- iPad Mini 7 is Here: News, Price, Specs
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 vs. Ultra
How to Copy a PowerPoint Design Template to Another Presentation
It's quick and easy to copy over a design template
- Brock University
What to Know
- In the source presentation, select View > Slide Master . In the Slide pane, right-click the Slide Master and select Copy .
- Go to View > Switch Windows and choose the second presentation. Go to View > Slide Master . Right-click the Slide pane and select Paste .
- Choose Use Destination Theme (keeps colors, fonts, and effects) or Keep Source Formatting (copies the source's colors, fonts, effects).
This article explains how to copy a PowerPoint design template over to another presentation. Instructions apply to PowerPoint 2019, PowerPoint 2016, PowerPoint 2013, and PowerPoint for Microsoft 365.
How to Copy a Presentation's Design Template
It's often quicker to copy a design template from a presentation than to find it in the list of PowerPoint templates.
Go to View in the presentation that contains the design template you want to copy and select Slide Master .
Right-click the Slide Master in the Slide pane on the left side of the screen and select Copy .
The Slide Master is the large thumbnail image at the top of the Slide pane. Some presentations contain more than one slide master.
Go to View , select Switch Windows , and choose the presentation you want to paste the Slide Master into.
If you don't see the other PowerPoint presentation on this list, it means that the other file isn't open. Open it now and return to this step to select it from the list.
In the second presentation, go to View and select Slide Master to open the Slide Master .
To insert the Slide Master from the other presentation, right-click on the Slide pane to the left, select Paste , and do one of the following:
- Choose Use Destination Theme to keep the theme colors, fonts, and effects of the presentation you are pasting to.
- Choose Keep Source Formatting to copy the theme colors, fonts, and effects of the template you are copying from.
Select Close Master View .
Changes made to individual slides in the original presentation, such as font styles, do not change the design template of that presentation. Therefore, graphic objects or font changes added to individual slides do not copy over to a new presentation.
To copy PowerPoint slides to another presentation , right-click the thumbnail of the slide you want to copy and choose Copy . Right-click a blank area of the Slides pane where you want to place it and choose one of the pasting options.
To save a copy of a PowerPoint presentation on your computer, go to the File tab and select Download As > Download a Copy . Select Download to continue.
To embed YouTube videos in PowerPoint , select Share > Embed . Select the HTML code and choose Copy . In your PowerPoint slide, select Insert > Video > Insert Video From Website . In the dialog box, right-click the blank area and choose Paste > Insert .
Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day
- Copy Slides to Another PowerPoint Presentation
- How to Create a Microsoft Sway Presentation
- Create a Default Presentation Template in PowerPoint
- What Is Microsoft PowerPoint and How Do I Use It?
- The 10 Most Common PowerPoint Terms
- Use This PowerPoint Template for a Multiple Choice Quiz
- How to Create a Timeline in PowerPoint
- 13 Free PowerPoint Game Templates
- How to Make a Poster in PowerPoint
- 10 Best Places for Free PowerPoint Templates
- Tips for Memorial PowerPoint Presentations
- What's New in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010?
- How to Add an Excel Chart to a PowerPoint Presentation
- 10 Free PowerPoint Game Templates
- The Definition of a Slide (or Slides) in a PowerPoint Presentation
- What Is Microsoft PowerPoint?
Stack Exchange Network
Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow , the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.
Q&A for work
Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.
Keep source formatting with copy-paste between presentations in Powerpoint (Work arounds)
Basic question:.
In Powerpoint, when copying slides from one presentation to another how can I maintain the source background, colors, and other formatting?
Traditional Answer:
When things are working right:
- Get both presentations into the same view (e.g. Normal vs. slide sorter)
- Highlight the slides in the source presentation and drag or Copy/Paste to the desired location in the destination presentation.
- By default, it will adopt the corresponding styles from the destination template (specifically, that of the slide just before the paste destination)
- In the small floating Copy/paste drop-down menu, select "Keep Source Formatting"
This will keep the source formatting and add the corresponding template of master slides to the destination presentation.
Question here is: What if that doesn't work?
Example: in the latest version of Powerpoint 2016 under Mac OSX (16.17 (180909)), selecting "Keep source formatting" does not make any changes. Instead, the check mark never moves, and the format is stuck with the undesired destination formatting.
- microsoft-powerpoint
Work around:
- Open the Master view in each presentation
- Select the top (larger) master slide from the source and copy it to the end of the list of master slides in the destination. This will copy not just one slide format, but the full template of slide formats as an alternate template in the destination. Existing slides there will not change
- Return both to normal view
- Copy slides to destination, attempt to use the drop down to select "Use destination formatting." Chances are this won't work or you wouldn't be reading this part so...
- For the newly copied slides, select the Layout button from the Home ribbon and scroll down till you see the source template and select the correct slide type.
You must log in to answer this question.
Not the answer you're looking for browse other questions tagged microsoft-powerpoint ..
- The Overflow Blog
- Brain Drain: David vs Goliath
- How API security is evolving for the GenAI era
- Featured on Meta
- Preventing unauthorized automated access to the network
- Upcoming initiatives on Stack Overflow and across the Stack Exchange network...
Hot Network Questions
- Statistical significance of multiple models over multiple datasets
- Propagation of errors and uncertainty calculations
- Can you find the Mate in 1?
- How can these regular polygons be arranged within a page
- How do the EU countries control artificial market prices?
- Are there any commentaries regarding the first disciples of Christ already being disciples of John?
- Grimm's Law and PIE in general
- Where can I find the Talmud Bavli in Spanish online?
- Can \AddToHookWithArguments let us access to the arguments of a command that has an optional argument?
- simple relay/zener based switching power supply
- Does every variable need to be statistically significant in a regression model?
- Does -iller have an implied meaning in French verbs?
- There is mathematics in physics but is there any physics in mathematics?
- Cessna 172 - electrical system - checklist confusion
- Was there a different 64-bit design for x86 from Intel?
- What is meant by ' total darkness' in Proverbs 20:20?
- Can you take the maximum result of a die roll when you are not pressed for time and there is no usage limit?
- (How) can I use a color as an adverb?
- Bash script to create a Termux sandbox nested in an extant Termux environment suitable for script and package installation testing
- How long would it have taken to travel from Southampton to Madeira by boat in the 1920s?
- Can a knight capture all 16 pawns in 16 consecutive moves?
- A bunch of grammas
- Why does existential quantification appear to be predicative?
- How does an entangled state collapse when we measure only one qubit?
Reuse (import) slides from another presentation
You can add one or more slides to your presentation from another, without having to open the other file.
(By default, a copied slide inherits the design of the slide you're inserting it after in the destination presentation. However, you can choose to keep the formatting of the slide you're copying instead.)
When you import a slide from one presentation to another, it is simply a copy of the original. Changes you make to the copy do not affect the original slide in the other presentation.
Open the presentation that you want to add a slide to.
In the slide thumbnail pane on the left, click where you want to add a slide.
On the Home tab of the ribbon, in the Slides group, click the arrow below New Slide , and then select Reuse Slides .
In the Reuse Slides pane, click Open a PowerPoint File .
In the Browse dialog box, locate and click the presentation file that contains the slide that you want, and then click Open .
If you want the slide that you are adding to the destination presentation to maintain the formatting of the original presentation, select the Keep source formatting check box before you add the slide to the destination presentation. (When this check box is not selected, the copied slides inherit the styling of the slide they're inserted after.) Then, in the Reuse Slides pane, do one of the following:
To add a single slide, click the slide.
To add all of the slides, right-click any slide, and then select Insert All Slides .
Open an existing presentation or create a new presentation that you want to insert slides into.
In Normal view, in the navigation pane, click the slide that you want to insert the other slides after.
On the Home tab, under Slides , click the arrow next to New Slide , and then click Reuse Slides .
In the dialog box, find the presentation that you want to insert, and select it. Click OK .
Note: In PowerPoint for the web, you can insert reused slides from other presentations only one at a time.
Open the presentation that you want to insert slides to.
In the slide thumbnail pane on the left, click the slide you want to add slide after.
Import slides from another presentation to the current one
In the thumbnail pane on the left, select the slide after which you want to insert the imported slides.
On the Home tab, select Reuse Slides .
The Reuse Slides pane opens on the right. Your recent presentations are shown.
Select a presentation from the list to see the individual slides in it.
Click a slide thumbnail to copy it into the current presentation.
By default, an imported slide keeps the colors and formatting of the presentation it comes from.
When you're done importing slides from the selected presentation, you can close the pane or search for other slides to import.
More details
A search box at the top of the Reuse Slides pane lets you search for any presentation, whether it's stored on your computer's hard drive or on SharePoint or OneDrive for work or school.
A Browse button under the search box lets you explore your folders for what you want.
By default, a slide you import keeps the formatting of the presentation it comes from. But three formatting options are available. When a slide is inserted, it appears in the thumbnail pane on the left and a (Ctrl) pop-up menu appears on the thumbnail. Click it to see three Paste options:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
|
| The imported slide adopts the color scheme and styling of the current presentation. |
|
| The imported slide keeps the color scheme and styling of the presentation it came from. |
|
| A picture of the source slide is inserted on the slide that is currently selected in the thumbnail pane on the left. The picture can be moved and resized as needed. |
Copy and paste your slides
Use Slide Libraries to share and reuse PowerPoint slides
Add, rearrange, duplicate, and delete slides in PowerPoint
Need more help?
Want more options.
Explore subscription benefits, browse training courses, learn how to secure your device, and more.
Microsoft 365 subscription benefits
Microsoft 365 training
Microsoft security
Accessibility center
Communities help you ask and answer questions, give feedback, and hear from experts with rich knowledge.
Ask the Microsoft Community
Microsoft Tech Community
Windows Insiders
Microsoft 365 Insiders
Was this information helpful?
Thank you for your feedback.
Copy and paste a slide master from one presentation to another
You can copy a slide master (and all its associated layouts) you like from one presentation into another.
Copy the slide master from the first presentation
Open both presentations: the one you want to copy a slide master from, and the one you want to paste the slide master into.
In the presentation that has the slide master you want to copy, on the View tab, select Slide Master .
In the slide thumbnail pane, right-click the slide master, and then select Copy .
In the thumbnail pane, the slide master is represented by the larger slide image with a numeral next to it, and the related layout masters are the smaller items subordinate to it (as illustrated above).
Many presentations contain more than one slide master, so you may have to scroll to find the one that you want.
Paste the slide master into the new presentation
On the View tab, select Switch Windows , and then select the presentation that you want to paste the slide master to.
On the View tab, select Slide Master .
In the thumbnail pane, right-click the slide master, and then, under Paste , do one of the following;
When you're finished, select Close Master View .
Need more help?
Want more options.
Explore subscription benefits, browse training courses, learn how to secure your device, and more.
Microsoft 365 subscription benefits
Microsoft 365 training
Microsoft security
Accessibility center
Communities help you ask and answer questions, give feedback, and hear from experts with rich knowledge.
Ask the Microsoft Community
Microsoft Tech Community
Windows Insiders
Microsoft 365 Insiders
Was this information helpful?
Thank you for your feedback.
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
You can copy a slide master (and all its associated layouts) you like from one presentation into another. Copy the slide master from the first presentation. Open both presentations: the one you want to copy a slide master from, and the one you want to paste the slide master into.
Right-click the Slide pane and select Paste. Choose Use Destination Theme (keeps colors, fonts, and effects) or Keep Source Formatting (copies the source's colors, fonts, effects). This article explains how to copy a PowerPoint design template over to another presentation.
Choose View>Slide Master to see the slide layout for the selected slide. You can copy formatting of individual elements with the Format Painter, but not a whole slide. To change the design of a slide, choose Home>Layout and select the layout that has the design you want.
From your description, you want to copy background only to another PowerPoint file without content . You may try following steps: 1.Firsly select the source slide from the left side where all slides are visible. 2.With the slide selected, access Home tab in ribbon and click the Format Painter option.
Copy and paste a slide master from one presentation to another. Open both the presentation that contains the slide master that you want to copy and the presentation that you will paste the slide master to.
Here's one way to update: Open a presentation that needs to be updated. Click on the Design tab. Open the Themes Gallery dropdown. Choose Browse for Themes. Navigate to the new template or theme and select it. Click on OK to apply it. Or: Create a new file from the new template or theme. Copy and paste the slides from an old presentation.
Highlight the slides in the source presentation and drag or Copy/Paste to the desired location in the destination presentation. This will keep the source formatting and add the corresponding template of master slides to the destination presentation.
Save yourself time and work by copying a slide — either from the presentation you’re working on or from a separate presentation. When you copy one or more slides from a presentation to a location within the same presentation or to another presentation, you can specify the theme that you want the new slides to adopt.
Use Slide Libraries to share and reuse PowerPoint slides. Add, rearrange, duplicate, and delete slides in PowerPoint. To import slides from another presentation, click the Home tab. In the Slides group, click the arrow below New Slide, and then select Reuse Slides.
You can copy a slide master (and all its associated layouts) you like from one presentation into another. Copy the slide master from the first presentation. Open both presentations: the one you want to copy a slide master from, and the one you want to paste the slide master into.