E-mail this pagePowerPoint: Applying a Design Template
The general recommendation in these pages is to avoid adding purely decorative flourishes to any slide until the textual content of the presentation is substantially in place, along with those supporting images, tables, and charts that directly enhance the content. By working in this manner, your focus can stay cleanly on your message without being distracted by the decorative and the ornamental aspects that are easily added--all at once--in the application of a design template.
A design template applies a consistent color scheme, font-style, and (in some instances), set of animations to a presentation. This consistency has a marked effect in ensuring that your audience won't be dazzled by sudden unexpected font, color, or design changes.
Applying a design template to an entire presentation is a relatively simple process: first, select Format| Apply Design Template from PowerPoint 's main menu.
You'll be presented with a menu that lists, on the left hand side, a host of template names, and, on the right hand side, a visual representation of what the currently selected template looks like.
There are lots and lots of templates to choose from, and these have been tested for contrast and visibility by Microsoft . As a rule, it's often a good idea to use dark text against a light background or light text against a dark background: bear in mind that distinctions in brightness and contrast are more significant that differences in color, since you can count on some members of your potential audience being color-blind.
Once you've selected a design template, click the Apply button, and this design will be applied to your entire presentation.
The real utility of the design templates is the speed with which this decoration gets done: if you find you don't like the look of the presentation design you've chosen, you can rapidly go through the process again and apply a whole new design.