The Mysteries of the PowerPoint Slide Master and How It’s Used
Slide Master is a tool used in Microsoft PowerPoint to create slide templates. Slide Master can save slide layouts, including the background, color, fonts, effects, positioning, etc. One benefit to using Slide Master is that you can make universal changes to every current and future slide within your presentation by only adjusting the Slide Master. You can also embed images and other graphics you don’t want touched into slides associated with a Slide Master. This keeps them in the background and out of the way when you are editing slide content.
Every version of PowerPoint is slightly different, but access to the Slide Master can generally be found in the same way. In this particular version (PowerPoint 2011), Slide Master can be accessed by navigating to View > Master > Slide Master.
Once in Slide Master, you can create and edit slide layouts just as you would edit any other PowerPoint slide. Remember, this acts as a template, so you only want to put content into the slide that will be universal for every slide. You can create as many Slide Masters as you would like, with each one acting as its own template.
Once you are done creating your Slide Master layouts, click “Close Master”.
Now, you can apply these masters to your actual presentation. Go to your Home tab and click Layout to see a menu of all of the layouts associated with the Slide Masters you have created. Click the one you want to apply to the slide – and the rest is easy. Any time you want to change your slide layout, just go back to Home > Layout to see the menu of all your masters and select a new one.
Congratulations! You have unlocked the power of Microsoft PowerPoint’s Slide Master! You can now enjoy the advantages of having preloaded slides that will make building your presentation easier and more efficient. Have fun!