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How to create a PowerPoint Template

08.27.21   •  #powerpointtips.

Today, we are getting into a powerful PowerPoint feature that can save you and your co-workers lots of time. Maybe you are already using them, but since almost 70% of PowerPoint users do not, and if you are one of them you are about to learn some important things. Whether you already know about templates or you’ve never heard of them – we are going to teach you everything you need to know and show you the steps to create your own one.

What is a template and why should I use it?

• A PowerPoint template is a kind of pattern that is predefined for a presentation. It gives a frame for the content and the design of your slides.
• Elements like background, colours, titles, etc. are set beforehand.
• You can save the template separately and reuse it for as many presentations as you need.
• As all the designs and slides have already been defined, you only need to add your custom text and pictures. That saves a lot of time.
• Templates are especially perfect for companies. Make one template that fits the corporate design and any employee can use them from now on, saving time and giving your business a consistent and professional appearance.

Now, learn how to create a template by watching our video or reading the steps below.

The slide master

The Slide Master is the most important tool for creating templates. You can find it by clicking View in the PowerPoint menu (and then clicking on Slide Master ).

In the window on the left you will find a couple of slides that do not (yet) have a design. Also, you will see one slide on top that is slightly larger and connected to the other slides with dashed lines. That one is your Slide Master, your “main slide”. Everything you change there will directly affect all the other slides. You can try it out by setting a different background colour for the Slide Master. The other slides will immediately change colours, too.

Edit slide masters more precisely

We use the main slide to pre-set all our important elements. Once we like how it looks, we can go ahead and adjust each individual slide-template. Here’s a list of things you can/should change:

• Colours: Go to Colours and choose either one of PowerPoint’s predefined palettes or create your own one.
• Fonts: Click Fonts and then Customise Fonts and choose styles for your titles and regular text.
• Background: Go as crazy-creative or minimalistic as you want. Change the background colour, maybe add some shapes, or look for a nice image online that works behind your text. (To do so, right click on your main slide and go to “Format Background”)
• Title: Change the size, style and placement of the title, simply by editing it as you would usually do.
• Text Style: Do the same for your regular text boxes. Define what the bullet points should look like.
• Footer: You can switch the footer elements around, replace them and change them like any regular text.

Using themes

While themes in PowerPoint are similar to templates, they are not the same thing. A theme in PowerPoint is a predefined selection of colors, fonts, effects and backgrounds. So if you are creating a template for your company we recommend you to add a custom theme with the company's brand colors and fonts. Now, if you want to know in more detail what a theme design is in PowerPoint and how to create one, you can read about it in more detail in our blog post, Theme Designs .

Use the right fonts

A very important point with PowerPoint presentations is to choose the right font, because it must be easy to read, but it should also not be boring. In our blog post on the best fonts for your presentations , we have picked some good fonts for you to use.

Advance image design in templates

Rename master slides

Individual Templates for each slide layout

Once you are finished with your main slide, you can go ahead and adjust the other slide layouts. You may find that some look perfect already – you can leave them as they are. For those who don’t, or if you would just like some different slide designs in your template, here are some useful tips on what you can change:

• Background: You may not want the same background on each slide layout. To turn off the background that has been given to the slide (by setting it in the main slide), just tick off the box Hide background graphics in the top Slide Master menu. You are then free to design the background from scratch.
• Footers: On some slides you might not want the footer to show. Disable the Footers checkbox in the task line to make it disappear.
• Title: The same thing works with the title (the checkbox is right there with the Footers )
• Placeholder: Click on Insert Placeholder . You can choose from a variety of placeholders. They can be very helpful because they predefine where a certain element (e.g. image, video,...) should be placed in the presentation.
• Other elements: Of course, you can move, remove and add any other element or object you might need.

TIP: You might need another predefined layout (e.g. for slides that give an overview, for “Contact us” slides, …) You can easily create a template for that as well by right clicking in the grey box on the left with all your layouts and then clicking Insert Layout . By right clicking on that new layout you can go to Rename Layout and call it some name that makes sense. You can treat it like the rest of the layouts and simply adjust it to your needs.

Save your masterpiece and use it for a presentation

When you are satisfied with the look of all your layouts, you can save the template by clicking File and then Save As . You can now choose any folder or use the folder provided by PowerPoint and then save it as a PowerPoint template (*.potx). Close and open PowerPoint again, click on New in the left orange sidebar and then change from Office to Personal or Custom . Your template should now be visible here. Click on it and you can create a new presentation with your predefined layouts. You can also set your template as the default option. To do this, you need to click on the pin at the bottom right of the template and pin it to your list . If for some reason your template was not shown in the start menu OR if you have already created a template-less presentation that should get the template, go to Design at the top of the open presentation, click on the small arrow by the designs and then select Search for designs . There, click on your created template (in the folder where you saved it) and open it. The presentation should now take on your template design.

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About the author.

Pia Lehner-Mittermaier

Pia works in Marketing as a graphic designer and writer at SlideLizard. She uses her vivid imagination and creativity to produce good content.

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Home Blog PowerPoint Tutorials How to Create a Presentation with PowerPoint Online

How to Create a Presentation with PowerPoint Online

An online version of PowerPoint was introduced in 2010, a few years after the Google Docs release, which came out as early as 2007. Over the years, the product, along with other Microsoft Office apps, underwent major changes, making it more user-friendly and feature-rich for end users.

Given the rise of inter-device connectivity and cloud support, tools like Microsoft 365, particularly its Word, Excel, and PowerPoint web-based counterparts, have considerably increased their capabilities, matching the performance of desktop versions. In this article, we will talk about PowerPoint Online, also called PowerPoint for Web, and how it can help presenters craft presentations and access them on the go wherever they log in. 

Table of Contents

What is PowerPoint Online

Advantages of powerpoint online, getting started with powerpoint for the web, how to create a powerpoint online presentation, collaboration and sharing, saving and exporting, tips for creating high-quality slides in powerpoint online, troubleshooting common issues in powerpoint online.

• Conclus i on

PowerPoint for the Web, which was previously called PowerPoint Online, is a web-based version of PowerPoint that enables creating, viewing, editing, and sharing PowerPoint presentations online. Unlike Google Slides, PowerPoint for the Web provides better native support for PowerPoint files. It makes it possible to seamlessly work with PowerPoint files and features through a web-based browser, with OneDrive support to share and store your data. PowerPoint for the web is free to use but has limited features. However, if you are a Microsoft 365 subscriber, you can get better features when using the web-based version of PowerPoint.

PowerPoint for the web provides the same benefits as the desktop version of PowerPoint, with the added advantage of accessing these features anywhere using an Internet browser. Below is a list of advantages of using PowerPoint Online.

Easy Accessibility

You can access PowerPoint features anywhere using an Internet-connected browser without installing the PowerPoint app on your device. Furthermore, you can also upload and access files from your device anytime, anywhere, via the web.

Support for Native PowerPoint Features

Be it online collaboration, cloud storage, or access to version history, you can get native PowerPoint features via a web-based version of PowerPoint without the need to worry about compatibility issues. Furthermore, unlike Google Slides or other web-based variants of PowerPoint, PowerPoint for the web helps access native PowerPoint features without causing compatibility issues such as incorrect display of certain themes or support for various animations available in the offline version.

OneDrive Integration

The integration of PowerPoint for the web with OneDrive allows instantly storing, sharing, and accessing different versions of a file using the cloud storage support of OneDrive.

Easy Sharing

The OneDrive integration enables the online version of PowerPoint to be used for instantly sharing presentations online using a link with a specific access level (view only or editing privileges).

Online Collaboration

While PowerPoint’s offline version also provides collaboration features, using PowerPoint for the web can provide a smoother experience when looking for real-time changes to a PowerPoint file.

Version History

PowerPoint files saved with the web version come with a version history, where you can access older file versions to restore according to need. This feature is also available for the offline version, which you must turn on upload to OneDrive. In other words, version history is only supported for PowerPoint files that are saved online.

Cross-Platform Compatibility

Since you only need a web browser and a Microsoft account to access PowerPoint Online, there are no issues with having a compatible device to use the app. This means you can access PowerPoint Online using any device that can run a modern Internet browser.

Accessibility Features

PowerPoint for the web is among the few platforms that provide accessibility features for persons with disabilities, such as image ALT text and support for screen readers.

PowerPoint for the web is regularly updated, providing access to the latest features for end users.

To get started, go to Office.com  or powerpoint.office.com and select the PowerPoint icon to access PowerPoint for the web. You will require a Microsoft account to log in.

Once logged in, you can create a new PowerPoint presentation or upload one from your device. All you need for accessing the web version of PowerPoint is a modern Internet browser and a device that can support it. This web-based version of PowerPoint works with all commonly used browsers and their variants, including Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari, Opera, and others.

From Office.com, you can create new PowerPoint presentations from scratch or via a template, upload new ones, or open an existing one saved to OneDrive. 

Create a New Presentation with PowerPoint for the Web

Click Create or use a PowerPoint template from the options to create a new PowerPoint presentation. You can start with a specific theme or use a blank template. You can also browse through themes via Office.com to find one that best suits your needs.

Upload a PowerPoint Presentation

To upload a PowerPoint presentation, click Upload after logging into Office.com and select a file from your device.

Open an Existing PowerPoint Presentation Online

All PowerPoint presentations saved from a device are automatically uploaded to OneDrive and can be accessed via PowerPoint’s online version. As mentioned earlier, you can upload and save presentations and access them anytime.

Adjusting the Ribbon Menu Layout

You can toggle between the classic and single-line ribbon interface to suit your preferences. The Ribbon menu can also be adjusted to stay available or hidden periodically. 

Naming Your Presentation

It is best to name your presentation to ensure it is easy to search and open later via OneDrive. Otherwise, a generic name will be assigned to the presentation (e.g., Presentation 1). To name your presentation, click on the generic name at the top and type in the new name.

Formatting and Design

As you start formatting your slides, the Designer feature will provide you with options to create layouts for your slides. You can optionally use this feature to get started with the basic design for your slides or use the Design tab to select design elements.

Like the desktop app, the Design tab in PowerPoint Online provides access to themes, background and slide size adjustment options, and theme variants to help you design your slides.

Adding Content

The Insert tab provides all the necessary options to add new slides, tables, pictures, shapes, icons, SmartArt, text boxes, audio, video, cameo to insert Live camera feed, and other options. 

Formatting Pictures

Like the desktop version of PowerPoint, pictures can be added from your device, stock images, or via Bing search. The Picture tab can be used to format added pictures after selecting them. Various options in this tab allow you to crop, add a picture frame, and adjust the picture on the slide.

You can also access Format Options via the right-click menu.

This will open a sidebar providing options to adjust the selected image’s width, height, angle, shadow, reflection, and text margins.

Formatting Videos

PowerPoint for the web allows formatting videos via the Shape tab and Format Options via the right-click menu. The Shape tab can give a frame or shape to the video, adjust the outline, manage how it is displayed on the slide, and adjust the size of the video. Sometimes, the Shape tab might be replaced with the Video tab to show editing options. This change is particularly visible if the user is not logged in and is editing the presentation as a Guest user. The Format Options enable editing the video’s width, height, angle, text margins, shadow, and reflection.

Formatting Audio

Two major options for formatting added audio clips include the Playback tab and Audio Format tab. The Playback tab can adjust the volume, playback trigger, and other related options.

The Audio Format tab includes picture styles for the audio icon, border stylizing, rotation, and other formatting options to adjust how the audio clip appears on the slide.

Annotation Options

The Draw tab gives various tools like pens and highlighters to annotate slides or draw on the screen. Other tools include an eraser, lasso, draw with touch, and stencil.

Transitions and Animations

Like the desktop version of PowerPoint, the Transitions tab for the web version gives transitions to use for your slides. You can adjust the effects of added transitions and duration once you have added a transition for a slide.

The Animations tab can be used to apply standard transitions and adjust effects, triggers, and duration for the animations according to need.

SlideShow, Review, and View

The SlideShow tab is used to start the SlideShow from the beginning of the current slide or to initiate a Live presentation with a QR code and link for viewing the presentation Live. You can also use Rehearse with Coach, use subtitles, and edit subtitle settings. You can also learn more about some of these features from our post about how to present a PowerPoint Online .

If you are searching for the features to check spelling and grammar, comments, changes, and accessibility options, head to the Review tab.

Most PowerPoint users know that the viewing options are available at the bottom of the PowerPoint interface. However, you can also access them from the View tab in PowerPoint. The same features are available for PowerPoint for the web. This includes options like switching between Slide Sorter, Immersive Reader, and Normal View and access to Notes, Zoom, and Fit to Window options.

To share your PowerPoint presentation, click Share from the top left corner of PowerPoint Online. You can create a sharing link according to specific settings, copy the existing link, link to a slide, or view and manage access to the presentation.

Collaborators can be invited via email or link by adjusting whether a user has view-only or editing privileges.

Once the settings have been configured, a link can be generated to copy and share with users. When configuring settings, you can also directly send the link with a message to an end user.

Users collaborating on the slide deck with their names are shown at the top. A generic name is assigned to the collaborator if it’s a guest.

You can see the comments added by collaborators on the presentation by going to Comments.

Next to the Comments button is the Catch-up button that tracks and shows the changes made by real-time collaborators as you work on the presentation.

You can also access sharing options via File -> Share . You can open sharing options or generate an embed code for the presentation from here.

When generating an embed code, you can adjust the width, height, and slide advancement options and generate a code for a website.

To switch between viewing modes, you can change to view only and editing options as you collaborate or open the presentation in the desktop app. These options can be helpful for you to adjust how you wish to work or review the presentation.

To save your presentation, go to File -> SaveAs to save a copy to OneDrive, download a copy of the PowerPoint presentation, rename the file, or download the file in an alternative format such as PDF, ODP, or image.

When saving a copy of the presentation on OneDrive, you can select an existing folder or create a new one to select the file location.

You can consider the tips below to create visually appealing slides with PowerPoint Online.

Focus on Design Consistency

Use a consistent design with a color scheme, fonts, alignment, and graphics tailored to a specific format. Don’t use too many changes that might make the content appear muddled.  

Avoid Heavy Multimedia

Since PowerPoint for the Web is an online platform, not everyone might have the required Internet bandwidth or hardware to run heavy presentations smoothly. Using multimedia content in moderation can help avoid such issues.

Uncluttered Slides

Cluttered slides on an online interface will likely cause compatibility issues for some viewers or the slides might not appear properly on some browsers and devices. To avoid this, try to create uncluttered slides. Using minimalist slides might just be the best way to go.

Even the Distribution of Slide Elements

By evenly distributing slide elements with proper alignment, you should be able to create online slides that are easy for the eyes to follow.

Choose Imagery Carefully

When selecting icons, graphical elements, and pictures, try not to use imagery that is too flashy and might cause issues when opened across different browsers and devices. You can use icons from the built-in icons library in PowerPoint and select pictures that don’t visually overpower the viewer.

Get Design Ideas

You can get design ideas using PowerPoint Designer to adjust your design for visual appeal and design consistency.

Productivity Shortcuts

PowerPoint for the web primarily provides most of the features in the desktop app. Below are some tips and tricks for productivity when using the web version of PowerPoint. For some shortcuts listed below, PC users must use CTRL, whereas Mac users will use Command.

• Insert New Slide using CTRL+M hotkey (Command+M for Mac)
• Use F5 to start the slideshow and Esc to end the slideshow
• CTRL+D duplicates the slide (Command+D for Mac)
• CTRL+Shift+D deletes the slide (Command+Shift+D for Mac)
• Use CTRL+S to save slide (Command+S for Mac)
• Use CTRL+W to close the presentation (Command+W for Mac)
• To open printing options, use CTRL+P (Command+P for Mac)
• Zoom in with CTRL+Plus button (Command+Plus button for Mac)
• Zoom out with CTRL+Minus button (Command+Minus button for Mac)
• Insert a table with CTRL+T (Command+T for Mac)
• Insert a hyperlink with CTRL+K (Command+K for Mac)
• Align text with CTRL+L for left, CTRL+E for center, and CTRL+R for right (Replace CTRL with Command for Mac)

Screen Freezes When Working with PowerPoint for the Web

If your screen freezes while you’re working, the web version of PowerPoint is likely encountering an issue when saving the file, showing elements, or inserting content. You can wait a while, and the issue should be resolved. Also, check your Internet connection to see that you are connected. You might want to close additional tabs and review your system usage to see if your hardware is overwhelmed due to resource-intensive apps or multiple browser tabs.

Slide Elements Don’t Appear Properly

If your browser isn’t compatible or uses a browser plugin that blocks slide elements, you might encounter issues viewing slides. Use a compatible browser and turn off any plugins that might interfere with PowerPoint’s online interface.

File Upload or Download Issues

When you are unable to upload or download files, it is likely that your Internet connection is unstable or disconnected. Check your connection to resolve the issue.

Unable to Login

This is likely caused by incorrect credentials or a recent change in credentials, such as a password. If you cannot log in despite no apparent issues, try to clear your browser’s cache or switch to another browser to see if you can log in.

PowerPoint for the web provides most features available for the desktop version and some sharing and collaboration features that require uploading the file online for use. You will notice that some of these features are smoother when used with the online version compared to the desktop version. Furthermore, the online version of PowerPoint provides access regardless of whether you have PowerPoint installed on your device. If you are someone who does not have a Microsoft 365 subscription and needs to access a PowerPoint file, you can log in for free with a Microsoft account with limited features. Alternatively, if the online version is not an option for you, you can still learn how to create a PowerPoint presentation in the installed version of Office.

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How-To Geek

How to create a custom template in powerpoint.

If you can't find a PowerPoint template that fits your needs, just create your own. Here's how.

Quick Links

Create a custom powerpoint template, save your custom template.

PowerPoint provides extremely useful resources called templates that automatically construct the foundation and framework of your presentation. If you can’t quite find one that’s just right for you, you can create your own. Here’s how to do it.

To create a custom PowerPoint template, you’ll first need to open a blank presentation. You can do so by clicking the “File” tab and then selecting “New” in the left pane.

A large library of templates will appear, but since that’s not what we’re looking for, go ahead and select the “Blank Presentation” option.

Next, you need to choose the slide orientation and size . In the “Customize” group of the “Design” tab, select the “Slide Size” button. A small drop-down menu will appear. Here, click the “Customize Slide Size” option.

The “Slide Size” dialog box will appear. Here, you can (1) adjust the slide height and width or simply select a predefined option from the drop-down menu, and (2) select the slide orientation.

The rest of the template creation will be done in PowerPoint’s Slide Master . The Slide Master allows you to customize a presentation's fonts, headings, and colors in one place, applying the selections to all of your slides. This allows you to maintain consistency throughout the template, as well as eliminating the need to make changes to each individual slide.

Related: How to Change the Default Font in PowerPoint

To access the slide master, click on the "View" tab and then select “Slide Master” in the “Master Views” group.

The Slide Master will appear in the left pane. The Slide Master is the top thumbnail that appears in the pane. Each sub-thumbnail represents each slide layout available in your theme. Edits you make to the Slide Master will affect each slide layout.

This is where the magic happens. First, you can select a unique theme for what will be your PowerPoint template. To do so, select “Themes” in the “Edit Theme” group of the “Slide Master” tab.

A drop-down menu will appear, presenting a large library of themes to choose from. Each theme comes with its own fonts and effects. Browse through the collection and select the one you like.

You can also choose a background style for the theme you chose. Select “Background Styles” in the “Background” group and then select the style you like from the drop-down menu.

If you want to customize the placeholders in the slides, you can do so by selecting one of the options from the “Insert Placeholder” menu. You can find this option in the “Master Layout” group.

Once you’ve selected the slide where you want to insert a placeholder from the pane on left and the type of placeholder you want to insert from the menu, click and drag your cursor to draw the placeholder box.

Repeat this process until you’re happy with the placeholders in your template. Once you’re finished with this, all that’s left to do is save your custom template.

To save the PowerPoint presentation (.pptx) as a template (.potx), click the “File” tab and then the "Save As" button.

In the “Other Locations” group, select the “Browse" option.

The “Save As” dialog box will then appear. Select the box next to “Save as Type” and then choose “PowerPoint Template” from the list of options.

When you select the PowerPoint Template file type, PowerPoint redirects you to the “Custom Office Templates” folder. This is where you’ll want to save your template. Click the “Save” button.

Your template will now be saved and is ready to be used. To find your template next time you open PowerPoint, click the “File” tab and select the “New” button. Next, select the “Custom” tab and then select the “Custom Office Templates" option.

You’ll now see your custom template. Select it to start using your custom PowerPoint template.

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How to create a PowerPoint template (step-by-step)

• PowerPoint Tutorials
• Presentation Design
• August 1, 2019

We pulled this EPIC blog post together to show you how to create a PowerPoint template. Right off the bat, creating a PowerPoint template for your company, or for your team is no small task. There are both a lot of design decisions to make, and a lot of things that need to be properly set up in PowerPoint.

If you stumbled upon this blog post by accident, you might be wondering what a PowerPoint template is, and why do you need one.

In short, a template is a set of pre-built slide layouts and defined formatting to help you quickly create brand consistent and professional PowerPoint presentations.

Below is an example of the properly built template you’ll learn how to create throughout these PowerPoint tutorials.

Time Saving Tip:  You can save yourself a bunch of time by first buying a professional PowerPoint template and then tweaking it to meet your needs.

To see the 4 best places I recommend finding professional PowerPoint templates online (and why I like them),  read my guide here .

If you and your team make lots of PowerPoint presentations, a properly built template can save you THOUSANDS of hours building and editing your slides (no joke).

On the flip side, if your template is broken (which many are), it can make working in PowerPoint a nightmare.

Chances are that if your current PowerPoint template is difficult to work with, you are using a broken template. This tutorial will help you fix it (fast).

[Watch] How to create a template in PowerPoint

This is the first of three parts for how to create a PowerPoint template. If you prefer to watch over my shoulder as I do this (and explain it to you), click play below.

If you are more of a reader or want to quickly jump around these different template topics, scroll beneath the video for step-by-step instructions.

Both options will help you achieve the same end results, and that is creating a template for your PowerPoint presentations.

You are currently viewing a placeholder content from Youtube . To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.

Part #1. Creating Your PowerPoint Template Slide Backgrounds

In the first part of this tutorial, you’ll discover how to create your own slide backgrounds and how to:

• Build the overall frame for your template
• Use and navigate the PowerPoint Slide Master (and how the Parent and Child
• Slides work together)
• Use the different paste special options
• Add a pattern background to your slide
• Crop images to fit your entire slide background
• Add a radial gradient fill to a shape with transparency
• Add new guides and move them around on your Slide Master

1. Set the colors for your template

The first step when creating a template in PowerPoint is to select a color scheme for your template (preferably one that reflects your company’s brand image).

To select a color scheme for your template, inside of PowerPoint, navigate to the Design tab, and open the Variant options .

To choose a color scheme for your PowerPoint template, simply:

• Navigate to the Design tab
• Open the More variants options
• Click on Colors to open the dropdown
• Select the color scheme you want to use

If you want to use a color scheme that isn’t listed here, you can create your own.

Selecting a new PowerPoint theme changes all the default colors you have to work with inside your presentation (allowing you to maintain consistent formatting throughout).

Your theme colors will be reflected in all of your color dropdowns as pictured below (with pre-populated variants for those colors).

2. Set the fonts for your template

To navigate to your PowerPoint Slide Master, simply:

• Navigate to the View tab
• Select the Slide Master command

The next step is to select a font pairing for your template, which you can also do in the Design tab, under Variants.

NOTE:  This is one of my top PowerPoint template tips, and is one you don’t want to mess up. To see my 9 other top tricks for your PowerPoint templates,  read my guide here .

• Click on Fonts
• Select the font combination you want to use

The ability to make this kind of macro level formatting is one of the major benefits of creating a PowerPoint template. You set your formatting in one place, and it updates throughout your entire presentation (amazing!).

Once you have your colors and fonts selected, you are ready to create the framework. This includes your slide backgrounds and other common design elements you will want in your presentation.

3. Navigate to the Slide Master View

In order to properly create the slide backgrounds for your template, you’ll need to create a presentation framework on the Slide Master.

To choose a new font combination for your PowerPoint template, simply:

Inside the Slide Master , you’ll see two sets of slides on the left as pictured below:

#1. The Parent Slide (the bigger slide) is where you want to make the macro-level edits that you want to see reflected on the majority of your slides. For example, this is likely where you will want to see things like your company logo or any corporate branding design element.

#2. The Child Slides (the smaller slides) are where you want to customize the individual layouts. For example, your title slides and divider slides may look quite different from the rest of your slides, which is why they’ll have their own Child Slides.

Warning : Although you can delete the Child Slide layouts within a presentation, I don’t recommend it.

As Julie Terberg and Echo Swinford point out in their book on templates, “Building PowerPoint Templates Step by Step with the Experts”, if you delete these Child Slide layouts, you are likely to encounter formatting issues and errors when copying and pasting between your templates down the road.

So unless you are 300% sure you are never going to use these layouts (and nobody on the planet is ever going to send you a slide deck with one of these layouts), I don’t recommend deleting them.

4. Customize your Parent Slide background

Now that you are on your Slide Master, you’ll want to start by formatting your Parent Slide.

That’s because the formatting that you set on your Parent Slide will affect all of the other slide backgrounds within your template.

A. Choose your PowerPoint template's background

Next, you are going to format your slide background with the various design elements you want for all your slides.

In the example below, I’ve chosen a pattern for my template that is minimalist and modern. You can download and insert any picture or pattern you want to use as your slide background image.

B. Crop to Aspect Ratio

If you are using a picture for your slide background, the fastest way to make it fit on your slide is to crop it using the Aspect Ratio Crop tool. To do that, simply:

• Select the background image you have pasted on the slide
• Navigate to the Format tab
• Open the Crop dropdown
• Open the Aspect Ratio options
• Choose your aspect ratio. In the picture above I chose 16:9 for widescreen to match my slide dimensions (another common aspect ratio is 4:3 for printed slides).
• Adjust your photo within the frame
• Hit the Crop command again or hit Esc on your keyboard

This makes resizing the image to fit your template easier without having to worry about any warping.

Picture Cropping: Want to expand your knowledge and learn more about how to crop pictures in PowerPoint? Read our cropping guide here

C. Fill out your slide background

To make the image fit your entire slide space, there are two options.

Option #1. You can simply drag the handlebars to expand the image. Just make sure you hold the Shift key while you enlarge your image, so you don’t accidentally warp it.

Option #2. You can resize your image more precisely:

• In the Shape Width box, enter 13.33 and hit Enter on your keyboard
• Drag the image in the center to fit the entire slide

NOTE: In my example in the video above, I wanted a smaller pattern. That’s why I duplicated the background image so that I have two smaller images next to each other.

And then I made sure to group the two images together so that they function as a unit.

The final example of the background shown below is the result of that. And because the image is set on the Parent Slide like this, by default it will show up as all the slides in my PowerPoint template.

After resizing your background image, you will want to send it back behind all other elements.

To send the image backward, simply:

• Select your background image
• Navigate to the Picture Tools Format tab
• Click on the Send Backward dropdown
• From the dropdown menu, select Send to Back

This sends the background behind the text as shown in the picture below. This makes all the Parent Slide content placeholders visible again on your slide.

D. Create a semi-transparent gradient layer

With the slide background set for my PowerPoint template, I’m additionally going to make the slide background less visible by adding a semi-transparent layer.

That’s because as you can see in the picture below, the text is not clear against the background image I used. This will make it hard for people to read my slides during a presentation.

In the steps below, I will use the old method (non-Office 365 subscription) for creating a transparent background in PowerPoint. If you have an Office 365 subscription and want to see the brand-new way to create a transparent image, see our guide here .

Step #1. Insert and format a rectangle

To insert and format a rectangle in PowerPoint, simply:

• From the Insert Tab, click on the Shapes gallery, and select a rectangle (mine is on my QAT).
• Draw in the rectangle so that it covers your entire background image (for this to work, your rectangle needs to be the same exact size as the image you want to make transparent).
• Remove its outline by going to the Shape Outline dropdown and selecting No Outline .

Step #2. Add a gradient fill

With the rectangle still selected, make the following adjustments:

• Select your rectangle and click Format Shape to open the Format Shape dialog box. This gives you a wide variety of formatting options you can use to format your shape backgrounds for your template.
• Select the Gradient fill.
• In the Type dropdown, select Radial .
• For the Direction , select the “from center” option (in the middle).
• In the Gradient stops bar, select the first gradient stop, and from the fill Color dropdown, select white. Under Transparency , enter 5 %. So that it almost looks 100% white in the middle.
• Next, select the second gradient bar and drag it to the right. From the fill Color dropdown, select white. For Transparency , enter 10%.
• Then, select the third gradient bar and drag it to the right. From the fill Color dropdown, select white. For Transparency , enter 10%.
• Finally, select the last gradient bar and drag it to the right. From the fill Color dropdown, select white. For Transparency , enter 60%.

Using the gradient fill options described above, your rectangle should look like mine, with some of your text bleeding through it.

Close the Format Shape pane and you’re all set with your gradient formatting.

As a final step, right-click your gradient rectangle and select Send to Back and then Send Forward so that it sits behind your placeholders but on top of your pattern background.

5. Add a slide background design element

As a next step, I’m going to add a bright bar down the right-side of my slide as a nice design element. To do that, simply:

• Navigate to the  Insert tab and select the  Shapes dropdown.
• Select a  Rectangle and draw it on the right-hand side of your slide. Make sure to place it on the edge of your slide.
• Select No Outline

Note:  Make sure you are adding this to your Parent Slide and not a Child Slide. This automatically populates the design element on all the Child Slides.

That’s the power of creating a PowerPoint template – you add a design element in one place, and it shows up throughout your presentation.

6. Add and edit your guides

In PowerPoint, guides help with formatting, positioning, and slide-to-slide consistency.

Consider guides as the anchors on your slide that help you to consistently align your objects. It’ s an optional step, but I recommend adding them to your template.

To add guides to your PowerPoint template, simply:

• Click on the View tab
• Select Guides . Notice that there are two guides: one vertical and one horizontal. 
• To move a guide, place your mouse over it , and when your cursor becomes a double-headed arrow, drag the guide to where you want it on your slide.

For now, I will simply place my guides on the edges of the slide, to create a “bleed area” in case part of the presentation gets cut off in print.

We will look at adding more guides in part #2 of this series.  To add a new guide, simply start dragging an existing one, and then hit the Ctrl key on your keyboard before you let go.

Depending on how you set up your guides, they tell users where they should and shouldn’t be placing content on your slides.

Part #2. Setting up your template placeholders and footers

With your slide background now set up, let’s nail down the following three placeholders on the  Parent Slide :

• Title placeholder
• Content placeholder
• Date and time, Footer, and Slide Number placeholders

And even if you don’t want to use these placeholders on all of your slides, it’s still important to set and format them on your Parent Slide.

Why? Because if you don’t, you run the risk of letting default formatting slip through the cracks and ruin an otherwise perfect template.

Later in this tutorial, you’ll learn how to tweak your slide layouts away from the Parent Slide if that’s what you want to do.

1. Format the Title placeholder

There are a number of ways in which you can format your placeholders and there is no right or wrong formatting.

But before we dive into that, let’s talk about what placeholders are.  Placeholders are blank spaces that are designated for certain types of content.

You set these on your Slide Master so that they are locked when people fill them in when building their PowerPoint slides using your template.

Three keys to remember about your content placeholders are:

• They can only be set and edited (for real) on your Slide Master.
• Only text typed into your placeholders will show in the Outline View of your presentation.
• Only text that has been typed into your placeholders will change fonts automatically when you change your theme’s fonts.

You can change the font size, alignment, size, position, etc. of your placeholders to meet your requirements. Below I’ll run you through the most common formatting elements.

A. Change the font size

Before you start formatting your placeholders, make sure you are on your Parent Slide. We will focus on formatting your Child Slide layouts later.

As a first step, let’s change the font size of the title placeholder:

• Select your title placeholder
• In the Font Size  dialog box, enter 40 (or whatever size you want)

B. Resize and position the placeholder

Next, adjust the size and position of your title placeholder. To do that, simply select the placeholder and:

• Use the four-headed arrow cursor to move the placeholder to where you want it on your slide.
• With the placeholder still selected, drag the resizing handles (the 8 little white circles) in or out to resize the placeholder.

There is no right size and position for your title. You’ll simply want to make sure that it fits your slide.

You’ll also want to think about how much text you’re expecting people to type into the placeholder for their slides. Make sure the placeholder is big enough to fit the typical scenario.

C. Set your vertical text alignment

Next, set the vertical text alignment for your title. To do that:

• From the Home tab, select the Align Text dropdown menu
• Choose your desired vertical text alignment (I’ll choose Bottom for mine)

Unless you have a specific reason to do otherwise, I recommend that you choose Bottom for your vertical text alignment. That way your title text will always stay perfectly aligned at the bottom, from slide to slide.

This helps avoid jumping titles for any slides that have more than one line of text. On the flip side, if you plan on having short titles for all your slides (no more than one line), I recommend using the Middle text alignment instead.

Regardless of what you decide, make sure you test different title lengths to see what will work best for your PowerPoint template.

D. Align the guides to the title

Since we added our guides in the first part of this series, now we’ll set them to align with our title.

• Drag your Horizontal Guides to match the top and the bottom of your title placeholder (add more guides if necessary)
• Drag your Vertical Guides  to match the left-hand and right-hand sides of the title placeholder (add more guides if necessary)

To add a new guide, simply start dragging an existing one, and then hit the Ctrl key on your keyboard before you let go.

Adjusting your guides like this will make aligning objects on your slides much easier as your Smart Guides will automatically snap them together.

Note: If your Guides are not visible, simply right-click on a blank part of your slide and select Grid & Guides, and then Guides. That will turn them on. Alternatively, you can go up to the View tab in the Ribbon and select Guides inside the Show area.

2. Format the Text placeholder

The Text placeholder on your Parent Slide is special in that it will dictate the default formatting of all the other content placeholders in your presentation (except for the Title placeholder and the Footer placeholders).

Setting the default here on the Parent Slide is important because it makes it a lot easier to make fast and consistent changes to swathes of content down the road.

Later in this template series, I will show you how to format away from this default behavior on the Child Slides. But first you want to set its default formatting.

A. Resize and position the Text placeholder

The first thing to do with your Text placeholder is change its position and/or size so that it’s exactly aligned with the Title and Footer placeholders. To do that:

• Select the Text placeholder and when the cursor becomes a four-headed arrow, drag the placeholder to the top and left side so that it is aligned with the Title placeholder.
• With the placeholder still selected, use its sizing handles to adjust its size until it is just right (factoring the amount of text that you predict you’ll type in, as well as the alignment with the other placeholders).

B. Align the guides

In this step, you need to align the horizontal and the vertical guides to that they align with the Text placeholder. To do that:

• Drag the horizontal guides to match the top and the bottom of the Text placeholder.
• Similarly, drag the vertical guides to match the left and right-hand sides of the Text placeholder.

C. Change the font size

The next step is to change the font size of the different levels of text inside the placeholder. To do that:

• Select the first level of text
• In the Font Size box, type in 20 and hit Enter

Repeat these steps for the second, third, fourth, and fifth levels of bulleted text, changing their font sizes to 18,16, 14, and 14 respectively.

D. Adjust and align the bullet points

Once you have set the font size, it is important to adjust the bullets.

• Select all the text styles in the content placeholder
• In the Paragraph group, click on the Bullets and Numbering dropdown
• Click on the square style bullets

Next, you want to adjust the indent of the bulleted lists so that it appears in all your slide layouts. To do that:

• Select the bulleted list you want to adjust
• Click, hold, and drag the desired indent marker. In our example, we’ll drag the hanging indent marker.
• Repeat this for each text level

You can adjust the bullets as per your personal preference. Based on your knowledge of how someone is going to be using this template, you might decide to add more or less space.

Note: My recommendation as per Julie Terberg and Echo Swinford’s book, “Building PowerPoint Templates Step by Step with the Experts,” is to always make sure that you format every single item you have available. That includes formatting each text list level.

You can see their book on templates here .

That way, you have everything set in case someone decides to break the rules or do their own thing. This inevitably happens with templates and you want to be prepared for it!

3. Formatting the footers of your template

The footer section of the Slide Master has three types of placeholders:

• Slide number
• Footer text
• Date and time

A. Set the font size for all your footers

The first step is to change the font size of the footer placeholders. To do that:

• Select all your footer placeholders holding the  Shift  key.
• In the  Font Size  dialog box, type 10 (of whatever your desired font size is) and hit Enter.

B. Resize and position the placeholders

The next thing to do with the footer placeholders is to change their position and/or size so that they’re aligned with the rest of the placeholders. To do that:

• Select each placeholder and when the cursor becomes a four-headed arrow, drag the placeholder to its desired location (use the guides for assistance).
• Repeat this for each placeholder.

If you want to be 100% certain that all the Footer placeholders are the same, select them one at a time and go to the Shape Format  tab in the Ribbon. In the Size section, verify that the height of the placeholders is the same.

In this example, note that I am swapping the positions of the Date & Time and Footer  placeholders.

Remember to also add new guides around these placeholders to help keep them in place. Here, I’m only going to add the top and bottom guides, so as to avoid confusion and overkill.

C. Format the Slide Number placeholder

Next, we’ll need to adjust the formatting of the text inside the slide number placeholder. To do that:

• Right-click the placeholder, click on  Format Shape  and select Text Options
• Open the Text box tab
• Type 0 for the Left margin and hit Tab or Enter on your keyboard

Note: For the slide number placeholder, you can also add symbols as I have here (such as a bar and two spaces), in order to create a visual break from the other placeholders.

D. Format the Date and Time placholder

The next thing is to format the date and time footer placeholder. You can choose any kind of format you like. Below you’ll find the steps that I took in the video tutorial at the top of this page.

First, select the placeholder and hit Ctrl+R on your keyboard to right-align the text to the right (so that it’s flush with the slide number to the right).

Then, you’ll want to choose what kind of date formatting you want. To do that, simply:

• Select the Date and time placeholder and hit Ctrl + R on your keyboard to align the text to the right.
• Go up to the Insert tab and in the Text group, select Header & Footer .
• Click on Date and time so that there is a checkmark next to it.
• Click on the Date dropdown and select the option as required. In this example, we are going to select December 30th, 2017.
• Click Apply to All to save the changes. You can see that the date and time text has changed accordingly.

E. Format the Footer text placeholder

The final default placeholder to format on the Parent Slide here is the Footer text placeholder. This placeholder is designed for a tagline, an author’s name, or cited sources. For helping citing sources in PowerPoint, read our guide here .

All you need to do here is to select the placeholder and hit  Ctrl+L  on your keyboard to left-align the text. This way, it is next to the logo and the text inserted will extend out towards the right.

F. (Optional) Add your logo

While all the default placeholders have now been set up and formatted correctly, there is still one element that you can add on the Parent Slide of your Slide Master; and that is a logo.

This is optional, so don’t feel obligated to add one. In fact, a common practice today is to display the logo more sparingly and only place it on certain Child Slide Layouts.

To add a logo, simply:

• Copy the logo and hit Ctrl+V to paste it on the slide. Make sure you paste it as a PNG because it won’t lose its quality over time, whereas a JPEG will.
• Resize and reposition the logo to make it fit nicely in its desired position. Alternatively, you can click on the Picture Format tab in the Ribbon and set the height to 0.35 to make it even with the other placeholders.

You can also use this same technique to add a watermark to your PowerPoint slides. To see how to add a watermark to your slides (like Draft or Confidential ), read our guide here .

Part #3. Creating Custom PowerPoint Template Slides

In the last part of this creating a PowerPoint template guide, you’ll finalize the slide layouts that you want to use in your PowerPoint presentation by formatting the Child Slides .

The  Child Slides  represent the blueprints for each type of slide included in your template. By default, your Child Slide layouts will inherit your Parent Slide formatting. But as you will see, you can tweak these layouts to meet your individual needs.

The key to designing good Child Slide layouts is to keep in mind how the end-user is likely going to insert content on each type of slide. You want to make it easy for everyone to quickly fill them in when using your template.

In this section you’ll learn how to:

• Remove background graphics so that they’re hidden on your Child Slide layouts,
• Make the slide background an existing picture,
• Rename your custom Child Slide,
• Add prompt text to help the template user properly fill in each layout,

1. Format the Title slide layout

The first step is to edit the Title slide layout. This layout is designed to be filled in with the title and general information about your presentation.

Typically, its looks slightly different than the rest of the layouts. It usually has less text and fewer images/objects, and it stands apart.

That being said, it still needs to match the other layouts overall and look like it’s a part of the same template.

The first thing we need to do when formatting our Title slide layout is to think about the background. Typically, a Title slide will have a slightly different background from the regular Content slides.

However, because the background has been set on the Parent Slide, this means that you will have to deviate from it. There are 2 ways to approach this – let’s go over each one.

A. Hide the background graphics on a Child Slide - Method #1

The first method for hiding anything in the background (graphics such as the logo, background patterns, design elements, etc.) is to insert a blank rectangle to cover it up.

To cover up your slide background with a white rectangle, simply:

• Go to the Insert tab on the Ribbon, click on the Shapes dropdown, select a rectangle.
• Draw in the rectangle so that it fills out the entire slide.
• Change the rectangle’s fill color to White .
• Remove the rectangle’s outline .

Next, we’ll need to make sure the placeholders are visible on the slide, in front of the newly inserted rectangle.

To do that, with the rectangle still selected, go to the Shape Format tab on the Ribbon, click on the Send Backward dropdown and select Send to Back .

Note: Keep in mind that covering up the background elements like this means that the logo (and any other image you’ve pasted onto the Parent Slide) will be hidden. If you want that element to be visible on this Child Layout, you’ll have to copy/paste it in.

B. Hide the background graphics on a Child Slide - Method #2

The “technically better” way to do this is to use the default PowerPoint feature set up to do this for you. Simply:

• Go to the Slide Master tab in the Ribbon
• Click on Hide Background Graphics to add a checkmark next to it

This hides anything from the Parent Slide that isn’t a placeholder. This includes any background images or patterns, logos, and other design elements.

You can easily make them visible again by unchecking the Hide Background Graphics checkbox.

C. Add in a new background for this layout

Now that we’ve removed the background inherited from the Parent Slide layout, we’ll need to add in background elements we want on this particular Child Slide.

While the background image can be different, we want to keep it consistent. So let’s go back up and take some elements we can reuse.

First, navigate back to the Parent Slide and select the pattern image (without the gradient). Then hit Ctrl + C on your keyboard to copy it.

Then, go back to your Title slide layout and:

• Right-click a blank area on your slide and select Format Background .
• In the Format Background tab, select Picture or texture fill .
• Select Clipboard .

This pastes whatever is currently copied on your clipboard into your slide background.

Note: Pasting an object directly into your slide background like this means that it can no longer be edited in your PowerPoint template.

If instead you paste it directly onto the slide as an image, you can always go back in and make adjustments to the image, and therefore to the background too.

It’s up to you whether you want your template’s users to be able to edit the background image or not.

So if you’re putting the image directly into the slide background, I recommended that you only do so when you are sure that this is the final background image you want to use.

D. Add in an extra design element

The next step is to add in a design element that matches the general theme and style of the template. To do that:

• Go to the Insert tab on the Ribbon, click on the Shapes dropdown and select a rectangle.
• Draw in the rectangle (it should be filled with the first accent color of your theme) so that it fills about 80% of your slide.
• Make sure the rectangle is centered and in the middle of the slide.

Next, let’s send the rectangle behind the placeholders.

To do that, right-click the rectangle, open the Send Backward dropdown and select Send to Back .

E. Adjust the placeholders

First, adjust your Title and Subtitle placeholders. To do that, simply select the two placeholders and:

• Change their Font color to white.
• Adjust their position and size on the slide, keeping in mind how much room you need to leave for the text.

Next, let’s address the Footer placeholders.

Even if you don’t want footers visible on the Title slide of your template, I don’t recommend deleting them here in the Slide Master View.

Why? Because if someone decides to use them despite your instructions, you still want them to appear correctly and match the rest of the template.

F. Format and hide your Footer placeholders

To format and hide your footer placeholders, simply:

• Format the footer placeholders the way you’d like them to appear if they were used.
• Go up to the Slide Master tab in the Ribbon and deselect the Footers  checkbox.

Note:  Even if your footers stay selected on this Title slide layout in the Slide Master View, they typically don’t appear on that Title slide in the Normal View.

To turn them on, you have to go to the Insert tab in the Ribbon and select Header & Footer. There, you can turn them on.

So, unless you truly want someone to NEVER be able to add a page number, date and time, and footer text to the Title layout, then I recommend leaving them on the Child Slide, to keep that option open.

If you deselect the Footers checkbox in the Slide Master View as we did above, then when someone tries to insert footers in the Normal View, they will not appear.

To learn all about how to add slide numbers in PowerPoint (and troubleshoot ones that won’t show up), read our guide here .

One more thing you might notice is that the guides are not visible on the Title slide. Since this is a Child Slide, you can’t edit the guides here.

Unfortunately, the guides you set on the Parent Slide will likely not match the content you have on the Title slide (and any Child Slide whose content deviates from it). There is no way around this in PowerPoint at this point in time.

2. Format your Title and Content layout

The next step is to edit the most commonly used PowerPoint slide in any presentation, the Title and Content layout.

This specific slide layout will look almost identical to to the Parent Slide layout that we’ve already set up at this point. This means that there isn’t much we have to do to change it.

However, in this example, we are going to add one more design element to the layout, which is a straight line. To do that simply:

• In the Insert  tab on the Ribbon, click on the  Shapes dropdown and select the straight line. To make sure it’s 100% straight, hold the Shift key as you draw in the line.
• Drag the straight line and place it underneath the title. It should perfectly fit in thanks to the Smart Guides . Make sure that it’s long enough to go past the text in the Title placeholder .

The reason you don’t add this line to the Parent Slide is that the layout has to be formatted to work for the majority of the layouts in your template.

That means that the Parent Slide has to be relatively bare-bones. You can always add extra elements in the Child Slides.

3. Format the other Child Slides

From here onward, you will need to format each of the Child Slides to match the content that goes in them.

You will want to follow the same procedure as in Step #2 above, keeping in mind what each Child Slide is designed for and how the content should be placed.

Some layouts will require more custom formatting and design elements.  For example, for the Divider slide (the first slide in the examples below,) I have added a rectangle that matches the design elements on the Title Slide layout.

4. Optional step: Create your own Child Layouts

In addition to the default Child Slides that PowerPoint gives you, you have the option to create your own.

You can choose to create your own if you have a very specific type of slide that you’ll need to create over and over in your presentation.

If you make the slide under 10 times, it may not be worth clogging up your Slide Master area. But if you use it frequently, creating a layout template for that type of slide will save you countless hours.

Here are the kinds of slides you may want to create a custom layout for:

• Table of Contents / Agenda
• Team bios / Team headshots
• Case studies
• Thank you / Learn more
• Data dashboard

Keep in mind that the blank layout (and other blank variations) can always be used to create more one-off slides.

Creating a custom agenda slide

In this example, we’re going to add a custom Agenda Child Slide. To add this custom layout:

• Go to the Slide Master tab in the Ribbon and click Insert Layout . You’ll see that a new Child Slide gets added in with just a Title placeholder and the Footer placeholders.
• Add any additional placeholders you need (Slide Master tab > Insert Placeholder) and format them as per your requirements. In this example, I’ve added 20 text placeholders that I’ve resized and formatted.
• Adjust the prompt text in the placeholders to fit the respective content need. For example, in the image below you can write “Type in item” so that the user knows to type in the right text into each placeholder.

Note: You can change the shape of a placeholder, as well as adjust all other properties of a typical shape. That means that you can also add fill, outline, effects, etc.

This is how I was able to create the circular TOC numbers in this layout:

You can also rename the custom Child Layout by:

• Right-clicking it in the Thumbnail View on the left-hand side and selecting Rename Layout .
• Type in a helpful name and click Rename .

Note: You can perform these steps for all custom Child Slides. You can also create custom layouts for a lot of slides such as for products, case studies, contact us, etc.

However, try not to go overboard because you don’t want to have a layout area packed full of slides, which will confuse the user.

But for very frequently occurring slides, I highly recommend making a custom layout.

There are also other slides in the template such as the content slide with subtitles or a blank slide with a title. You can format them per your requirements.

5. Finalize your PowerPoint template

Although your PowerPoint template is almost finished, there are still a few critical steps I recommend taking. Take a deep breath, you are almost there.

A. Set your PowerPoint animations and transitions

The first thing is to set the animations and transitions for your slides. For all placeholders that you want to automatically animate in your template, simply select it and apply your animation.

Note: Keep in mind that animations should be used in your template VERY sparingly. That’s not only because animations can be overly distracting, but it’s also because the user of your template may not want to have animations set automatically for them.

In short, make sure you create the template in a way that makes your users’ life easier, rather than harder.

Once that’s done, let’s set the slide transitions. To do that, simply:

• Select all of the slides in your template (in the Slide Master View).
• Click into the Transitions tab in the Ribbon and select your preferred slide transition.

Next, let’s make sure we close the Slide Master View since we are done with it. From the Slide Master  tab in the Ribbon, click  Close Master View .

Note: There is also a Notes Master and Handout Master in PowerPoint that you can set up and format. These masters determine the look and feel of your PowerPoint handouts when you print them.

B. Stress test your template to make sure it works

It is highly recommended that you test your template before you distribute it. That way you catch any errors before your users do.

Here are some ways you can stress test your template:

• Try to use it in a variety of different ways to see if it breaks
• Type in all kinds of dummy text
• Delete things and turn them back on again
• Paste slides in from other templates to see what happens in your template

And that’s how to create a PowerPoint template that works the way it is supposed to.

You now have the foundational skills to start creating your own PowerPoint templates and building beautiful and tailor-made presentations. 

If you want to learn more about building and deploying your template in professional settings, I recommend checking out my step-by-step training course, see details here .

As a quick recap of everything we covered, you learned how to:

• Navigate the Slide Master View,
• Create and insert slide backgrounds, as well as hide background graphics,
• Format each of the elements on the Parent Slide layout,
• Format each Child Layout and create your own custom Child Slide layouts,
• Add and adjust the Guides on your Parent Slide layout,

If you enjoyed this in-depth tutorial, you’ll love our PowerPoint training courses and tutorials that you can learn more about here .

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This Post Has 2 Comments

Such a great GREAT walkthrough! I’ve learned so much. You shared so many little golden nuggets that are pricesless!

Very happy to hear you found this useful!

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How to Make a PowerPoint Template

Last Updated: October 25, 2022 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Darlene Antonelli, MA . Darlene Antonelli is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. Darlene has experience teaching college courses, writing technology-related articles, and working hands-on in the technology field. She earned an MA in Writing from Rowan University in 2012 and wrote her thesis on online communities and the personalities curated in such communities. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 580,019 times. Learn more...

If you want to maintain consistency throughout your organization's PowerPoint presentations, a template is what you'll want to use. This wikiHow teaches you how to create a custom PowerPoint template in Microsoft PowerPoint. You can do this on both Windows and Mac versions of PowerPoint.

Things You Should Know

• You can create a custom PowerPoint template to use again and again.
• Customize your PowerPoint as much as you'd like using Slide Master.
• Save your template by setting the file type as "PowerPoint Presentation".

• On Mac, simply opening PowerPoint might open a new presentation depending on your settings. If it does, skip this step.

• On Mac, this option is on the top menu bar. [1] X Trustworthy Source Microsoft Support Technical support and product information from Microsoft. Go to source

• On Mac, first click Master , then click Slide Master .

• Once you select a slide, you can pick a theme from the "Themes" drop-down that's located above the slide master panel. You can also apply backgrounds by clicking Background styles. You can also click Format Background... in the drop-down menu to customize color options like base color, gradient, and brightness.

• Content - Inserts a written content outline. On a Mac, you have a "Vertical" option for Content as well.
• Text - Inserts a text box. On a Mac, you have a "Vertical" option for Text as well.
• Picture - Inserts a section for a picture.
• Chart - Inserts a section for a chart.
• Table - Inserts a section for a table.
• Smart Art - Inserts a section for smart art items.
• Media - Inserts a section for a video.
• Online Image - Inserts a section from which you can add an online image.

• You may have to perform additional steps before the item is added to your template. For example, clicking Online Image will prompt you to search for an image and click Insert .

• Windows: Click File > Save As , select a location and enter a name for your template. Click the Save as type drop-down box, click PowerPoint Template , and then click Save . [2] X Trustworthy Source Microsoft Support Technical support and product information from Microsoft. Go to source
• Mac: Click File > Save as Template , enter a file name, and click Save .

Community Q&A

• You can upload your templates to Microsoft OneDrive if you want to store them in the cloud. You should be able to access them from the PowerPoint template menu. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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• ↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-a-template-86a1d089-5ae2-4d53-9042-1191bce57deb#OfficeVersion=macOS
• ↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-and-save-a-powerpoint-template-ee4429ad-2a74-4100-82f7-50f8169c8aca

About This Article

1. Open PowerPoint. 2. Click Blank Presentation . 3. Click the Design tab. 4. Click Slide Size , Custom Slide Size , and then choose the page orientation and dimensions. 5. Click the View tab. 6. Click Slide Master . 7. Select a slide format to edit. 8. Click Insert Placeholder . 9. Drag and drop a placeholder to a slide. 10. Select a template font. 11. Save your template. Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Presentations > Five tips for choosing the right PowerPoint template

Five tips for choosing the right PowerPoint template

The design or template you choose can greatly influence the success of your presentation, either capturing your audience’s attention or leaving them disengaged. To make a lasting impression on your audience, utilize these five tips when selecting your PowerPoint presentation template.

How do you choose a template in PowerPoint?

The initial step in creating your PowerPoint presentation is choosing the appropriate design. To effectively select the best PowerPoint template for your presentation, there are several components you should consider. These components include the following:

1. Consider your audience

The first component you should consider is your audience. Is the presentation intended for a formal setting, such as in a business context, or will it be delivered in a more informal gathering? Are the viewers going to review the slides virtually , in-person, or will they be viewing the presentation independently? What are the demographics of your audience? It’s crucial to contemplate your audience before outlining your presentation, as they significantly influence your design choices. For example, if you are delivering a business-oriented presentation, you might choose a more conservative design, while a more informal presentation may call for a bolder and more captivating template.

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Powerpoint empowers you to develop well-designed content across all your devices

2. Select a template with appropriate layout options

The layout plays a crucial role in determining how your content is delivered, read, and ultimately comprehended by your audience. When you assess presentation templates, ensure that the layout options align with the nature of your content. Ask yourself, ‘Will this format enhance the readability and comprehension of my content for my audience? Is it the most efficient way to convey my information?

3. Choose a design that fits your style

You’ll feel most comfortable presenting when your presentation feels like yourself. Make you presentation an extension of your personal style and brand, that effectively complements your aesthetic preferences. Whether you prefer minimalism and clean lines or a striking, vibrant presentation filled with animation, select a design that aligns with your style and creates cohesive visuals.

4. Find a template that reflects your message

Outside of aesthetics, your template should reflect the core message of your presentation. If your content is data-heavy, opt for a template with clear charts and graphs. For a storytelling presentation, choose a template that incorporates visuals and storytelling elements. Ensuring your template and message aligns strengthens your presentation’s storytelling .

5. Consider the length of your presentation

The duration of your presentation should be incorporated in your template decision making. Longer presentations may benefit from a clean and organized template that aids in maintaining audience attention. Shorter presentations, on the other hand, provide room for more creative and visually striking templates. Consider the pacing and structure of your content in relation to the template to optimize your audience’s engagement.

The key to an effective PowerPoint presentation template is extensively considering the context of your presentation. Know who your audience is, what your message is, the length of your message, and how the content should be presented. When you consider these elements, you can ensure your presentation will resonate with your audience, with your intended impact. For more ways to improve your next presentation, learn more presentation tips .

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To convert your Google Slides to PowerPoint, go to File > Download > Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx). Then open the file in PowerPoint. See more at Get started with Sheets .

Note:  Features and information in this guide apply to PowerPoint as available through Microsoft 365.

Create a new presentation

Open PowerPoint.

Select Blank presentation , or select one of the themes.

Select More themes to view the gallery and search for more.

Add a slide

Select the slide you want your new slide to follow.

Select Home > New Slide .

Select Layout and the you type want from the drop-down.

When you save your files to the cloud, you can share and collaborate with others.

Select File > Save As .

Select a OneDrive folder and name the file.

After you save once to OneDrive, AutoSave is enabled that saves your file automatically, every few seconds, as you work.

Rename a presentation

Select the file name on the title bar.

In the menu that appears you can rename the file, select a new location to move it to, or see the version history for the file.

When you're online, AutoSave is always on and saves your changes as you work. If at any time you lose your Internet connection or turn it off, any pending changes will sync as soon as you’re back online.

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How to make your powerpoint presentation stand out

Do you want create effective, compelling slides for your Powerpoint presentation? Many people have been through too many presentations with info-loaded slides that don’t seem to stick.

Have you ever been in the back row of a class or seminar, and the presenter asks you to read something extremely small and long on the screen?

You’ve probably seen slides that are word clouds of rainbow colors mashed together, or perhaps a layout of misshapen images that are sprinkled all over.

These are very amateur errors you can avoid when you design your own.

There are simple ways to create a beautifully designed powerpoint and you do not need to be a professional designer!

Your next presentation can be an engaging presentation simply by reading this article!

We offer a few ways and simple tips on how to make a stunning powerpoint presentation today. In no time, you can learn how to use Powerpoint effectively and be in your best presentation mode.

Do you have any tricks and tips for creating engaging and interactive presentations? Comment below.

Powerpoint Presentation Tips:

Tell a story by planning your content out before you think of your visual elements

A great example of how content planning informs design is first coming up with a great title. For eg, if you are doing a presentation on increasing literacy for children in school, you could think of what major points you could make for your presentation and craft a title like “How to Fund for Middle Grade Fiction and Non-Fiction Books” versus something to broad like “Get Kids Reading”.

When you define like this, in this example, you can find middle grade children photos versus a wide range of children at different ages, and you can make the Powerpoint geared to finance and grant funding, so you may consider a template that looks like more like a business presentation than say a Powerpoint presentation that looks like it was meant for children.

Another great example is making a list of topics and editing it like you would a paper, so you can work on the flow before spending too much time on the design.

Establish a consistent layout or use your branding

Really, you can do a lot with one slide in seeing which colours, fonts and images work for you. But if you want to get in deeper, you can start with designing three slides: your title slide, a list slide and a slide with a blurb and photo.

Once you design these three, you can use the style for the Powerpoint, and keep it clean and consistent on any new slide you create.

You can even train your viewer with your slide design, and as long as a text box is properly aligned and you add images and crop images well, you do not need advanced techniques to make it look clean.

Align objects well together with proper white space, and your Powerpoint presentation will already look better than most out there.

Whether you workshop one slide or want to create a presentation template for your presentation, we will go step by step on how to create a simple template.

1. Use effective fonts for your presentation template

You can get a lot of using one main font and playing with its types: italic, light, regular, semi-bold, bold and extra bold, and you can also use size to create a hierarchy.

For instance, you can make all titles bold and size 44; all sub titles semi-bold and size 40; and the body font regular and size 30, and as long as the entire slide follows this order, things will look clean and consistent.

But if you would like variety, pick two fonts to use and do not use more than that. One font should be clean and readable, like Times New Roman, Arial or any font that is similar.

The other font can be a decorative font like a handwritten looking one or one that like Times or Arial but may be bolder or thin and spaced out more like Bebas Neue or Impact.

Whatever the theme is for your PowerPoint. You should still set a hierarchy like setting titles to size 44, sub titles to size 40, and body font to size 30 to keep the design consistent!

When You Should Use Animation

Like font, it is best if you only pick a few colours for your presentation.

You can use colour wheel theories. Primary colors in the RGB color wheel are the colors that, added together, create pure white light. Secondary colors are colors that result from mixing two primary colors. Tertiary colors are colors made by combining a secondary color with a primary color.

• Complementary - Two colors that are on opposite sides of the color wheel.
• Analogous - Three colors that are side by side on the color wheel.
• Triadic - Three colors that are evenly spaced on the color wheel.
• Tetradic - Four colors that are evenly spaced on the color wheel.

A sweet spot is about 1-3 colours.

Even the most creative themes have only a few colour.

Think of the most effective brands and what are their colour schemes?

Think of Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter – they have one key colour and maybe one or two more colours associated with them.

The most common trio in design is black, white and red.

This is because white is easy to read on and black offers the maximum amount of contrast as the text on white, and red is a great accent colour.

When picking colours, you could start with your branding colours or simply think which colours are readable.

Would white and teal work in terms of reading? Probably not. But a nice navy blue and white would. And if you choose an accent to navy and white, looking at a colour wheel would show you perhaps choosing yellow would be a nice compliment.

An engaging presentation relies on people being able to read it and for their eyes not to get distracted by too many colours in the powerpoint slides.

The last thing you want is your slide deck to look too gaudy and bright for your audience to read.

A way of thinking of colour and seeing its use in the real world is this: the next time you are in a cafe or fast-food restaurant, what colour and design are their menus? Menus have a detailed list of items but they’re very easy to use and very well designed in terms of colour and readability.

A photo or video is worth a thousand words in a presentation

A photo can illustrate a point or concept without words and within seconds, so use images to your advance.

You could use a free resource website like Unsplash to find photos for your presentation. There are also sites like Shutterstock, Freepik, Pexels and many more if you need free photo content. Shutterstock and Freepik also have premium options that allow you to source high quality content at your fingertips.

Here are some general tips for photo usage:

Use images that supplement your point and not generic ones - think deeply about the message being conveyed in the image you select, when you crop your images, make that crop consistent wherever you can. will you use a square photo, a top banner or left banner try to use it a few times, even if there are slides that vary the shape and size in between., could the slide be an entire image with a few words or no words, if the image conveys what you are saying perfectly, consider using the image as a background, with a black or white overlay on it with a minimal amount of words as stand out slides., also consider colour scheme or style of images. keeping the same tone can help the visual look., downsize the photos if you can - it will help if your powerpoint is running slow..

You could also use an animated gif or animate the images to appear one by one if you are presenting something that needs to be shown in steps.

You could also use something like a youtube video to convey an infographic or something that is lengthy to explain.

Whether you create your own video content or use content from sites like Youtube, they can be embedded into the Powerpoint and can convey complex messages in minutes.

This is great referential content to help you illustrate points that may take too long to convey without a visual.

You can have the video play as a full screen object, or you can have fun and put a graphic of a screen or maybe use a shape to play your video in.

Pay attention to white space in your presentations

One simple technique is to pay attention to white space in your powerpoint presentations. This is probably the most important of our powerpoint presentation tips.

White space is the area between design elements. It can be any color, texture, pattern, or even a background image.

In your presentation slides, make sure there is enough breathing space between images and text; that the reading order works with the design.

If an audience is reading left to right, would an image on the top or bottom stand out as they’re reading?

Try playing with placements. If you have an image of person staring off to left or right, it could be fun to try to place the text to the sight line.

Even if you were to use powerpoint templates, the first thing you’ll notice is that most of them will have a quarter to half an inch of space around all elements.

Consider consistently adding this padding space to your Powerpoint presentations.

Another great tip for your presentation slides is using size 30. This helps the text always be readable and consistent across all slides.

It is hard for people to read something smaller at a distance, so it should not be lower than that.

You may be wondering how you can use such a big size if you have lots of information, but see the following tips.

You should not be packing your powerpoint presentation with too much information to begin with.

No Sentences!

And even worse, if you have someone who cannot read your slides from a distance due to eyesight, they’re immediately excluded from a paragraph slide.

That type of information should be coming from you, or consider using an audience handout if something long and complex needs to be conveyed.

6x6 Rule in your presentation

Utilize geometric shapes in your presentation

Lastly, you can use shapes to your advantage as a visual aid or talking points in your presentation.

You can highlight a key piece of information in a coloured box off to the side in your presentation.

You can use a transparent black box over an image to overlay a quote and make it more readable.

Shapes should be an accent throughout in your presentation, to draw attention to key bits of information, quotes and stats.

Animations and transitions: keep your presentation simple

Though there are many powerpoint tricks out there, engaging presentations do not necessarily need a thousand animations and transitions.

Having your list lines appear one-by-one, or your slides appear with a simple fade can do wonders.

While it is nice to use something exciting like a burst of stars or a flip animation, you should save those for slides with exciting content but not all of them.

The animation and transition functions of PowerPoint should supplement your talking points and not take away from them.

During your presentation, ask questions and be present

When you're in presenter view, you can see your powerpoint notes, what's coming up next and the time you've spent in your presentation.

This is very helpful because you can see if you’re spending too long one slide, or if you’ve missed a point in your notes. The presenter view deck is an invaluable tool in quantifying how you perform your presentation.

However, you do not want it to distract from your presentation.

Practice until the Powerpoint is memorized in your head.

Before your presentation, you can talk to your audience members and see why they've come to hear you speak., an engaging powerpoint presentation requires both stunning visual design and the person behind it to be fully present in their delivery., use a presentation template.

There is also nothing wrong with using a powerpoint presentation template for your slide deck.

What if you just want to work on your performance and not the presentation design? Maybe you’re feeling more nervous and need to work through the public speaking component of it, which is a reality for many people.

Or, maybe you have multiple slides that would be too time consuming to have unique slide designs in your presentation.

For example, maybe you are creating educational documents or HR documents for your organization and doing one for each policy would take you several weeks had you done it by hand for all of them.

If this is the case, you may be wondering where can you find a powerpoint presentation template for your next slide deck?

There are plenty of free presentation resources out there where you can create presentation slides in seconds.

Free template sites:.

Canva is an easy to use design software that is free and also specializes in other designs besides slides. You can create effortless graphic design pieces in seconds with Canva.

Canva has thousands of customizable templates, which allows for team collaboration and a powerful presentation experience to impress any audience. Their editors can be used on web, mobile and desktop.

There are Powerpoint templates here that are free, and more quality ones with a Freepik license.

However, Freepik is geared towards those with some design knowledge.

They offer template images in which you will have to manipulate them in some kind of editing software like Adobe.

If you have this skill set, the quality of image templates here are quite polished, so this could be an essential tool in your arsenal.

SlidesGo is a great tool if you’re using Google Slides, and offers many free resources.

SlidesGo is actually a part of Freepik, and the side that offers the editable templates.

If you have a license for Freepik, consider utilizing SlidesGo as part of your subscription.

Slides Carnival

SlidesMania

SlideModel boasts 30,000+ PowerPoint Templates.

They are all download ready-made slides & 100% editable templates for your presentations.

There's also plenty of built in themes in Microsoft Powerpoint, Google Slides, and any other presentation software.

A powerpoint template can be a useful place to start in order to learn how to presentation design and change objects in powerpoint as well..

A Powerpoint presentation template is not only a learning tool but a time saving one too!

And if you purchase one, it is a small investment in that time save for future presentations.

You do not necessarily need a different looking template each time you present. If you establish one style, that can be your own brand and a way to build familiarity with your content.

And you can still create engaging and interactive presentations by using templates – like our points above, the major component of the presentation is you after all!

However you create slides only lends to your spectacular presentation!

If you need professional presentation help, you can contact the Presentation Geeks!

We believe everyone deserves a beautiful & professionally designed presentation..

In whatever job we had, we were always the go-to guys to help make the boss’ presentation look good.

We quickly realized that successful professionals are busy; their time is valuable.

It simply doesn’t make sense for them to dump hour upon hour into keeping up with design trends and learning the latest features of complex software.

They are experts at what they do, and we are experts at what we do.

And this was the birth of Presentation Geeks. A service designed for the professional who understands their time is valuable, and their expertise may not necessarily lie in design and digital manipulation.

Remember those Geeks in high school who you could get to do your homework and they always did an amazing job? Well, we grew up. And now we’re here to make you a star for your next presentation.

You’re a busy professional. Your time is too valuable to be wasted staring at a screen trying to figure out how to make your story visual.

Ultimately we understand how important your presentations are to your business life.

Whether it be a delivery to the board, a sales pitch, a medical presentation, or a company digital display, your presentation goes hand in hand with you. Contact us or feel free to ask us questions here .

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Let Adobe Express be your go-to presentation app.

Establish a theme for your presentation design using photos, icons, logos, personalized fonts, and other customizable elements to make them feel entirely authentic. Duplicate your project to create consistency across future presentations. With Adobe Express, it’s free and easy to make, save, and share your designs within minutes so you can add collaborators, get approval, and showcase your presentation for all to enjoy.

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• Create attention-grabbing web pages.
• Make captivating videos.

Adobe Express offers everything students need to make graphics, photos, presentations, web pages, and videos to express themselves inside and outside the classroom.

K-12 Students

Higher Education

What’s it for?

Make interactive presentations

Create show-stopping presentations and clickable slide decks with Genially’s free online presentation builder. Leave boring behind and tell a story that’s interactive, animated, and beautifully engaging.

INTERACTIVE CONTENT

A presentation that works like a website

Engage your audience with interactive slides that they can click on and explore. Add music, video, hotspots, popup windows, quiz games and interactive data visualizations in a couple of clicks. No coding required!

NO-CODE ANIMATION

Make your slides pop with animation

Bring a touch of movie magic to the screen with incredible visual effects and animated page transitions. Add click-trigger and timed animations to make any topic easy to understand and captivating to watch.

INTEGRATIONS

Live from the world wide web

Embed online content directly in your slides for a media-rich interactive experience. From YouTube and Spotify to Google Maps and Sheets, Genially works seamlessly with over 100 popular apps and websites.

TEMPLATES & TOOLKIT

Genius design tools

With Genially, anyone can create a polished and professional presentation. Choose from over 2000 pre-built templates, or create your own design using the drag-and-drop resources, color palettes, icons, maps and vector graphics.

ONLINE PLATFORM

Safe and sound in the cloud

Because Genially is online, you can relax knowing that your slides are always up-to-date. There’s no risk of forgetting to save changes or accessing the wrong file. Log in from anywhere, collaborate with your team, and make edits in real time.

All-in-one interactive presentation maker

Real-time collaboration.

Co-edit slide decks with others in real time and organize all of your team projects in shared spaces.

Multi format

Present live, share the link, or download as an interactive PDF, MP4 video, JPG, HTML, or SCORM package.

Engagement Analytics

See how many people have viewed and clicked on your slides and keep tabs on learner progress with User Tracking.

Import from PPTX

Give your old decks a new lease of life by importing PowerPoint slides and transforming them with a little Genially magic.

Keep content on-brand with your logo, fonts, colors, brand assets, and team templates at your fingertips.

Quiz & Survey Builder

Use the Interactive Questions feature to add a fun quiz to your slides or gather feedback from your audience.

Beautiful templates

Make your next deck in a flash with Genially’s ready-to-use slides.

OKR Presentation

School Notebook Presentation

Animated Sketch Presentation

Minimal presentation

Land Of Magic Presentation

Onboarding presentation

Visual Presentation

Animated chalkboard presentation

Online Education Guide

Terrazzo presentation

Startup pitch

Historical presentation

THEMES FOR EVERYONE

Interactive presentation ideas

From classroom materials to business pitches, make an impact every day with Genially.

Education presentations

Pitch decks

Business presentations

Thesis defense

Share anywhere

Present live

From the front of the room or behind a screen, you’ll wow your audience with Genially. Heading off grid? Download in HTML to present dynamic slides without WiFi.

Share the link

Every Genially slide deck has its own unique url, just like a website! Share the link so that others can explore at their own pace, or download an MP4 video slideshow or PDF.

Post online

Embed the slides on your website or post them on social media. Upload to Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, Moodle or any other platform.

The benefits of interactive slides

🗣️ Active participation An interactive slide deck gives your audience cool things to click on and discover, boosting learning and engagement.

👂 Multi-sensory experience Audio, video, animations, and mouse interactions make your content immersive, entertaining and accessible.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 People-friendly format Pop-ups and embeds condense more material into fewer slides so you can break information down into digestible chunks.


🎮 Gamification Games, quizzes and puzzles make information more memorable and enable you to gather feedback and check understanding.

How to make an interactive presentation

With Genially’s easy-to-use presentation platform, anyone can make incredible visual content in moments.

Choose a template or a blank canvas

Get stunning results in less time with a ready-made template. Feeling creative? Design your own slides from scratch.

Customize the design

Add animations and interactions

Resources to become a pro presentation creator

How to create an interactive presentation: Get started in Genially.

How to present data without sending your audience to sleep.

No-code animation: Bring your slides to life with cinematic visual effects.

The art of digital storytelling: Engage and thrill on screen.

Genially in a nutshell

How do I make a presentation interactive and how does Genially work? Find the answers to all of your slide-related questions here!

What’s an interactive presentation?

Interactive slides contain clickable hotspots, links, buttons, and animations that are activated at the touch of a button. Instead of reading or watching passively, your audience can actively interact with the content.  

Genially’s interaction presentation software allows you to combine text, photos, video clips, audio and other content in one deck. It’s a great way to condense more information into fewer slides. 

If you’re a teacher, you can share multiple materials in one single learning resource. Students can create their own projects using digital media and online maps. For business or training, try embedding spreadsheet data, PDFs, and online content directly in your slides. 

An interactive slide deck is more user-friendly than a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation or Google Slides document. That’s because you can break information down into chunks with pop-ups, labels, voiceovers and annotated infographics.  

The other benefit of interactive content is increased engagement. It’s easier to keep your audience’s attention when they’re actively participating. Try Genially’s presentation software and free slideshow maker to see how it’s better than other presentation websites. You won’t go back to standard presentation apps!

How do you make a clickable slide?

The best way to make slides clickable is to use Genially’s free interactive presentation program. Design your slide then apply an interaction. In a couple of clicks, you can add popup windows, hyperlinks, close-up images, games, animations, multimedia and other content. 

Choose from the library of hotspot buttons and icons to show people what to click on. Go to Presenter View to get a preview and see how your content will appear to your audience.

How do I create presentations that look professional?

You’ve got a deadline looming and you’re staring at the screen with a blank presentation. We’ve all been there! Starting a presentation design from scratch is tricky, especially if you’re short on time. 

Genially’s free online presentation maker has over 2000 ready-to-use templates for professional slide presentations, photos slideshows, and more. Each slide design has been created by our team of top graphic designers. No need to worry about fonts, centering images, or designing a matching color scheme. It’s all done for you. 

Start by browsing our layouts and themes for education, business and then customize with your own text and images.

How do I share or download my slides?

Because Genially is a cloud based presentation software, you can simply share the link to your slides. Like other online presentation tools, there are no files to download or store on your computer. Everything is saved online.  

When you publish your slide deck, it gets its own unique url, just like a website. Share the link with others to let them explore the content in their own time. If you’re presenting live, just click the Present button. 

You can also embed your presentation on your website, company wiki, or social media. Genially is compatible with WordPress, Moodle, Google Classroom, and other platforms. If you use an LMS, you can also download your interactive design slides in SCORM format.

For slideshow videos and slideshows with music, share online or download as an MP4 video. Check out our free slideshow templates for ideas.

Can I make a free presentation in Genially?

You bet! Genially is an easy-to-use slide maker, with a free version and paid plans. The free plan allows you to create unlimited slides with interactions and animations. Subscribe to one of our paid plans for more advanced features.

Discover a world of interactive content

Join the 25 million people designing incredible interactive experiences with Genially.

Create a standout UGC pitch deck in PowerPoint

march 22, 2024

by Kate Shewaga

If you're a content creator looking to take your user-generated content (UGC) game to the next level, you're in the right place. In this post, I'll share my secrets for creating a customized Microsoft PowerPoint pitch deck that will help you connect with brands and businesses like a pro.

Why customization matters

In the booming world of UGC, it's essential to stand out from the crowd. One fantastic way to do this is by creating a tailored pitch deck that showcases your unique skills and style. Customization is key, and I'll walk you through the process using a template from Microsoft Create .

Choose your template

Start with a template so you can hit the ground running with a clean, polished design. Visit Microsoft Create and explore their PowerPoint templates and pitch deck templates . When you find a design you like, download it.

For this tutorial, I used the Light sales pitch presentation template. This sleek and professional template is the perfect starting point for your UGC pitch deck.

Personalize the cover page

First impressions matter, so make sure your cover page is on point. I always include the name of the brand I'm pitching to show that I've created this presentation specifically for them. It's a small detail that goes a long way in demonstrating your dedication and professionalism.

Customize colors and images

Next, it's time to make the template your own. I customize the colors to match my personal brand and incorporate professional photos I've taken myself. This helps the pitch deck feel authentic and shows off my unique style.

Showcase your work

To give brands a taste of what you can do, include a few concept ideas and sample videos you've created in their niche. I like to add multiple pages with videos of my recent work to highlight my skills and experience. Just remember to watermark any videos featuring products that brands haven't purchased yet!

Include testimonials and analytics

Social proof is powerful, so don't be afraid to include testimonials or analytics from your previous high-performing content. This demonstrates your track record of success and helps build trust with potential brand partners.

Wrapping up

Creating a short, informative PowerPoint pitch deck can be the secret sauce that makes your UGC pitch unforgettable. By customizing a professional template with your own colors, images, and work samples, you'll be well on your way to landing those coveted brand deals.

Head to Microsoft Create and start crafting your standout UGC pitch deck today!

Related topics

• View all by reiniere2024 reiniere2024
• Add To Collection Collection

Presentations Maker

A downloadable tool for Windows

Are you like me completely disappointed about Microsoft's Powerpoint? It was good in the beginning and I used it a lot those days but the last 15 years it just gets bigger and bigger but not better and better. Actually it gets 'badder' and 'badder' like all office and azure stuff.(lol)

I have made a small dedicated Presentations Maker program that you can use to quickly make your own presentations and run them for an audience. The essence of good presentations is presenting text-blocks in sequence and not all at the same time, to direct the audience focus. I have made use of that principle in this program.

I have included a simple tutorial Presentation about Databases so that you can quickly see how the program works.

I hope you will be able to make good presentations with the program.

Good luck, Reiniere.

In order to download this tool you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $2 USD. You will get access to the following files:

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