Notes Master in custom Design Templates??

[Guest]

I am creating my own custom Design Template so I make all desired changes
etc. in the Slide and Title Masters. I would also like to have a modified
Notes Master be part of the Design Template. However, the changes I make to
the Notes Master don't get saved into the .pot. Or at least, they don't
work!

If I open the .pot and look at the Notes Master, there are my changes!

However, if I create a new presentation and apply that DT to it then try to
print Notes Pages, they come out with the standard notes pages layout and not
my modified master.

Am I missing something or this not really possible?

Related: the only footer information I can get to be part of the DT is
static (whatever I manually enter in the master). Is there a way to have the
dynamic Slide Number and Date footer elements be a default part of the DT??

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I am creating my own custom Design Template so I make all desired changes
etc. in the Slide and Title Masters. I would also like to have a modified
Notes Master be part of the Design Template. However, the changes I make to
the Notes Master don't get saved into the .pot. Or at least, they don't
work!

If I open the .pot and look at the Notes Master, there are my changes!

However, if I create a new presentation and apply that DT to it then try to
print Notes Pages, they come out with the standard notes pages layout and not
my modified master.

I think you'll need to create a new presentation based on the template rather
than applying it after the fact if you want the notes master formatting to
apply.

 

[Guest]

I think you'll need to create a new presentation based on the template rather
than applying it after the fact if you want the notes master formatting to
apply.




-----------------------------------------
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Did you mean to add something to your reply?
It seems to be lost.

 

[Guest]

Bummer! Wonder what happened.

OK. Basically, as near as I understand what you mean by "create a new
presentation based on the template" it still doesn't work.

Here's what create a new presentation based on DT means to me:

1. File menu to New...
2. Click "From Design Template" in the Task Pane
3. Click on the DT of your choice.

Is there some other way to create a new presentation based on a design
template?

THANKS!

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Bummer! Wonder what happened.

OK. Basically, as near as I understand what you mean by "create a new
presentation based on the template" it still doesn't work.

Here's what create a new presentation based on DT means to me:

1. File menu to New...
2. Click "From Design Template" in the Task Pane
3. Click on the DT of your choice.

Is there some other way to create a new presentation based on a design
template?

There may be, but that's the one I had in mind.
I just wanted to make sure of this because applying a template to an existing
presentation gives slightly different results than creating a new presentation based on
a template.

But in checking this out a bit further, I think you've discovered a bug.
It works exactly as I described it in PowerPoint 2000.
It works exactly as YOU described it in PowerPoint 2003.

Which ear do you want? ;-)

I'm sorry to see this. I don't know that there's a lot of choice other than manually
making the changes each time (or creating a macro to do it for you).

Ah. Or making the changes to a PPT file and saving it without any content other than
the stuff you want to use in every presentation. Then instead of basing new
presentations on a template, open the stock PPT file, save to a new name and go from
there.

Ah.Ah! Or after you've based a presentation on the template and had it not work right,
do this:

File, New
In the New Presentation task pane, click the name of your template under "Recently used
templates"

THAT works here where the other method doesn't.

And THAT, sir, is a many-legged creature.

 

[Guest]

THANK YOU!!!

It's just too weird that it happens to work that way but I can live with it.

Thank you so much for your help!!

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

My pleasure ...

THANK YOU!!!

It's just too weird that it happens to work that way but I can live with it.

Thank you so much for your help!!

 

[Guest]

I have had the same exact experience except that the proposed workaround
(selecting the custom design template from the Recently used templates list)
does NOT work for me.

So by way of follow-up, how can I find out whether this regression in
PowerPoint 2003 has been reported to Microsoft (I don't see it in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base) and if it hasn't, how can I submit it? It's a
serious problem and I'm surprised to see that it took 3 years? to be
identified.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I have had the same exact experience except that the proposed workaround
(selecting the custom design template from the Recently used templates list)
does NOT work for me.

So by way of follow-up, how can I find out whether this regression in
PowerPoint 2003 has been reported to Microsoft (I don't see it in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base) and if it hasn't, how can I submit it? It's a
serious problem and I'm surprised to see that it took 3 years? to be
identified.

Frankly, I don't know. There used to be an email address you could mail suggestions to but
they no longer monitor that. There's a way to make suggestions via the web interface to
this newsgroup; I've just spent ten minutes trying to find it again and I'm out of
patience.

Anyone?

 

[Ute Simon]

For me, this is a major bug. Basically, as far as I can tell, if you make

a
change to a design template, then apply that template to an already
existing
ppt doc, the slide master will be updated, but not the notes master.

Do it the other way: Create a new presentation based on the template that
has the notes master, the new presentation will show the notes master
elements. Then import the existing slides using Insert - Slides from file.

Best regards,
Ute