PowerPoint templates

Almost all of my projects begin with a PowerPoint template someone else developed, and my first task (when there is time) is to optimize and streamline it.

A template that features a placeholder for every recurring piece of content is indispensable to me, so I survey the presentation’s active content and then inspect the layouts available in the template to make sure they cover every need. For instance, if the author likes to use subtitles, the template had better have a placeholder for subtitles (often there is none).

In some cases a template covers every need, but only because it is an amalgam of several older templates: When a slide is copied from one file to another, along with it goes its master slide and specific layout, which can result in a bloated file containing dozens of master slide clones (eating up disk space and fostering chaos). I like to eliminate these extra masters and layouts before I start working with the active content.

Often, I’ll see a template that was constructed improperly. Examples of this include lack of a color palette related to the brand, master slides using the wrong font, and selectable slide numbers. In such cases, it does not take long to perfect the template and apply changes to the active content, so we’re in good shape from the perspective of time.

Some of the base templates I see are only partial, containing background graphics but no content placeholders. Again, I’ll look at the author’s content and establish layouts to accommodate the existing needs.

In some cases, a presentation will come to me with no template at all: All of the content floating free on blank white slides. If the speaker wants design consistency and the ability to adapt the content for future use in another design configuration, this has got to be remedied. Which means building a template based on the active contents and then copy/pasting all of the active content into the new placeholders. This is dull and time-consuming, but necessary.

By the end of every project, I aim to deliver an effective, appealing presentation based on a good template — one that covers all anticipated needs, is easy to use, and is free of redundancy and confusion. However, it is much better to have a complete template in place before you get started. If you have been having trouble with your standard presentation, please contact me and I’ll be happy to fix it for you.

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