PowerPoint Shortcuts - Master Slide
Jennifer Koch

Do you need to have a presentation ready on a bite-sized deadline? Daunted by the long list of slides you need to create? Do you want a clean, professional presentation for your company, but you are inexperienced with Microsoft PowerPoint? Create a Master Slide and let PowerPoint do the majority of the design work for you!

The Master Slide is a little bit like a letterhead template you might make to print other documents. It is not part of your presentation and nobody will see it but you. All of the design changes you make to this slide will change the look of any slide you create afterward. This makes the creation process simpler because you only have to place one company logo instead of fourteen, and you can make your decision on a font once instead of formatting every text box throughout your presentation. In addition, if you ever want to change the position of an image that appears on every slide or change the font attributes, you can do it from the Master Slide and save yourself an hour of tedious work.

Making a Master Slide is very simple.

1. Create a new presentation with a blank first slide.
   
2. On the menu bar, click 'View' and roll over 'Master' and select 'Slide Master' from the rollout menu.
   
3. A new screen will open that looks something like this. Each of the regions on this slide can be changed, and the way this slide looks will reflect the look of every other slide in your presentation. Change the font, font size, colors and background to suit what you need.
   
4. Here is a very simple example for Drake Hardware & Software, created by editing the Master Slide. Images were added to the slide at the top, which will be repeated throughout the presentation.
   
5. Once finished editing, click the 'close' button that should be floating or on your toolbar. This will take you back to the main outline/slide split screen that you will already be familiar with. Then, create a new slide that includes the features you want - a headline and a text box in this example. The Master Slide will automatically format the text areas according to what you specified.
   

That's all it takes! You can change the fonts and colors of any slide, resize, add or delete text boxes, and delete or add images, as you like.

Want to know more? Drake Hardware & Software offers affordable software training classes. A variety of classes are available, specializing in Microsoft PowerPoint as well as other Microsoft Office programs. Visit our Training Section to find out more.

For an even simpler option, contact Drake Hardware & Software about customized PowerPoint presentations. From original and unique editable templates to complete presentations, we can help ensure that you have a creative, professional PowerPoint presentation for your audience. For more information, call us at 319.752.1155 or email at info@drakehs.com