I recently created a company training video (HD format) that uses PowerPoint slides on screen. The PPT slides had their default 8.5x11 format, so the resulting JPEG images caused "letter boxing" on the sides of the screen.

I then saved the PPT slides as TIFF files and used PSE9 to resize to 1000 x 700, but the quality on screen wasn't much improved. (I have Steve's PRE7 book at home and I couldn't remember the exact dimensions for optimal resizing, so 1000 x 700 may be incorrect.)

How do I create a PPT slide that:
- is formatted for 16:9 widescreen but doesn't look stretched?
- has sufficiently high quality that it will look good in a HD movie?

Thanks!

If you're working in a hi-def project, your slides can be as large at 2000x1500, Ron. (Or, to fit precisely in the 16:9 frame, 1920x1080. Though, since PowerPoint slides are usually 4:3, you may need to make it 1920x1440 and then trim off the top and bottom so that the height is 1080 pixels.)

The challenge, however, is that PowerPoint usually doesn't output a very clear image. So most attempts to output PowerPoint slides for use in a video projects end up pretty disappointing. It's usually best to recreate the text in Premiere Elements' titler.

Thanks Steve, that helps a lot. At least I know what I'm dealing with.