Practical 2 – MS Power Point : Chapter 1 Presentation Customization

In this chapter
 Create a Custom Layout
 Apply a Theme
 Apply a Background Style
 Save a Custom Theme
 Create a new template, theme
 Modify a template, theme

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Practical 2 – MS Power Point : Chapter 1 Presentation Customization

1.1 Create a Custom Layout

Slide layouts help you to organize your information when developing presentation slides.
Every slide layout consists of formatting, positioning and placeholders that hold your
information in place. Placeholders hold information in various forms like text, tables, charts,
SmartArt graphics, movies, sounds, pictures and clip art.
Custom layout can be created from the default layout provided in MS Power Point. Custom
layout specifies the quantity, size and location of placeholders within slide. It also specifies
background design, theme colors, fonts and effects. Layout helps you to develop presentation
slides faster and easier.

Step-by-step:
1. Run MS Power Point. Create a blank presentation.
2. Click View tab then Slide Master. Figure 1.1 shows the
navigation pane that lists all the slide layouts available in the
default Office Theme slide master. As you mouse-over to each
slide layout, the layout name will pop-up. Among the frequently
used layouts are Title, Title and Content and Two Content slide
layouts. You can also customize the slide layout by right-clicking
on it, then Rename Layout.
3. Let’s customize a slide layout. Scroll down the list and click on
Blank layout. In this layout, you will learn to insert slide title and
content placeholder to the layout. In Master Layout group, tick
the Title checkbox. Dropdown Insert Placeholder menu and
click Content. Notice that your mouse pointer turns into a
crosshair. Now click and drag from the upper left corner Figure 1.1
diagonally down to the lower right corner. Do the necessary
adjustment to obtain layout as shown in Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2

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Practical 2 – MS Power Point : Chapter 1 Presentation Customization

4. Let’s customize the name of this blank layout. Right click on this layout, Rename Layout.
In the text box, key in “Details Layout” then click Rename to commit the change. Now,
you can use this customized layout.
5. To exit Slide Master view, click on Slide Master contextual menu, then Close Master View.
6. To use the newly created custom layout, insert a new slide, right-click on the slide, go to
Layout and choose “Details Layout” as shown in Figure 1.3.
7. You may now use the custom layout to key in the desired title and contents (eg. Text,
image and etc). Try to key in title and text into designated placeholders.

Figure 1.3

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Practical 2 – MS Power Point : Chapter 1 Presentation Customization

1.2 Apply A Theme

A theme is a quick and easy way to give a professional and modern look to Microsoft Office
document like Excel spreadsheet, Word document and Power Point presentation. A
document theme is a set of formatting choices that include a set of theme colors, a set of
theme fonts (including heading and body text fonts), and a set of theme effects (including
lines and fill effects).

Step-by-step:
1. To apply a theme, within the same presentation created in previous exercise, go to Design
contextual menu, pick a theme out from Theme group. All office themes are named.
2. There are many options available to further customize the theme to suite your preference.
Explore Variants. Go to Variants group, click the More dropdown list at lower right corner,
go to Colors. Choose the variants available. Figure 1.4 shows Facet office theme with Blue
II color variant.

Figure 1.4

1.3 Apply A Background Style

A background style is a background fill made up of different combinations of theme colors.
When you change a presentation theme, the background styles change to reflect the new
theme colors and backgrounds.

Step-by-step:

1. Within the same presentation, go to Variants group, click More dropdown list at the
lower right corner, go to Background Styles. Choose your preferred background style.

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Practical 2 – MS Power Point : Chapter 1 Presentation Customization

2. You can explore further, by clicking on Format Background where a wide variety of
options are available to configure. You can configure Solid fill, Gradient fill, Picture or
texture fill, Pattern fill and etc.
3. Figure 1.5 shows background style with Picture or texture fill, blue tissue paper”.

Figure 1.5

4. You can also apply this background style to all slides by scrolling down the Format
Background pane, and click Apply to All button as shown in Figure 1.6.

Figure 1.6

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Practical 2 – MS Power Point : Chapter 1 Presentation Customization

1.4 Save A Custom Theme

As a theme is a set of formatting choices that include a set of theme colors, a set of theme
fonts (including heading and body text fonts), and a set of theme effects (including lines and
fill effects), it can be saved and reused later on.
In workplace, when the same corporate theme is used throughout all the
presentations, it reflects the professionalism and consistency among the
team members.

1. To save a theme, go to Design tab, Themes group, click More button, click Save Current
Theme.
2. Name the custom theme as “Personal” and click Save. A file named Personal.thmx will
be created at the default path,
“C:\Users\<userprofile>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\Document Themes in
Windows 10.
3. In another presentation, this Personal theme can be reused by clicking on Design tab, in
Themes group, go to Custom section, click Personal, as shown in Figure 1.7.

Figure 1.7

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Practical 2 – MS Power Point : Chapter 1 Presentation Customization

1.5 Create A New Template, Theme

A template (.potx) is a file that consists of formatting and content such as text, logo, header,
footer and background formatting.
A theme (.thmx) contains colors, fonts and effects. The easiest way to create a new theme is
to modify the existing theme provided in the presentation program.

Step-by-step:
1. Create a blank presentation.
2. Go to Design tab, click Slide Master in Master Views group.
3. In the Slide Master Layout pane shown in Figure 1.8, make sure
slide master (the top one) is selected.
4. Go to Themes and choose Facet theme.
5. Select Background Styles and choose Style 2.
6. In Size group, click Slide Size and choose Custom Slide Size. Set
slide size as shown in Figure 1.9.
7. Next, insert an image as logo (local copy or online can do) and text
box to contain company name, “Home Star Sdn Bhd). Your slide
master should look something like Figure 1.10.
8. You may now close Master View and try inserting a couple of
slides. Notice that only Title slide doesn’t have logo and company
name while the rest of the slides do. This is usual as title slide is
meant to be leaned to highlight the main topic.
9. You have now created a template. Go to File, Save As, choose the location, Figure 1.8
name the template as “Sample” and choose Powerpoint Template in the Save as type
dropdown list and finally Save to save your newly created template.

Figure 1.9 Figure 1.10

10. Your template is now saved under the file named, Sample.potx. To use this template for
new presentation, double-click on Sample.potx and new presentation will be created
with all settings in Sample.potx.

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Practical 2 – MS Power Point : Chapter 1 Presentation Customization

1.6 Modify A Template, Theme

Template or Theme can always be modified by opening them, making the required
modification(s) and saving under the same name. Once prompted as shown in Figure 1.11,
click Yes to confirm modification(s).

Figure 1.11

1.7 Review Exercises

1. Open a new, blank presentation.

2. Display the Slide Master.
3. Insert a SmartArt placeholder into a blank layout.
4. Rename the layout as Diagram.
5. Insert a new slide using the Diagram layout.
6. Insert the Circle Process SmartArt into the new slide.
7. Apply the Ion Theme to the presentation.
8. Apply the Style 6 background style to the presentation.
9. Save the theme as light.
10. Close the presentation without saving it.

End of Chapter 1

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