Powerpoint 2007 Template editing

[RossM]

I've chosen and downloaded a set of Microsoft templates for Powerpoint.
I'd like to change the default font of the Titles of each slide of my
favotire one to BOLD so I don't have to change each one by hand as I create
the slide show. In some cases I want to change the font color too. It is very
tedious changing the text to bold and then changing its color. How do I make
the changes in the template and save the template with a new name?

 

[Guest]

I've chosen and downloaded a set of Microsoft templates for Powerpoint.
I'd like to change the default font of the Titles of each slide of my
favotire one to BOLD so I don't have to change each one by hand as I create
the slide show. In some cases I want to change the font color too. It is very
tedious changing the text to bold and then changing its color. How do I make
the changes in the template and save the template with a new name?

I would guess all you need do is to do a "save AS" and make sure
the file extension is the same as and the location is the same as the
template. I would also change the name to indicate you have edited
it.

 

[RossM]

Many thanks for reading and responding.

Saving the modified template is not the problem (at least assuming this
works as you have indicated).

The problem is how to edit it in the first place. I simply click on the
template and it is loaded. If I create a title on the first slide so there is
something to edit, and then change the color and bold the text in that title,
I think it only works for the first slide. If I create a second slide with a
title and bulleted items in a text box and change the color and bold there,
and then save it, I think it produces a pptx file with that title and the
second slide. When I click to add another slide, the title field comes up and
I can enter text, but it does not use the same font and bold used on the
title slide or saved on the second slide. I guess my question is how to edit
templates directly, presuming I figure out how to load the template I like as
a template, with blanks in the text fields.

To not waste your time, I tried bringing up the template I like, going to
the second slide with blank fields, selecting the first character and
changing the font color and bolding it, then saving what I had as a power
point template in a folder where I keep my power point template files. the
result was a template file with two slides, the title slide and the second
one. The default text in the title of the second slide was indeed bold and
black, but when I asked powerpoint to add a slide to the presentation, it had
the same old default unbolded and different color as in the original template
which I had accessed through the "Design" tab in Powerpoint 2007. The
question is how to take one of the default templates and edit it, saving it
as another template?

Many thanks.

RossM

 

[RossM]

I may have replied too soon. I think I found the answer on my own. The
problem was that the Help system wanted me to enter "Customize a document
theme" not various versions of "edit templates" so couldn't take me to how to
customize a document theme. Typical problem with help systems written by
experts using their own computer terminology, I guess. It took me a while to
find the section describing that templates are done differently in PPT 2007,
which wouldn't have occurred to me because I didn't know how to do this stuff
in earlier versions either. anyway, it looks like the magic word I needed was
"theme" or "document theme." The explanation indicates that there is some way
to get to a theme editor with a Page Layout tab. Once I get to that area, it
is all pretty clear. Once I have a theme, the next step is to figure out how
to apply it to the slide design template I like.

Are themes automatically attached to the templates from which they come?

Wait. I still need Help. I clicked on New Presentation to find the menu of
templates and installed themes, but there was nothing there about getting to
a theme editor. I used the help system to search on "theme editor" and I
found a link to "Customize and save a theme in Powerpoint 2007" but it still
didn't tell me how to get to the theme editor screen. So I searched on "Open
a theme" but that didn't tell me how to get to the theme editor. There was
something inside "Remove or change the current theme" about going to the
design tab and finding a themes group. This is something I know about, since
it's the way I select a slide template. Ah! There it is. There are icons for
Colors, Fonts, and Effects to the right, as well as Background Styles. I
think I'm in!

Not quite. Colors and Fonts seems to access only general colors throughout
the slide show. I'm looking for something that applies only to the Title
field on slides following the first slide. Fonts seems to apply to all fonts
throughout the slide show.

Under "Create New Theme Fonts" there are windows for "Heading Font:" and
"Body font:" so at least I have a way of changing the text font, but not the
color property of these two separately!! Help.

I seem to be stuck again. I'm coming to think it's just not worth the time
and effort to try and customize a template/theme to just what I want.

Reading some more under "Customize the theme fonts" it indicates that the
Theme Fonts button shows the name of the heading and body text fonts. Yes, I
see these when my cursor hovers over the Theme Fonts button, but step 1 says
that On the Page Layout tab, in the Themes group, click on theme fonts. My
PPT doesn't have a Page Layout tab in the Themes group. Also my screen
doesn't look quite like the illustration. There is not a "Themes" with a
pull-down arrow below it and Colors, Fonts, and Effects pull down items to
the side. The Colors, Fonts, and Effects pull down items are shown as
illustrated, but not the Themes pull down and nothing saying Page Layout
under Design. there is a Page Setup, but it only sets the size and layout of
the page and margins and stuff.

I went to Create New Theme Fonts ok, and this did list the Heading and Body
fonts in separate windows, and I can change these, but I don't see anything
in there about color and bolding of the font selected. Maybe I can cheat the
system and choose a weird font that is bold and black in and of itself,
thereby overiding the default settings. For example, I tried Ariel Black for
the Title and this indeed made the title bold and dark, but not quite black.
It is perfectly acceptable, howeve, so I could use this to bolden my titles
and make them almost black looking, so I guess I found a workaround.

Final question: Is there another way to simply accept the font in the
Heading section but change it to bold and black without changing all the
other colors on the slide?

Thanks again,

RossM