📎 This article includes 2 downloadable practice files ↓
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If you’ve ever moved the same title box on 30 slides, the Slide Master is the fix. Every slide inherits from it.
Three levels
- Slide Master (the big top thumbnail in View > Slide Master): fonts, colours, background, logo and footer for everything.
- Layouts (the smaller thumbnails): Title Slide, Title and Content… and your own.
- Slides: built from a layout; they only hold the content.
Create a layout
- View > Slide Master > Insert Layout; right-click it > Rename: “Title + Chart”.
- Insert Placeholder > Chart, draw it where charts should always go.
- Close Master View. Home > New Slide now offers “Title + Chart”; click the chart icon in the placeholder and the chart lands in the right place, at the right size.
The finished example has two new layouts, “Title + Chart” and “Two KPIs”, and a slide built from each.
💡 Already-built slides don’t move to a fixed master automatically. Select them and click Home > Reset to pull positions and fonts back from their layout.
Common mistakes
- Text boxes instead of placeholders: a text box ignores the master. Use placeholders so text appears in the outline and reflows with layout changes.
- Several masters after pasting slides from other decks: paste with “Use Destination Theme”, and delete unused masters.
Practice
Download the practice deck: the first slide lists the tasks. Compare with the finished example.
📎 Practice files for this article
⬇ Download all 2 files (ZIP · 57 KB)
- 📙Practice deckTasks for the master and layouts.⬇ PPTX · 28 KB
- 📙Finished exampleBuilt by PowerPoint: master with Title + Chart and Two KPIs layouts.⬇ PPTX · 44 KB
Free to use for learning. Files with macros (.bas) are plain text — import them with Alt+F11 → File → Import File, and always test on a copy.
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