Design Corner: Modifying an Existing Design Template

Often you'll find a design template whose basic design and concept you like, but the colors are wrong or you would like to change other design elements. In PowerPoint, it's easy to modify an existing design template to create a new one.

For example, let's say that you like the Eclipse design template, but would prefer a dark background and some other color changes and would also like to change the bullet styles. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Apply the Eclipse design template to your presentation from the Slide DesignDesign Template task pane and then click the Color Schemes Hyperlink.

2. Choose a new color scheme from those that appear; PowerPoint applies it to your presentation.

3. Click the Edit Color Schemes hyperlink to open the Edit Color Schemes dialog box.

4. Choose the item whose color you want to change, such as Title Text, and click the Change Color button to open the Title Text Color dialog box.

5. Choose your new color and click OK.

6. Continue applying color changes in this manner until you're done; click Apply to close the Edit Color Scheme dialog box.

7. Select the bulleted text and choose Format, Bullets and Numbering to open the Bullets and Numbering dialog box.

8. Choose a new bullet style and click OK.

You can apply these changes only to the current presentation or save them as a new design template (choose Design Template as the file type in the Save As dialog box).

Before

Figure 6.22.

After

Figure 6.23.