The animated PowerPoint Template used in this tutorial.
Download animated templates here.

This is a great question, and it gives me an opportunity to better explain how the slide master works.

This tutorial applies to PowerPoint 2010, 2008(mac) and 2007.

The Slide Master Explained

The heart of a PowerPoint template is the Slide Master.  To view the slide master – choose View>Slide Master.

Slide Master View in PowerPoint

It controls all the default layouts and various pre-designed slides that are included in our templates.  Each Slide Master can have any number of layout pages beneath it.  Think of the Slide Master as the template for the template.  You can have multiple Slide Masters, and each Master can have multiple layouts attached to it.  It’s powerful but a bit confusing at first.

Take a look at this screen-shot, the slide at the top is the Master, everything beneath and indented is a layout attached to the Master.

The Slide Master and the attached Layouts

Adding and Subtracting Items from the Slide Master

An element or image placed on the Slide Master is copied to any layout page attached to the Master. (There is a way to hide Slide Master graphics on the attached layouts.  This is explained at the end.)  So in our example, if you remove the globe from the Slide Master, the top slide in the illustration above, it is also removed from all the layout pages of the template.

That’s great if you don’t want the globe to appear anywhere in the template,  but the original problem was we wanted the globe animation to appear only on select slides, not get rid of it completely.

There are a couple of things you could do at this point.

1. Cut the animation from the Slide Master and then Paste it into the individual layouts where you want it to appear.

Any element you place on a layout slide, will only appear in your presentation when you choose that layout.  This is a fine, but if you start adding elements to the layouts, it can quickly get confusing where the final resting place for that element is.  Is that picture on a actual slide, on a layout, or is it on the Slide Master?

2. Duplicate the Slide Master

This is my favorite option.  Because you can have multiple Slide Masters in your template, you can duplicate the Slide Master.

Choose ‘Duplicate Slide Master’ from the menu after you right click top of the Slide Master.  Now with this new Slide Master, in our example, you can have a complete set of new layouts without the globe animation, and a complete set with the animation.

A second Slide Master is created with the globe animation removed.

Now after exiting the Slide Master view, you have a completely new set of layouts available to you in the normal PowerPoint view.

Your new Slide Master layouts now appear when you select Layouts

Hiding Graphics Used on the Slide Master

You may notice that by deleting the globe from the slide master that the globe still exists on the Title Slide Layout.  This is because the Title Slide Layout has its own graphical elements and all the elements from the Slide Master are hidden.

The Title Slide Layout is hiding the graphics from the Slide Master.

If you right click on the layout you wish to edit, you can choose ‘Hide Background Graphics”.  This effectively removes all the graphical elements from the Slide Master.  In this example a different version of the globe animation has been added directly to the Title Page Layout so the template has another look.

Hide Background Graphics to remove Slide Master graphics from layout pages.

One note of warning, if you hide the background graphics you will need to copy and paste any images or videos you wish to continue to use directly into the layout you are modifying.

In Closing

It can be confusing, but once you have worked with the Slide Master and it’s layouts it gets pretty easy.  Just remember when editing our templates, first start editing on the Slide Master.  If you cannot remove or change what you want there, then move on to looking at the attached Layout slides.  If your still have questions, feel free to contact our customer support.

Good Presenting!

Art Holden

The mac templates function by utilizing QuickTime video(.mov) instead of Windows Media Video (.wmv) required for PowerPoint 2010 and 2007 templates.  Unlike the Windows templates, the Mac templates utilize externally linked video files.  This means the mac templates come with an additional file or two.  Using the Mac templates are easy, but please remember to keep the video files in the same directory as your finished presentations.  If you don’t PowerPoint won’t be able to find the video and the animation will not work.

Download animated templates for Macintosh PowerPoint 2008 here.

Our animated templates require that you have an updated installation of Office 2007.  Periodically Microsoft has released updates and patches for Office 2007.  These updates are free from Microsoft and can be accessed through “Windows Update”  on your computer.

Use Windows Update to Update PowerPoint 2007

We recommend that you install all updates suggested for Microsoft Office 2007 by using Windows Update.  But specifically, a PowerPoint 2007 user needs to make sure they have installed “The 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2.”   This service pack can be downloaded here: 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2

Update PowerPoint 2007 to play PowerPoint 2010 video

Installing this Office 2007 update brings your version of PowerPoint 2007 up to speed and allows it to play the embedded video that is contained in our animated templates.

View all our animated templates for PowerPoint here.

Problems with Video Playback in PowerPoint 2007

It has also been brought to our attention that if you do not have the most recent version of Windows Media Player, you may experience poor video playback in PowerPoint 2007.  This typically looks like green streaks running through the video animation in our templates.

Since our animated templates are created in PowerPoint 2010 and then made backward compatible with PowerPoint 2007, the newest version of Windows Media Player is required.  This is Media Player 11 for Windows XP and Media Player 12 for Vista and Windows 7 users.

If you are experiencing this problem, simply run Windows Media Player and then check for updates from the help menu.

PresenterMedia Partners with Microsoft's Office.com

You can check out our complete selection of  Templates for PowerPoint 2010 here.

If you are used to PowerPoint 2007, moving to 2010 is so easy and so worth it.  The ribbon which Microsoft introduced with 2007 remains and its even easier to use.  Microsoft has also given PowerPoint an awesome set of multimedia tools, including the ability to embed video in your presentations.

It’s this new multimedia support that really has excited us here at PresenterMedia.  PPT 2010 allows us to stretch the definition of what a PowerPoint template is.  Now we can utilize video and 3D effects in ways never possible before in PowerPoint.

Check our our complete selection of PowerPoint templates for PPT 2010.  These all featured animated and static slide layouts.

Example of text and elements over video in PowerPoint 2010

Download this animated template here.

You can access the Slide Master by clicking on the view tab on the PowerPoint Ribbon.

Slide Master View in PowerPoint

Under the Slide Master you will find all the elements we have used to create the overall design of the template.  If you are editing an animated template, you will find the video files here that we use.  Also each swoosh, swoop, design box or divider we use in the template is located here as well.

Note: one exception is the 3D clip art we use is placed directly on the individual slides and is not part of the Slide Master.

There are typically several elements layered on top of each other, so you’ll want to have the selection pane open as well.

Opening the Selection Pane In PowerPoint 2010

Under the home tab in the ribbon, choose Select > Selection Pane.  The selection pane gives a list of all the elements that are on the slide and in what order they are stacked on top of each other.  Tip: This is a great way to get to an element that might be hidden beneath a text box or other element.

Selection Pane in PowerPoint 2010

For this tutorial I’m using the Global Energy template by PresenterMedia artist Josh Doohen.

Download Global Energy PowerPoint Template here.

By selecting different elements, moving and deleting, it was simple to create these distinct slide looks from the original title slide.

Team of 3D stick figures holding individual gears.

Passing the Baton Teamwork

We’ve tried to capture some essential concepts in our team work clip art.  Ideas like each individual contributes to the success of the team and that the team succeeds as a group.  If there are other teamwork related clip art or animations  you would like to see us illustrate, please let us know.

Teamwork PowerPoint Template

Team give high five congratulation.

Creating a Custom Color Theme in PowerPoint

A great template for PowerPoint can make building a presentation so much easier and quicker.  I thought I would explain the steps I go through in building templates for PresenterMedia.   In this tutorial I will explain the method for creating a custom color theme in PowerPoint.  I am going to be using the newest version of PowerPoint 2010, but the steps are virtually the same for PowerPoint 2007.

While creating a color theme or palette is easy, choosing good colors to use can be difficult.   So I am going to start with explaining how I choose colors to use in my templates.  If I’m working for a client I typically try to start with a color in the the clients logo or other reference material the customer provided.

Lets take this sample logo for example.

Sample logo to use in a PowerPoint Template

I am going to build a color palette around the bright blue rings.  In choosing colors for a presentation I like to choose a variety of neighboring and complementary colors to the main color I have chosen.  I have a couple of favorite sites I use to generate complementary colors for my templates.  A great tool is the Color Scheme Chooser at Websitetips.com.

I opened the logo in PhotoShop and determined the RGB value of the rings was 0 112 255.  Using the online color generator I was given these complementary colors related to main color.

Screen Shot of on-line Color Chooser

Now that I have a good selection of colors to choose from, I go to PowerPoint and create a custom color theme.  Under the “Design” tab on the ribbon, choose “Colors > Create New Theme Colors”

Create a Custom Color Theme

This opens up the various customizable colors the presentation will use for everything from your text to background colors to the colors used in your charts and graphs.  From the list of colors I generated, I will choose the colors to use as my accent colors and as my Text/Background – Light/Dark 2.  I typically leave the first two settings alone as you almost always want a black and white setting.

Custom Color Panel in PowerPoint

Once you have filled in the color values for the various accent colors, give your new theme a name and click save.

There you have it, you’ve created a custom color theme that you can use for your template or any other presentation you may make.  This is especially helpful if you have a set of corporate colors you need to use for business communications.  Once you’ve created the color theme for your company you can use it over and over again.

Here is a sample of the color theme I created:

Sample slide using custom colors.

I will continue this series of tutorials on building PowerPoint templates by discussing how to set up your slide master and page layouts.

Good Presenting!

Art Holden
Check out the templates for PowerPoint I’ve created here.

But the good news is we have found some creative ways to include the popular video animations in our PowerPoint 2007 templates.  All of our most popular animated templates have been updated to make better use of the video background.

Here is a list of our PowerPoint templates which have recently been updated with enhanced video animation:

Global Network

Work Force

Stand Out on the Wave

Liquid Light

Networking Connection

Red Leader

Social Networking Connection

Business Freedom

Pitch Me Your Idea

Prescription Line

Head with Gears

Missing Piece

Orange Rain

Science Experiments

Teamwork Raise Bar

Green Earth Butterfly

View all our animated templates here.

I’m going to use PowerPoint 2007 for this tutorial but the process is the same for PowerPoint 2010.

Step 1

Open up the presentation you are making and the template you want to copy a slide from.

Step 2

In the template, right click on the slide in the slides tab or in the slide sorter view you wish to copy and choose copy from the menu.  See illustration below.

How to copy a slide in PowerPoint

Step 3

Paste your slide you just copied in the presentation you are working on.  Right click in the slides tab or the slide sorter view at the place you wish to insert (paste) the slide.

How to Paste a slide from another presentation

Step 4

Click the “Paste Options” icon which appear beneath the slide you just pasted.  By default the slide is formatted according to the settings of your current presentation.  In order for the slide to retain the look of the slide from the template you copied from, you need to tell PowerPoint to use the formatting from the slides source.

In the Paste Options you can choose “Keep Source Formatting”.  This retains the format from the template you copied from.

Click Keep Source Formatting in the Paste Options

Nice and simple right?  Go ahead and start putting together your favorite slides from all of our templates.

Good Presenting!

Art Holden

You can download our templates for PowerPoint here.