Digital menu boards are key to any retail or service business — be it a bar, restaurant, retail shop or cafeteria. You can easily create and edit digital menu boards for your TVs with a slideshow app like Microsoft PowerPoint.
People in the food and retail industries all run into the same problem: Customers get confused by your offerings and don’t buy what you want them to. The issue is not what you’re serving. It's that people don't know what you're serving.
That's why you need a digital menu board that's easy to design and edit. Digital menu boards and signage systems boost revenue and improve the customer experience. It's the best way to quickly communicate your products, services and prices to customers at the point of purchase. Unfortunately, most digital menu boards are clunky, expensive and difficult to use.
That’s why we created this comprehensive guide to creating and editing digital menu boards: If you can make a slideshow, you can make a menu board. It’s that simple. This guide shows you how to configure a familiar tool like Microsoft PowerPoint for digital menu boards and easily turn slides into menu signage that makes people pay attention and take action. You will be able to create and edit menu items, pricing and designs.
Make sure your slides are the correct size to best fit the displays in your organization. Don’t place square menus on widescreen TVs.
How to change your slide size:
Creating and designing content for digital menu boards doesn’t have to be difficult. Start with built-in PowerPoint templates if you need design inspiration. Keep things simple, legible and relevant, like this digital menu board:
Want to learn more about menu boards and digital signage? Check out these helpful articles:
Now it’s time to turn your PowerPoint slides into digital menu boards:
Ensure the file format you choose is compatible with your digital signage solution. Most digital signage content management systems (CMS) will accept common image and video files. For example, Ditto digital signage is compatible with a variety of media file types, such as PNG, JPEG, GIF and MP4.
Make sure to set up your slides to the correct aspect ratio and export them to the correct dimensions. Your slides should fill up the entire screen of your TVs and monitors.
Common display dimensions:
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HDTV |
4K TV |
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Pixel dimensions: |
1920 x 1080 px |
3840 × 2160 px |
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Aspect ratio: |
16:9 |
16:9 |
These dimensions can vary depending on what displays you're using.
You can export your slides as a set of static images or have PowerPoint combine them into a single video file that plays all slides for a set amount of time.
PowerPoint settings allow you to change the dimensions for MP4, MOV, JPEG, TIFF, PNG, Animated GIF and BMP files.
Now that you have exported your slides, it’s time to get them up on your screens. Some digital signage solutions only play files from a physical source like a USB drive. However, the best type of digital signage includes a CMS that is touch-free and accessible from anywhere.
Organize your content and set scheduling and duration parameters. To do this you’ll need to upload the files to your preferred signage solution or deploy physical hard drives loaded with your content to each display. The digital signage solution you use can make this process really simple or really time-consuming — opt for a centrally managed signage solution that has a built-in CMS, like Ditto.
Now your displays will begin playing the digital menu boards you created in PowerPoint. Questions? Leave a comment below.