Revision as of 00:15, 15 February 2008

Modifying a slide master

The following items can be changed on a slide master:

• Background (color, gradient, hatching, or bitmap)
• Background objects (for example, add a logo or decorative graphics)
• Size, placement, and contents of header and footer elements to appear on every slide
• Size and placement of default frames for slide titles and content

Refer to Adding background objects for a graphical representation of many of these elements.

Before working on the slide master, make sure that the Styles and Formatting window is open. See What are styles? Why use them? for instructions on doing this.

To select the slide master for modification:

1. Select View > Master > Slide Master from the menu bar. This unlocks the properties of the slide master so you can edit it.
2. Click Master Pages in the Task pane. This gives you access to the pre-packaged slide masters.
3. Click on the slide master you want to modify among the ones available.
4. Make changes as described in this chapter, then click the Close Master View icon on the Master View toolbar. Save the file before continuing.

Caution: Any changes made to one slide when in Master View mode will appear on all slides using this slide master. Always make sure you close Master View and return to Normal view before working on any of the presentation slides. Select View > Normal from the menu bar, or clicking Close Master View in the Master View toolbar to return to the normal slide view.

The changes made to one of the slides in Normal view (for example changes to the bullet point style or the color of the title area and so on...) will not be overridden by subsequent changes to the slide master. There are cases, however, where it is desirable to revert a manually modified element of the slide to the style defined in the slide master: to do that, select that element and choose Format > Default Formatting from the menu bar.

Sometimes you may want to try several of the available layouts to see which one is more suitable for your contents. Applying a layout only requires that you open the Layouts section of the task pane and double-click on the new layout. Alternatively you can right-click on the desired layout thumbnail and select Apply to selected slide from the pop-up menu.