Working with Slide MastersEditing Master Slides in PowerPoint

By Barbara Maroney

Introduction

Everyone is busy these days. Many of us are responsible for presentations and material design. Why not set your project up from the beginning and save yourself some time and effort?The easiest way to do this is with Slide Masters.

So Plain!

As you can see our slides are pretty plain.

You could select a design or template and that would take care of much of the blahs!

But what if you need to add a company logo?Or have a confidential label on slides?

So WHAT is a Slide Master?

Per Microsoft (2013), a Slide Master defines the

formatting and positioning for common

elements – such as title placeholders, content

placeholders, and footers – on the

corresponding slide layout. Slide layouts define

the position and formatting for text and objects

that appear on the slide.

Where do I start?

At the beginning of course Big HINT: Set up your Slide Masters before you begin to put together you project. Establishing fonts, colors, and placement can keep your project on track and consistent.

You can always make adjustments as you edit if you would like.

Finding Slide Masters

On the main menu – Select VIEW

Then make a selection from the Master Views. We will be looking at Slide Master only for this module.

Parts of the Slide Master

1. Slide master2. Slide layouts3. Title element4. Body element5. Footers (including date and time, footer

text, and slide number)

The first slide is often called the parent slide and the others children. If you make changes to the parent slide, the children adopt those changes. You can modify each slide if needed.

Ch..ch..changes

Let’s start to personalize with titles. Current settings. See the Parent slide?

Using the standard tools within PowerPoint, we can modify the text and change the style of the shape. You will notice on the left that each of the child slides has changed too.

Ta Da!

Once the Slide Master is changed, all slides developed from that master will change. If you make the changes on the Parent, all the children will adopt the change. You may set up a second Parent Master if you would like. This allows you more flexibility!

Logos and Confidentiality

What would you add next? How about a logo and a confidentiality statement? Common things on company or school documents.

Granny’s on the GO!We would probably want this a bit smaller. Although I like her as is…but it is not practical!

Determine the logo’s size. Copy it and open the Slide Master. Paste Granny where you would like her. Let’s try.

Go Granny Go!Granny is driving off

every page!

Granny is where I want

her.

Permission notice for content

Granny is everywhere

As you can see, our picture of Granny appears

on the parent and child slides. Simply add a new

slide and then right click to choose a new layout.

But since we added Granny to the Slide Master,

she will appear on each option.

If you don’t want Granny on a particular slide,

simply select her and delete.

She’s here too but hiding behind the title bar.

Footer

One way to add the Confidentiality Statement is to add it in the Footer. First, you must INSERT the footer into the page – otherwise you will never see it on your slide.

From the Main Menu, Select INSERT

Applying the Footer

Once you Select the Header / Footer button, this dialog box will appear. Check the Footer box and enter the text you would like to have appear at the bottom of your page.

Apply to this slide only, or you can Apply to All

Remember to exit the Slide Master and SAVE your changes.

Granny's on the Go! Confidential Content

Our New Slide Master

Now our Slide Master has a fancy title, our company logo, and a confidentiality notice on each slide. We can continue to add placeholders for content, pictures, or tables. We could change background styles. The choices are almost limitless.

Be Creative and Go PLAY!

Granny's on the Go! Confidential Content

ReferencesBajaj, G. (2013). Slide master in powerpoint 2010. Indezine PowerPoint Tutorials. Retrieved from www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint Slide-Master defined. Retrieved from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/create-and-customize-a-slide-master-HA010078011.aspx