses all forms of information exchange that take place over digital networks — including email, instant messaging, video calls, social media, webinars, and collaborative platforms. It has become the dominant mode of professional communication, enabling global teams to collaborate in real time regardless of location. Online communication introduces unique challenges around tone, response time, information overload, and the loss of non-verbal cues, all of which require deliberate attention to maintain clarity and connection.

Learn more