Can I run my Powerpoint presentations via a television’s USB slot?

QI have Microsoft Office on my PC. I use Powerpoint to create slideshows that advertise what’s on in a club I’m involved with. We have previously connected a laptop to the club’s TV using the HDMI port, but realised this is a security risk when the room is unmanned. I’m wondering if it’s possible to save a Powerpoint presentation to a USB stick, pop this into the TV’S USB slot and run the show this way?

Doug Morgan

AThe chances that your club’s TV will be able to run a Powerpoint slideshow directly are more or less zero. We don’t know of any TVS — even of the modern ‘smart’ variety — that are able to run Powerpoint files.

However, you can probably achieve what you want by other means. That your TV has a USB port suggests that it has media-playing functionality. It should be able to display digital-image files. If this is the case, you’ll be able to export your Powerpoint slides as JPEG images, and have the TV’S media-player display them as a slideshow. To do this, click File followed by Save As, Browse, then navigate to your USB. Now, next to ‘Save as type’, open the dropdown menu and choose ‘JPEG File Interchange Format (*.jpg)’, then click Save. At the next box, click All Slides. Each slide will be turned into a JPEG and saved into a folder in the destination selected in the Save As box.

Obviously, JPEG images are just stills — so if your presentation had animations and sounds, these will be lost. However, if your TV reads JPEG files, it’ll probably also read video files. So, if you export your Powerpoint slideshow as a video then your adverts will appear on the TV just the way you intended.

To do this, click File followed by Export and then ‘Create a Video’, set the number of seconds spent on each slide (see screenshot), then click Create Video, followed by Save.