PowerPoint Template Tips & Tricks: 10 Things You Need To Know To Nail Your Template

Here are my top 10 tips and tricks for creating a PowerPoint template that actually works for building your slides. #PowerPointTemplates

If you don't get this right, you will have to rebuild your PowerPoint template from scratch.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 Introduction
0:25 Save your PowerPoint template as a .potx file
1:04 Add guides to your PowerPoint slides
1:27 Include the PowerPoint theme files
1:50 Add specialized placeholders where needed
2:16 Edit the placeholder prompt text
2:45 Don’t delete your bullet points
3:24 Don’t delete the title placeholder
3:56 Don’t embed fonts
4:52 Include your template instructions and sample slides
5:51 Don’t delete the child layouts from the slide master

Need help with PowerPoint Themes, see:

Need help with your PowerPoint Backgrounds, see:

Have other questions about templates, see:

Top 10 PowerPoint Tips and Tricks and common slide master mistakes to avoid.

Did you know that there are many things most PowerPoint template creators (and vendors) get wrong on their slide master?

Believe it or not, how to create the best PowerPoint template possible is not something many people study up on...even though it can be more valuable to the development of a good presentation than even the best imagery on the planet.

But a mistake in a PowerPoint template can not only derail your current presentation - but it can also set up land mines for you, your colleagues, and your clients for YEARS to come!

That’s why I’ve created this quick video with my top 10 tips for working with PowerPoint templates. All these tips work for all versions of PowerPoint.

[kimhofmann]

Great tips! You, Taylor, and Nuts and Bolts Speed Training have made it easier for me to design better PPTs, and save time doing it! Keep up the great work!

[TRDesings]

Hey thank you very much just wanted to let you know this helped me a lot. I‘m a designer from switzerland and was asked by a client to make a powerpoint template together with the corporate identity, and I‘m glad I watched this video before I started. Saved me a lot of time and nerves (I guess)

[taniam]

I have rewatched this video lots of time because I need a reminder sometimes. Thanks for the awesome content!!!

[danguerra]

New to your training in Powerpoint. Will be coming back to take the whole program. Thank you for the information and making it understandable.

[lauraantos]

Thanks for some great tips for PowerPoint. I loved your suggestion about giving directions on how to use the template and the .potx

[rachelabrams]

Thank you Camille! You took the mystery out of the traps I kept running into with templates. I'm going to tackle my first one from scratch now :)

[EgoSumLaetus]

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR!!!

[ChatreVerde]

I really like your custom font, great video with great tips.

[njysaniallen]

I really enjoyed all the videos I looked at. Keep up the good work.

[stevenheassler]

Tip #1 is excellent, very good advice. It feels so good to get those unused layouts out of the master (don't want the entire office using them.) If you do remove them, there's no safety net when you import multiple speakers' slides the morning before a conference. Not even a life raft for yourself. All ten tips are great.

[norasutiono]

Thank you !! your video tutorial is great ... love it

[barbalina]

Wow, thanks, Nuts and Bolts Speed Training! I went from knowing nothing about slide masters to being able to create my own in an afternoon. Excellent training video -- easy to follow with clearly-presented material.

[ittaialtshuler]

Great Videos please continue, i saw parts 1-3 and this one mostly recommended.

[oreetkaufman]

These are great tips, thank you! Where do you suggest to put the instruction slides - in the Slide Master layout or as starter slides in the actual presentation Home view?

[Awakenbeing]

All these tips were really helpful for every slide designer.Thnx.

[unchaineddreameralpa]

very helpful. I love your videos as they are super clear, to the point and right length

[alysonwilliams]

Great tips, thnx Camille. ALL new to me!

[mangazico]

Amazing content :) thanks I ve learned a lot :)

[JackyHorn]

These tutorials are extremely helpful, thank you so much. Please help me understand the 2 blocks top left, Dark background and Dark text, at 5:29?

[victoriavalenzuela]

Great video! Yes, please make more—especially one that focuses on all the ways to test if a template can be broken and the solutions, as you mention in Pt. 3. I do have one question. Is there a way to tag placeholders, so that when copying and pasting from an old document to a new template, contents ends up in the same place? For example, a headline on a content slide from a source file ending up in the headline placeholder in the new template, before or after selecting the new layout and clicking "Reset", rather than ending up in random placeholders? I've searched high and low and your videos are the closest I've gotten to an answer. Thank you!