Customize master layouts

Let’s do more with customizing the slide master by customizing master layouts.

One thing you’ll see is that PowerPoint provides many default layouts, probably more than you’ll need.

To delete a layout you don’t need, select it, and press Delete.

This simplifies what you are working with and helps keep the file size smaller.

Note that if the layout is currently applied to any slides, like this Title Slide layout or this Title and Content layout, you can’t delete it.

If it turns out you need one of the deleted layouts, you can click Insert Slide Master to get a new blank master.

Then, you can Copy one of the original layouts and Paste it under the customized master, and it takes on all the master attributes.

So, these are the layouts I want to keep.

The two layouts we’ll customize first are the Title Slide layout and the Section Header layout.

Let’s move up the Section Header layout, just to group it with the title layout.

I am going to use a slightly different background for these.

So, I’ll select them, click Background Styles, and Format Background.

Picture or texture fill is already selected in the Format Background pane, and I’ll click File to choose the picture.

This image is just a little bit brighter than the slide master’s background, and now the title and section header slides are unique.

For the Title Slide layout, let’s make its title font color different, too.

With the placeholder selected, I click the HOME tab and change the font color to dark green.

I’d also like to increase the subtitle font size, up to 32.

For the Section Header layout, I’ll leave the title font color as it is, but I’ll change the subtitle font to match the body text and other subtitles, dark green.

And I’ll increase its point size, to 28.

Let’s switch to Normal view and have a look at these changes.

They’ve been applied for the appropriate layouts.

Here’s the title slide, with the new, brighter background, title color change, and larger subtitle.

And here’s the section header slide; it has the new background and the subtitle font changes.

Keep in mind that if you have already made design changes to a slide in Normal view, and then, you change the master layout that is applied to it, then you’ll need to reapply the layout in Normal view to get the latest changes.

Turning back to Slide Master view, here is a handy keyboard shortcut you can use to open the view: Press Shift as you click the Normal button.

Now, let’s create an original layout.

There’s the option on the Slide Master tab to insert a blank layout. I could start from that.

But the layout I imagine is a lot like this Picture with Caption layout. I’ll use that as my starting point.

With that layout selected, I’ll press Ctrl+D to duplicate it, and we’ll adapt this to a layout for customer testimonials.

First, I want to delete this picture placeholder. I’ll select it and press Delete. Then, we click Insert Placeholder.

The content for this placeholder will be video, so we’ll choose Media for the type of placeholder and draw the placeholder.

Looks like, it is formatted to have a bullet, and I don’t want that. So, I’ll click the HOME tab, Bullets, and choose None.

I also want a special heading above the video placeholder. So, let’s click the INSERT tab, Text Box, and draw a text box.

It should say 'Testimonials', and let’s make it a little bit bigger.

To give the box a color fill, we’ll right-click it,choose Format Shape, Solid Fill, and dark green.

And I’ll drag the Transparency slider to lighten it a little.

The black text in the box doesn’t show up well.

In the Format Shape pane, I’ll click TEXT OPTIONS, and for the text color, change it to white.

That’s better.

To finish the new layout, we’ll right-click it, click Rename Layout, call it 'Testimonials', and click Rename.

Let’s apply the layout in Normal view.

We’ll insert a new slide under the 'Testimonials' section header. I’ll click New Slide, and there’s the Testimonials layout.

The new slide gets the new layout. Now, I just need to add my video and text.

Up next: Create a new slide master and layouts.