Creating Custom Templates

One of the first questions I hear from new PowerPoint users is, "Can I make my own design templates?" The answer is, "Yes," but that's usually followed by, "But wait awhile, until you have a better grasp of PowerPoint before you try it." You've waited long enough. Let's try it.

Downloading Design Templates from the Internet

You've used, overused, and gotten bored with the design templates that come with PowerPoint. But before you spend a lot of time creating something new, you should try finding already-made templates at the Microsoft Web site or elsewhere on the Internet. You just might find something that's fresh and also that fits the presentation you want to make.

To locate and download a design template, make sure you have an active Internet connection and then try these steps:

  1. graphics/design.gif Choose Format, Slide Design or click the Slide Design button on the toolbar to display the Slide Design task pane.

  2. Scroll to the bottom of the Available for Use templates and select the item Design Templates on Microsoft.com. PowerPoint opens your browser and takes you to the Microsoft Office Online Web site (see Figure 20.1). The list of templates you see varies, depending on what's currently posted and how the Microsoft site filters your request.

    Figure 20.1. Microsoft's Office Online Web site can be a good source for fresh new design templates.

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  3. Click a template to see what it looks like. Figure 20.2 shows an example of what you see next .

    Figure 20.2. At the Office Online Web site you can preview a design template before you download it to your computer.

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  4. Click the Download Now button to download the template to your computer.

Depending on your computer's setup, you might be asked to install download-assistance programs, to swear you'll use the download legally, or to answer other questions designed to confuse you. If you're not sure you want to let Microsoft install this software, answer no and skip this section. Otherwise, follow the prompts. Eventually, you see the template in your current PowerPoint slide show (see Figure 20.3).

Figure 20.3. Downloaded templates work like any other design templates, but they initially apply only to the current slide show.

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The downloaded template applies only to the current slide show, unless you save it as a template. To save the template for future use, follow these steps:

  1. Choose File, Save As. The Save As dialog box appears.

  2. From the Save as Type drop-down list box choose Design Template (*.pot). PowerPoint automatically jumps to the Templates folder (see Figure 20.4).

    Figure 20.4. If you save a slide show as a Design Template (*.pot) file, only the design portion is saved, making it available for future use.

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  3. Rename the template (for example, fancystuff.pot) and click Save. The .pot extension on the filename identifies the file as a PowerPoint template .

The template is now saved, and in the future when you access the Design Template task pane, the template also appears in alphabetical order in the Available for Use section. Note, however, that new templates do not appear in the task pane until you exit PowerPoint and start it again .

Creating Design Templates

You really do want to create your own design or customize a template yourself, don't you? The steps for doing so are quite simple, although you need to bring to bear many of the skills you've learned in this book, such as how to create backgrounds, add graphic images, and so on.

Each template is controlled by a slide master. Instead of customizing each individual slide, you customize the slide master, which then automatically modifies all slides in the slide show. Modifying a slide master also modifies other masters, such as the notes master.

To modify a slide design template, follow these steps:

  1. Apply a slide design to a slide. For the purposes of this exercise, we'll start with the default design, which is plain and simple.

  2. Choose View, Master, Slide Master. PowerPoint displays the slide master and a floating toolbar to assist you in modifying the master (see Figure 20.5) .

    Figure 20.5. You can modify design template information by viewing the slide master.

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  3. Make changes to the master, such as background, color scheme, fonts, and font sizes. You can also add graphic images, such as a background image, a company logo, and drawing images. Remember that the changes you make apply to all slides in the slide show.

  4. graphics/master_layout.gif Move, size, or delete placeholders. If you delete a placeholder, you can add it again by clicking the Master Layout button on the Slide Master View toolbar and then selecting from the Master Layout dialog box a placeholder to add.

  5. After you design the slide master, view and modify the title master by clicking the Insert New Title Master button on the Slide Master View toolbar. PowerPoint inserts a title master and shows the slide master and the title master as being linked (see Figure 20.6) .

    Figure 20.6. The title master is based on the slide master, and the two are a linked pair.

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  6. Make changes to the title master. Remember, however, that changes you make to one slide master aren't replicated automatically in the other. Changes should be specific to only the title master.

  7. Click Close Master View on the Slide Master View toolbar to return to the slide show .

Tip

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Although you want to be bold and go where no one else has gone before, before you build a design template from scratch, you should consider starting with a template that's close to what you're looking for. Then customize that template as described in this section. You can save a lot of time and effort by building on the work someone else has already done for you.


The template you create is used only in the current slide show, but it can be applied to any or all slides. If you want to save the template for use with other new or existing slide shows, follow the steps outlined earlier in this chapter, at the end of the section "Downloading Design Templates from the Internet ."

Slide masters also include placeholders for footers, page numbers, and dates. You modify their location, fonts, and so on in the Slide Master view. To activate and use these placeholders, follow these steps :

  1. Choose View, Header and Footer. PowerPoint displays the Header and Footer dialog box (see Figure 20.7).

    Figure 20.7. Use the Header and Footer dialog box to select which elements should appear on slides.

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  2. Change what appears on the slides by using these options:

    • Date and Time You can turn this option off or on by clicking the check box. You can also select Fixed to use the date or time that you type in the box, or you can select Update Automatically to have PowerPoint automatically update the date and time in a variety of date/time formats and even in other languages, if they are installed on your computer.

    • Slide Number This option enables you to display page numbers in the page number placeholder. In the Slide Master view, the number placeholder contains <#>, and you can add information around that, such as Page <#>, or -<#>-.

    • Footer This option lets you place anything you want on the slide, such as a company or university name or the title of the presentation .

  3. If you don't want the content of these placeholders to appear on the title slide, select Don't Show on Title Slide.

  4. Click Apply to apply these changes to only the current slide, or click Apply to All to apply them to the entire slide show .

Tip

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You can edit header and footer information date and time, slide number, and footer placeholders in the Slide Master view. This can save you some time because you format and arrange the placeholders, and then you choose View, Header and Footer to specify which ones are to be displayed on your slides. Also, changes you make in the Slide Master view automatically apply to all slides in the presentation.


Setting PowerPoint Options

Beyond templates, there are scores of options you can change to make PowerPoint behave the way you want it to. However, I usually suggest that PowerPoint users, new or not, use PowerPoint with its default settings for a period of time before seeking to change those settings. That way, you learn how PowerPoint's designers thought features might best be implemented, and you gain enough knowledge to know whether something ought to be changed. If you still can't get used to something, and there's a way to change it, then by all means do so.

Several PowerPoint options are scattered throughout PowerPoint's menus for example, the Set Up Show options found on the Slide Show menu. Many options, however, can be found in one place the Options dialog box which you access by choosing Tools, Options (see Figure 20.8). PowerPoint offers options for eight broad categories, each with its own tab. You're smart enough to figure out most of these options, so I don't want to bore you by going over everything. Instead, the following sections look at each category and talk about the options that might be most useful or that might not be clear. You'll also learn about the AutoCorrect options.

Figure 20.8. The Options dialog box enables you to set option preferences in eight broad categories.

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Setting View Options

View options (refer to Figure 20.8) relate to the way PowerPoint is viewed onscreen. For example, if you don't like having the task pane start automatically, you can turn it off. If you use the ruler, you can choose to display the vertical ruler along with the horizontal one. When you select the Windows in Taskbar check box, each PowerPoint presentation you're working on displays as a separate icon on the Windows taskbar, making it easy for you to switch from one presentation to another.

One slide show option that you might want to change is whether the menu buttons appear. If you're used to right-clicking and choosing from a pop-up menu, the onscreen buttons may be redundant and distracting. Another handy option is ending with a black slide, so you don't accidentally return to PowerPoint's editing screen at the end of a slide show.

Finally, when you save a PowerPoint presentation, it normally opens again in the last-used view (for example, the Slide Sorter view). You can choose a specific view for slide shows that you open.

Setting General Options

General options (see Figure 20.9) include the ability to link, rather than embed, large sound files. Video files link automatically, helping keep the size of a presentation small. Linking large sound files is also a good idea, although you have to remember to copy all linked sound files along with your presentation if you move it to a different computer or to the Web.

Figure 20.9. You can use the General options tab to limit the size of embedded sound files.

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Setting Edit Options

Edit options (see Figure 20.10) affect the way you select text and how you cut and paste. An important option here is the ability to change the number of undos. Be careful, however. Undos disappear whenever you save your work. An unusually large number of undos might encourage you to save less frequently. Instead, you should use undo quickly and save more frequently.

Figure 20.10. If you don't like PowerPoint's editing settings, you can change them on the Edit tab of the Options dialog box.

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You can also disable some of PowerPoint's newer options. If you're collaborating with someone who doesn't have the latest version of PowerPoint, you might want to disable features that person can't use so that you don't accidentally use them yourself.

Setting Print Options

By default, print options you select in the Print dialog box are sticky that is, they remain in effect the next time you access the Print dialog box, until you exit PowerPoint. If you don't like that, and you prefer that the default print options or settings you choose always appear, you can select Use the Following Print Settings on the Print tab of the Options dialog box and specify the options you want to keep, even after you exit and restart PowerPoint (see Figure 20.11).

Figure 20.11. You can use the Print options tab to set print options that reset themselves each time you use the Print dialog box.

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Setting Save Options

Two important save options (see Figure 20.12) are the format in which files are saved and where you save your presentations. By default, PowerPoint saves files in its native format, but you can also save in Web page format or in formats compatible with earlier versions of PowerPoint. This latter option disables features that are not compatible with earlier versions.

Figure 20.12. The Save options tab enables you to specify where and in what format to save slide shows.

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You can also change the default location where PowerPoint files are saved. To do so, type the entire path to the new default location (for example, c:\docs\pptfiles).

Setting Security Options

If you want to protect a file from being opened or modified by others, you can add a password (see Figure 20.13). If you want others to be able to open, but not modify, a file, you can add a password to modify. PowerPoint users have requested this feature for a long time. PowerPoint users often make their files available to others via email or the Web, and this feature helps people protect the integrity of the presentations that bear their names.

Figure 20.13. You can set passwords on the Security tab of the Options dialog box to prevent others from opening or editing a slide show.

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Setting Spelling and Style Options

Some people don't like the distraction of automatic spelling corrections. If you're one of them, you can turn off any of the listed features you don't like (see Figure 20.14).

Figure 20.14. You can use the Spelling and Style tab of the Options dialog box to specify how PowerPoint assists or doesn't assist in correcting spelling and style problems.

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PowerPoint's style checker is a powerful tool. If you have the Office Assistant turned on, it constantly checks to make sure your styles fall within certain predefined guidelines. For example, if you capitalize a title incorrectly, a light bulb appears onscreen. If you click the light bulb, the Office Assistant appears, giving you several options: change to the suggested style, ignore it this time, ignore it always, or go to the Style Options dialog box to change the style's settings.

Click the Style Options button on the Spelling and Style tab to display the Style Options dialog box (see Figure 20.15). In this dialog box you can set the type of case and punctuation you use for text. On the Visual Clarity tab (see Figure 20.16), you learn some guidelines for good slides and have the option of overriding these guidelines. If you make a lot of changes and forget what you started with, you can click the Defaults button to restore PowerPoint's original style settings .

Figure 20.15. Use the Style Options dialog box to establish a method for consistent case and punctuation.

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Figure 20.16. The Visual Clarity tab of the Style Options dialog box offers excellent guidelines for good slide composition.

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Setting AutoCorrect Options

AutoCorrect is a feature whose options aren't found in the Options dialog box but are often asked about. Generally, this tool can be helpful in correcting typographical errors. The feature also automatically formats certain combinations, such as replacing a fraction with a fraction character (for example, 1/2 becomes ½).

You access the AutoCorrect dialog box, shown in Figure 20.17, by choosing Tools, AutoCorrect Options.

Figure 20.17. You can fine-tune or turn off AutoCorrect options in the AutoCorrect dialog box.

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Besides being able to turn off corrections you don't want made, you can create exceptions. For example, if you type Joseph Smith, Jr., you don't want to capitalize the next word just because it follows a period. Also, some words should begin with two capital letters (for example, TVs). Finally, you can create your own AutoCorrect options; for example, you can have the shortcut ppt become PowerPoint.

The AutoFormat As You Type tab provides several stylistic options. One that is especially useful is the ability not to change font size automatically if there's too much text in a title or text box. You sometimes don't even realize that PowerPoint has made the font smaller to accommodate the extra text. Turning off this feature forces you to reduce the amount of text instead of reducing the font size.

The last tab in the AutoCorrect dialog box is Smart Tags. Smart tags enable PowerPoint to automatically insert and format such things as dates and names of people from your Outlook database, and so on. Most people find these annoying and are glad the default is not to use them. If you find a use for these, you can turn them on here .



Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
Absolute Beginners Guide to Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
ISBN: 0789729695
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 154
Authors: Read Gilgen

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