PowerPoint Formatting:
Templates

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Microsoft PowerPoint tries to make creating and formatting a presentation as easy as possible by providing two kinds of templates: content templates and design templates.

Content Template: New Presentation

When your brain is blank, a presentation content template can spark your thinking. A content template creates a new presentation with formatted slides which have temporary text. The text tells you what kind of information should be on the slide. You must replace this text with your own, of course.

The content templates are available in the New Presentation or General Templates dialog (on the Presentations tab) and through the AutoContent Wizard.

A content template is intended to create a new presentation. If you apply the template to an existing presentation, you won't get the temporary text suggestions, just the formatting and background.

The AutoContent Wizard is a handy way to pick a presentation content template. The wizard organizes the templates into categories, which makes it a bit easier to find what you want. Plus, you can choose the type of media you plan to use, which affects the dimensions of the slides.

Example of a Content Template: Training

The Training contents template creates 9 slides with the following outline:

1. Training
   • Subtitle
2. Introduction
   • Define the subject matter
   • State what the audience will learn in this session
   • Find out any relevant background and interest of the audience
3. Agenda
   • List the topics to be covered
   • List the times allotted to each
4. Overview
   • Give the big picture of the subject
   • Explain how all the individual topics fit together
5. Vocabulary
   • Glossary of terms
   • Define the terms as used in this subject
6. Topic One
   • Explain details
   • Give an example
   • Exercise to reinforce learning
7. Topic Two
   • Explain details
   • Give an example
   • Exercise to reinforce learning
8. Summary
   • State what has been learned
   • Define ways to apply training
   • Request feedback of training session
9. Where to Get More Information
   • Other training sessions
   • List books, articles, electronic sources
   • Consulting services, other sources

You can see that this is a very general kind of outline for a training session. You might have more than 2 topics. A topic might need more than one slide. Your audience might already be familiar with the vocabulary needed for the training. You must adjust, delete, and add to make this presentation truly useful.

Design Template

A design template is a quick way to pick or change the look for a whole presentation - background, fonts, font sizes, bullets, etc. If you apply a design template to all of your slides, your Masters are replaced by the ones from the template.

You are not stuck with your first choice of a template. Picking a new design template is simple and changes only the formatting of the slide's text and any objects that you have inserted.

In PowerPoint 2002/03 you apply a new design template to an existing presentation from the Task Pane - Slide Design: Design Templates. Just click on the design in the pane. It couldn't be simpler!

The Browse link at the bottom of the pane opens a dialog where you can browse to other folders for design templates. You  might have templates from older versions of Microsoft Office in different folders than what the Task Pane sees.

Starting with PowerPoint 2002 you can apply a design template to selected slides or even to just one slide. Then the template's Masters are added to your existing set of Masters.

Missing Templates

When you try to apply a template, you may get a message that tells you it is not installed yet. You will need your installation disk for PowerPoint or Office to install the templates. Follow the instructions on the screen and the category of templates you were trying to use will be installed. Unfortunately, content templates and design templates are installed separately.

~~  1 Cor. 10:31 ...whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.  ~~

Last updated: 30 Apr 2012