How to Master The Slide Master in Microsoft PowerPoint.The presentation is like a train. An unbroken chain of trainers follows the motor and goes where it leads. Slide Master is the engine that determines the appearance of the entire presentation. It’s also the best way to save time to bulk change all of your slides from one place.
Read:how to add music to powerpoint presentation
Imagine you have a presentation with two dozen slides. To change one tiny element, you have to navigate all slides, making changes one at a time. But what if you could only change one slide and apply it automatically to all the others?
Make coordination easier with a master slide
Slide Wizards are similar to custom templates but are more comprehensive. As the name suggests, this is the topmost slide in the deck, containing all the information about the theme, layouts, colors, and fonts you want to use across all slides.
Read:Best Mac Equivalents to Microsoft Paint
You can use multiple slide masters in one presentation. Each will be responsible for a group of slides and their unique layout below it. The hierarchy looks like this:
Now that you have an idea of ?? the slide masters, let’s dive into them. The instructions below are for master slides in Microsoft PowerPoint 2016, 2019, and Microsoft 365.
How to open slide masters in PowerPoint
The slide master has a separate tab on the ribbon. To view a slide master, choose View> Slide Master.
The Slide Master tab in PowerPoint has all the tools you need to control formatting.
The left pane displays the slide layout for your presentation. A slide master is the top-most slide in the hierarchy and looks like a blank slide with content that you receive when you start a new presentation.
The controls are organized into specific groups with obvious functions:
Edit Master: Use this group to edit your slide master. You can add another master slide using the Insert Slide Master button, or you can use the Insert Layout button to add a new layout below an existing master.
The Save button ensures that PowerPoint doesn’t delete the slide master if it’s not in use. Select a slide and click Save. The button icon next to the master slide indicates that it is now saved.
Main Layout: Use this group to add or remove items such as header and footers. by adding or removing PowerPoint placeholders, header, and footers.
Edit Theme: The controls in this group let you apply a pre-made theme or use a custom theme with slide masters.
Background: Set background for the Slide Masters or Layout Masters.
Size: Choose the size and orientation of the slide to suit your presentation requirements.
In the following sections, we’ll see how to make changes to the slide master that will automatically reflect on the slides that follow.
Read:How to Use Microsoft Sway and What Is it
What is a master’s layout?
Of course, the layout of some of the slides may differ from each other. Some of your slides will be for images, some for text, and some may have animation. They are driven by another type of themed slides called the layout master.
They are subordinate to the master slide. And each slide master can have multiple layout masters. For example, the header layout is a variation of the layout wizard.
You can use one master layout for all slides that display text. Another for images and so on. Modify an item in one layout master slide, and all dependent slides change with it. No need to mess with every slide.
Designing a slide layout is similar to modifying a PowerPoint template
Thus, slide masters and layouts in PowerPoint can not only help you create presentations quickly but also update them in the future. Any other member of your team can come in and make changes without jumping between slides. A library of ready-made designs can also help you change the layout of a simple presentation with just a few clicks.
Format a presentation with master slides
The slide master, as we have seen, has a default layout. You can use this or start from scratch with your own design.
1. Switch to slide master view.
On the View tab in the Ribbon, click the Slide Master button in the Basic Views group.
2. The Slide Master tab on the ribbon.
The Slide Master tab on the Ribbon opens. A new slide master appears with the default PowerPoint layout.
3. Change your slide master
The default slide master has placeholders for the title slide, subheadings, footer, date, and more. Make any formatting changes to this simple slide. You can also choose from the available PowerPoint themes to create your slide master.
You can also click Layout Layout and then uncheck unnecessary placeholders to select items in the slide master.
4. Modify the layout wizard
Each theme has multiple slide layouts. Choose layouts that match the slide content. Some are better for text, some for comparison, and some for graphics.
You can create your own layouts from scratch by clicking Insert Layout in the Edit Master group.
Like the default layout but want to change it a bit? Right-click the thumbnail of the specified layout slide on the left and select Duplicate Layout. Alternatively, remove unnecessary layout layouts by using the right-click shortcut or the Delete button on the tab. PowerPoint has about 25 layouts to choose from, and you may not need them.
5. Apply layouts
Click the Close Main View button on the Slide Master tab on the Ribbon to return to normal view.
In the thumbnail pane, click the slide to which you want to reapply the updated layout. Go to the Home tab> Slides group> click Layout. Select the layout you created in Slide Master View. You can also select multiple slide thumbnails and apply a shared layout to them.
Most of your presentations will be overseen by layout experts. Just be sure to reapply layouts to the respective slides if you go back and change anything in the layout wizards.
Make masters before you start making presentations
HTML documents have style sheets. There are styles in Word documents. And PowerPoint has slide masters. These are printed blocks that greatly simplify everything that comes after they are done. PowerPoint designs can be refurbished and completely new with several slide master settings.
You just saved a lot of time with master slides. Make the most of this time to work on the actual content and make your PowerPoint more engaging to your audience.
–