PowerPoint - How to import my company's slide templates into Powerpoint?

My company provides a set of standard slides for preparing presentation.  How
do I import those into the Design pane in order to maintain all of the
formatting?

First you'll have to save the master slides as a Design Template or .pot
file.
--
Sandy Johnson
Microsoft Certified Office Specialist (MOS PowerPoint)

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Hi Reece,

I prefer a different approach, and this works with POT files and PPT files
too.

Let's say you have two presentation files, "Company Template.ppt" and "My
Presentation.ppt".  The objective is to apply the company template to your
presentation.

(Note, all directions are for Powerpoint 2003)

- Open "My Presentation.ppt".

- Select "Format/Slide Design"

- When the Slide Design panel opens up on the right hand side, at the bottom
of the panel you'll see a link labelled "Browse..." , click this link.

- The "Apply Design Template" dialogue box opens up, and you need to browse
for the "Company Template.ppt" file.  When you find it, click "Apply".

This will apply the template.  But you need to check that any features that
are not on the master have actually been brought over.  Also, templates are
only a first approximation for formatting.  Always check the presentation
completely for correct formatting, and make sure you run it from end to end
in slideshow mode.

Note that folks who use POT templates can probably explain why they're
different from using a PPT file as the template.  I've never really
understood the point of POT files, but it's probably something I've missed.

Cheers,
Geoff

As you've described using them, there's not really much difference.

POTs are a bit more convenient at times because you can pop them into the
right folders and PPT lets you choose them w/o having to browse for them.  And
PPT behaves a bit differently when you doubleclick a POT vs a PPT, IIRC.

Each PPT has the template it's based on built into it.  Applying a PPT to an
existing presentation is the same as opening the PPT, saving it as POT and
applying the POT.

Applying the PPT directly saves the extra dance steps in that situation.



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