Creating a powerpoint template

October 16, 2005 12:04 PM

I'm working on a powerpoint presentation and none of the existing templates or those I have found on the web suits my needs. I've created my own template using the "master slide" feature. However, when I leave the "master view" the colours/fonts etc. stay the same as I set them, but the placement of the boxes (headlines and text boxes) return to the defaults. How do I create a template that holds the headlines and text where I put them?

When I return to slide master view, the master shows the boxes just where I put them. The placement of the boxes is really the key thing I need to have stay. I've saved as .pot file and tried then using the "apply template" feature. The colours are right, the boxes are wrong.

WindowsXP, MS Office 2003. How do I make the boxes stay put?

posted by duck to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Response by poster: Oh and I discovered another problem. In addition to moving the boxes around, only 2 of the 3 boxes have editable text. So when it says "Put title here" I can replace that text in two boxes, in the other it's essentially a picture of the text and nothing I do changes it. Obviously, I need to be able to change it.

The picture text is whichever box I last edited in master view.
posted by duck at 12:27 PM on October 16, 2005

Do you really need to use templates? How does the extra time to do each slide individually compare to the time to troubleshoot templates?
posted by PurplePorpoise at 2:04 PM on October 16, 2005

When I need to have boxes with text repeated on multiple pages, I just create them on a normal slide and align them using the guides (contrl+g, the lines can be dragged around new ones made if you hold control while you drag) and then copy/paste the boxes to the new slides.
posted by mullacc at 2:48 PM on October 16, 2005

er, "....dragged around AND new ones..."
posted by mullacc at 2:49 PM on October 16, 2005

It's been so long since I used PowerPoint that I don't even have it installed on my computer anymore, but I vaguely remember having to reapply the slide layout to each individual slide to get it to apply the template.
posted by fuzz at 8:14 PM on October 16, 2005

When I need to do a smart slick presentation, I just use the blank slide templates and knock the type size down a fair bit (so it's readable on a big screen, but without looking goofy).

Use a small color palette, 2-3 colors.

If you have more time, and the skills, Flash and Director can be used to make awesome presentations.

Doesnt really help your current situation though. I've always found PPs templates fiddly/clunky as hell.
posted by lemonfridge at 2:19 AM on October 17, 2005