To create effective digital signage content, you need tools that are both powerful and accessible. Microsoft PowerPoint fits that description well. It's packed with templates and features, and most people already know how to use it.
PowerPoint works especially well when paired with a content management system like Rise Vision. In this article, we walk you through the basics: how to design content in PowerPoint, best practices for formatting, and how to get your slides onto your displays using Rise Vision's platform.
Digital signage has become the go-to way for schools, businesses, and organizations to communicate with the people inside their walls. We're talking about electronic displays (monitors, TVs, LED panels) showing dynamic content like images, videos, text, and animations. The real value? You can update everything in real time without printing a single flyer or sending another email that gets ignored.
The versatility is what makes it work. A school can display safety protocols in the morning, celebrate student achievements at lunch, and push schedule reminders before dismissal. A manufacturing floor can rotate between safety metrics, shift updates, and employee recognition. And because everything runs through a central platform, you're not walking around to each screen with a USB stick. You update once, and it pushes everywhere.
PowerPoint gives you everything you need to create effective digital signage content. And when you pair it with Rise Vision's platform, getting that content onto your screens becomes just as simple. Here's why the combination works.
If you already have Microsoft 365, you've got PowerPoint. If not, Office Home 2024 runs around $149.99 and includes PowerPoint along with Word, Excel, and OneNote.
The real savings come from the workflow. You don't need PowerPoint installed on every display. Just create your content, export it, and upload it to Rise Vision. From there, you push it to as many screens as you need without buying additional licenses for each one.
PowerPoint's interface is familiar to almost everyone. Students use it for school projects. Office workers build presentations in it daily. That learning curve you'd normally expect with design software? It's basically nonexistent here.
Rise Vision leans into that same philosophy. If you can drag and drop in PowerPoint, you can manage content in Rise Vision. The two tools complement each other because neither one asks you to become a designer or a developer to get results.
PowerPoint comes with templates, color schemes, fonts, transitions, charts, and media import options. You can pull in your own images, videos, and audio to keep everything on-brand.
Rise Vision adds another layer here. We offer 600+ templates designed specifically for digital signage, and we add new ones regularly. So you can build in PowerPoint, supplement with Rise Vision templates, or mix both depending on what the message needs.
PowerPoint exports to JPG, PNG, PDF, and MP4 video (up to 4K resolution if your displays support it). These formats work with virtually any digital signage setup.
Rise Vision accepts all of them. You can upload .pptx files directly, or link them from Microsoft OneDrive for automatic syncing when you make changes. No extra steps, no format headaches. Your content goes from PowerPoint to your screens without friction.
PowerPoint files stay editable. Need to swap out a date, update a metric, or change an image? Open the file, make the change, and re-export. No starting from scratch.
Rise Vision gives you two options here. You can re-upload the updated file manually, or link your PowerPoint directly from OneDrive. With the OneDrive link, any changes you make to the original file sync to your displays automatically within 1-12 hours, depending on the refresh interval you set. No re-uploading, no extra steps.
Static content gets ignored. PowerPoint lets you add transitions between slides and animations within them, so your signage actually moves and holds attention.
You can set slide advance times to control pacing. A safety message might hold for 10 seconds while a quick announcement cycles in 5. Export as MP4, upload to Rise Vision, and your animations and transitions carry over. If you upload a .pptx file directly, Rise Vision converts it to images, which means animations won't carry over.
With the benefits covered, let's get into the actual design work. These are the elements to keep in mind when building your slides. And before you push anything live, test your designs on the actual screens to make sure everything displays the way you intended.
PowerPoint defaults to 16:9 widescreen, which is the standard aspect ratio for most commercial displays and TVs used in digital signage. For landscape setups, you're likely good to go out of the box.
If you're working with portrait-oriented screens (like directory kiosks or vertical menu boards), you'll need to adjust. Go to Design > Slide Size > Custom Slide Size and change the orientation to Portrait. Match your slide resolution to your display's native resolution when possible: 1920x1080 for Full HD, 3840x2160 for 4K UHD.
High contrast is the goal. Your text needs to pop against the background, especially if people are viewing from a distance or in bright environments.
These combinations tend to work well:
|
Lettering |
Background |
|
Black, dark blue, gray, or red |
White |
|
White or yellow |
Black |
|
White or yellow |
Dark blue |
|
Black or red |
Light blue |
|
Black, dark blue, or red |
Yellow |
|
Yellow or white |
Red |
Stick to your brand colors where you can, but readability comes first.
Legibility beats style. If people can't read it from across a hallway or a warehouse floor, the font choice doesn't matter.
For reliable results, use fonts that come pre-installed on Windows since those will render correctly on any display running your content. Here are some typography ideas.
|
Font |
When to Use |
|
Helvetica |
Any ad campaign |
|
Bodoni Moda |
Sleek and modern campaigns |
|
Copperplate |
Any ad campaign |
|
Trajan |
Advocacies and purposeful campaigns |
|
Sentinel |
Modern and bold campaigns |
|
Petunia |
Valentine’s/ wedding campaigns |
|
Impact |
Modern campaigns looking to leave an impression |
|
Brush Script |
Nostalgic campaigns |
If you want to use custom fonts, make sure they're installed on every device displaying your content, or export your slides as images/video so the fonts are baked in.
Less is more. Your audience isn't reading a document. They're glancing at a screen while walking by or working.
Keep it to five lines max per slide, with each line around 3-4 words. If you need to say more, split it across multiple slides. Font size depends on viewing distance: for screens viewed from 7-10 feet, something in the 20-30 point range for body text tends to work. Farther away means bigger type.
Abrupt cuts between slides look jarring. Use transitions to smooth things out.
Fade is the safest choice. It's clean and doesn't distract from the content. Avoid the flashier options unless you have a specific reason.
Remember: if you want transitions to play on your Rise Vision displays, export your presentation as MP4. Direct .pptx uploads convert slides to static images.
Set your slide timing based on how much content is on each slide. A simple image with a short headline might only need 5-6 seconds. A slide with more text or data could need 10-12.
In PowerPoint, go to Transitions > Advance Slide and set the duration in the After field. Test it in real conditions. What feels right on your laptop might feel too fast when you're viewing it from across a busy hallway.
With your content designed, the next step is getting it onto your screens. The standard approach today is using a cloud-based content management system paired with a media player. The CMS handles the heavy lifting: uploading, scheduling, and pushing content to your displays remotely. The media player is just the device that connects to your screen and runs whatever the CMS tells it to.
We've built PowerPoint integration directly into our platform. There are two ways to get your slides onto your displays:
Upload your .pptx file to Rise Vision, and we convert it automatically into a format our players can display. The file goes into your content library, and you can add it to any presentation or playlist from there.
One thing to know: this conversion turns your slides into images. Animations and embedded videos won't carry over. For static slides (announcements, schedules, recognition boards), this works perfectly.
Connect your Microsoft OneDrive account and link directly to a PowerPoint file stored there. When you update the original file in OneDrive, your displays update automatically. You can set the refresh interval anywhere from 1 to 12 hours, depending on how quickly you need changes to appear.
Export your PowerPoint as an MP4 video before uploading. This preserves all your transitions, animations, and timing. Upload the video file to Rise Vision, and it plays exactly as you designed it.
You don't need to buy specific hardware to use our platform. Rise Vision runs on Windows PCs, Android devices, Chromeboxes, and more.
If you want a plug-and-play option, we offer the Rise Vision Media Player, a commercial-grade device designed for 24/7 digital signage operation. We also support the Amazon Signage Stick ($99.99, US only), a purpose-built signage device that includes Rise Vision as one of its supported CMS options. For a complete setup, our Avocor displays (available in sizes from 43" to 98") have the media player built in.
The interface is simple enough that teachers manage their own classroom displays without calling IT. Facilities teams schedule safety content across manufacturing floors. Corporate offices rotate employee recognition and company updates on lobby screens. The pattern is the same: build in PowerPoint (or use our 600+ templates), upload to Rise Vision, and let the system handle distribution.
We offer free weekly training sessions, and our support team holds a 99% customer satisfaction rating. If you run into issues, you're not on your own.
Some organizations still use standalone media players without a CMS. These are small devices that plug into a display's HDMI port and play content from local storage. Updating content means physically accessing each device, copying files, and repeating the process for every screen. For a single display, that's workable. For anything larger, it becomes a time sink. Most organizations outgrow this approach quickly once they see how much easier centralized management is.
Managing content across multiple screens and locations is where a CMS earns its keep. Without scheduling, you're stuck manually updating each display whenever something changes. With it, you set the rules once and let the system do the work.
In Rise Vision, schedules control what content appears on which displays and when. You can assign a single presentation to run all day, or build a playlist that rotates through multiple pieces of content in sequence. Each item in the playlist can have its own timeline, so a safety reminder runs every morning before shifts start, then drops off the rotation for the rest of the day.
The distribution settings let you target specific displays. A school might show cafeteria menus only on screens near the lunchroom while running campus announcements everywhere else. A manufacturing facility might display production KPIs on the floor but employee recognition content in the break room. Same CMS, different content based on location.
For time-sensitive content, override schedules let you push something important to all displays immediately without disrupting your normal rotation. An emergency drill notification can replace whatever's playing, run for the duration of the drill, and then automatically return to the regular schedule when it's done.
If you're already using Google Calendar or Outlook for scheduling, those integrate directly with our calendar templates. Update an event in your calendar, and the display updates to match within about five minutes. This works well for schools tracking athletic schedules or corporate offices managing meeting room availability.
The practical result is that once you've set up your schedules, daily management drops to almost nothing. Content plays when it should, on the screens where it belongs, and you only step in when something actually needs to change.
Most issues with digital signage come down to three things: power, network, or input. When a screen goes dark or content stops updating, start there.
If your Rise Vision display shows as offline, the fix is usually straightforward. Verify the media player is powered on and that Rise Player is running. Power cycle the device by unplugging it, waiting ten seconds, and plugging it back in. Rise Player should restart automatically. If the display still shows offline, check your network connection. Rise Player needs stable internet access to pull updates from the cloud. Intermittent connectivity or packet loss will cause inconsistent behavior.
For "No Signal" errors, the issue is typically the physical connection between your media player and the screen. Unplug both devices from power, wait ten seconds, then plug them back in. Confirm the display is set to the correct input source. If you're seeing the media player's operating system boot up, the connection is working. If the "No Signal" message persists, try a different HDMI cable or port.
PowerPoint-specific issues usually trace back to file formatting. If slides look wrong on screen, confirm your slide dimensions match your display resolution. Content exported as MP4 should play without issues, but .pptx files converted to images may display differently than expected if the original included non-standard fonts or complex layouts.
For ongoing monitoring, Rise Vision includes a Display Monitoring feature. Enable it in your display settings, set the monitoring timeline, and add email recipients. If a display goes offline for more than 15 minutes, you'll get an email notification. Once it comes back online, you'll get a follow-up. This is useful for screens you don't walk past every day, like displays in remote buildings or across multiple campuses.
If you've tried the basics and something still isn't working, email support@risevision.com. Our support team can help diagnose the issue and get you back up and running.
Measuring the impact of digital signage is tricky because most systems, including ours, don't track viewer behavior directly. There's no camera watching who stops to look, no sensor counting eyeballs. What you can measure is whether your content is actually reaching the screens.
Rise Vision includes Display Monitoring, which tracks whether each display is online, offline, or in standby mode. Enable it in your display settings, and you'll get email notifications if a screen goes down for more than 15 minutes. For organizations with screens spread across multiple buildings or campuses, this is the baseline: knowing your content is actually playing where it's supposed to be playing.
Beyond uptime, measuring success usually means looking at outcomes outside the signage system itself. If you're using digital signage to promote an internal event, did attendance increase compared to when you used email alone? If you're displaying safety reminders on a manufacturing floor, are incident reports trending down? If you're running a fundraising campaign on lobby screens, are donations up? The signage is one piece of a larger communication strategy, and the metrics that matter depend on what you're trying to accomplish.
For organizations that need detailed content analytics, Rise Vision integrates with Power BI. You can display dashboards and reports directly on your screens, pulling data from whatever sources you're already tracking. This works well for manufacturing floors showing production KPIs, corporate offices displaying sales metrics, or schools tracking attendance data. The analytics live in your existing systems. Rise Vision just puts them on the screen.
Suppose you need actual viewer tracking, which requires additional hardware like cameras with audience measurement software, which is a different category of investment. For most internal communication use cases, the simpler approach works: set clear goals, track the outcomes that matter to your organization, and adjust your content based on what you learn.
Security for digital signage comes down to two things: controlling who can change what, and making sure the connection between your CMS and your displays is protected.
Rise Vision handles access control through user roles. You can assign people different permission levels based on what they need to do. A teacher might only have access to their own classroom displays. A content editor can create and modify presentations, but needs approval before anything goes live. A display administrator can manage hardware, but can't touch content. A system administrator has full access to everything. This keeps IT in control without making them the bottleneck for every update.
If your organization uses Microsoft Entra, Google Workspace, or ClassLink for identity management, Rise Vision supports single sign-on. Users log in with their existing credentials, and you manage permissions from your identity provider. When someone leaves the organization, removing them from your directory removes their Rise Vision access automatically.
On the infrastructure side, Rise Vision holds a SOC 2 Type 2 attestation, which means an independent auditor has verified that our security controls work as designed over time, not just on paper. For Texas state agencies and schools, we also hold TX-RAMP certification. Data transmission between the cloud and your media players uses encrypted connections.
Accessibility is a separate consideration, and it's worth thinking through before you finalize your content. Digital signage isn't like a website where users can adjust settings or use screen readers. What you put on screen is what everyone sees.
High-contrast color combinations matter. Font size matters. Viewing distance and angle matter. If you're displaying emergency information, it needs to be readable by someone across a hallway, not just someone standing directly in front of the screen. Rise Vision's application is WCAG A-compliant for the content creation interface, but the accessibility of your actual signage content depends on how you design it.
PowerPoint works for digital signage because most people already know how to use it. You're not learning new software. You're applying a tool you've had for years to a different output.
The workflow is straightforward: design your slides in PowerPoint, export as MP4 if you need animations, upload to Rise Vision, and schedule when and where it plays. Changes to your source file in OneDrive sync automatically. New content goes live without touching the displays. The CMS handles distribution so you can focus on what's actually on the screen.
If you're ready to try it, Rise Vision offers a free trial. Upload a PowerPoint file, assign it to a display, and see how it looks. The learning curve is about 15 minutes.