Kathy's Practical PowerPoint Tips
~~Kathryn
Jacobs, PowerPointAnswers
Creating a Complete PowerPoint Template
Part II: Filling Out Your Template
(Part I can be seen
here.)
Create the Title Master
Now that you have your slide master the way you want it, it is time to
leverage that work and create your master slide for your title slides. You
could have created this master at any point previous to this. However, by
creating it after you create your slide master, you will have less work to
do.
To insert a title master, select "New Title Master" from the "Insert"
menu. You will see a slide that looks much the same as your slide master,
but with different placeholders. Chances are good that you will find that
there is little further you need to customize at this point. However, you
should check the following items:
-
Check that the graphics still look proportional to the slide. Because
there is considerably less text on a title slide, you will likely find
that you want the graphics enlarged or changed to catch the readers
notice.
-
Check that the fonts on your slide look the way you want them. They should
be large, easy to read, and yet still stand out from the rest of your
presentation.
-
Decide whether the background needs a tweak to stand out from the main
slides. You may want to change the color or the graphic.
-
Decide whether you really want those footer text areas to show on the
title slides. Decide if they are distracting from the impact of your title
slide.
Customize your color schemes
For each template, there are defined one or more color schemes. These
schemes define the default colors for the following elements:
To get to the defined color schemes, right click and select "Slide Color
Scheme". This will bring up a two-tabbed window. The first tab shows the
color schemes that have already been defined for this template. The second
tab allows you to create and use custom color schemes. You can either use
one that is there, or define your own. If you change color schemes, be sure
you select to apply the changes to all slides, so that your title and slide
masters stay consistent.
But wait - This is a brand new template! How can it have color schemes
already defined? Remember that we based this template on the Blank template.
The Blank template has several color schemes already defined.
One more note - If you use a picture or a texture for your background,
changing the background color in your scheme will not change the color of
your slides. They will continue to have the graphic as a background.
Format other masters
Now that you have your slides set up, it is time to customize the notes
and handout masters. For each of these there are only a few things to
customize, but they can be important.
Handout Masters
The handout masters are set up to show your handouts as they will be
printed. Notice that your background is white, instead of the background you
picked for your slides. You can change it, but notice that it is not changed
automatically. Notice also that the header and footer choices are different.
Let's start with the background. You can change the background easily.
Think about the impact before you do so. If you are going to print handouts,
do you want an overly active background? So, while it is tempting to change
the background of your handouts, be careful when you do so.
The other change available here is the choice of content for the headers
and footers. This information can be customized by going to "Header and
Footer" under the "View" menu. When selected, this menu option brings up the
second tab of the "Header and Footer" window. This window allows you to make
similar choices to the ones you made for your slides. Here, however, it is
generally a good idea to put the header and footer information on each page
for the convenience of your audience members.
If you want to test how your handouts will look, insert a couple of test
slides and do a test print. It is the only way to see the changes on your
handout master.
Notes Master
The notes master allows you to determine how your speaker notes will look
both in the "Notes View" and when printed through PowerPoint. Here, you can
again change the header and footer information and the background colors.
You do this in just the same manner as was described above for the handout
master. Next, you will want to decide if you wish to change the font and the
text size for the notes you enter. To change this element, select the sample
text in the lower of the two big boxes on the master and change the
formatting as desired. The third thing you may want to change is the size of
the PowerPoint slide attached to this note page. To do this, click on the
slide on the upper half of the page and adjust the size with the handles on
the corners and sides.
Almost done: Save it!
You will want to save your hard work for sharing and reusing. Select the
save as option and change the type to a template. When you switch from
presentation to template, the list of files showing in the browse window
should change to the location where the rest of your templates are
installed.
Before you share this template, use it to create a test presentation.
Starting from scratch, start a new presentation and apply your template.
Check to see that text slides look the way you want them to look. Insert a
graphic or other style of slide and make sure that all of that works. Run
the presentation in slide show mode and see that it automates the way you
want it too.
If you found things you need to change, open the template file and make
your changes there. Once you have saved your changes, re-apply the template
and test it once more.
Distribute and reuse as desired!
Now that you have created
a masterpiece of a template, you can share your presentation by sending the
template file to others who need it. However, be warned that a template file
is not small. The smallest ones I have created are about 40 Kb in size. (You
can create smaller ones if you use no graphics or effects.) The more
animations and graphics you add, the larger your file will become. You may
wish to compress your template with a tool such as WinZip before sending it
out to anyone else.
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Kathryn Jacobs,
Microsoft MVP, PowerPoint and OneNote
Get PowerPoint answers at
http://www.powerpointanswers.com
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http://www.onenoteanswers.com/
Cook anything outdoors with
http://www.outdoorcook.com
Kathy is a trainer, writer, Girl Scout, parent, and whatever else there is
time for.
I believe life is meant to be lived. But, if we live without
making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived.
,
