PowerPoint really slow for A0 size poster; how do I speed up?

3

I'm making a poster of my physics research project for a conference. I don't have time to learn LaTeX at the moment, and I need to be able to type inline equations within text boxes - the only software I can think of that allows me to do this is PowerPoint 2010.

The problem is that I'm making an A0 sized poster and it's incredibly slow. When I'm typing text, it takes about 3-4 seconds to update. Scrolling and moving shapes around is even worse. I don't even have that many images, mainly just coloured squares and text.

Is it somehow possible to speed up PowerPoint? I've tried disabling hardware acceleration but that hasn't made any difference.

Eddy

Posted 2011-03-05T20:18:01.293

Reputation: 2 897

1As this is not an answer to your question per se I'm putting this as a comment. You could use a separate program to create the text and formulas, then save them as images (a screenshot if nothing else is available). Then you could use a normal image editing program (photoshop, gimp) to make your poster. – Nifle – 2011-03-05T20:53:53.373

Answers

1

I just had a similar problem: Powerpoint was very slow when working on a A0 poster. I found that turning off the gridlines improved speed considerably

user3804227

Posted 2011-03-05T20:18:01.293

Reputation: 111

2It would probably be a good idea not just not use PowerPoint for this kind of work. It's the wrong application for it. – Seth – 2017-04-08T22:17:39.580

@Seth. I disagree. Powerpoint can make excellent posters if handled correctly. Anyway the answer provided by user3804227 seems to be really efficient. – EigenDavid – 2018-07-26T12:26:26.027

@David you can also write letters in Excel. Nobody is stopping you from doing that but it's the wrong application to do it. PowerPoint is a tool to create presentations, that's its primary application. You're limiting yourself and depending on your goal also its quality. See also Software to use for creating posters for academic conferences? which has quite a few opinions and yes I'm aware of the irony of linking it IMO vector graphics or desktop publishing are better choices.

– Seth – 2018-07-26T13:19:36.423

Asked: 2011-03-05T20:18:01.293

Viewed: 2 699 times

Active: 2018-05-15T12:12:34.027