Chapter 2: Handling Master Slides and Master Styles
In This Chapter
Introducing master slides and master styles
Understanding how to use master slides
Changing the formats and layouts of master slides
Creating a second Slide Master
Reversing your design changes to slides and master slides
Removing a graphic from the background of one slide
The purpose of this chapter is to make your slide presentations stand out in a crowd. In this chapter, you learn how master slides and master styles can help you redesign a presentation. You discover how these tools make it possible to reformat many different slides immediately.
Master slides can save you hours and hours of formatting time, but to use them wisely, you have to know how master slides work, so this chapter starts with a rather lengthy explanation of master slides and master styles. Then you find out how to use the different master slides, how to reformat the slides, and how to change their layouts. This chapter also looks at how to ditch your design if you make a hash of it and want to go back to using a standard PowerPoint design for your presentation.
Using Master Slides and Master Styles for a Consistent Design
Consistency is everything in a PowerPoint design. Consistency of design is a sign of professionalism and care. In a consistent design, the fonts and font sizes on slides are consistent from one slide to the next, the placeholder text frames are in the same positions, the text is aligned the same way across different slides, and the bulleted lists are formatted the same and show the same bullet character. If the corner of each slide shows a company logo, the logo appears in the same position on each slide. If slide numbers appear, each number appears in the same corner of every slide.
It would be torture to have to examine every slide to make sure it’s consistent with the others. Going from slide to slide giving the same formatting commands would be valiant, but also a nightmare. In the interest of saving you trouble with slide designs, PowerPoint offers master styles and master slides. The term master style refers to formatting commands that apply to many slides. A master slide is a model slide from which the slides in a presentation inherit their formats. Starting from a master slide, you can change a master style and in so doing change formats on many slides.
Switching to Slide Master view
To work with master slides, switch to Slide Master view, as shown in Figure 2-1. From this view, you can start working with master slides:
1. Click the View tab.
2. Click the Slide Master button.
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Figure 2-1: By changing master styles on the Slide Master or a layout, you can reformat many different slides simultaneously. |
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In Slide Master view, you can select a master slide in the Slides pane, format styles on a master slide, and in this way reformat many different slides. Click the Close button (you’ll find it on the Slide Master tab), the Normal view button, or Slide Sorter view button when you want to leave Slide Master view.
Understanding master slides (the Slide Master and layouts)
Master slides are special, high-powered slides. Use master slides to deliver the same formatting commands to many different slides in a presentation.
Think of master slides as a means of formatting here, there, and everywhere. Whether the commands affect all the slides in your presentation or merely a handful of slides depends on whether you format the Slide Master (the topmost slide in Slide Master view) or a layout (one of the other slides).
The Slide Master
The Slide Master is the first slide in the Slides pane in Slide Master view (refer to Figure 2-1). It’s a little bigger than the master slides, as befits its status as Emperor of All Slides. Formatting changes you make to the Slide Master affect all the slides in your presentation (with a few exceptions, as “Relationships between the Slide Master, layouts, and slides” explains later in this chapter).
Figure 2-2 demonstrates how the Slide Master works. Notice in the figure that the same graphic — a sun — appears on all the slides in the presentation. It appears on all slides because I put it on the Slide Master. If you want a company logo, graphic, slide number, footer, or other element to appear on all slides, put it on the Slide Master. Font, alignment, and other formatting changes you make to styles on the Slide Master are carried forward to layouts and thence to all the slides in the presentation (with exceptions, as I mentioned earlier). Use the Slide Master to control the overall look of your presentation.
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Figure 2-2: Formatting commands on the Slide Master affect all slides; each layout affects slides created with the same slide layout. |
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Layouts
Each presentation has several layouts. You can see them in Slide Master view (refer to Figure 2-1). Layouts, as with the Slide Master, enable you to reformat many slides without having to visit each one. In contrast to the Slide Master, formatting changes made to a layout don’t apply throughout a presentation; they apply only to slides created with the same slide layout.
As you know, you choose a slide layout — Title and Content, for example — on the New Slide drop-down list to create a new slide. PowerPoint provides one layout for each type of slide layout in your presentation. For example, if your presentation includes slides made with the Title and Content slide layout, PowerPoint provides the Title and Content Layout. By changing fonts, alignments, and other formats on the Title and Content Layout, you can change the formats on all slides that you created using the Title and Content slide layout on the New Slide drop-down list.
Figure 2-2 (shown earlier in this chapter) demonstrates how layouts work. Each layout is named for a slide layout. Slides created with the Title Only slide layout are governed by the Title Only Layout. If you make formatting changes to this layout, all the slides in your presentation that you created with the Title Only slide layout will change accordingly.
Each layout controls its own little fiefdom in a PowerPoint presentation — a fiefdom comprised of slides created with the same slide layout. Go to Slide Master view and use the layouts to maintain design consistency among slides created with the same slide layout. (See “Relationships between the Slide Master, layouts, and slides” later in this chapter to find out what happens when the Slide Master and a layout are at odds with one another.)
Understanding how master styles work
As shown in Figure 2-3, each master slide — the Slide Master and each layout — offers you the opportunity to “Click to edit master styles.” You can find several master styles on each master slide. “Master style” refers to how text is formatted on slides. By switching to Slide Master view and changing a master style on a master slide, you can change the look of slides throughout a presentation. In Figure 2-3, I changed the Master Title Style font on the Slide Master from Arial Black to Garamond, and I centered and italicized the text. Consequently, all titles on the slides in my presentation changed from Arial Black to Garamond, were centered, and were italicized.
You will find these master styles on the Slide Master and most layouts. Change these styles to reformat the slides in your presentation:
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Figure 2-3: Change a master style in Slide Master view to reformat slide text. |
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Master Title Style: Controls the title heading that appears across the top of most slides. Change the font, font size, color, and alignment of text.
Master Text Style (first, second, third, fourth, and fifth level): Controls paragraph text in slides. Change the font, font size, and color text; select a bullet character; and indent the text in different ways.
Date: Controls the display of today’s date.
Footer: Controls the look of the company name or other text that appears along the bottom of slides.
Slide number: Controls the display of slide numbers.
Of course, you can also place a graphic or clip-art image on the Slide Master or a layout to make the graphic or image appear on all or many slides.
Relationships between the Slide Master, layouts, and slides
PowerPoint’s Slide Master–layouts–slides system is designed on the “trickle down” theory. When you format a style on the Slide Master, formats trickle down to layouts and then to slides. When you format a style on a layout, the formats trickle down to slides you created using the same slide layout.
This chain-of-command relationship is designed to work from the top down, with the Master Slide and layouts barking orders to the slides below. In the interest of design consistency, slides take orders from layouts, and layouts take orders from the Slide Master.
But what if you decide to break the chain of command? Suppose, in defiance of the Slide Master, you want to italicize slide titles on slides you created with the Title Only layout? Or, in defiance of the Picture with Caption Layout, you want a jazzier font in the title of one of your slides?
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Figure 2-4 illustrates how this design concept works. It shows what happens when you edit a style on a layout, and what happens when you edit a slide such that your formats are different from those on the slide’s layout. The figure portrays three Slide Master–layout–slide relationships. To show you how these relationships work, the figure demonstrates what happens when formatting changes are made to the Master Title Style, the style that governs titles along the top of slides:
The first relationship (A) is the standard one. The Master Title Style on the Slide Master governs the style by the same name on the layout, and this style, in turn, determines the font, font size, and text alignment in the title of the slide. Notice how the formatting of all three slide titles is the same.
The second relationship (B) shows what happens when you change a master style on a layout. Changing a layout style severs its link to the master style of the same name on the Slide Master. In Figure 2-4, notice how the Master Title Style formatting is different on the Slide Master and the layout. As far as the Master Title Style is concerned, the link between the Slide Master and the layout is broken, and the title style from the Slide Master can’t be updated. However, the other styles — the styles apart from the Master Title Style — on the layout are still linked to the Slide Master. You can change Master Text Styles or placeholder positions on the Slide Master and see these formatting changes appear on the layout as well.
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Figure 2-4: The three types of Slide Master– layout–slide relationships. |
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The third relationship (C) shows what happens when you format part of a slide contrary to its style on a layout. The part of the slide in question becomes independent from the layout. In Figure 2-4, the slide title appears in a different font from the layout and Slide Master. This slide’s title is on its own, although the other styles on the slide are still linked to the layout. (You can right-click a slide and choose Reset Slide to restore its link to the layout.)
Ground Rules for Handling Master Slides
PowerPoint presentations are designed by pros who really know what they’re doing. Not to impugn your ability to redesign a presentation or to discourage you from trying, but think twice before overhauling the master slides and changing the look of your presentation. Microsoft designers put these presentations together very carefully. Changing the fonts around and scrambling all the layouts can turn a perfectly good presentation into guacamole.
When you handle master slides, use the light touch. Here are ground rules for handling master slides:
Put items you want to appear on every slide on the Slide Master, but make sure that you put them in an out-of-the-way place. The Slide Master includes placeholder frames for the date, a footer, and a slide number; these frames are located along the bottom of the slide where they won’t get in the way. Put logos and graphics in out-of-the way places as well.
Think strategically about changing text styles. The Master Title Style, which controls the titles on slides, and the Master Text Styles, which control paragraph text, affect almost every slide. Think ahead if you want to change these styles, and choose fonts and font sizes that will fit and look attractive on every slide.
When you change a style on a layout, remember that doing so breaks the style’s link to the Slide Master. At least where one area of your slides are concerned — slide titles, for example — you can no longer update slides from the Slide Master. Carefully consider before you change styles on layouts.
Rather than change a layout, consider creating a new one. This way, you can retain the original layout in case you need it for formatting slides. Book VII, Chapter 2 explains how to create a new layout.
Altering a Master Slide
Now that you know the sometimes confusing relationship between the Slide Master, layouts, and slides, you’re ready to start editing master slides. These pages explain the nuts and bolts of changing styles on a master slide, removing elements from slides, and restoring elements in case you regret removing them. You also find out how to reconnect a presentation slide to its layout and undo all your editing.
Editing a master style
Keeping in mind how master styles work, follow these steps to edit a master style and in so doing reformat several or all the slides in your presentation:
1. Switch to Slide Master view.
To do that, click the View tab and then click the Slide Master button.
2. In the Slides pane, select a master slide.
Select the Slide Master to reformat all slides in your presentation; select a layout to reformat slides that share the same slide layout. See “Understanding master slides (the Slide Master and layouts),” earlier in this chapter, if you’re vague about the difference between the two kinds of master slides.
As shown in Figure 2-5, the master slide whose thumbnail you selected appears on-screen.
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Figure 2-5: You don’t have to select text on a master slide to give a text-formatting command; just click in the text. |
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You can move the pointer over a layout thumbnail in the Slides pane to see a pop-up box that tells you the layout’s name and which slides in your presentation “use” the layout. For example, a pop-up box that reads “Title and Content Layout: used by slide(s) 2–4, 7-9” tells you that slides 2 through 4 and 7 through 9 in your presentation are governed by the Title and Content Layout (refer to Figure 2-5).
3. Edit a style on the master slide.
See “Understanding how master styles work,” earlier in this chapter, if you aren’t sure what editing a master style is all about. If you’re editing the Slide Master, you can glance at the thumbnails in the Slides pane to see what effect your edits have on the layouts.
To format text, click the Home tab, where you can find commands for changing fonts, formatting paragraphs, and aligning text. To insert a graphic, click the Insert tab.
Changing the layout of master slides
Changing the layout of a master slide entails changing the position and size of text frames and content frames, as well as removing these frames. Content frames hold “content” — graphics, clip-art images, tables, and charts — in place. Text frames hold slide titles and bulleted or numbered lists.
Changing the size and position of text and content frames
Switch to Slide Master view and follow these instructions to change the size and position of text and content frames:
Changing size of frames: Click inside the frame to select it. Then move the pointer over a frame handle on the corner, side, top or bottom of the frame, and drag when you see the double-headed arrow. Book IV, Chapter 2 explains resizing frames in excruciating detail.
Moving frames: Click inside the frame to select it. Then move the pointer over the perimeter of a frame, click when you see the four-headed arrow, and drag. Book IV, Chapter 2 also explains moving frames.
Removing (and adding) text frames to the Slide Master and layouts
As shown in Figure 2-6, master slides have all or some of these frames:
The Title frame for slide titles
The Text frame for bulleted or numbered lists
The Date frame for displaying today’s date on slides (part of the footer)
The Footer frame for including text such as a company name at the bottom of slides (part of the footer)
The Slide Number frame for displaying slide numbers (part of the footer)
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Figure 2-6: The five text frames on the Slide Master. |
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How you remove or add these frames depends on whether you are working with the Slide Master or a layout. Read on.
Removing frames from (and adding frames to) the Slide Master
Follow these instructions to add frames to or remove frames from the Slide Master (not a layout):
Removing a frame: Click the perimeter of the frame to select it and then press Delete.
Adding a frame: On the Slide Master tab, click the Master Layout button. You see the Master Layout dialog box (refer to Figure 2-6). Select the check box beside the name of each frame you want to add and click OK.
Removing frames from (and adding frames to) a layout
Removing the Title frame: Deselect the Title check box.
Removing the Text frame: Click inside the frame. Then click the perimeter of the frame to select it and press the Delete key.
Removing all three parts of the footer: Deselect the Footers check box. Doing so removes the Date frame, Footer frame, and Slide Number frame.
Removing the Date frame, Footer frame, or Slide Number frame: Click inside the frame. Then click the perimeter of the frame to select it and press the Delete key.
Adding a content frame or text frame: Open the drop-down list on the Insert Placeholder button and choose a Content or Text option. Then drag to place the frame or text box on the master slide.
Adding a Picture, Chart, Table, Diagram, Media, or Clip Art icon: Open the drop-down list on the Insert Placeholder button and choose an option. Then drag to place the icon on your slide. By clicking one of these icons, you can make a place for inserting a picture, chart, table, diagram, video, or clip-art image in a slide.
Creating Another Slide Master
As I explain at the start of this chapter, the Slide Master is the mother of all slides. The Slide Master sets the tone for the entire presentation. Formatting styles on the Slide Master trickle down to layouts and from there to the slides themselves.
Sometimes a presentation can do with more than one Slide Master. In a long presentation divided into parts, you can give each part a different look by assigning it a different Slide Master. To take another example, suppose that a sales presentation imparts “upside” and “downside” information. To help the audience distinguish between optimistic upside slides and their pessimistic downside counterparts, you can create two Slide Masters, a rose-colored one called “Upside” and murky green one called “Downside.” This way, the audience will know immediately which side’s views you’re presenting when you display a new slide.
Follow these steps to create another Slide Master for your presentation so that you can double your slide design options:
1. Switch to Slide Master view.
In case you’ve forgotten, click the View tab and then click the Slide Master button.
2. On the Slide Master tab, click the Insert Slide Master button.
PowerPoint creates a new Slide Master and puts it below the other slides in the Slides pane. As well as a new Slide Master, you get another set of layouts to go with it. PowerPoint creates the layouts automatically.
Your new Slide Master is given the generic name “Custom Design Slide Master” and a number to indicate which Slide Master it is in the presentation. I suggest giving your new Slide Master a more descriptive name so that you remember why you created it and what it’s for.
3. Click the Rename button.
You see the Rename Master dialog box. Another way to display this dialog box is by right-clicking a Master Slide and choosing Rename Master.
4. Enter a descriptive name in the dialog box and click Rename.
Congratulations! You’ve created a new Slide Master and a new set of layouts to go with it.
Your next task is to choose a background for your new Slide Master (the next chapter in this book describes how to do that). You can assign a background by clicking the Background Styles button on the Slide Master tab.
If you delete a Slide Master you created, slides you created with your Slide Master are assigned the original Slide Master in the presentation. These slides are not deleted along with their master. To delete a Slide Master, switch to Slide Master view, select the Slide Master, and click the Delete Slide button.
Restoring a Redesigned Presentation to Its Original State
Suppose you go to all the trouble to redesign a presentation and then you regret it. You wish you had your original design. You’ve made a hash of your presentation and now you want to turn back the clock. Simply by clicking the Reset button, you can make a slide you reformatted take back its original layout formats. Bringing an entire presentation back from the dead, however, is a little more complicated. You can re-impose all the original formatting, but you have to jump through hoops to do it.
Preserving Slide Masters for posterity
As far as Slide Masters are concerned, PowerPoint has a “use it or lose it” philosophy. If you create a new Slide Master but don’t create any slides with it, the new Slide Master may be lost to you when you close your PowerPoint file. Next time you open your PowerPoint file, you won’t find a second set of slide layouts on the Add Slide drop-down list.
To make sure that a second, third, or fourth Slide Master stays in your presentation, preserve it. To do so, switch to Slide Master view, right-click your Slide Master in the Slides pane, and choose Preserve Master on the shortcut menu. The pushpin icon appears on Slide Masters that have been preserved. These Slide Masters remain with your presentation whether you actually use them to create new slides.
Reconnecting a presentation slide to its original layout
As “Relationships between the Slide Master, layouts, and slides” explains earlier in this chapter, you sever the relationship between the style on a layout and the corresponding style on a presentation slide when you reformat a presentation slide. However, you can re-impose the original layout design on an errant slide by following these steps:
1. In Normal view, select the slide that needs reconnecting to its original layout.
2. Click the Home tab.
3. Click the Reset button.
You can also right-click a slide you selected and choose Reset Slide on the shortcut menu.
Re-imposing the original design on an entire presentation
It happens. Sometimes you make a complete mess when you redesign a presentation, and you yearn to have the original design. Follow these steps to forsake all your redesigns in a presentation and return to the design you started with:
1. Create a new presentation using the design template you started with in the old presentation.
In other words, select the same design you selected last time around when you created your new presentation. You will import slides from your old presentation in the new presentation and impose the original designs on your new slides.
2. On the Insert tab, click the New Slide button and choose Reuse Slides on the drop-down list.
The Reuse Slides task pane opens.
3. Click the Open a PowerPoint File link.
You can also click the Browse button and choose Browse File on the drop-down list. The Browse dialog box opens.
4. Select the presentation file that you made a hash of.
That is, select the file that you want to impose the original design on.
5. Click the Open button.
The slides from the other presentation appear in the Reuse Slides task pane.
6. Make sure that the Keep Source Formatting check box in the task pane is not selected.
7. Insert the slides.
To insert the slides, double-click the ones you want.
8. Go to each slide you imported, select it, and click the Reset button on the Home tab.
The pristine, original slide design appears on the slides you “reused.”
Removing a Background Graphic from a Single Slide
Putting a graphic on the Slide Master places the graphic in the same position on every slide in the presentation. This is well and good — most of the time. Sometimes on a crowded slide the background graphic gets in the way. Sometimes you need the slide space that a background graphic occupies for a chart or photograph. Sometimes a background graphic is too distracting, and you need to chuck it.
Removing all the background graphics from a single slide is easy. Follow these steps:
1. In Normal or Slide Sorter view, select the slide with a background graphic that needs removing.
You can remove the background graphic from more than one slide by Ctrl+clicking to select several slides.
2. Click the Design tab.
3. Click the Hide Background Graphics check box, as shown in Figure 2-7.
It goes without saying, but you can deselect the Hide Background Graphics check box to make background graphics appear once again on your slide.
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Figure 2-7: You can remove the background graphic from individual slides. |
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