master view in powerpoint presentation include

Slide Master in PowerPoint – A Complete Beginner’s Guide!

By: Author Shrot Katewa

When I first started using PowerPoint, I had no idea about the “Slide Master”. In fact, when I first learned about it, I was quite confused. I didn’t quite understand its purpose and how it worked. Furthermore, some of the changes I made to the slide master were scary at first simply because I didn’t understand how it worked!

Slide Master in PowerPoint allows you to have master control over all slides. It allows you to make changes to all slides at once. You can also use the slide master to create footers, add watermarks and slide numbers, generate custom presentation templates, edit placeholders, among other things.

Retrospectively thinking, having a “Slide Master” in PowerPoint is such an important feature! Knowing how to use the slide master properly can help you save a lot of time while creating a presentation!

So, in this article, I’ll share with you all the details you need to know about a Slide Master in PowerPoint. Without further adieu, let’s get started!

1. What is the Slide Master In PowerPoint and Why is it Used?

Slide Master is a Microsoft PowerPoint feature that allows you to easily edit all the slides at once or the individual slide layouts of a presentation.

1a. What is a Slide Master?

The slide master in Microsoft PowerPoint contains all the information on the slide layout as well as the theme of a presentation. This includes the fonts, color, effects, background, and the size and position of the placeholders.

To access the slide master, first, click on the “View” tab in PowerPoint . Then, click on the “Slide Master” option. This will open the slide master view in PowerPoint.

The master slide is the top slide in a hierarchy of slides in a presentation (as shown in the image above). Changes that you make to the master slide impact all the slides in the slide master.

It is important to note that the actual design and content of the presentation must be added to the slides in the “Normal View”. Any images or content you add to the slide master will become uneditable in the normal view of the PowerPoint presentation.

The best way to use the slide master is by using “Placeholders”. I’ve written a detailed article on “Placeholders” in PowerPoint . Make sure to check out that article to learn more about them!

1b. Uses of Slide Master View in PowerPoint –

Since the slide master stores information about the theme and the layout of the slides in a PowerPoint presentation, you can use the “Slide Master” view to edit several elements in the presentation.

a. Change Slide Background

Using the “Slide Master” view, you can change the background of all the slides at once. The background editing features are available in the “Background” section of the “Slide Master” menu.

You can click on the “Colors” option to change the colors for the slides, the “Fonts” option to set a specific font for the presentation, and the “Effects” option for the background effects. Besides, you can click on the “Hide Background Graphics” option to remove all background graphics from the entire presentation.

Clicking on the “Format Background” option under the “Background Styles” button, you can access various customizable background colors and designs for the presentation.

b. Rearrange Placeholders in Slide Layout

In Microsoft PowerPoint “Slide Master” view, you can edit both the master slide and the slide layouts. By rearranging the placeholders in a slide layout, you will only create changes for the slides using that specific layout instead of the entire presentation.

To rearrange the placeholders, all you have to do is click on a placeholder and drag it to your preferred position on the slide.

c. Customize Overall Text Formatting

In the “Slide Master” view, you can easily change or customize the overall text formatting. You have to first click on the content placeholder in the master slide which is the top slide in the slide layout panel on the left side of the screen.

Then click on the “Home” tab from the menu ribbon. In the “Font” section of the “Home” menu, you can customize the fonts like the style, size, color, highlights, etc. This will customize the text of all the slides.

d. Customize Theme Fonts

By customizing the theme fonts in the “Slide Master” , you can choose a set of fonts for various list levels of text in all the slides. To do so, click on the “Fonts” option in the “Background” section under the “Slide Master” tab. Then click on your preferred set of fonts from the dropdown menu.

e. Customize Theme Colors

The theme color in a “Slide Master” contains a set of colors for various elements of the slides in a presentation like the background, heading, body text, etc. By customizing the theme color in “Slide Master” , you can customize the colors for the entire presentation.

All you have to do is click on the “Colors” option in the “Background” section of the “Slide Master” menu and select your preferred theme colors from the dropdown menu.

f. Create Unique Slide Layouts and Templates

Using the features in the “Slide Master” menu, you can edit any element and object in the presentation. You can change the color, font, arrangement, theme, etc. of the entire presentation.

You can also create and edit individual slide layouts. You can easily use the “Slide Master” view to create fully unique slide layouts and templates.

2. Difference Between Slide Master and a PowerPoint Template?

In Microsoft PowerPoint, a Slide Master contains information about the layout and the theme of the presentation.

A PowerPoint template, on the other hand, is a design or pattern of a slide or even a whole presentation. In short, a template is a copy of a presentation blueprint that can be edited to fit your needs, while the master slide stores the layout and theme of that template.

3. How to Access the Slide Master in PowerPoint?

In Microsoft PowerPoint, you can access the slide master in the “View” menu. You have to first click on the “View” tab in the menu ribbon located at the top of the screen. Then click on the “Slide Master” option in the “Master Views” section of the “View” menu. This will open the “Slide Master” view where you can edit the master slide and the slide layouts.

4. How to Edit a Slide Master in PowerPoint?

Microsoft PowerPoint allows you to edit the slide master using the “Slide Master” view. You can edit the master slide itself, and also the slide layouts separately. You can even add or remove master slides and slide layouts.

4a. Using the Master Slide to Apply Changes to All Slide Layouts in PowerPoint

Since the master slide contains all the information on the theme and layouts of the entire presentation, any change in the master slide will be automatically applied to all the slide layouts under the master slide.

To apply changes in the master slide, all you have to do is click on the master slide from the slide layout panel and use the features available in all the tabs in the menu ribbon.

4b. How to Change Slide Background in the Slide Master?

In the “Slide Master” view, click on “Background Styles” and select the “Format Background” option from the dropdown menu. This will open a sidebar on the right side of the screen.

In the “Format Background” sidebar, you can change the color, gradient, or pattern of the background. You can also add an image as the background.

4c. How to Customize Fonts and Text Formatting in the Slide Master in PowerPoint?

To customize fonts and text formatting in the “Slide Master” view, you have to follow the 2 simple steps.

Step-1: Click on the “Customize Fonts” option

You have to first click on the master slide from the slide layout panel. Then click on the “Fonts” option from the “Background” section of the “Slide Master” menu. From the dropdown menu, click on the “Customize Fonts” option at the bottom.

Step-2: Click on the “Save” button

In the “Create New Theme Fonts” dialog box, click on the “Heading font” box to customize the heading and on the “Body font” box for the body text. Then click on the “Save” button at the bottom of the dialog box.

4d. How to Customize Theme Colors in Slide Master?

In the “Slide Master” view of Microsoft PowerPoint, you can customize the theme color by following the 2 easy steps.

Step-1: Click on “Customize Colors”

In the “Background” section of the “Slide Master” view, click on the “Colors” option. Then click on the “Customize Colors” option at the bottom of the dropdown menu.

Step-2: Click on “Save”

In the “Create New Theme Colors” dialog box, click on the box next to each option to select your preferred colors. Then all you have to do is click on the “Save” button at the bottom of the dialog box.

4e. How to Apply Effects in PowerPoint Slide Master?

To apply effects in the “Slide Master” view of PowerPoint, click on the “Effects” option in the “Background” section. This will open a dropdown menu containing fifteen effect options to choose from. All you have to do is click on your preferred effect from the dropdown menu.

4f. How to Edit Footer in PowerPoint?

The footer in a PowerPoint presentation is a text that appears at the bottom of all slides. To edit the footer in the “Slide Master” view, all you have to do is click on the “Footer” box at the bottom of the master slide. Then type in the text you want in the footer.

Check out my other article on “How to Add a Footer in PowerPoint?” to learn more about editing, adding, and removing footers in PowerPoint.

4g. How to Add Logo to All Slides Using Slide Master in PowerPoint

Adding a logo to your Microsoft PowerPoint presentation can be a smart way of branding. It is quite easy if you know the correct steps.

In fact, I’ve written a detailed article on how to add a logo in PowerPoint . Do make sure to check out that article as well to get all the advanced tips and tricks and to know the correct way to do it!

Meanwhile, here are the key steps to add a logo to all slides using the “Slide Master” in PowerPoint –

Step-1: Click on the “Insert” tab

The first step is to click on the master slide from the slide layout panel on the left side of the screen in the “Slide Master” view. Then click on the “Insert” tab from the menu ribbon.

Step-2: Click on the “Pictures” button

The next step is to click on the “Pictures” button in the “Images” section of the “Insert” menu. Then click on the “This Device” option from the dropdown menu. This will open a dialog box.

Step-3: Click on the “Insert” option

In the “Insert Picture” dialog box, click on the logo you want to add to the presentation. Then click on the “Insert” button at the bottom of the dialog box to add the logo to the master slide. This will automatically add the logo to all the slides of the presentation.

4h. Use Slide Master to Add a Watermark in PowerPoint 

A watermark is an identifying text or image that usually appears across a document and is semi-transparent. You can learn about how to add or remove watermarks in PowerPoint in my other article.

Meanwhile, I’ll share the key steps in a brief manner below –

In the “Slide Master” view, click on the master slide which is the top slide in the slide layout panel. Then click on the “Insert” tab from the menu ribbon located at the top of the screen.

Step-2: Click on the “Text Box” option

In the “Insert” menu, click on the “Text Box” option from the “Text” section. Then draw the text box on the master slide. You can now type in the text you want as a watermark on all the slides.

Step-3: Click on the “Format Text Effects” option

The next step is to select the text in the watermark text box. Then “Right Click” on the selected text and click on the “Format Text Effects” option. This will open the “Format Shape” sidebar on the right side of the screen.

Step-4: Increase the text transparency

In the “Format Shape” sidebar, click on the “Text Fill and Outline” option which is the first icon. In the “Text Fill” section, click on the “Solid Fill” option. Then drag the slider next to the “Transparency” option to the right until the text reaches your preferred transparency.

5. Understanding Slide Layouts in PowerPoint Slide Master

Slide Layouts in Microsoft PowerPoint are slide designs that have pre-arranged placeholders that you can use to add your content quickly and easily. To understand the functions of slide layouts in PowerPoint and how to use them, you can read my article on slide layouts in PowerPoint .

5a. How to Know Which Slides Use What Slide Layouts

Using the “Normal” view in PowerPoint, you can see which slides are using what slide layouts. All you have to do is follow the 2 simple steps.

Step-1: Click on the “Normal View” option

In the menu ribbon located at the top of the screen, click on the “View” tab. In the “View” menu, click on the “Normal” option which is the first option in the “Presentation Views” section. This will return the screen to “Normal View” .

Step-2: Click on the “Layout” option

In the slide thumbnail panel at the left side of the screen, “Right Click” on a slide. Then click on the “Layout” option from the context menu. This will open a list of all the slide layouts available in the presentation. You will see the slide layout being used by the selected slide is highlighted in the list.

5b. How to Insert and Rename Slide Layouts

To insert or rename slide layouts, you have to first access the “Slide Master” menu from the “View” tab in the menu ribbon.

Inserting Slide Layouts

In the slide layout panel on the left side of the screen, you have to first click on the place where you want to insert a new slide layout. Then click on the “Insert Layout” button in the “Edit Master” section of the “Slide Master” menu.

Renaming Slide Layouts

To rename a slide layout, you have to first click on the layout from the slide layout panel. Then click on the “Rename” option next to the “Insert Layout” button in the “Slide Master” menu. This will open the “Rename Layout” dialog box where you have to type in the new name for the slide layout.

Finally, you have to click on the “Rename” button in the dialog box to rename the slide layout.

6. Understanding Placeholders in Slide Master in PowerPoint

In Microsoft PowerPoint, a placeholder is a pre-formatted box on the slide where you can easily add content with a single click. You can learn more about placeholders in PowerPoint in my other article.

Using the “Slide Master” view, you can add, remove and edit the type and position of the placeholders in each slide layout. There are seven types of placeholders: “Text” , “Pictures” , “Chart” , “Table” , “SmartArt” , “Media” , and “Online Image” .

Besides, you can also use a “Content” placeholder which allows you to add any type of mentioned content.

7. How to Insert a Slide Master in PowerPoint?

To insert a slide master in Microsoft PowerPoint, the first step is to open the “Slide Master” view from the “View” tab. In the “Slide Master” view, click on the “Insert Slide Master” button. It is the first button in the “Edit Master” section of the “Slide Master” menu.

Alternatively, you can press the “Ctrl+M” keys on your keyboard to insert a new slide master.

8. How to Delete a Slide Master in PowerPoint?

To delete an unused master slide in PowerPoint , you have to first “Right Click” on the master slide from the slide layout panel on the left side of the screen. Then click on the “Delete Master” option in the right-click menu. Alternatively, you can press the “delete” key on your keyboard.

9. How to Exit the Slide Master View in PowerPoint?

In Microsoft PowerPoint, you can exit the “Slide Master” view with one click. All you have to do is click on the “Close Master View” button. It is the last button under the “Slide Master” tab and is located in the “Close” section.

Master Slides 101: How to Create and Use Master Slides in PowerPoint

Get a complete overview of one of PowerPoint’s best tools: Slide Master!

The Slide Master in PowerPoint is, in short, an option that allows you to standardize specific visual aspects of your presentation .

It’s a feature that not many people are aware of. However, it can truly make a difference when you constantly work with presentation decks. If you like working with templates in PowerPoint , you’d love Slide Master!

In this article, we’ll explain what exactly the Slide Master feature is and how you can use it to create outstanding presentations.

We’ll go over the following topics:

• Master Slides 101: What is a Master Slide in PowerPoint?
• Why is Master Slide used? And most importantly: Why Slide Master is used for businesses
• Let’s go step-by-step: How to use slide master in PowerPoint

How to create master slides in PowerPoint

How to edit master slide in powerpoint.

• Ready to start? Get professional PowerPoint Master Slides!

What is a Master Slide in PowerPoint?

Slide Master is a PowerPoint feature you can find in the View tab . It allows you to create master templates (or master slides). It’s a way to automatically add elements that you want to be repeated throughout your slides, like a font or a theme.

Why is Master Slide used?

The Slide Master feature in PowerPoint is extremely useful for making your presentation design process more efficient . The main reason it’s used is because it helps you customize all of your PowerPoint elements at once.

That’s right, there is no reason to change slide by slide anymore . With master slides, you can change the typography, logo, and colors and even add your logo and watermark by changing these elements on one single slide. When you adjust one of the elements in the Master Slide, all of those elements will change in all the slides.

Why Slide Master is used for businesses

The slide master is not only a really efficient tool, it also can be great for your business. For example:

• It helps you standardize the design of your presentation : Instead of having a disparate array of different slide designs in your presentations, the Slide Master allows you to establish a consistent and professional look throughout. This consistency can enhance the professionalism of your brand and the clarity of your message.
• Or even better, it helps you brand your presentations : Something as simple as using your brand’s color scheme can make all the difference in creating truly unique slides. It can even help you convey values and ideas you want to be associated with your brand.

How to use slide master in PowerPoint

To create your own Master template, you just need to go to the View tab > Slide Master . This will allow you to access the Slide Master view.

Follow these steps to learn how to create a presentation using master slides in PowerPoint:

#1. Work on your main Slide Master

Once you are on the Master View, it’s time to get to work! Go to the very first slide on the Slides Overview Pane on the left. This is your Master Slide. You’ll recognize it because it’ll have a number 1 at the side, and it’ll be a little bigger than the rest:

Here is where you’ll work on the common elements all your slides will share. This is where you should customize your background, font style, and color . This is also the perfect opportunity to add an element you want to repeat throughout your slides, like a logo. Take into account that anything you do while in this mode will then be reflected in all the rest of your slides.

By clicking on the Master Layout option , you’ll also be able to customize which layout elements you want in your presentation slides.

For example, you can choose to include the date, the slide number, and more.

#2. Work on your Layout slides

Next, it’s time to move to the Layout slides . These are slides that appear below your Master Slide. In other words, these are your actual slides.

You’ll notice that PowerPoint offers 11 different default layout settings for you to start to work with . You can edit and alter these layouts as much as you want. Consider that these are meant to make your life easier when designing your presentation. That’s why it’s important to think through what kind of layouts your presentation will need.

If you don’t find a layout that fits your needs, you can also create a master layout from scratch . Select any of your layouts and click the option Insert Layout in the Edit Master group.

It’ll create a new type of slide you can edit and customize as you see fit. Use the option Insert Placeholder to add different kinds of elements to our new layout.

#3. Adding a new Slide Master if necessary

If you think just one “theme” is not enough for your presentation and want to use several different styles, or segments, in a single presentation, you can do it! You just need to add a second Slide Master. Select Insert Slide Master on the far left, and you’ll get a completely new Master slide in the same presentation.

You’ll be able to see your two different master slides, and the layout slides below each one:

Once you’re happy with how your master template looks, remember to click the option Close Master View so you can see your changes.

If you’ve worked with a presentation that’s already using a master template, you can edit your slides through Master View . Especially if there are common elements you want to eliminate, add, or edit on more than one slide!

#1. Access the Master Slide View

Just like for creating a master template, the first thing is to access the master view. Go to View tab > Slide Master to see exactly all the design guidelines your presentation has at the moment.

#2. Edit the Master Slide

If there’s a common element that you want to change, the Master Slide is the place to do it! It works great for adding and removing logos or changing the background or color scheme.

#3. Edit Specific Layout Slides

If there’s a design element you want to change from a specific layout style, you can do so, too. Pick the slide layout you want to edit and customize as you see fit.

Remember that all the slides below the master slide will have these changes . So, if you are looking for a specific change in one of the slides, it’s better to avoid the Master Slide view and edit your slides as you normally would.

Get professionally customized PowerPoint Master Slides

Master Slides are an outstanding tool to make your presentation creation process more efficient. They can save you precious time and enhance design consistency within your slides.

However, using master slides still requires a steep learning curve . Design skills are a must if you truly want to make the most of your master slides. If you’re going to use PowerPoint Master Slides but don’t feel you have enough experience or time to create your master template, don’t worry! 24Slides professional designers will be happy to help you make the perfect master slides . You can just sit back and relax, and we’ll do all the heavy lifting!

The best thing is that you’ll get a completely customized, professional design that you’ll be able to apply to all your future projects! You’ll no longer have to worry about your slide design or making it reflect your brand! Get an outstanding presentation design that you can apply to your own slides with just one click.

Want to learn more?

• How to Add Speaker Notes in PowerPoint (Tutorial)
• How to Convert An InDesign File to a PowerPoint Presentation
• How to Convert an Adobe Illustrator File to PowerPoint
• How to Make a Timeline in PowerPoint? Step by step
• How to Link or Embed an Excel File in PowerPoint? Quick Guide!

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PowerPoint  - Slide Master View

Powerpoint  -, slide master view, powerpoint slide master view.

PowerPoint: Slide Master View

Lesson 29: slide master view.

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Introduction

You may have noticed that when you select a different theme in PowerPoint, it rearranges the text on your slides and adds shapes to the background. This is because each theme has built-in slide layouts and background graphics . You can edit these layouts with a feature called Slide Master view . Once you learn how to use Slide Master view, you'll be able to customize your entire slide show with just a few clicks.

Optional: Download our practice presentation .

Watch the video below to learn more about using Slide Master view.

What is Slide Master view?

Slide Master view is a special feature in PowerPoint that allows you to quickly modify the slides and slide layouts in your presentation. From here, you can edit the slide master , which will affect every slide in the presentation. You can also modify individual slide layouts , which will change any slides using those layouts.

For example, let's say you find a theme you like but you don't like a few of the slide layouts. You could use Slide Master view to customize the layouts to look exactly the way you want.

In Slide Master view, the Slide Master tab will appear first on the Ribbon, but you'll still be able to access commands on different tabs as you normally would.

Using Slide Master view

Whether you're making significant changes to your slides or just a few small tweaks , Slide Master view can help you create a consistent, professional presentation without a lot of effort. You could use Slide Master view to change just about anything in your presentation, but here are some of its most common uses.

• Modify backgrounds : Slide Master view makes it easy to customize the background for all of your slides at the same time. For example, you could add a watermark or logo to each slide in your presentation, or you could modify the background graphics of an existing PowerPoint theme.
• Rearrange placeholders : If you find that you often rearrange the placeholders on each slide, you can save time by rearranging them in Slide Master view instead. When you adjust one of the layouts in Slide Master view, all of the slides with that layout will change.
• Customize text formatting : Instead of changing the text color on each slide individually, you could use the Slide Master to change the text color on all slides at once.
• Create unique slide layouts : If you want to create a presentation that looks different from regular PowerPoint themes, you could use Slide Master view to create your own layouts. Custom layouts can include your own background graphics and placeholders .

Some overall presentation changes—like customizing the theme fonts and theme colors —can be made quickly from the Design tab. Review our lesson on Modifying Themes to learn more.

To make changes to all slides:

If you want to change something on all slides of your presentation, you can edit the Slide Master. In our example, we'll add a logo to every slide. If you'd like to work along with our example, right-click the image below and save it to your computer.

• The presentation will switch to Slide Master view , and the Slide Master tab will be selected on the Ribbon.

When you make a change to the slide master, it's a good idea to review your presentation to see how it affects each slide. You may find that some of your slides don't look exactly right. We'll show you how to fix this by customizing individual slide layouts.

Customizing slide layouts

You can use Slide Master view to modify any slide layout in your presentation. It's easy to make small tweaks like adjusting background graphics and more significant changes like rearranging or deleting placeholders. Unlike the slide master, changes to a slide layout will only be applied to slides using that layout in your presentation.

To customize an existing slide layout:

In our example, our newly added logo is hidden behind the photo in the Picture with Caption Layout . We'll customize this layout to make room for the logo.

You can also move placeholders on the slide master , which will move the placeholders on multiple slide layouts at the same time. However, some slide layouts may still need to be adjusted manually.

Customizing text formatting

You can also customize the text formatting from Slide Master view, including the font , text size , color , and alignment . For example, if you wanted to change the font for every title placeholder in your presentation, you could modify the master title style on the slide master.

Each title placeholder is connected to the master title style on the slide master. For example, take a look at the slides before changing the title font.

Now look at the same slides after changing the title font.

Instead of customizing individual placeholders, you can change the theme fonts for a presentation. From the Slide Master tab, click the Fonts command in the Background group, then select the desired fonts.

Creating new slide layouts

One of the most powerful features of Slide Master view is the option to create new slide layouts . This is an easy way to add interesting and unique slide layouts to an existing theme. You could even use this feature to design an entirely new theme , as in the example below.

To insert a new slide layout:

To rename a custom layout:

When you're done designing your custom layout, you'll want to give it a unique name so it will be easy to find.

To use a custom layout:

Once you've created a custom slide layout, it's easy to add a new slide with that layout or apply it to an existing slide.

• If you're currently in Slide Master view, click the Close Master View command on the Slide Master tab.

PowerPoint also allows you to add new placeholders to existing slide layouts.

Using custom layouts in other presentations

When you modify the slide master or slide layouts in Slide Master view, you're actually creating a custom version of the current theme. If you want to apply the theme to other presentations, you'll need to save it .

To save a theme:

From the the Slide Master tab, click the Themes command, then select Save Current Theme from the drop-down menu.

If you're not in Slide Master view, you can save the theme from the Design tab. Just click the drop-down arrow in the Themes group, then select Save Current Theme .

• Open our practice presentation . If you already downloaded our presentation to follow along with the lesson, be sure to download a fresh copy.
• On the slide master, change the Background Style to Style 7.
• Delete the tall rectangular shape near the left of the slide master.

• Reopen Slide Master view. In the Picture with Caption layout, select the background shape on the left side of the slide behind the text,and change the color to Dark Aqua .

• Optional: Save your theme to your computer.

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• Presentations

How to Use PowerPoint Slide Master View in 60 Seconds

When you want to customize your PowerPoint themes, Slide Master view is just what you need. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to use Slide Master view to adjust your layouts fast.

We also have a helpful compliment to this tutorial. Download our FREE eBook:  The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations .  Quickly grab it before you read on. 

Use PowerPoint Slide Master View to Make Quick Adjustments

Watch this short tutorial screencast or follow the quick steps that compliment this video.

1. Open Up Your PowerPoint Slide Layout

I'm using the Simplicity set of PowerPoint templates , which are Premium presentation templates available on GraphicRiver. 

I'm working in PowerPoint on a slide, with the Simplicity template, and I've already chosen a slide layout.

2. Select PowerPoint Slide Master View 

But let's say that I want to tweak it, I want to make this black box cover the entire slide. For this we need Slide Master view. So I'm going to switch to View on the ribbon, and then choose Slide Master . On the left side, you'll see thumbnails for each of the layouts.

3. Use Slide Master View to Make Quick Layout Changes

PowerPoint has already selected the one that we want to modify. Now we'll see on the right side that we're working with the template for the slide. 

You can click, and move, and modify elements. Let's click and drag the box to cover the entire slide, and now modify the text at the top to white. Then highlight it, and change it to white. 

Finishing Up!

When finished, click on normal in the views, and that takes you back to working on the presentation itself, with the modified layout for the slide. 

In short, Slide Master view is for changing the look and feel of your template. You can make simple adjustments to your templates slides—as we've done here—or apply more complex modifications.

Working Deeper With PowerPoint Master Slides

This tutorial goes into greater depth on PowerPoint Master Slides, jump in to learn more: 

Make Great Presentations (Free PDF eBook Download)

We have the perfect compliment to this tutorial, which will walk you through the complete presentation process. Learn how to write your presentation, design it like a pro, and prepare it to present powerfully. 

Download our new eBook:  The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations . It's available for free with a subscription to the Tuts+ Business Newsletter. 

Also, you can find more PowerPoint tutorials on Envato Tuts+, as well as browse through the thousands of  Premium PowerPoint template designs  on GraphicRiver.

Home Blog PowerPoint Tutorials How to Work with Slide Master in PowerPoint

How to Work with Slide Master in PowerPoint

When editing PowerPoint templates or designing your own slides, you might need to repeat some slide elements in all slides, such as the company branding and tagline. Instead of manually adjusting each slide, such major changes can be made using the Master Slide in PowerPoint.

What is Slide Master in PowerPoint

PowerPoint Slide Master gives you control over how to display slides with uniformity based on your preferences. It is available via the View tab in PowerPoint and can be used to set logos, fonts, images, and other parts of your slides using a master view. The top slide or Master Slide in PowerPoint Slide Master is the primary slide, changes to which are reflected across the whole presentation. This is followed by other layouts available for your presentation that can also be adjusted in Slide Master.

How to Edit a Master Slide in PowerPoint

PowerPoint, by default, provides a Master Slide for every slide deck, even if you start with a blank presentation. For PowerPoint templates downloaded from the Microsoft Store or third-party sources, Master Slides are more refined than the default layout in PowerPoint. You can edit the Master Slide via View -> Slide Master .

The PowerPoint Master Slide is located at the top, and any changes made to it are reflected across all slides. For example, if you place a logo on the Master Slide, it will automatically appear on all slides in the presentation. Similarly, you can set the font style, font color, default image, and other elements for your slides by editing the Master Slide.

The below image shows how adding a logo to the Master Slide in PowerPoint reflected the changes across all slides in the PowerPoint template.

How to Create a Master Slide in PowerPoint

Creating a master slide that can be replicated across various presentations can help ensure that you can quickly apply the changes to new presentations while retaining your desired branding and theme style. To do this, you can create a PowerPoint Master Slide from scratch. To create a new Master Slide, open a blank PowerPoint presentation and go to View -> Slide Master .

From the Master Layout option in Slide Master, you can select the elements that you wish to single out for editing.

You can begin editing the master slide by adding a theme, logo, changing the font style, and adjusting other slide elements.

You can also add additional layouts and edit existing ones according to need. This is to edit not only the Master Slide but the overall design of your presentation. Once you are satisfied with the changes made to the Master Slide, click Close Master View from the Ribbon menu.

The changes you make to the Master Slide will be reflected on the presentation deck you are creating.

How to Apply Master Slides to an Already Existing PowerPoint Presentation

You can save and apply master slides to an existing PowerPoint presentation from one you might have saved earlier. To do this, you will require saving the original theme of your slides and then importing them to the presentation deck to which you intend to apply the master slides. Open the slide deck from where you wish to import the theme and go to View -> Slide Master .

From the Slide Maste r tab, go to Theme -> Save Current Theme .

Browse a location to save your theme from importing it to other PowerPoint presentations.

Open the PowerPoint presentation to import the theme style and go to View -> Slide Master .

From the Master Slide tab, go to Theme -> Browse for Themes .

Select the theme with the Master Slides to import to your PowerPoint presentation. Once the changes are applied, click Close Master View .

This will apply the changes to the existing presentation from the imported theme with your preferred Master Slide layouts.

Final Words

The Master Slide and associated layouts in Slide Master can help standardize various aspects of your slide design. Making it easier to manage branding, import slides for your preferred layouts, and help avoid manually editing slides in your presentation deck to apply specific layout changes.

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Presentations: Understanding the PowerPoint Slide Master

Would you like to save hours of work editing and customizing your PowerPoint presentations? Are you wasting time changing each slide individually to give your presentation a consistent look? The answer is to leverage the Slide Master, a critical feature unknown to most PowerPoint users. In this article and video, you’ll learn why the PowerPoint Slide Master is so important when you are creating and updating slides in PowerPoint.

Why is the PowerPoint Slide Master So Important?

First, it may be helpful to know that every presentation has at least one slide master, whether or not you work with it directly. The slide master is a blueprint for your presentation and helps you create a professional slide deck without a lot of effort. PowerPoint applies changes made to placeholders, background, color, effects, fonts, positioning, and graphics on a master, which links to specific presentation slide layouts.

Have you ever played around with different PowerPoint themes? Pick one, and the background and font color changes. Choose a different theme, and the placement of text on a title slide updates. Each of these themes has a custom slide master. Let’s explore the PowerPoint slide master and look at how you can work with it to save hours customizing the look of your presentations.

Using the Slide Master View

When you make a change on your own slide masters, PowerPoint applies that change to every related slide in the presentation. This saves you time and gives your presentation a consistent look and feel. Because it affects the look and layout of your entire presentation, it’s a good idea to edit the slide master before you start to build individual slides.

To display the Slide Master View:

• Click the View
• Pick Slide Master .
• If not active, click the Slide Master Ribbon tab.
• On the left, you’ll see a single primary slide master and, optionally, multiple supporting layouts. Edit the design from the main slide view.
• Customize the primary master in this view to apply changes to presentation slides. Your changes can be as varied as changing the look and placement of bullets to adding your organization logo on specific slide layouts. Don’t type specific content unless you want it to display on multiple slides. You can also customize individual layouts to meet your design needs.
• Once you have modified the master, click Close Master View or change the view back to Normal .

More complex presentations may contain two or more slide masters with different themes.

Note: Although they could be, many corporate PowerPoint templates aren’t designed from the Slide Master. Instead, you’re asked to copy slides to duplicate the look—each slide contains manual formatting. Explore the Slide Master of these templates to see if it makes sense for you to customize it for overall consistency directly and to save time.

Adding a Footer, Date, or Slide Number

Slide masters include a placeholder for footer information you may want to include on every slide, such as your company or department name. You can also add a date or a slide number.

To add a footer:

• From the Normal, Slide Master, or another view, click the Insert
• Pick Header & Footer .
• Click the checkbox for Footer and type the text you want to repeat on each slide. The footer placeholder can be moved to any location on the slide.
• Optionally, click Don’t show on title slide to prevent the footer or other elements from displaying on all title slides.
• Click Slide Number to show a number in the corner of each slide. The slide number can be moved to a different location and can be formatted as you want.
• Optionally, add the Date and time . Tip: use the Fixed option to add any type of text you want.
• Click Apply to All to add the footer to all slides. Click Apply to add the footer only to slide(s) selected before you started these steps.

Removing Background Graphics

There may be times when you intentionally want to change an individual slide. For example, the graphics on the Slide Master, such as a logo or background, might make some slides too busy or distracting. To hide the background graphics for selected slides, you’ll find this option under Format Background in the Design tab.

Do This to Save Time: How to Quickly Fix Manual Formatting

If most of the presentations you create and edit are versions of previous ones, you might be thinking that the Slide Master won’t work for you because you aren’t creating presentations from scratch. Instead, you are given presentations with a lot of manual formatting that you are somehow supposed to magically “Make it look good!”

One reason editing PowerPoint slides can be such a time suck is that manual formatting overrides Slide Master formatting . But instead of individually reformatting each slide in a presentation, there is a trick to easily apply the Slide Master formatting to selected slides and remove inconsistent manual formatting.

To reset slide formatting to match the Slide Master:

• Select one or more slide thumbnails from the Slides Pane (left side) in the Normal view. Hold [Ctrl] while clicking with your mouse to select multiple slides.
• Right-click for the shortcut menu and pick Reset Slide . You’ll also find the  Reset Slide option in the Slides  group in the  Home  tab of the PowerPoint Ribbon.

This is one of my favorite time-saving PowerPoint tips! With just a few clicks, the slides are formatted to match the layout they are linked to from the slide master.

How can you save time with your next presentation by taking advantage of the slide master?

Were these PowerPoint tips helpful? Discover more PowerPoint techniques and shortcuts here .

© Dawn Bjork, MCT, MOSM, CSP®, The Software Pro® Microsoft Certified Trainer, Productivity Speaker, Certified Speaking Professional

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Deep Dive: Learn about Slide Master in PowerPoint - A Tutorial (1/2)

About this lesson, unlock the power of powerpoint master slides.

Learn how Master Slides drives the look and feel of EVERY PowerPoint slide deck.

What is the PowerPoint Slide Master?

It is hidden inside the menus, but once unlocked we will show you all the fundamental components and how they impact the overall presentation design.

Power Slide Master is the Key in ALL Versions of PowerPoint

Windows, Mac OS, old and new versions of PowerPoint.  This mode has been there from the beginning, and our tutorial will explain how and why these tools can improve your presentation and SAVE YOU TIME!

Tutorial One and Two

This is a deep dive into making master slides work for you. This is not a step by step guide, but a deep dive to teach you how to UNDERSTAND master slides and make them work for you. You will master Slide Master!

This is the first of two training videos on Master Slides. The second part can be found here .

Content with video timestamps:

• Intro: (0:00)
• Assumptions and Training Goals (1:24)
• Understanding the Elements of Master Slides (2:08)
• Relationship of Parent and Child Master Slides (5:59)
• Starting Off inside of Master Slide View (6:56)
• Insert Logo for “All” Slides (7:11)
• Where are Master Slide Logos Located? (9:11)
• Why do some master slides not show logos and images? (9:57)
• Sections and Master Slides (11:01)
• Scenario 2 – Change fonts, placeholder locations, colors (12:26)
• Scenario 3 – Mass updates of bullet animation and slide transitions (16:46)
• Scenario 4 – Creating from Scratch – a preview (19:31)
• Wrap Up (21:35)

Subject Microsoft PowerPoint

Software Compatibility All Versions of PowerPoint

Level Advanced

Course Completed Complete

PDF Files DOWNLOAD THE LESSON MATERIALS

TRAINING SERIES VIEW ALL

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Training Class Video Transcript “Learn about Slide Master in PowerPoint – A Tutorial”

(00:07): You want to be in control of PowerPoint. You want to get deep inside to control all the inner workings of PowerPoint, the color schemes, the backgrounds, the defaults images, and the transitions. All this magic happens in the hidden master slide mode. In this power advance training session. I’m going to explain how master slides interact with the slide layout and the individual slides change one element on the master slide and magic flows through all the resulting slides. Take control of PowerPoint and save time with master slide, power moves. Stay tuned and get powered up

(00:54): MUSIC

(01:01): This is our slide presentation that I will be operating on to demonstrate our deep dive into master slides. What you see is not an outstanding example of what a presentation should look like. It has issues, and we’ll fix some of these along the way. Maybe not all, but some as I get started, it’s good to know that slide masters have been part of PowerPoint from day one and can be applied to any version that you might be running. And I’m not expecting you to be a graphic designer. We’re going to work with the tools that Microsoft gives us to create solid presentations. Our training goals are not just to show you keystrokes, but to help you truly understand what master slides are all about. Once you’re grounded in the concept, then you can use your imagination to do so much more. And then once you have the understanding of the little concepts, we’ll be able to run through four scenarios to reinforce the concepts. In reality, these are the elements that you need to understand, but you’re not gonna understand them by just looking at them words on this page instead, let’s demonstrate them.

(02:20): Okay.

(02:21): Here are the components of the master slides. The slide is the easiest to understand. It is the individual page that you create in PowerPoint. And what is displayed when you run an on-screen presentation, the next element are called layouts. Each slide originates from a slide layout, which instructs, where to put each of the placeholder objects on the slide, placeholders are things like the title or the footers or the text box. And this specific slide example is based on the two content layout. The next element is slide collections in any PowerPoint presentation. There is a collection of the individual slides and the totality makes up the slide collection next to the design template, which controls the color schemes, the fonts, the fancy backgrounds, and more design templates are applied to the slide collection, which then flows all the way back to the individual slides. As a side note, there’s also a grouping called sections.

(03:36): You can highlight a subset of slides in the slide collection, right? Click on the group and create them as a section. And then you can apply a design template to just that section within the slide collection. Also note that the slide collection is really more than just a grouping of slides. Instead, let’s consider it a view. The design template is really being applied to the slide layouts and not the view of the slide collection and what controls the design template. The master slides. Oops, not really. While the design template is based on the master slides. They are just a mechanism to apply them to the layouts. And once applied, if you want to make changes to the whole presentation, you change the master slides and that is immediately updating the layout. Wow, that’s a lot going on. Let’s summarize this in a simpler term. Design templates are collected from slide masters. They provide a way to apply the master slide formatting to a presentation. So the basic user doesn’t need to know about the master slides, but you’re not a basic user, which is why you’re watching our training session. Slide masters are a collection of pre-formatted slide layouts, lots of layouts, like our two-column layout and each layout is individually formatted for reuse each slide originates from the slide layout. So we can apply mass changes at the master slide, and it will flow through the layout and onto our individual slides in this cascading fashion.

(05:34): What does slide masters control? I’m not going to read through this list, but basically the masters slide controls everything in your presentation. And I mean, everything. We are about to put this into action by demonstrating how to change almost everything listed here.

(05:56): But

(05:56): Before we do that, I have one more concept to share. The slide master group will always have a parent. Changes to the parent will flow down to all the children layouts. This is important. If you want to change the background color, you don’t want to have to touch all the individual slide. Instead change the parent with the parent. You can apply it at the top and it will flow down to the children based on the hierarchy. You can always override the flow farther down the chain by editing a specific child layout. Okay, enough chalk board talk, let’s get going and make it happen. I’m going to work through four different scenarios to highlight the different aspects and implications of this slide. Master our first scenario. We’ll see how changes flow through the presentation and why sometimes they don’t flow. Let’s go, let’s get started. We need to switch out of the standard slide view to the slide master view. We’re going to click on view and then we’re gonna go over and click on slide master. On the left side of this screen are our layouts. And at the very top is the parent slide. I’m going to make this a little bigger so we can see how the parent is out dented and all the children layouts are down below.

(07:27): Okay. one of our first task of inserting a logo, we have to make sure that we’re on the parent slide. Then we’ll go to insert pictures and we’ll choose something from my local computer. We’ll choose a power up logo. I’ll click on this when I click on OK. And insert, it’s going to drop it in the middle of our parents slide. You’ll see it’s showing on the left side of all our children. This particular image is a little too large. Oops. We flipped it over. Let’s slide it back down and flip it right side back up. We can then position. It is still a bit too big. So I’m going to make it just a touch smaller and get it exactly where I want on the parent slide. Once again, know, that make the changes. It shows up on the children’s lives down below.

(08:09): It’s a little more positioning and we should be good to go. Take a look at the logo on the parent does show up on many of the children below, but not all of them. And we’re going to examine why it’s not on our master title slide the second from the top. But hold on for a moment, let’s go into the slide master and exit out of this mode. So we’ll do slide master. We’ll close the master view. And now as we scroll up and down, we can see sure enough that the logo has been dropped into our existing presentation on almost all of the slides. But I do have a word of warning while the logo looked great on our title slide, note that in some of our presentation farther down, it does collide with our existing graphics. So if you do not create your masters slide from the beginning, you need to at least go back and review to see if any elements that you added in are not going to conflict with the existing slide. Since we’re in the existing slide management mode, we should be able to fix that easily. Wait, wait, wait. I can’t seem to click it. Notes I can click other items, but that is unclickable. Let’s see where we can get to it. Maybe it’s hiding back on the background. So we’ll go to design. Let’s go to format background, and we go there. Well, it’s still not clickable. Everything else is, but not that.

(09:39): So the lesson here is that any item added to the slide master are not touchable in the regular standard views. We’d have to go back into the layout and make changes at the masters slide level, but there’s still that mystery. Why do some of our slides have the logo and some do not have the logo. It’s a hard to understand what’s going on. So back to the slide master view, we’ll click on view and view. We’ll click on slide master. And we look at this live master. I’m going to go up to the parent when we click on the parent and look on the background. Notice that hide background graphics is grayed out. We can’t control that, but if we go into the title layout, you’ll see that is hiding the background. If I click on that and click it back off, we’ll see that the icon logo shows back up.

(10:36): So the answer is, is that specific layout has HIDE background graphics turned on, Mystery solved. Here’s a tip. Remember how we saw the logo conflicted with some of our individual slides. You might elect to find the layout. that is called a blank slide. And for that particular layout, tell it the hide, the background. I’m going to show you a second reason why the logo did not appear in all of our slides. There is this concept of sections, which I described earlier, and you can see here, I’ve actually created a collection of flies that fall under the scenarios. As a separate section. Once a section is created, it then has his own set of parent and children. Masters slides. Let’s take a look. If I scroll up to the very top, you’ll see the number one, which is applied to the first section. When I go farther down, I’m going to have a second set of parent and children.

(11:41): That is family number two. And it is that family that is applied to the section in our presentation, which is why we no longer see the logo watches change the color for this particular number two family. Once this changed, I’m going to close the master view. And once it’s closed, we can then scroll through our slide sorter. And you’ll see that that specific section jumps out that scenario section is now blue. So we’ve now learned another reason why things don’t always follow the single parent because you can have multiple families once you start to use sections within PowerPoint.

(12:25): Okay.

(12:26): We just finished with our first example, let’s switch to scenario number two, where we’re going to remodel an existing presentation. In this scenario, we’re going to actually remodel an existing presentation. We’re going to make changes to like where the titles are, the locations, formats, fonts, and along the way, we’re going to cover some issues, including how much time it takes and the impact of one change rippling through the presentation. So to do this, we’ve now switched back over into the slide master view of our same presentation. And I’m going to work on just one particular layout, not the whole presentation, just the layout of the two contents. So for this specific layout, we’re going to change the title. I do not like all caps. Let’s go into home and choose font. And from there, we’ll make the change from all caps to small caps. One of my favorites, we’ll also go in and see that we can make changes to the font style.

(13:25): We’re going to change it to bold. And along the way, we’re also going to change the color just so we can see this happening. I’m not saying this is a great looking design, but I want you to be able to visually see the changes as they flow through once I click on, okay. We are then through with title and can start to work on the two content placeholders as we go through here, making alterations. I want to point out how laborious this can become, where we’re now working at the slide layout level, which means that if we have multiple layouts, we’d have to make these changes at each level. It is possible that we want this to flow through the whole presentation. We’ve not be working on the layout level, but actually at the parent level. So you can see here that we’ve done some alterations.

(14:13): We did some and underlining. We made some color changes and we’re not going to copy that format to the second content window. Once that change is made, we can then go down and I want to show how we can impact each of the different levels. It’s important to recognize that our slide layouts have different levels for us to format so we can have different rules apply to all five levels here. I’m going to go in there and once again, make a change to the color just so we can see it. It is not a pretty look. And once we have the color change, we’re going to go in and fix the indentation just for the second level. Indentation and margins is a complicated topic itself. And we have covered that in a separate YouTube video. We can go in there in addition to making the margin changes and we can change the bullet type just for the second level on just a specific to content layout.

(15:12): I’m going to copy this across using the format painter, the format painter only works on the text. So I will have to go back and make the change to the bullet to match the left side of the screen. My next alteration has to do with the title area. It is a two line title area, and I try to keep all my titles to a single line. So it does not waste space. I’m going to make that smaller and then bring the two content items up taller so that it will flow through all of my two content layouts. Okay, let’s see this in action. We’re going to exit out of the slide master mode and take a look.

(15:53): So I’m going to scroll up to my two content slides in my presentation and we’ll see my wacky formatting, but it is very visible on how it touched only the two slide content slides. The customization was work, but you now see the dividends. It pays as it flows through a complete presentation and to drive home the point, let me actually add a new slide based off the two content layout you can see now that it followed all the formatting that we did earlier as it is applied, not only to existing slides, but all futures slides on that specific layout.

(16:38): At this point, your mind should be racing with the possibilities of how this is going to change the way you work with PowerPoint. Okay. Let’s switch to scenario three to where we can automate the use of bullet animations and transitions. Let’s go to once again to our two slide content and see about how we animate the bullets. Basically the way that they appear on the screen, I’m going to highlight them of the bullets. I’ll choose the animation. And just so we can see it happen is not one of my favorites, but we’re going to choose loading and you’ll see that they all floated in. If you look carefully, they float in with a single click and you’ll see the number one listed to each of the individual lines. I want to actually have them show up with each click. So I’m going to highlight the second level.

(17:22): Once I go over there, we can do the dropdown list and we’ll choose with on click instantly. All the bullet line numbers are numbered. One through five, meaning that they will advance. Only once you click within the presentation, let’s repeat this for the second content column for those bullet points. This time, we’re going to go ahead and choose a different format of just letting them wipe to so we can see the difference here. And we’ll make those also needing a click to show on the screen. Okay, let’s test this out. We’re going to go to slide master. We’re going to close the master view and we’re going to start the presentation from this page only. And once it fires up, we’ll see that I have to click, click, click through each of the bullet points. It’s going to happen on both the left column and the right column with lots of clicks.

(18:17): But if that’s what you wanted, younow got it on every single two content layouts, but in our quest to automate our presentation, we’re not stopping there. Let’s go back to the slide master view and use the same automation technique to work with our transitions. This is what happens when you go from slide to slide, I’m going to click on the slide master parent this time so we can apply it to everything. We’ll go to transitions. We have lots of choices. I want to show one. That will be obvious, not my favorite, but one that’s obvious. And there we’ll click on the dissolve choice before we test it out. I want to show you something subtle still on this slide master view. If we look at the very top parent, you see this little star that indicates that we have a transition applied to the whole presentation.

(19:07): Now let’s go and start the presentation from the beginning. And because we worked at the parent, we see that that slide transition happens with every single slide. Ashley one-click fixes everything throughout we’ve come a long way. And for the most part, we have been renovating existing presentations, but there may be scenarios where you want to create it from scratch. This is a scenario for, I am not going to go through every single steps because we have a completely separate YouTube video that walks through working with a blank screen and creating the whole presentation. Now, one of the items that we have to deal with is providing a unique look to our presentation. And I will show you in this tool, a technique to use office 365 to create, look that no one else has. This is truly cool. I will also go through and show you some of the deeper details that go beyond what we covered today with that said, the other technique that you’re going to need to learn, how to do is how to save this as a theme and as a template so that you can share with others. Go ahead and look on our YouTube channel to see this cool. There you go. You should now have a thorough understanding of how master slides can be used to better manage your presence in the comments below. Do let me know how your new skills are working out. And if this, this was useful, please like the video likes encourages to create more free training videos for you.

(20:52): We do have one more training video on masters slides. Part two, that goes deeper by teaching you how to build a slide presentation from scratch and share it as a template. And if you want to become a PowerPoint power user, consider this free six-part power masterclass click here to start the full training, YouTube playlist, subscribe and let my expertise become your expertise for free. Now power up

(21:28): MUSIC

Get Shift Done: Tips and Tricks

How to use “slide masters” to customize microsoft powerpoint 365 presentations.

NewCo Shift

When you associate a slide master with a Microsoft PowerPoint 365 presentation, it stores information about that presentation’s visual theme and layout, including background images, fonts, effects, and placeholders. PowerPoint includes quite a few slide masters by default, but creating your own allows you to make global customizations to your entire presentation in a single stroke, saving an enormous amount of time and frustration.

Every presentation contains at least one slide master by default. To edit it, we must enter the Slide Master View. To do so, navigate to the View ribbon and select Slide Master within the Master Views group.

When you modify any layout beneath the top-most Master Slide, you effectively make changes to the entire Master schema. Each of these subordinate slides are called layouts . They can be customized to provide a wide but uniform selection of slide designs.

Perhaps you would like a layout for chapter title cards, another for reviewing key points, and several more types to cover the individual topics you plan to address during your presentation? While each slide layout may be set up differently, they still contain the same color scheme, fonts, and effects of the Master Slide.

When you first open the Slide Master view, you see a blank slide master with the default layouts.

Let’s look at the options available from the Slide Master Ribbon. While the topmost Master Slide is selected, you can make global changes to key elements by clicking on the Master Layout button.

The other options under this group are greyed out while on the master slide. These can only be accessed from individual layouts. Similarly, the Master Layout button is greyed out whenever you are on a subordinate layout slide.

This dialog box allows us to add and remove placeholder boxes for the title, text, date, slide number, and footer. Removing any of these layout components removes them completely from the master and its subordinate layouts.

Moving along the Slide Master ribbon, select the Themes button.

From here, we apply a preset theme to the entire master schema, which gives the presentation a set of visual display attributes, including background, font type, and colors. This is a good option if you are looking for something stylish and don’t want to spend time creating an entire theme from scratch.

For more granular control over your presets, look within the Background group to access the Colors , Fonts , and Effects options. The Colors panel offers a wide selection of color schemes to apply to the master. The Fonts panel lets you choose a global font to be used across the presentation. The Effects panel provides several sets of preset slide animations that give the slide deck a more elegant and polished look. (Or at least a predictable style, which is perfectly fine when you just want to get something done on time.)

The last option in this group is Background Styles , in which you can select a new color palette for the background, or, by way of the Format Background submenu, customize a color, pattern, or picture.

The final group of options under the Master Ribbon allow you to change the slide’s aspect ratio and return the slide deck by closing the Master View.

That’s a basic introduction to the Master Slide options, which affect all the pieces of this presentation. Layouts control the types of slides the presentation can include, and what elements are included on each one.

To add a new layout, in the Edit Master group click Insert Layout .

Placeholders are content-specific containers used on layouts to maintain consistency throughout a presentation. These can be simple text boxes, pictures, or even data tables. To remove unwanted placeholders, left-click to select and press Delete. To insert new placeholders, use the Insert Placeholder menu from the Slide Master Ribbon.

Sometimes you want to remove any of the built-in slide layouts that accompany the default slide master. This keeps your Master Template clean and concise, containing only the elements you actually use. To do so, in the slide thumbnail pane, right-click each slide layout to delete, and then click Delete Layout on the shortcut menu.

Once you’re satisfied with the design, I suggest you save the layout so you can use it on future presentations. To do this, navigate to the File tab, click Save As . In the Save as type list, click PowerPoint Template (*.potx), and then choose Save .

Congratulations, you now have your own PowerPoint 365 design template! You can now use this template on current and future slide decks to save time, promote consistency, and offer a unified and professional look to your presentations.

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How to Use PowerPoint Slide Master Layouts

Use the Slide Master to effect a uniform appearance for your presentation

• Brock University

What to Know

• Go to View > Slide Master and select the top thumbnail in the Slide pane. Use the Slide Master tab to change colors, fonts, and more.
• Use the Slides pane to choose a slide layout thumbnail and make changes to the layout master.
• When you're done making changes, select Slide Master > Close Master View to return to your presentation.

To ensure that all the slides in your PowerPoint presentation have the same look, use the Slide Master. Apply fonts and styles, add multimedia, and insert footnotes. These instructions apply to PowerPoint 2019, 2016, and 2013; PowerPoint for Microsoft 365; and PowerPoint for Mac.

Access the PowerPoint Slide Master

The PowerPoint Slide Master is like a style sheet for your presentations. Changes made to the Slide Master apply to the slides that are created after you format the Slide Master.

To access the Slide Master in a PowerPoint presentation, select View > Slide Master .

Change the Layout in the Slide Master

The Slide Master view contains all the slide layouts used in PowerPoint. The Slides pane displays thumbnail images of the slide master (the top thumbnail image) and the related slide layouts (the smaller thumbnail images located below the slide master).

Changing the font on the slide master affects the text placeholders on all slides. However, not all placeholders are affected by changes made to the slide master. You may need to make additional changes to the different slide layouts.

Make changes to the Slide Master before you create a presentation. If you change the font style or color on a slide before you edit the slide master and slide layouts, the formatting is retained on those slides.

To make changes in the Slide Master:

Select the slide master. It's the top thumbnail in the Slide pane.

Go to the Slide Master tab to change the theme, theme colors, fonts, and background for the entire presentation.

In the Slides pane, select a slide layout thumbnail and make changes to the layout master, if needed.

Close the PowerPoint Slide Master

After you've made all your changes to the slide master, select Slide Master > Close Master View to return to the presentation slides.

Each new slide you add to the presentation takes on the changes you made. You'll save time by not having to make edits to every individual slide. Your presentation will have a uniform and professional look.

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Mastering PowerPoint with Master Views

To be a master of PowerPoint, you need to acquire all the knowledge and or skills that come along with PowerPoint. This may seem a bit daunting.

Below we’ll briefly go through 3 Master Views tools that will help you quickly become a master in PowerPoint:

• Slide Master,
• Handout Master,
• and the Notes Master.

PowerPoint Master Views group

These masterful Master Views will help you become a master in PowerPoint. From the Slide Master View to the Notes Master View, these features help you optimize development time, and keep you organized when presenting.

We’ll guide you through each of the views and show you how they are vital to mastering PowerPoint.

PowerPoint Slide Master

The Slide Master View allows you edit and create your own layouts . In these layouts you can add pictures, text, and even graphs and SmartArt.

When you edit and create layouts in Slide Master view, the changes you make to existing layouts will be apparent. So to avoid confusion (and accidentally messing things up), you will want to insert a new layout. Once you have done that you can insert pictures, text, etc.

Once you are done editing the Slide Master, you can save it out and use it in different projects. This really helps when creating presentations that may have similar layouts.

Once you are done creating and modifying layouts, exit the Slide Master and on the Home tab on the main ribbon, you can insert the layout directly into your existing project by right clicking on the slide you would like to insert the layout onto.

Then, scroll down to Layout and select the layout that you created.

Note that you will not be able edit the inserted Master Slide while not in the Slide Master View.

PowerPoint Handout Master

The Handout Master has everything to do with the layout of your presentation as it is printed out on paper. There are many things that you are able to change while in this view.

For example,

• the orientation from Landscape to Portrait,
• the size of the slides displayed on the page,
• how many slides are shown per page.
• In Placeholders group you have the choice to select/deselect headers, footers, page number, and the date from showing on the page.
• can choose to add a solid color or gradient to be the backdrop on your handout,
• also have the option to add an image from your personal library.

Once you have finished editing in the Handout Master, you can go File > Print and you will be given a preview of your handout.

If you don’t like the look of it, you can quickly make changes without leaving the print screen.

Notes Master

The Notes Master is very similar to the Handout Master.

• So when you change the layout of the Notes Master it will change it for every single notes section in your project.
• Again, like the Handout Master, you can change the orientation and slide size.
• Note that you are given the option to get rid of the slide image as well, so if all you want are notes for each slide, then you can select that option.
• Also be aware that the page number corresponds to the slide number as well (since there are only notes for one slide per page).
• Like the Handout Master, you can change format of the background.

Once you have finished editing the Notes Master for your project, you can preview your changes by going File > Print .

You then need to click where it says Full Page Slides under Settings and to change it to Notes Pages . Then you will be able to preview and print.

The original article is here.

Byte Bite Bit

Where is Slide Master in PowerPoint: A Simple Guide for Beginners

Navigating through PowerPoint can sometimes feel like finding a needle in a haystack, but one key feature that can save you tons of time is the Slide Master . Located within the “View” tab, accessing the Slide Master allows us to modify the overall theme, layout, and design of every slide in our presentation. By tweaking the Slide Master, we can ensure a consistent and professional look, whether we’re choosing fonts, colors, or backgrounds.

Imagine preparing a big presentation and needing to change the font across all slides. Rather than updating each one individually, we just hop into the Slide Master, make our changes, and voilà! All slides are updated instantly. This not only saves us time but also streamlines the design process, making it much easier to maintain a cohesive look throughout the presentation.

Think of the Slide Master as the blueprint for our entire presentation. It houses everything from the main slide design to individual layouts. Want to add a logo or watermark on every slide? Just put it on the Slide Master, and it will appear everywhere!

Whether you’re a PowerPoint newbie or a seasoned pro, mastering this tool can elevate your presentations to the next level.

• 1.1 Understanding Master Views
• 1.2 Customizing Slide Layouts
• 1.3 Applying Consistent Design Elements
• 2.1 Incorporating Visual Elements
• 2.2 Leveraging Templates and Themes
• 2.3 Effective Use of Color and Fonts
• 3.1 Working with Text and Placeholders
• 3.2 Adding and Editing Images and Media
• 4 Optimizing Presentation Functionality

Mastering Slide Masters in PowerPoint

In mastering PowerPoint, getting comfortable with Slide Masters is key. They are the backbone of maintaining a consistent look, ensuring our presentations reflect our brand’s identity and design effortlessly.

Understanding Master Views

Slide Masters reside in the View Tab under the Slide Master View option. This view reveals the Master Slide and its subsequent layout slides. These master slides influence the formatting of all slides connected to them.

For example, the Master Slide sits at the top, setting base designs. Editing it cascades changes to all linked layouts, streamlining consistency. To exit, simply switch back to Normal View .

Customizing Slide Layouts

Modifying slide layouts through the Slide Master View makes customization effortless. Using placeholders, we can include elements like text boxes, images, or charts. Click on the Slide Master Tab , then Insert Placeholder to tailor layouts.

We can create new layouts, adjust fonts, and change colors to align with our theme. This flexibility supports varied content while maintaining a unified look, crucial for polished presentations.

Applying Consistent Design Elements

Slide Masters ensure every slide complies with brand identity. By tweaking the Master Slide, we can standardize fonts, font colors, and background themes. It’s fascinating how a single change here impacts multiple slides, embedding consistency.

For a professional touch, utilize the Customize Colors option in Slide Master View . We define a color palette reflecting our brand, cementing a cohesive visual identity. Such tweaks lay the groundwork for presentations that captivate and maintain visual harmony.

Designing Impactful PowerPoint Presentations

Creating impactful PowerPoint presentations involves using visual elements, templates, and themes effectively while paying close attention to color and fonts. This ensures your slides are both engaging and professional.

Incorporating Visual Elements

Visual elements are crucial to capturing and maintaining attention. High-quality images, such as professional photos or illustrations, make a big difference. Remember to align images with your content to avoid distractions.

Using your brand’s logos and icons adds a layer of professionalism. For backgrounds, gradients and textures can create interest without being overwhelming. Just don’t go overboard; simplicity is key here.

Applying animation and transition effects can emphasize key points. But let’s not get carried away—choose effects that match your theme.

Leveraging Templates and Themes

Templates and themes are your best friends for consistency. A well-chosen PowerPoint template sets the tone of your presentation and maintains a cohesive look. Picking themes that align with your branding ensures consistency in fonts, colors, and layout.

Having various styles within a single theme allows for flexibility. Don’t just stick to the default ones; explore custom templates to enhance your slides. Many online resources offer free and premium templates designed by professionals.

Using a table for visualizing some elements:

Effective Use of Color and Fonts

Colors and fonts set the mood. A well-thought-out color scheme can guide the audience’s focus and evoke the intended emotions. Stick to a maximum of 3-4 colors on a slide: a primary color for titles, secondary for highlights, and neutral for backgrounds.

Font choice plays a pivotal role as well. Serif fonts (like Times New Roman) can look formal, while sans-serif fonts (like Arial) appear modern. Be consistent. Use one or two font styles throughout your presentation for coherence.

Here’s an example of effective color usage:

Primary Color: #50adbb Secondary Color: #f0ad4e Neutral Color: #ffffff

Engaging presentations rely on these essential elements to communicate our message clearly and effectively.

Managing PowerPoint Slide Components

When managing slide components in PowerPoint, we focus on effectively adding and customizing text, placeholders, images, and media. This ensures a cohesive and visually appealing presentation.

Working with Text and Placeholders

Text and placeholders in PowerPoint are crucial for organizing content. We start by selecting the master slide and then click on Insert Placeholder from the Slide Master view. This action allows us to add various items like titles, text boxes, footers, and headers.

To edit existing text, simply click in the placeholder and start typing. Customizing text styles, sizes, and colors can be done through the Home tab. We often use bulleted or numbered lists to improve readability. Headers and footers provide consistent information on every slide.

Maintaining uniformity in font selection and formatting ties the entire presentation together. We emphasize keeping the text concise and to the point to keep the audience engaged.

Adding and Editing Images and Media

Inserting images and media enhances the visual appeal of our presentation. From the Insert tab, we select Pictures to add local or online images. We can resize and move these images to fit our slide design perfectly.

For more dynamic content, adding audio and video is straightforward. By selecting the Audio or Video button in the Insert tab, we can embed media files directly into slides. Adjusting the playback settings ensures smooth transitions and appropriate timing.

Using Tables , Charts , and SmartArt helps convey data effectively. Each can be inserted from their respective buttons in the Insert tab. We customize these elements through the Design and Format tabs to ensure they align with the overall theme and design.

Optimizing Presentation Functionality

To optimize a presentation’s functionality, the Slide Master in PowerPoint becomes a powerful tool. Accessing it is quite simple. Just head to the View tab and select Slide Master . This view grants complete control over the design and layout, influencing all the slides linked to this master.

Continuously reviewing and updating the Slide Master ensures our presentations remain professional. Updates apply universally, saving time otherwise spent modifying each slide individually. It’s like hitting the jackpot in terms of efficiency.

We can import pre-existing themes via the Theme option in the Slide Master tab. This feature is insanely useful when presenting multiple decks with consistent branding. Keeping our presentations styled coherently becomes a walk in the park.

For adding slide numbers, hop onto the Slide Master, select Slide Number , and position it as needed. This feature provides automatic pagination across all slides—this means no more manually tinkering with each slide!

Remember, customizing layout in the Slide Master means any repeated elements like logos or headers appear uniformly throughout. This consistency not only enhances functionality but also gives our presentations a polished look.

Here’s a quick suggestion:

Engaging with the Slide Master isn’t just an option. It’s a necessity for anyone serious about creating optimized, seamless presentations. Let’s keep those slides sharp, streamlined, and super efficient!

Related posts:

• How to Embed a YouTube Video in PowerPoint: Step-by-Step Guide
• How to Add a Video to PowerPoint: Step-by-Step Tutorial
• How to Add Narration to PowerPoint: Step-by-Step Guide for Effective Presentations
• How to Do a Voice Over on PowerPoint: Easy Steps for Professionals
• How to Add Notes to PowerPoint: Enhance Your Presentations with Ease
• How to Make an Org Chart in PowerPoint: A Step-by-Step Guide
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• How to Change PowerPoint to Portrait: A Step-by-Step Guide
• How to Embed Excel into PowerPoint: Simplify Data Visualization
• How to Use Designer in PowerPoint for Enhanced Presentations
• How Is a Chart from Microsoft Excel Added to a PowerPoint Presentation? Step-by-Step Guide
• How to Add a Timer to PowerPoint for Enhanced Presentations

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13 Things to Include in Your Next PowerPoint Presentation

Your visual presentation can be improved with these 13 tips and tricks.

Table of Contents

When putting together a presentation or deck for a big meeting, including a visual component is key. Creating and sharing a PowerPoint presentation can help you drive home key concepts with the support of text, images, graphs and tables and other multimedia elements. Having a tangible and concrete slide deck can also anchor you while also keeping your audience engaged, which can help increase your confidence as a presenter, especially if you aren’t the most extroverted person in the room.

Of course, developing an effective PowerPoint requires plenty of consideration, from determining the structure and design to navigating the technical aspects. To help, here are 13 things to include in your next PowerPoint as well as key dos and don’ts to ensure your presentation goes off without a hitch.

>> Learn More: 5 Types of Presentations Every CEO Needs to Have

What to include in your PowerPoint presentation

A strong PowerPoint presentation should include the following components.

1. Who you are

When presenting to an unfamiliar audience — for example, if you’re speaking at an academic conference or giving a pitch to investors — it’s crucial to introduce yourself. Establish credibility and trust by briefly discussing your line of work, past accomplishments or related projects you have worked on.

2. Your logo

While you may have included your logo in your introduction, you can also put it on each slide of the presentation. This helps your brand “stick” and can be particularly effective when speaking about or on behalf of your company. [Read more about creating a small business marketing plan .]

3. An agenda

Next, write an agenda slide. Not only does this set expectations for your audience and maintain the flow of the presentation, but it can also keep you on track in both drafting and presenting your information.

4. A clear roadmap

In addition to establishing an agenda early on, you can also break down that agenda further with a clear roadmap for your presentation, which is especially helpful for longer PowerPoints with multiple sections. Don’t be afraid to return to the roadmap as needed to allow your audience to follow along better.

5. Information not on your slides

Your PowerPoint slide deck is designed to supplement and enhance your oral presentation, not replace it. Ensure your verbally-presented information adds value by including information that is not on your slides. Keep written text to a minimum, focusing on key words and main ideas. You can expand on these concepts in greater detail as you present.

6. Engaging visuals

The primary benefit of a PowerPoint is the ability to add visuals. In addition to any text on-slide and your verbal presentation content, enhance your message with engaging visual elements, such as graphs and infographics. Relying less on text helps ensure the focus remains on you, the presenter, while also illustrating your key takeaways effectively.

7. Updated data

There’s nothing wrong with reusing or repurposing a slide deck you’ve already created — as long as you keep everything current. If your PowerPoint includes statistics, industry trends , information on your business or other data, check every number and update as necessary before presenting.

8. The answer to ‘so what?’

Even if you include the most compelling and clear information in your presentation, it won’t make an impact if your audience doesn’t understand the bigger picture. Aim to answer the unspoken question of “so what?” by clarifying why the message is important and why it is relevant to your listeners.

9. Key takeaways

Your key takeaways are arguably the most important part of your presentation. Highlight these main points at the end of your PowerPoint ― or, for longer presentations, at the end of each section ― to help your audience remember them. Generating your key takeaways in the outlining stage can also help you structure your slide content.

10. Backup slides

Because a presentation is designed to be clear and concise, you may not always have the time or opportunity to go in-depth on certain topics or audience questions. Having backup slides with additional information can encourage further audience understanding — without letting the presentation veer off-track or run over time.

11. An objection slide

Depending on your presentation topic, your audience may have objections. Get ahead of these objections by dedicating a section to it in your PowerPoint. Give people the opportunity to raise any concerns and address known or anticipated issues directly.

12. A call-to-action slide

Consider what you want your audience to do after listening to your presentation. Are there specific actions to take, ideas to consider or a person to contact? Lay this out for your audience in a call-to-action slide.

13. Contact information

Display your contact information on the last slide to encourage your audience to reach out to you. They will likely appreciate the opportunity to reach out to you should they wish to discuss further and you may also make a valuable connection in the process. [Read more about how to improve customer service for e-commerce sites .]

Dos and don’ts of PowerPoint presentations

If you’re planning to use PowerPoint as a business tool, here are some key dos and don’ts to keep in mind:

• Do use speaker notes to your advantage: While your slides should be relatively clutter-free and light on text, you can include speaker notes at the bottom of the page that are only visible to you, the presenter. Use this section to include any facts, examples or questions you want to highlight in the presentation.
• Do keep your slide backgrounds subtle and consistent: Selecting a background or color scheme that’s too bold or busy can make your presentation hard on the eyes. Ensures sufficient visual contrast between the background and text colors so you and your audience can see it clearly. Microsoft has developed several built-in themes with this visual contrast in mind, though you can also create your own template if you have an eye for design.
• Do have a backup plan: Technology can fail us at the most inopportune times. Should the PowerPoint or your computer have issues, you’ll want to have a backup of your presentation on a memory stick, a CD or on the cloud. In the worst-case scenario, the tech won’t work and you won’t have any visuals to present. If that happens, take a deep breath, then deliver your presentation with a focus on the message. [Related article: Top 10 Cloud Storage Services for Business ]
• Don’t read your PowerPoint word for word: When presenting, your goal is to engage your audience and maintain their attention throughout. Reciting information verbatim from your slides can limit your connection with your audience and hurt your ability to “read the room.” Use the PowerPoint to guide and illustrate as needed but let you and your verbal presentation be the focus.
• Don’t go overboard on transitions and effects: It can be tempting to add slide transitions and sound effects for some visual excitement. However, these special effects rarely enhance your message and can be distracting or even come off as “gimmicky.” Additionally, PowerPoints with effects tend to run more slowly than those without, particularly if you’re presenting on a different computer than the one used to create the slide deck.
• Don’t include too many slides or too much information: People should not spend the entirety of your presentation reading, nor should there be so much information that they become overwhelmed and tune out altogether. Limit the number of slides in your presentation, as well as the amount of text on any given slide. Use your oral presentation to expand on key points and engage with your audience.

Scott Gerber contributed to this article.

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Create a presentation

Create a presentation in PowerPoint

Create presentations from scratch or start with a professionally designed, fully customizable template from Microsoft Create .

Tip:  If you have Microsoft Copilot it can help you create a presentation, add slides or images, and more. To learn more see  Create a new presentation with Copilot in PowerPoint.

Open PowerPoint.

In the left pane, select New .

Select an option:

To create a presentation from scratch, select Blank Presentation .

To use a prepared design, select one of the templates.

To see tips for using PowerPoint, select Take a Tour , and then select Create , .

Add a slide

In the thumbnails on the left pane, select the slide you want your new slide to follow.

In the  Home tab, in the  Slides  section, select  New Slide .

In the Slides section, select Layout , and then select the layout you want from the menu.

Add and format text

Place the cursor inside a text box, and then type something.

Select the text, and then select one or more options from the Font section of the Home tab, such as  Font , Increase Font Size , Decrease Font Size ,  Bold , Italic , Underline , etc.

To create bulleted or numbered lists, select the text, and then select Bullets or Numbering .

Add a picture, shape, and more

Go to the  Insert  tab.

To add a picture:

In the Images section, select Pictures .

In the Insert Picture From menu, select the source you want.

Browse for the picture you want, select it, and then select Insert .

To add illustrations:

In the Illustrations section, select Shapes , Icons , 3D Models ,  SmartArt , or Chart .

In the dialog box that opens when you click one of the illustration types, select the item you want and follow the prompts to insert it.

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