Master Pages
PowerPoint Version 2000 and 97
Using Master Pages to customize templates in PowerPoint in 97 and 2000
 

The Master Pages in PowerPoint are the place to control how your presentation looks. By understanding how to correctly use the Master Pages, you can do anything from making simple changes to your presentation or create a whole new template design -- very fast and very easily.

To access the Master Pages, click on View - Master - Slide Master or Title Master or Handout Master or Notes Master. (See example of menu).

There are separate master pages for title slides, content slides, handouts and notes pages which control how each of these types of pages will look. Title Master page controls the look for the title pages. Slide Master page controls the look of all slides except title slides. Handout Master controls what is printed on the handouts. Notes Master controls what is printed on the Notes page. To change the "look" of a presentation, you will be working mainly with Title Master and Slide Master.

By default, changes made on the Title and Slide Master pages will be reflected on all corresponding slides throughout the presentation. For example, if you add a graphic to the slide master, it will appear on every slide in your show except those designated as title slides. If you change the layout of the title master, the slides that you have designated as title slides in your presentation will change.

Changes made on individual pages only affect those specific pages. And once you make a change to something on an individual page, the Master pages can no longer override it with a new change. In other words, if you make a text change to a bulleted list on an individual page, and later make a change to the Master page, the Master page won't alter what you did on that individual page anymore.

DO NOT ADD YOUR INFORMATION INTO THE MASTER PAGES! If you do, it won't show up when you go to view the screen show nor will it print. It will be locked inside the Master pages.
 
Making Simple Changes to Master Pages
 

Let's say you have made your entire presentation and decide the font on the bullet lists need to be a bit larger. Rather than making this change to each and every bullet list in your presentation, you can make the change once on the master page and it will globally change every bulleted list in your presentation.

REMINDER: If you have already made the font size change to a bullet list on a single page, changing the font size on the master will no longer affect the bullet list on the single page. Changes to individual pages will override the Master Template.

 
  EXAMPLE: Changing the font size for all bulleted lists.
1. With your PowerPoint presentation open, go to View - Master - Slide Master. You will now see a page that has the "Click to Edit Master..." boxes.
2. Highlight your bulleted text box that says "Click here to edit Master Text Styles." Make changes to the text attributes just as you did in Lesson 2.
3. Close the Master Pages by selecting View -Normal Page (97 = View -Slide). You must close out of the Master pages before you add actual information into your slide presentation.
4. The changes you made on the Master page should now be visible in all bulleted lists throughout your presentation. You can do this same procedure with the title text, graphics, colors, and logos or whatever you want to change or add to your presentation.
   
Altering an Existing Template Design or Creating Your Own
  When you start a new PowerPoint presentation, you are prompted to select a design template. PowerPoint page design is based on the use of Templates. Templates have predetermined colors, designs, graphics, text attributes and object placements. Each PowerPoint file can only use one Template design at a time (versons 2000 and before). Since everyone has the same templates with their PowerPoint program, you may want to alter one to make it more unique or to make a completely new one. Templates can be edited through the Master Pages.
 
1. Open PowerPoint and choose a Template design with a dark background. Next, click OK to open a presentation file.
2. Go to View -Master -Slide Master. The status bar in the lower left of the screen will now read 'Slide Master' and the displayed page will contain text placeholders for the Master title and Master text styles. These "click to add" text boxes are where you change the attributes of the text.
3.

Make changes to the attributes of the items on Master Pages as if they were on a regular slide page. Change the text attributes, background colors, add or delete clipart, graphics or scanned images, and rearrange objects if necessary.

If you make changes to the Slide Master Page, you also need to make appropriate changes to Title Master Page so the title page and the rest of your presentation have a consistent appearance.
4.

When you change the background of the Master page, click Apply to change only the Master Background of the page you are on or click Apply to All to change the background of both the Title and Slide Master pages.
5. When you are finished making changes to Master Pages, select View -Normal (97 - View -Slide) to get out of the Master pages and back to the regular slide view.
6. There are two options for saving this file.
A. Save the presentation as a regular PPT file to use this design for this file only.
B. Save this as a brand new template design (make sure no content has been added to Master Pages). Exit out of Master pages to a normal slide. Then select Design Template *.pot (97 = Presentation Template) from the "Save as type" dropdown list. As a template design file, this file can be called up later to use for other presentations. When the file is saved as a template design, the extension is now .POT and is saved in Program Files, Microsoft Office, Templates, Designs or wherever you specify. Be sure to save as a new file name so you have a new template file. If you simply do a save, you will save over the original template file.
7. Close the file.
NOTE: Be sure to modify the Slide Master before changing the Title Master. Initially the Title Master uses the same fonts and other attributes as the Slide Master.

PowerPoint Lessons Table of Contents

Last updated January 2002. These courses are copyrighted by the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Communications and Information Technology. Contact Lana Johnson at ljohnson1@unl.edu