A digital menu board does one thing that a printed menu cannot: it changes. Prices update, daily specials appear and disappear, breakfast switches to lunch, and the sold-out item stops being advertised. This guide walks you through how to set one up without buying specialist hardware or calling an IT company.
What you actually need
You do not need purpose-built digital signage hardware. Any TV you already have — or a new one from a consumer electronics shop — works fine. The only requirements are that it can connect to your Wi-Fi and open a browser. Most smart TVs made in the last five years meet both.
On the software side, you need a digital signage platform that handles the content delivery. InfoSlides is built for exactly this — upload a PowerPoint menu, pair the TV, and your board is live. There is a free plan with no credit card required, so you can test it on one screen before committing to anything.
Start with the menu you already have
Most restaurants already have their menus designed — in PowerPoint, Canva, Word, or even as a PDF. InfoSlides accepts PowerPoint files directly. If your menu is in a different format, the fastest path is to paste it into a PowerPoint slide (one slide per menu section works well) and upload that. There is no need to hire a designer or learn new software.
A few things that make menus look good on a TV screen:
- Use high contrast. Light text on a dark background, or dark text on a very light background. Mid-tones are hard to read from across a room.
- Keep each slide to one section. Starters on one slide, mains on another, drinks on a third. Fewer items per slide means larger text and easier reading for standing customers.
- Use 28pt or larger for body text. Text that looks fine on a laptop screen is often too small to read on a TV three metres away.
Setting up the screen
Once your PowerPoint is ready, the setup takes about five minutes.
Step 1 — Create a free InfoSlides account at infoslides.app/register. No credit card needed.
Step 2 — Upload your menu. In the slideshow editor, upload your .pptx file. InfoSlides converts it into a live stream automatically. You will see a preview of each slide in a few minutes.
Step 3 — Pair your TV. On the TV, open a browser and navigate to infoslides.app/pair. A pairing code and QR code appear on screen. Scan the QR code from your phone — the screen registers immediately. If your TV runs Samsung Tizen, you can install the InfoSlides app from the Samsung Galaxy Store instead for an even smoother setup.
Step 4 — Assign the slideshow to the TV. In the InfoSlides dashboard, select your device and assign the menu slideshow to it. The board goes live straight away.
That is it. The menu is now streaming to your TV from the cloud. You never need to touch the screen again unless you want to move it.
Automatic day-part switching — breakfast, lunch, dinner
One of the most useful features for restaurants is time-based scheduling. In InfoSlides, you create separate slideshows for each part of the day — a breakfast menu, a lunch menu, a dinner menu — and then set rules for when each one should play.
For example: breakfast runs from 7am to 11am, lunch from 11am to 3pm, dinner from 3pm until close. Once configured, the screen switches automatically every day without anyone touching it. A member of staff forgetting to change the menu at lunchtime stops being a problem.
You can also add day-of-week rules — a Friday late-night menu, a weekend brunch special, a seasonal board that only runs on certain days. The scheduler handles all of it.
Updating menus on the fly
When a dish sells out, a price changes, or the kitchen adds a special, you update it from any browser — phone, tablet, or laptop. Edit the slideshow, save, and the change appears on every screen within seconds. You do not need to be on-site. A manager at home can push a menu change to all locations simultaneously.
This is the core difference between a USB stick approach and a streaming platform. With USB sticks, the menu on screen is only as current as the last time someone physically updated the file and walked to the TV. With InfoSlides, the screen is always showing what you most recently saved.
Adding live content to menu boards
Beyond static menus, InfoSlides can enrich your boards with live content. A few options that work well for restaurants:
- Live weather widget. If you have outdoor seating, a weather slide alongside your menu helps guests decide whether to sit outside. The weather data updates automatically — no manual refreshing.
- Google Reviews slides. Show your Google star rating and recent customer reviews as polished slides in the rotation. Seeing a four-star review from a happy customer while waiting to order is a quiet but effective piece of social proof. Available on the Professional plan.
- Scrolling ticker bar. Add a live ticker at the bottom of the screen — today's specials, event nights, happy hour times. Update the text once from your dashboard and it appears on every screen instantly.
All of this is available without any third-party integrations or extra fees. It is included in the plan.
How much does it cost?
A single digital menu board is free forever on InfoSlides — one screen, no time limit, no credit card required. If you want to run multiple boards (a bar menu and a kitchen display, for example) or access live data features, the Starter plan is €9 per screen per month on annual billing.
For context, a professionally printed laminated menu board costs €100–€300 and cannot be updated without reprinting. A digital menu board with InfoSlides pays for itself within a few months of avoided print costs — and updates are free.
See the full restaurants and cafés guide for more, or sign up free to get your first board live today.