The Purpose of a Template?

[Drew Cohn]

Even though I have done thousands of PowerPoint projects over the years, I
have yet to understand the purpose of a template (pot). Sometimes I am
asked to make one, and I simply design one slide as a master, save it as a
ppt, and ship it off.

I've opened up templates, and find they are basically nothing more than the
regular ppt files I've created. I just don't see/understand the difference.
What am I missing here?

Thanks!
Drew

 

[Bill Foley]

Basically a .pot is a specialized .ppt that can't be accidentally
overwritten because when you double-click it in Explorer or do a "File",
"New" it creates a .ppt based on the .pot. The.pot can be a single slide
consisting of a design you want or several slides with sample text to be
used as a starting point for your .ppt.

They normally reside in a sort of hidden folder so you can't accidentally
get to them and open them. If you want to modify a .pot you have to open it
using the "File", "Open" method. If you open a .pot and change it up to
build a presentation and forget to save it as a .pot, you just messed up
your template.

Hope that helps!

--
Bill Foley, Microsoft MVP (PowerPoint)
Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor
www.pttinc.com
Check out PPT FAQs at: http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/
"Success, something you measure when you are through succeeding."

 

[Drew Cohn]

Many thanks, Bill. I can see the usefulness of the pot now...mainly as a
"safety" feature.

Drew

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Even though I have done thousands of PowerPoint projects over the years, I
have yet to understand the purpose of a template (pot). Sometimes I am
asked to make one, and I simply design one slide as a master, save it as a
ppt, and ship it off.

I've opened up templates, and find they are basically nothing more than the
regular ppt files I've created. I just don't see/understand the difference.
What am I missing here?

The difference is mainly in how PowerPoint treats POT vs PPT files. A POT may
contain only the masters (Slide Master, Title Master, notes/handouts etc, and
possibly multiple slide/title masters) or it may also contain slides.

A PPT file generally contains slides as well as the info from the template it's
based on.