PowerPoint2007 Template Implementation Suggestions

[Eli Gibson]

I am trying to build a set of master slides for a style of
presentation I tend to give. It is similar to the default layout,
except that there is a header along the top. The header consists of
the names of 4-7 sections in the presentation, equally spaced out. For
each slide, the current section should be in black, and the others in
a light shade of gray.

The content of the slides varies, needing slides with
1 text placeholder
2 text placeholders (as columns),
1 image placeholder
1 text and 1 image placeholder
1 text and 2 image placeholders

This would work (albeit somewhat slowly) if I could put a header in
the master slide, and then change the style on a per slide basis, but
I do not know how to do this. The only other solution that I can think
of involves creating layouts for all 5 types of slide, for each
section. Then, if I change the name of a section, I have to make the
change in 20-35 layouts.

Some use cases that I would like to be efficient

1) Create a new presentation, and setting up the header with section
names
2) After creating a presentation, I need to change the name of a
section
3) After creating a presentation, I need to change the number of
sections
4) After creating a presentation, I need to move the placeholders for
1 type of slice (e.g. 1 text 2 image placeholders) for all slides in
all sections

Does anyone know a good way to satisfy these requirements?

Regards,

Eli

 

[Echo S]

PPT 2007 masters and layouts work differently than PPT 2003 and prior. We
can create our own placeholders now -- and that may be important to you.
Also, we can create our own slide layouts. and I think that will also be
important to you. And finally, the slide layouts inherit their settings from
the slide masters -- so if you add section text to the slide master, it
trickles down to the individual slide layouts. And I think this will
definitely be important to you!

Anyway, if I understand your issue correctly, I'd probably create 5 master
slides, each with the slide layouts you described (1 text placeholder , 2
text placeholders, 1 image placeholder, 1 text and 1 image placeholder, 1
text and 2 image placeholders).

I'd make one master slide with those five layouts. On the master slide, I'd
put textboxes with the section names spaced properly. (You can put
placeholders, but I'd think since the text is the same for each section, you
can just add the section name text to the slide master.) I'd make the first
section black, the others light grey. That's the setup for the first
section. Stuff from the master trickles down to the slide layouts, so you
only have to do the section stuff on the one master slide.

Then I'd duplicate the master and make the change to the master (change the
2nd section so it's black and the first one is grey). That change will
trickle down to the layouts associated with that slide master. And since I
duplicated the first master, those slide layouts are already there -- they
came along for the ride.

Then if you decide to change something with the sections, you only have to
change it on each master (4-7 times). Or you can start over -- change it on
the first master and duplicate that one to create the other sections.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
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