Video: Create a new slide master and layouts

By customizing slide masters, you can create precisely the presentation design and layouts you need. If you want a section of your presentation to look different from the rest of the slides, with its own layouts, create an additional slide master for that section.

Add an additional slide master to a presentation

1. Click VIEW > Slide Master.

2. On the SLIDE MASTER tab, do one of the following:

   1. In the Edit Theme group, click Themes, and then under Built-in, select a theme that you want the additional slide master to adhere to.

   2. In the Edit Master group, click Insert Slide Master. Note that, if you use this procedure, the slide master appears without theme color and effects.

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What is a slide master?

Use multiple slide masters in one presentation

In this presentation, I have customized the slide master and various master layouts and applied those changes to the slides. But after thinking about it, I’d really like this 'Testimonials' section to look different from the rest of the slides, with its own layouts.

My solution? Create an additional slide master for that section.

Let’s switch to Slide Master view and create a new master.

To keep many of the design details of the current master, I’ll right-click the master, and choose Duplicate Slide Master.

The new master gets inserted as number 2.

It has the same name as the original master, Fabrikam Theme, but with a number 1 in front, meaning it is the first copy of the original.

Now, let’s rename it. We’ll call it "Fabrikam Testimonials", and we’ll give it a unique design, starting with the background.

To remove the current background, I click Background Styles and choose a white background.

Instead of a background fill, I’ll click the INSERT tab, Pictures, and insert a picture file.

I’ll move the picture all the way left, right-click it, and choose Send to Back, to put it behind other content.

So, this master has a new look.

To customize the layouts, I’ll first delete those that I won’t need, keeping only the Title slides and the Testimonials layout.

There are various types of testimonials from our customers, so first I am going to copy this layout. I’ll press Ctrl+D twice to duplicate it twice and we’ll make each layout unique. We’ll change this one, so it says "Testimonials: Corporate". The second one will be "Testimonials: Nonprofit", and the third one "Testimonials: Personal".

Let’s vary the text box color, too.

I’ll right-click the box, clickFormat Shape, and under FILL, choose another Color: dark orange.

For the Nonprofit layout, we’ll follow the same steps and choose a lighter brown.

So, these are the new customized layouts.

Now, we’ll rename them. For each, we click Rename Layout and change the name.

Let’s also change the Section Header layout’s name to "Testimonials Section Header".

We’ll switch to Normal view now, and apply our design and layouts.

The Testimonials Section Header slide still has its original design applied, so I’ll right-click it, point to Layout, and look for my new layouts.

They are grouped under the new master 'Fabrikam Testimonials'.

I apply the Testimonials Section Header.

Next, this Testimonials slide still has the design and layout from the original master, so I’ll open the Layout gallery again and choose the Testimonials: Corporate layout.

For my other Testimonials content, I’ll insert New Slide and choose Testimonials: Nonprofit and Testimonials: Personal from the gallery.

The presentation now has the new Testimonials design as well as the original Fabrikam design.

To preserve my customizations, I have a couple of choices. Let’s open the Themes gallery on the DESIGN tab.

Each of my new designs appears in the Themes gallery. Here’s the Fabrikam theme, and here’s the Testimonials theme.

I can select one of them and choose Save Current Theme at the bottom of the gallery.

This will save both designs under the theme name that I choose, and for later presentations, I’ll find the theme in the gallery.

Another option is to save the customized presentation as a template.

To do this, click FILE, Save As, and choose PowerPoint Template in Save as type:.

This makes it available whenever you click FILE, New, along with other templates.

When you click the CUSTOM category, you find the Fabrikam template, which you can now use as the design for a new presentation.

By customizing slide masters, I have created precisely the presentation design and layouts I need. And now, you can, too.

For more information, read the course summary, and then experiment on your own.