hi gavin- thanks much for taking the time to responds.
No worries. Hope its helpful that's all.
so the 'on-screen' option does in fact give me a 4:3 aspect whic
matches the projector.
Yes, that's the general idea. 1024 x 768 is 4:3 ratio - as are other
'standard' screen ratios such as 800x600, 640x480 etc. Most projectors
work with one or more 4:3 ratios.
am i correct in assuming that with the given dimensions of 7.5x10 and
the pixel dimensions, i can then correlate my ideal scan resolution
for my slides (matching my slides as closely as possible to these
dimensions)?
Not sure what the 7.5x10 is about. The 'On-screen show' page in PPT is
set to be 25.4cm x 19.05cm. At 96 dpi (a common pixel density for
desk-top displays), 25.4 x 19.05 (10"x7.5") translates to a page size
of 960x720 pixels - i.e. would fit comfortably on a standard 1024x768
screen. But the whole 'dots per inch' issue only applies when you
control the size of the final output - so doesn't really mean much when
you project. Really, if you want to include scans in your
presentation, your choice of resolution will depend on whether you want
to print the images out. The generally accepted dpis for colour images
(150dpi min) and 'text' (300 dpi min) are higher than the dpis for
standard screens. If you plan to print out at high quality settings,
you might want scans at even higher resolution - so also if you plan to
zoom in on bits of a scan to view detail. But if you are only ever
going to show the images via on-screen projection, I'd have thought
you'd struggle to see image quality improvements once you get above
100-150 dpi. (But would be interested to hear how you get on if you try
high resolutions).
another point to clarify... the projector supports a variety of data
dimensions, however i assume this is controlled entirely by the
connected machine (i.e. if my laptop is 1024x768 i can't set up slides
or output as 1400x1050).
The output resolution is determined by a combination of projection
computer and projector - you usually want the highest resolution that
both can support. I would recommend starting by messing around with
the resolution on your projection computer and seeing if the projector
can cope with it: these days most projectors automatically try to
adjust to match the resolution being sent by the source computer. If
your projector doesn't change automatically, have a look at what the
computer thinks it can do and set then set the projector manually to
highest resolution and see what happens...
Powerpoint won't actually care so much about what you choose - but the
higher resolution you can select, the 'better' the image projected will
be. These days most projectors seem to be able to do resolutions above
1024x768 - so worth having a look in display settings at what is
offered.
Another tip is to check in the display settings preference that you
don't have 'mirror screens' selected - as this will force the Mac
screen to match the resolution of the projector - which will be
annoying if you have a wide-screen mac. If you de-select this option,
you can have both screens operational at their 'best' resolution and
use the two screens simultaneously etc. (except on some low-end macs
that don't support this feature). If you have this option working,
when you start your PPT presentation, powerpoint displays a
'presenters' view of the presentation on the main screen (I think) and
the slides on the other - might be other way round I can't recall. The
presenters view has info about next slides due up, how long you have
been talking, and any notes from notes pages showing. Handy.
Hope this helpful.
