How to Edit a PowerPoint Template

Your company logo sits in the wrong corner on every slide, the title font is not the brand font, and fixing it one slide at a time would take all afternoon. Go to View > Slide Master, select the top (largest) thumbnail, and change fonts, colors, the background or the logo there. Then choose Close Master View and save the file as a PowerPoint Template (.potx). These steps are for PowerPoint for Microsoft 365, 2024, 2021, 2019 and 2016.

Template, Theme and Slide Master: What You Are Editing

Three terms come up constantly, and knowing them saves a lot of trial and error.

• Slide master: the top slide in Slide Master view. Anything you put on it (a logo, a font, a background) flows down to every layout beneath it.
• Layouts: the smaller thumbnails under the master, such as Title Slide, Title and Content and Two Content. Each one controls where placeholders sit on slides that use it.
• Theme: the set of colors, fonts and effects the master uses. Change the theme fonts and every heading and body placeholder follows.

A template (.potx file) packages the master, layouts and theme so you can start new decks from it. The working rule is simple: edit the master and layouts, not the individual slides. Text you format by hand on one slide overrides the master and won’t change when the template does.

Open the Template So Your Changes Stick

Here is the trap that catches most people. When you double-click a .potx file, or pick it under File > New, PowerPoint creates a brand-new untitled presentation based on the template. Edits you make there go into that new deck, and the template file itself stays the same.

To change the template file itself:

1. Open PowerPoint and go to File > Open > Browse.
2. Go to the folder that holds the template. Personal templates usually live in Documents\Custom Office Templates; if you’re not sure, see where PowerPoint templates are stored.
3. Select the .potx file and choose Open. The title bar should show the template’s file name rather than Presentation1.

If your “template” is really an ordinary .pptx deck someone shared, open it the normal way. You can edit its master the same way and save it as a .potx at the end.

Open Slide Master View

1. Select the View tab.
2. In the Master Views group, choose Slide Master. A Slide Master tab appears on the ribbon.
3. In the thumbnail pane, scroll to the top. The large thumbnail is the slide master; the indented ones under it are its layouts. On most versions, hovering over a layout shows its name and which slides use it.

Some templates have more than one master, each with its own set of layouts. Edit each one you need.

Change Fonts and Colors for the Whole Deck

Change fonts and colors through the theme rather than by highlighting text on the master. Theme changes reach every placeholder, chart and SmartArt graphic, while hand-applied formatting doesn’t. Microsoft’s page on how to create your own theme in PowerPoint covers both.

Fonts:

1. On the Slide Master tab, select Fonts.
2. Pick a built-in pair, or choose Customize Fonts.
3. In Create New Theme Fonts, choose a Heading font and a Body font, type a name such as “Brand fonts” and select Save.

Colors:

1. On the Slide Master tab, select Colors (in normal view the same menu is at Design > Variants > More > Colors).
2. Pick a built-in palette, or choose Customize Colors.
3. In Create New Theme Colors, set the text, background and accent colors to your brand values, name the set and select Save. Use Reset to start over.

Colors only changes the color set; it doesn’t change the fonts or layouts. For example, a bakery brand with a chocolate brown and a pale pink would set brown as the dark text color and the pink as the first accent color, so charts and shapes pick up the pink automatically. To change sizes or spacing for all titles, select the title placeholder on the master and format it there. The same idea applies when you change line spacing for every slide at once.

Change the Background and Add a Logo

Background: with the slide master selected, choose Background Styles > Format Background on the Slide Master tab. Choose a solid or gradient fill, or Picture or texture fill and Insert for an image, and use the Transparency slider to fade it. To change only certain layouts, select those layout thumbnails first (hold Shift to pick several).

Logo on every slide: Microsoft’s training page on how to add a logo to your slides uses the master:

1. In Slide Master view, select the top slide master.
2. Go to Insert > Shapes and draw a shape where the logo should sit, such as the bottom right corner.
3. Right-click the shape, choose Format Shape, then under Fill choose Picture or texture fill and Insert to pick your logo file.
4. Set the shape outline to No Outline, then move or resize it.

Microsoft notes the logo then shows on all slides except title pages (title layouts often hide background graphics). If the old logo is in the wrong spot, it is probably on the master or a layout: click it there and delete or drag it. For a one-off mark on a single slide instead, see how to add a watermark to one slide.

Edit, Rename, Add or Delete Layouts and Placeholders

Microsoft’s page on how to edit and reapply a slide layout covers the layout tools:

• Add a placeholder: select a layout, choose Insert Placeholder on the Slide Master tab, pick a type (Content, Text, Picture, Chart and so on) and drag to draw it.
• Move or resize a placeholder: drag its border or handles. Click inside to change the prompt text, such as “Click to add product photo”.
• Rename a layout: right-click its thumbnail and choose Rename Layout, so people pick “Team photo” instead of “Custom Layout”.
• Add a layout: on most versions, choose Insert Layout on the Slide Master tab, then add placeholders to it.
• Delete a layout: select it and choose Delete on the Slide Master tab. If Delete is unavailable, slides may still be using that layout; switch them to another layout first.
• Footers and slide numbers: check Footers on the Slide Master tab for a layout, then set the footer text and slide numbers under Insert > Header & Footer.

Close Master View and Fix Slides That Didn’t Change

Choose Close Master View on the Slide Master tab to return to your slides. Most slides pick up the changes at once. Slides that don’t usually have manual formatting or were moved from another deck.

1. In the thumbnail pane, select the slides that didn’t update (hold Ctrl to pick several).
2. Go to Home > Layout and choose the updated layout to reapply it.
3. If text still uses the old font or position, choose Home > Reset to return placeholders to the layout’s formatting. This removes manual formatting on those slides, so check them afterward.

Apply a Template to a Deck You Already Made

Microsoft’s page on how to apply a template to an existing presentation recommends starting fresh from the template and bringing your slides in:

1. Go to File > New, open the Personal tab (next to Featured), select your template and choose Create.
2. Open the old deck, click in its thumbnail pane, press Ctrl+A and then Ctrl+C.
3. In the new deck’s thumbnail pane, right-click and under Paste Options choose Use Destination Theme.
4. Delete any empty starter slides and save as a normal .pptx.

Save Your Edited Template and Find It Again

1. Go to File > Save As (in Microsoft 365 it may say Save a Copy).
2. In the file type list, choose PowerPoint Template (*.potx). PowerPoint usually switches to the Custom Office Templates folder.
3. Name it and save. If you opened the .potx with File > Open, a normal Save updates it in place.

Templates in that folder show under File > New > Personal. The default location is C:\Users\YourUserName\Documents\Custom Office Templates, and you can change it under File > Options > Save > Default personal templates location. Microsoft’s page on how to create and save a PowerPoint template covers building one from scratch.

PowerPoint for Mac and PowerPoint for the Web

On a Mac, the core path is the same: View > Slide Master, edit the master and layouts, then save as a PowerPoint Template. Menu positions can differ slightly, and the Mac template folder isn’t the Windows path above, so let the Save dialog choose it. PowerPoint for the web may not offer Slide Master editing, so for template work open the file in the desktop app.

Template Editing Questions

Will editing the template change decks I already made with it?

No. Each deck keeps its own copy of the master. To update an older deck, use the Use Destination Theme method above, or open its Slide Master and make the same changes.

Can I save just the colors and fonts?

Yes. On the Slide Master tab, choose Themes > Save Current Theme to save a .thmx file you can apply to other decks from the Design tab.

How do I change slide size for the template?

Use Design > Slide Size before you design layouts, since changing it later can stretch or crop content. If you need portrait slides, see how to change slide orientation in PowerPoint.

Once the master looks right, start one test deck from File > New > Personal and add a slide of each layout. That quick check shows any layout you missed before the template goes to the rest of the team.