If you use PowerPoint 2000 on a regular basis for presenting related materials, you may want to use master slides and create a custom template. With the master slides and custom template, all of your presentations will have a consistent look and feel, and you won't have to customize each presentation layout separately.

Customizing Your Slides Using The Slide Master

The slide master allows you to customize the look of each slide and ensure consistency across your presentation. In the slide master, you can change fonts, bullets, and header and footer information.

Use the slide master to do the following: add a picture; change the background; adjust the size of the placeholders; and change font style, size, and color.

To have art or text—for example, a company name or logo—appear on every slide, put it on the slide master. Objects appear on slides in the same location as they do on the slide master. To add the same text to every slide, add the text to the slide master by clicking Text Box on the Drawing toolbar—do not type in the text placeholders. The look of text you've added with Text Box is not governed by the slide master.

CHANGE MASTER TEXT AND TITLE STYLES

The date, footer, and number areas can all be changed in the same way. Experiment to see which combinations you like best. Remember that the slide master changes every slide in your presentation

1. On the View menu, point to Master and then click Slide Master.

2. Click anywhere in the Click to edit Master title styles text block.

3. On the Standard toolbar, click the Font down arrow and then click Arial.

4. On the Standard toolbar, click the Font Size down arrow and then click 40.

5. Right-mouse click anywhere on Click to edit Master text styles and then click Bullet.

6. In the Bullets and Numbering list box and then click Pictures.

7. Click the multi-color block in the first row of the third column and then click Insert Clip.

8. On the View menu, click Normal to return to the presentation.

CREATING CUSTOM TEMPLATES

With PowerPoint 2000 you can easily to change presentation styles. Depending on the material and audience you are addressing, you may want to select specific styles or keep a consistent style for a topic or series of lessons.

If at any time you select a style that you do not want to use for your presentation, you can easily and quickly change to another style. Or you can try several different styles to find one that fits your presentation.

Create A Design Template

1. Open an existing presentation or use a design template to create a presentation as a basis for your new design template.

2. On the View menu, point to Master and then click Slide Master.

3. Change the slide to suit your needs. The changes apply to all slides in the presentation.

4. To save the slide as a template to use for future presentations, on the File menu, click Save As.

5. In the File name box, type a name for your design template.

6. In the Save as type box, click Design Template. You can save your new design template in one of your own folders or you can save it with the other design templates in the Presentation Designs folder.

CREATE A CONTENT TEMPLATE

1. Open an existing presentation or template that you want to base the new template on.

2. Change the presentation or template to suit your needs.

3. On the File menu, click Save As.

4. In the Save as type box, click Design Template.

5. In the File name box, enter a name for the new template and then click Save.

ADD A TEMPLATE TO THE AUTOCONTENT WIZARD

1. On the File menu, click New and then click the General tab.

2. Double-click the AutoContent Wizard and then click Next.

3. Select the category that you want your template to be displayed in (you cannot add to the All or Carnegie Coach categories) and then click Add.

4. Find the template you want to add and then click OK.

CUSTOM SHOWS

Occasionally, you will want to use only part of a presentation for a specific audience. To do this, you can use the Custom Shows feature instead of creating a whole new presentation.

Create Custom Shows

1. On the Slide Show menu, click Custom Shows and then click New.

2. Under Slides in presentation, select a slide you want to include in the custom show and then click Add. To select multiple slides, hold down CTRL as you click the slides.

3. To change the order in which slides appear, select a slide and then click one of the arrows to move the slide up or down in the list.

4. Type a name in the Slide show name box and then click OK.

5. To see a preview of a custom show, select the name of the show in the Custom Shows dialog box and then click Show.