semi-urgent Powerpoint question

[ero87]

Hi everyone,

Tomorrow (Monday) I'm going to go volunteer in an office in NYC for a few days. The project they've asked me to work on involves a specific task in Powerpoint. I think I can probably figure out how to do it when I get all the details, but I figured I should ask the MR community before even going.

So here's my vague assignment: They have a bunch of powerpoint presentations, but they all look very different. I need to make them all have the same template, fonts, etc. "Unify the look." Is there a quick/easy way to do this? I'm sorry I don't have more details, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Gee]

Hi everyone,

Tomorrow (Monday) I'm going to go volunteer in an office in NYC for a few days. The project they've asked me to work on involves a specific task in Powerpoint. I think I can probably figure out how to do it when I get all the details, but I figured I should ask the MR community before even going.

So here's my vague assignment: They have a bunch of powerpoint presentations, but they all look very different. I need to make them all have the same template, fonts, etc. "Unify the look." Is there a quick/easy way to do this? I'm sorry I don't have more details, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

You can apply the same template to all of them, but it never actually works that well, and so there's a lot of manual intervention required to get everything right.

 

[ero87]

You can apply the same template to all of them, but it never actually works that well, and so there's a lot of manual intervention required to get everything right.

how do i apply the same template to all of them?

 

[TequilaBoobs]

how do i apply the same template to all of them?

consolidate all the presentations into one (add the slides to the end), then under design template apply the design you want to all slides. very easy.

or you can do that to each presentation, select the design then hit apply to all.

 

[thedude110]

In Windows:

Format>Apply Design Template.

In Office 2004:

Format>Slide Design.

Make sure "Apply to all slides" is selected in either case.

A sexy tutorial here.

I lived in Providence -- and went to school in Providence -- not long ago. Eat at The Creperie for me.

 

[balamw]

The amount of manual intervention you need to do will depend on the files themselves.

Here's the approach I usually use.

Take the master presentation that all of them are supposed to look like. Hope like all heck it's template based.
Go to the slide sorter view.
Delete all the slides.
Open one of the other presentations.
Go to the slide sorter view.
Copy all the slides.
Paste them into the master presentation.

Tweak manually.

Repeat.

Sometimes it'll help to select an individual slide and hit "reapply layout" to get it to go the default formatting. You may also have to select the right layout since many people seem to use powerpoint "free-form" and avoid the templates. e.g. if you have a slide with a heading and text, use the freaking template for that mode. If you don't this kind of format shift becomes far more difficult.

B

 

[iSaint]

The biggest problem you'll run into is that your fonts get messed up and some of the wording will be too small or too large, too short or too long. I tend to keep my presentations brief. e.g.:

MacRumors Roundup (Title)

• iTV to be released Q3
• iChat AV now works with universal USB
• Free MacBook Pro for all Powerbook users
• Free Leopard for all Tiger users

The summary points shouldn't be longer than one line, and there shouldn't be more than 4-5 bullet points per slide.

There's no telling how several different presentations have been created. So you may run into quite a bit of 'fixing' to create smooth transitions in the one presentation you are creating.

Tip: use "Title Master" and "Slide Master" to reset font sizes in all slides at once.

 

[ero87]

this is the most willingly helpful community on the internet, thank you all so much. This is for Doctors Without Borders training presentations, so you've all helped a great cause!

p.s. thedude110 - i'm a sophomore at brown, are you an alum? and i eat at the creperie all the time (brie and apple, mmm...)

 

[thedude110]

The brie and apple is no Michelle.

That's the strawberry one, right?

Ooh ... but the brie and apple ...

(Brown MAT, change the world through performance, all that ...)