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Working with themes and slide masters in

Working with themes and slide masters in PowerPoint 2013

PowerPoint 2013
Although PowerPoint comes with a range of predefined designs, there will be times
when you want something a bit different. This note shows you how to create your own
look by customising your presentation’s theme and slide master.

Using themes
A theme is a set of predefined fonts, colours, backgrounds and effects. All
presentations have a theme, even the default blank presentation (the Office theme).

You can choose a theme when you select New from the File tab, or you can apply one
to an existing presentation from the gallery on the Design tab. Keep in mind good
design principles when making your choice – dark text on a light background works
best for legibility, particularly for people with visual disabilities.

Customising a theme
Each theme comes with Variants. This includes a gallery of different colour schemes. It
also includes a colour palette, a set of fonts and also effects that you can apply to
shapes.

To choose a different palette, click on the More button at the Variants gallery and
select Colors.

If you don’t like the fonts, select Fonts and apply a different set. The top entry is the
font used in the title; the bottom is for the content placeholder.

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Changing the background
If you have started with a blank presentation, you can use Format Background on the Design tab
to create your own look. You can also use these options to make changes to any theme.

From here, you can choose a solid colour, set a gradient, apply textures,
and even use a picture. Remember that a background picture will affect
readability –try using the Transparency slider to fade it out.

Note that clicking Close will apply the changes to the current slide
only. To change all the slides, click Apply to All.

Tip: If you want a slide without the background design, click on Format
Background and select Hide Background Graphics. However, any fills you
have used will still display. This applies to the current slide only.

Saving a theme
You can save your customised theme to use again. On the Design tab, click on the More button at
the Themes gallery, select Save Current Theme and give it a name. It will appear in the Custom
section of the gallery.

Applying multiple themes

You can use more than one theme in a presentation. For example, you may want to use different
themes for different topics or sections.

To apply another theme, first select the slides. You can do this in the Slides pane or in Slide Sorter
view. To select several slides at once, hold down Shift and click on each. Then, click on the Design
tab, right-click on the theme and select Apply to Selected Slides.

Once you have applied another theme to existing slides, you can use it for new slides. On the

Home tab, click the down arrow at New Slide . You will see a set of slide layouts for each
theme.

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Using slide masters
Customising a theme is a quick way to change some elements of a presentation. The slide master,
however, controls everything about its appearance, including the position and layout of
placeholders as well as fonts, colours and backgrounds, and allows you to make much more
extensive changes.

If you want to change the layout of your slides, for example, the font size, the colour of the bullet
points, or the alignment of the text in the titles, you should do this on the slide master, not on the
slides themselves.

To access the masters, click on the View tab.

PowerPoint has three masters – slide, handout and notes. Click on Slide
Master to display the Slide Master tab.

On the left are thumbnail images. At the top of the pane is the slide master. Below this are
individual slide layouts.

Use the slide master to make global changes to your slides, for
Slide master example, altering the alignment of the title placeholder or
inserting a logo on all slides.

Individual To make changes to a specific type of slide, such as Title and

slide layouts Content, use the slide layout.

When you have made your changes, click Close Master View.

Note: Any manual changes that you made to the layout of a slide in
your presentation before editing the slide master will be retained when you
return to Normal view. To apply the edited slide master, click on the slide,
and in the Slides group on the Home tab, click on Reset.

Editing text placeholders

To edit the text attributes in all the slide layouts, click on the slide master. Click on the placeholder
border to select it, then click on the Home tab and use the Font and Paragraph groups to make
your changes.

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For bulleted text, you can edit the font attributes at individual levels by first selecting the text.

To edit the format of the bullet points, click in the level, then on the Home tab, click on Bullets
and select Bullets and Numbering. From here, you can change the size and colour, click on
Customize to choose a symbol (select Wingdings from the Font menu for a wide range), or Picture
to choose an image. To change the bullet for all levels, click on the placeholder border first.

Changing the placeholder layout

You can change the size of a placeholder. Click on the placeholder to select it, then drag a resize
handle. You can also drag it to another location on the slide.

If you delete a placeholder from the slide master then want to reinstate it, click on Master Layout
and click the check box.

Inserting new placeholders

You can insert additional placeholders on the individual slide layouts (though not on the slide
master itself). Click on Insert Placeholder, choose the placeholder type and drag where you want
it to appear on the slide.

If you find that your new placeholder does not appear immediately on slides in your presentation
you created before you made the change, click on the slide, then on the Home tab click on Reset
in the Slides group. PowerPoint will reapply the layout master.

Changing the slide master background

Although you can change the background in Normal view from the Design tab, you can also make
changes from the Slide Master tab.

To make changes to the background of all the layouts, click on the slide master; to make a change
to a specific type of slide, click on the slide layout. Click on Background Styles and Format
Background (or click on the Background group dialog box launcher ).

Clicking Close in the Format Background callout from the slide master will affect all slide layouts.
Clicking Close from a specific slide layout will affect that layout only. To apply the change to all
layouts, including the slide master, click Apply to All.

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 Note: You cannot use the Reset Slide Background option from the slide
master, only from individual slide layouts. The background will reset to that
of the slide master.

Adding an image
You can use the slide master to add an image, such as a logo, to your presentation.

In Slide Master view, click on the slide master to add the image to all slides. Click on Insert and in
the Images group, click on Pictures to insert a file, or Online Pictures to insert an image from
[Link] or the web. Note that, depending on the theme, the image may not appear on all slide
layouts – a Title slide, for example, normally has a different background design from other slides.
You may have to insert it on individual layouts.

Position and resize the image. You can use the Picture Tools Format tab to edit the image. You can
apply effects, or take out the background with Remove Background.

So that content added to a slide in Normal view appears on top of the image, use Send Backward
in the Arrange group to move it to the back.

Working with multiple slide masters

If you have applied more than one theme to your slides, you will see a set of masters for each in
Slide Master view.

You can also create another set directly in Slide Master view by clicking on Insert Slide Master in
the Edit Master group. PowerPoint applies the default Office theme to the new set. To apply a
different design, click on Themes, then right-click on the theme and select Apply to Selected Slide
Master.

An alternative method of creating another set is to click on Themes, then right-click on the theme
and select Add as New Slide Master.

If you want to use the same theme throughout a presentation, but change the colour scheme in
different sections, you can create a duplicate slide master and edit it.

To do this, make sure you are on the slide master, then right-click and select Duplicate Slide
Master. To help identify the new master more easily, right-click and select Rename Master. Make
any changes you wish; for example, click on Colors in the Background group and choose another
colour scheme.

To ensure PowerPoint does not remove your new masters (which can happen if they have not
been applied to any slides in the presentation), click on the slide master and on Preserve in the
Edit Master group (or right-click and select Preserve Master). Slide masters that are already
preserved will have a pushpin icon next to them in the navigation pane.

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Inserting new layouts
You can create a slide layout of your own by clicking on Insert Layout in the Edit Master group The
new layout will have a title placeholder only. Click on Insert Placeholder to add another
placeholder type.

If you want a plain text placeholder rather than bullet points, select Text from the Insert
Placeholder list. Then select all the bulleted text, and on the Home tab click on Bullets to deselect
it. Overtype with new prompt text. You can format the font type, size etc. any way you want. This
is useful if you know you will be creating a number of slides containing blocks of text rather than
bulleted lists.

The layout appears in the master list as Custom Layout Layout (move your cursor over it to see
the tooltip). To change this to something more descriptive, right-click on the layout and select
Rename Layout. When you insert a new slide in your presentation, you will see your layout in the
list.

Using the handout and notes masters

As well as a slide master, PowerPoint also has masters that control the layout of printed handouts
and notes. These are used when you choose Notes Pages or Handouts from the Print Settings.

To edit a master, click on the View tab and choose Handout Master or Notes Master.

The masters include placeholders for headers, footers, dates and page numbers, which you can
move around. To prevent a placeholder displaying, deselect it in the Placeholders group. You can
change the text attributes (font, alignment, etc.), but don’t insert text in the header or footer
placeholder – that is done from the Insert tab or File and Print.

You cannot move the slide placeholders on the handout master. You can, however, move and
resize the slide placeholder on the notes page master. You can even add effects, such as a shadow,
from the Drawing Tools Format tab.

As with the slide master, you can add backgrounds and insert images on both the handout and
notes masters.

To print your handouts or notes pages, click on File and Print. Under Settings, click on Full Page
Slides and make your selection.

Adding headers and footers

Page numbers are displayed on your handouts and notes pages by default. Text for headers and
footers is added from the Insert tab or from File and Print.

On the Insert tab, click on Header & Footer. In the Header and Footer dialog box, click on the
Notes and Handouts tab.

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 To add the date, click Date and time.
Choose Update automatically to update
the date each time the notes or handouts
are printed, or Fixed to enter a specific
date.

To add a header or footer, click the

checkbox and type in the text.

Click Apply to All.

These settings are saved with the presentation, so you don’t need to re-enter them every time you
print.

To make a change from File and Print, click on Edit Header & Footer at the bottom of Settings.

Exporting handouts to Word

Rather than simply printing out your handouts, you can export them to a Word document that you
can then customise. This has the advantage of allowing you to use your handout in other ways, for
example, as a pdf, or in an email.

Click on the File tab and select Export. Click on Create Handouts and on the Create Handouts
button. Choose an option from the Send To Microsoft Word dialog box.

The choice of layouts here is more limited than that available through
Print.

You can create a link between the presentation and your Word
document by selecting Paste link. If you update the slides, the
document will update as well. Note, however, that only existing slides
are updated – new or deleted slides will not be reflected in the Word
file.

Once you have your file, you can format it as you require. Note that very few elements from the
handout master layout are applied to the Word document. Background designs and images are
not copied over, and you will have to insert headers, footers and page numbers manually.

Creating a template
You can save your customised theme and slide master as a template so that you can use your
design again. Any slides you have created will become part of the template, so, unless you need
them, delete everything except the Title slide.

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Click on the File tab and on Save As. Click Browse, and at Save as type, choose PowerPoint
Template. Give the file a name and click Save. The template is saved in the Custom Office
Templates folder by default, although you can choose to save it elsewhere if you wish.

If you have saved the file in the templates folder, click on File, New and Custom, then click on the
Custom Office Templates folder. If you have saved it elsewhere, use Windows Explorer to navigate
to the location and double-click on the file name. The file will open as a PowerPoint presentation.

To edit the template, click on File and Open. Click on Computer and Browse. Change All
PowerPoint Presentations at the bottom right to PowerPoint Templates. Open the file from the
Custom Office Templates folder or navigate to the location.

Tip: The template includes the settings in the Header & Footer dialog
box so you can even control how the presentation will look when printed.

Resources
For more information on PowerPoint features and functions, see the Posters, presentations and
design section on our Documents Catalogue at [Link]/is/skills/documents-catalogue

For information on our training courses, see [Link]/is/skills

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