PowerPoint Basics:
Master View

Did you want: Working with Presentations: PowerPoint 2007,2010,2013,2016 or español

The way your slides and print-outs look is largely based on your Masters. A Master controls the default look of slides and print-outs. A Master slide can also define default transitions between slides and text animations.

Changing the formatting on the Master, changes all the slides or pages that use that Master. Cool trick! The Masters perform the same function as using styles in Word and Excel.

PowerPoint 2002 and 2003 allow you to use more than one Master slide in the same presentation.

Example: Slide Master

Available Masters

There are 4 different Masters:

• Title Master
• Slide Master
• Notes Page Master
• Handout Master

Master - Title slide	Master - Slide
Master - Notes Page	Master - Handout

Why use a Master?

Consistency! By using a Master, you can easily keep important features of your slides and handouts the same - logo always in the same spot, titles and text line up neatly, same background, same fonts, same animations and transitions. Of course, you can change an individual slide when the defaults don't work well for that slide.

Starting with PowerPoint 2002, you can use more than one Master in the same presentation.

What can you control with a Master?

• for Title Master and Slide Master
  • Which placeholders appear
  • Size and location of placeholders
  • Background image
  • Other objects to repeat on each slide
  • Formatting for placeholder
  • Formatting for text in placeholder
  • Default transitions
  • Default animations
• for Notes Page Master
  • Size and location of slide image
  • Size and location of Notes placeholder
  • Formatting for notes
• for Handout Master
  • Choose a default layout

What is a placeholder?

A placeholder is a text box that PowerPoint uses when creating the outline for the presentation. PowerPoint has a set of default placeholders. You cannot add to the list. You cannot change a normal text box into a placeholder.

What is on a Master?

• for Title Master slide
  • Title of presentation
  • Subtitle of presentation
• for Slide Master
  • Slide Title
  • Text (bullet list)
• for both Title Master and Slide Master
  • Date/Time
  • Slide Number
  • Footer
     

You can, of course, delete, move, and resize the placeholders on the Master.  You can add images and other objects that you want to show on every slide or handout.  Unhappily, you cannot create your own placeholders.

Slide Master - default Date, Footer, and Number areas

Example: after defaults were adjusted on the Slide Master

Step-by-Step:Master View

---

What you will learn:

to switch to Master view to view Slide Master and Title Master to view Handout Master to view Notes Master

---

Start with:, issues.ppt from your Class disk

Switch to Masters View

1. From the menu select  View | Master |  Slide .
   
   The Title Master shows in the Slide Pane and thumbnails show at the left for the Title and Slide masters. A new toolbar for Masters floats over the window.

   
    

2. Hover over each of the buttons on the new toolbar to see what they are for:
   • Insert new master
   • Insert new title master
   • Delete master
   • Preserve master
   • Rename master
   • Master layout

---

Viewing Slide Masters

PowerPoint 2002 and 2003 use the Navigation pane to show thumbnails of the various Slide and Title masters used in the presentation. Earlier versions don't allow multiple masters, so would be nothing much to show.

1. Move your mouse over the first thumbnail at the left and let it hover a moment. A popup tip tells you which Master this is and what slides actually use it. Cool!
    
   Oddly, the Master Title is the second thumbnail at the left instead of the first. ??

   When you make changes to a Master, check the slides listed in the popup tip to be sure your changes are happy ones.
    

2. Click on the first thumbnail. The Slide Master appears.
    
   You can see the formatting for 5 bullet levels.
    
3. Click on  the button Close Master View on the Slide Master View toolbar.
    

---

View Handout Master

1. From the menu select  View  |  Masters | Handouts . The Handout Master appears with a new floating toolbar.
   
    

   

2. Select each of the print layouts on the Handout Master View toolbar. The Master changes to show where the slides or outline will sit on the page.
    
3. Close the view with the Close Masters View button on the floating toolbar.
   

---

View Notes Master

1. From the menu select  View  |  Masters | Notes . The Notes Master appears with yet another new floating toolbar. At least this one is short!
   
2. Click the Master Layout button. (It's the only one beside the Close Master View button.)
   
    
   A dialog appears listing the placeholders that can appear on this Master. All are gray! What's with that??
    
   All of the placeholders are already in the Notes Master Layout. The dialog only allows you to check an item that is not already on the master. To delete a placeholder from a Master, you must delete it from the Slide Pane view.

   Other Masters also have a Master Layout button with a list of placeholders available for that Master.
    

3. Close the Notes Master view.

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

Last updated: 30 Apr 2012