By Kurt Dupont
Digital menu boards are menus displayed on computer monitors or TV screens. These are commonly used in coffee shops and restaurants. They include pictures and prices of menu items. It is easy to update and can be connected to databases to automatically update across all the locations within a few minutes. In this article, we will show the exact steps that are used to create a menu board like the one below, how to add pictures, pricing, and videos and how to connect to a central database.
For more information on the advantages of digital menus, read Amy Nichol Smith’s article on How to Use Digital Menu Boards for Your Restaurant or Grocery.
Turn on the grid; hold Shift, press F9. Snap objects to grid:
Next, place boxes for the menu boards on the grid:
Place as many rectangles as needed.
Once the user has the placeholder shapes for the menu boxes, set the background colors for each of the shapes that the user was created. How to change rectangle colors:
How to make a rectangle transparent:
How to insert an image:
How to copy an image: While holding Ctrl, click and drag the image. If the user wants to update images and other data in multiple locations, see the menu boards data connection instructions further down.
How to add a text box:
How to change text size and color:
How to add a video:
Connecting to a data source lets the user edit a data file to change all the menu items to all the locations via the Internet. The user will need the DataPoint PowerPoint add-in to connect the menu board to a database. The user can download this add-in on the PresentationPoint site. Another useful plugin for multiple locations is the digital signage player software, iPoint, also from PresentationPoint.
Create the data source. The user data can be sourced from:
Here is an example of a data source we created for our digital menu – an Excel spreadsheet.
As the user can see, the data spreadsheet just includes the item name, description, and price along with a link to where the picture is we want to use.
Click on the DataPoint tab of the Ribbon, and then the List button.
The data from the spreadsheet should show now. Click OK.
The user will see the text box data updated, as shown below.
The user can connect images for the digital menu boards to the data source, the same way as the connected text box. Once done, the user has digital menu boards that the user can update from a central location just by updating the spreadsheet or other data source.
Kurt Dupont is a solution provider who would go out of his way just to ensure he brings out the best when it comes to issues that have to deal with data-driven presentations, data visualization, and digital signage software.
He started by working at airports worldwide to set up airport databases and flight information screens. This evolved to become the basis for PresentationPoint.
The views and opinions expressed in this blog post or content are those of the authors or the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.
Filed Under: Guest Posts Tagged as: Add-in, Data, DataPoint, Excel, Guest Post, iPoint, Kurt Dupont, PresentationPoint
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