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The Easy Guide to Template Editing
In this article, I will show you a few easy ways to edit your templates. Free PowerPoint templates are a great tool for presenters. Even if the design isn’t your strong suit – you still need a beautiful presentation. But often times, we need to edit the ready-made templates for them to fulfill our specific needs.
If the instructions on editing templates seem daunting and complicated, you’ve come to the right place. In this easy guide to template editing, I will cover all the basics of changing your slides. When you’re through with this tutorial, you’ll have the skills to give your presentation a personal touch.
How to Edit Colors
Sometimes, a template is almost perfect. It has everything you need to organize your PowerPoint presentation neatly. But, you’d like the colors to match your brand. Or you’d like them to be more subtle. Whichever reason you have for wanting to change the colors, this easy guide to template editing has you covered.
Simply open the template that you want to edit. Click on the Design option on the ribbon, and select colors in the upper right corner, shown in the stair diagram example below.
Editing your templates in this way will automatically change the color scheme of all your slides. If for some reason, you’d like to change the color scheme individually, the process is different.
In order to edit template colors for each individual slide, you can use the Shape Fill option in PowerPoint. Simply select the segment you want to edit, and right-click on it. Select the Shape Fill option from the menu, like in the image below:
As you can see, this doesn’t change the color scheme of the entire template:
If you’re unsure of how to use colors and are looking for design advice, you might find our article on how to use colors in achieving 4 PowerPoint presentation themes a useful read.
How to Change Font and Size
To change the font and size of a single slide or piece of text, click on the Home tab. Select the text you want to resize, and pick the preferred font and size, like in an image below.
If you’d like to change the font and size for the whole template, you’re going to have to work in PowerPoint Slide Master View. You can find the Slide Master View by clicking on the View section in the ribbon. It should look something like this:
Once you’re in Slide Master View, all the changes you make will apply to the entire template. To change your font from here, simply click on the fonts section within Slide Master View, and chose your font.
To change the font size from Slide Master View, click on the Home section on the ribbon. Then, select the level of text you want to change and pick the size like shown in an image below:
How to Copy-Paste Components Between Slides
No easy guide to template editing would be complete without a simple solution on how to switch components between slides.
To cut/copy and paste an object from one slide to another, select the component you want to move. Then, right click on the border, as illustrated in the image below. When the drop-down menu appears, choose the action you want to take with the selected object.
When you’ve copied the object, go to the slide you want to paste it to, and click paste.
As you can see, the components are switched around pretty easily in our soft consulting template pack. Our templates are pretty flexible when it comes to switching objects around. You can pretty much move any item anywhere in the presentation.
How to Change Background
Sometimes, we can find the perfect template where the background can just stand in the way. Maybe you just dislike a certain combination of colors on one particular slide. Or maybe you’d like to change the background texture of the entire template to match your topic a little better. There are plenty of ways to change your background, but this is the easy guide to template editing.
The simplest way to change the background of a single slide is to click Normal on the view menu and select the slide that you want to change. It should look something like in the growth process template example below.
Once you’re done with that, find the format background option in the Design tab in your version of PowerPoint. It should look something like in an image below.
In Format Background, select Fill, and choose your preferred fill and color. If you want to create a style that will apply to the entire template, simply select Apply to All once you’re finished creating your background.
How to Remove Background
If you have no problem with the color or the texture, but certain objects in the background are in the way, you might want to remove a part of or an entire background. To do this, simply select the background object that you want to remove. Right-click the item, and cut it, like in the image below.
Do this for every external layer of the background. Once you can no longer select individual background components, click on Format Background in the Design tab.
Select Fill, Solid Fill, and choose white as your color. As you can see in the image below, the entire background has been removed!
How to Switch Photos
In order to switch one photo for another during your presentation, you’ll need to work with animations. Luckily for you, this easy guide to template editing has a no-brainer way to do it!
In order to switch two photos in PowerPoint, click Home from the menu. Click Select from the Editing tab in the ribbon. Then, open the Selection Pane.
Selection Pane is a neat mode in PowerPoint. It’s basically a pop-up on the right side of the screen, listing the names of all the images in the template. It should look like in the image below.
By simply clicking on an image, you can see where it’s located in the Selection Pane.
Select the first from the two images you want to switch and drag it over the second one. Make sure that they align perfectly so that the animation will work. Click Animations from the menu. Select the first picture, and then select Add Animation. It should look something like in the image below.
From the drop-down menu that appears select the Fade option from the Exit section. You should see the image fade out, revealing the second photo.
Once you’ve previewed your photo fade, click the Start drop-down menu, in the Timing section. Select With Previous.
Now click on the name of your second photo. Click Add Animations, and select the Fade option from the Entrance section. Again, choose with previous from the start drop-down box in the Timing section.
In the Advanced Animations tab, click Animation Pane. It should open to the right of the Selection and Visibility Pane. This will list all of the animations you’ve added to the presentation. In order to select the timing and the duration of the switch, click on the drop-down box located next to the name of each image. Once you’re done with that, select timing, and edit it according to your preferences. Your animation can last up to 5 seconds.
Once you finish timing your switch, hit F5 to preview your photos change!
Edit Your Templates with Ease
Now you’ve gone through our simple guide to template editing. Hopefully, you can now edit and remove the background with ease. You’ve mastered the basics of photo animations, and you can make your font reveal a little bit more about your personality. You can now enrich your experience using free online templates by putting your own spin on it.