Advanced PowerPoint: How to Create a PowerPoint Template

To convey greater professionalism and seriousness, it is important to be consistent with your company brand. 

An effective way to maintain consistency in a company or team is to use PowerPoint templates for presentations. 

PowerPoint templates are the hidden gem of the best designers. That's why incorporating models into your team is a wise choice! 

What are PowerPoint templates

PowerPoint templates are a group of slides with pre layout, colors, fonts and themesdefinor which will optimize your creative process when designing presentations. 

A good PowerPoint template contains nice layouts, great background styles, and unique color schemes. It also features strategically placed placeholders, which allow for seamless insertion of text, images, videos, graphs or tables.

Without a doubt, PowerPoint templates are a great tool for creating professional slides very quickly.

PowerPoint Template and PowerPoint Theme

You may have heard the terms “theme” and “template” used interchangeably, but in Power Point they don't mean the same thing. 

Let's see the difference between a PowerPoint template and a PowerPoint theme:

• Un PowerPoint templates is a set of ready-made PowerPoint slides that contain layouts, themes, charts, diagrams, and even content. Its extension is .potx.
• Un PowerPoint theme it is a pre setdefinite of fonts, colors and visual effects applied to your slides. Its extension is .thmx .

So, in summary, a template provides a pre-set structure, where you just need to enter your content. While a theme it allows you to change the overall visual appearance of your presentation with just one click.

Of course, you can apply any theme to an existing PowerPoint template or presentation. When it comes to design, the only limit is your imagination.

Why PowerPoint templates are useful

You can fully customize PowerPoint templates to meet a wide range of requirements. There are many reasons to create a PowerPoint template. Let's see the main ones:

It ensures consistency

Many companies, especially large ones, may require several employees to frequently conduct a presentation. Asking employees to create a new, professional-looking presentation every time can create confusion and lead to inconsistent results. By having a standardized template, employees can create effective presentations consistently.

Adheres to the company's branding strategy

Companies want to appear professional, and adhering to the company's branding strategy is one way to achieve this. With a PowerPoint template set up, you can ensure your company's branding is clear and follows brand guidelines. For example, if you're using your company's branding to appeal to millennial businesses, you can ensure that every PowerPoint your company presents speaks to this target audience.

Faster to produce presentations

For any business, time is a limited and precious resource. Have a simple, standard template for PowerPoint allows employees to design presentations and presentations more quickly, as employees do not need to structure or design the presentation. This allows team members delivering the presentation to focus on the content of the presentation, rather than its style.

How to create a template PowerPoint custom

If you need a impact template fully customized to your needs , you should create a PowerPoint template from scratch. 

With a custom template of PowerPoint, you have complete control over the final design of your slides. 

That said, let's explore together how to make a model PowerPoint in six simple steps! 

1: Set the size of the slides

Adjusting the slide size is really simple on a blank PowerPoint presentation: just three clicks and you're done!

To set or change the size of the slide in PowerPoint, you must only: 

• Go to Design tab . 
• Click on Slide Size button .
• Select the size you need for your presentation deck. If you choose “Standard (4:3)” or “Widescreen (16:9)”, your slides will change automatically.

How to resize a slide with custom measurements

By defaultdefinited, the slides are the size needed for a widescreen presentation. This is because most desktop screens have proportions 16: 9 .

Good news! If you request it, you can customize the size of your slides in PowerPoint . You just need:  

• Press “Custom Slide Size” and a popup will appear.
• To change the size of your slides, type the new measurement in the boxes or use the arrows in the “Width” and “Height” sections. 

• If you are unsure of the specific width and height your slides require , click “Slide size for” and select the most appropriate size for your template PowerPoint.

2: Open the view SLIDE MASTER

This is where a special feature of PowerPoint: Slide Master . 

You couldn't learn to make a model PowerPoint without this feature, so be very careful! 

• Go to card View .
• Press the “ buttonSlide Master” (see image).
• The tab will appear Slide Master and you will be able to access the new features of PowerPoint.

The first slide is called ” Slide Master ” and any changes you make will be reflected in subsequent slides (Layout Slides).

Let's delve deeper into a concrete example! The next image shows the effectiveness of using Slide Master for creating templates or presentations in PowerPoint.

3: Customize yours Slide Master

Now that you have the view open Slide Master, it's time to learn how to customize this tool.

Here are some important changes you can apply to your Slide Master in PowerPoint:

Edit placeholders on the Slide Master

Let's start with the simplest part: placeholders of yours Slide Master.

• Go to card Slide Master .
• Click the ” button Master Layout ". 

• A dialog box will appear with the different types of placeholders available in the software. There you can check the placeholders needed to create a template PowerPoint.

Apply a PowerPoint theme to your Slide Master

You are free to choose any theme PowerPoint predefinite or a custom theme you already have for your project. 

• If you like the aesthetic of PowerPoint , you will see these options when you click the button Themes.
• If you have a custom theme saved on your computer , you just need to click on “Browse for Themes...".

Set a custom color palette on your Slide Master

By defaultdefinita, PowerPoint offers some built-in color palettes, but you can use your own set of colors if you prefer. 

This approach is especially useful when your template is designed for a project with its own brand identity.  

• Go up "Colours” in the tab Slide Master.
• Click “Customize colours” to set your color palette in Slide Master.

• A new pop-up will appear with 12 sections to fill out. 
• Remember to name and save the final color palette in PowerPoint .

Choose a set of Fonts customized for yours Slide Master

In this process of creating your model PowerPoint, you also need to know how to set up a font pack in this software. 

Let's check how to do it: 

• Go up "Fonts” in the tab Slide Master.

• Click on " Customize Fonts ” to open a dialog box. There you can set your new header and body fonts.
• Create a name for this character set and click “Save".

By saving, they will change layout slides when using the feature Slide Master in PowerPoint.

Customize the background of your Slide Master

If you don't like the themes of PowerPoint or you feel “something is missing”, you can customize the background style.

Let's see how to do it:

• Make sure you're in the card Slide Master .
• Stay on the first slide (slide Slide Master).
• Select "Background Styles” > ” Format Background ".
• A panel will open on the right side of the screen. There you can customize your background with a solid color, a gradient, or even add an image.

Add your company logo to the Slide Master

If you want to improve brand consistency and improve brand awareness among your audience, it is advisable to embed your logo in the PowerPoint template.

It's very simple to do: just follow these instructions: 

• Go to the tab Insert > Pictures > This device ....
• Select your company logo image with a transparent background (PNG is the most common format).
• Place the logo on your master slides and voilá!

4: Design layout slides

When you finish designing your Slide Master, you should know a little more about the following slides known as “Layout Slides”. 

Designing layouts in PowerPoint makes the task of adding information to your presentation easier. No doubt, having several pre-set layouts saves you a lot of time!

Furthermore, in case you share this main resource with different teams, you will be able to adapt it to their needs. This way, your PowerPoint template will be more user-friendly!

Customize i Placeholder on layout slides

Here are all kinds of Placeholder that you can embed in your layout slides: 

• Content
• Text
• Image
• Graphic
• Table
• SmartArt
• Media
• Online image

To edit these Placeholder, you must only:

• Click the Placeholder that you want to change.
• A new Format tab will appear. Depending on each type of Placeholder , the settings of PowerPoint they would be different. 
• Finally, it changes the aesthetics of each Placeholder As you wish! 

We recommend that you add Placeholder in strategic areas on the layout slides. Try it out to see which setting best suits your project! 

Hide background graphics on a layout slide

Remember how we added a logo on the master slide throughout the presentation deck? 

Fine, if you wish remove logo or any other background graphics from specific layout slides , here's what you need to do:

• Click the layout slide you want to edit.
• Go to the Ribbon Slide Master.
• Check the box “Hide Background Graphics” (see image).
• If you want to apply it to multiple slides, press and hold the “Ctrl” and select the slides you want to replicate this change on.

Hide Title o Footers on a layout slide

In addition to hiding background graphics on layout slides, you can also choose to hide the title or any footers.

Let's check how to do it:

• Go to the tab Slide Master.
• Uncheck the options “Title"and "Footers”, as requested (see image). 
• Unlike the previous feature, these changes are made manually on each slide.

Create a new layout slide

What if you wish Different settings for just one layout slide? Well, you can bend the rules a little. 

Let's say you want to embed a different background color from the master slide and prefer to use a white Stencil font for your titles, but only for a particular layout slide. 

Luckily for us, PowerPoint is flexible enough to make this happen. Here's what you need to do:

• Click on the layout you want to change. In this example, we'll change the layout of the title slide (the layout immediately below the master slide). 

• To change the background color , right-click the slide itself and select “Format Background.” 
• To change the font style and color , just highlight it and the Format Shape tab will appear. There you can customize your text with the tools: Text Fill, Text Outline and Text Effects. 

Here's what the final layout slide looks like:

Step 5: Apply layout slides to your PowerPoint template

We are nearing the end of this guide on how to make a PowerPoint template.

Now is the time to apply previously created layout designs to your template . Remember that you have the freedom to choose the order!

• Close the master view going up Slide Master > Close Master View.
• Right-click the slide you want to edit (you can create a new slide or edit an existing one).
• Select the “Layout” option and a new list of layouts will appear (here you will see all the layouts created in the previous step!).
• Choose the layout that best suits your needs!

Step 6: Save your custom PowerPoint template

Once you're happy with the aesthetics of your slides, it's time to save yours template PowerPoint: 

• Go to the tab File.
• Click on "Save As”>“Browse".
• Then, select “Save as type".
• You choose "Power Point Template” (see image).
• If necessary, change the file name. 
• Click on "Save" And that's it! 

Here it is! You created a template PowerPoint customized ready to be used for any project. 

FAQ

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Ercole Palmeri