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About this lesson

In this lesson, we will learn all about the different slide layouts available in PowerPoint. We'll learn how to create new slides and apply different layouts to each, paying attention to text placeholders and content icons.

Exercise files

Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ PowerPoint presentations from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.

3.08-slide-layouts - Exercise.docx
52.1 KB 3.08-slide-layouts - Exercise solution.docx
1,010.1 KB marketing-team.jpg
1.3 MB

Quick reference

Working with Slide Layouts

Slide Layouts contain formatting, positioning and placeholder boxes for all of the content that appears on a slide. They help us position content on our slides like headings, pictures, charts and tables. PowerPoint includes several in-built slide layouts for use which can be customized to suit our needs. The slide layout we choose will depend on the content we need to add to the slide. There is also a blank slide layout included if you would prefer to start from scratch. 

When to use

Apply slide layouts to your presentation whenever you want some guideance with the positioning of content. 

Instructions

Apply a Slide Layout to a new slide

  1. From the Home tab, in the Slides group, click New slide. 
  2. Choose a Slide Layout, e.g. Title slide, Two content, Section header etc. 
  3. Choose Blank Slide if you don't require placeholders. 

A new slide will be added to the presentation with the desired slide layout. 

Apply a Slide Layout to an existing slide

We can change the layout of an existing slide in the presentation. 

  1. Select the slide. 
  2. From the Home tab, in the Slides group, click Layout. 
  3. Choose a slide layout to apply it to the current slide. 

Adding Content

Different types of content can be added to and positioned on a slide using a slide layout. Add text to text placeholders, bulleted lists or even tables, charts, SmartArt, pictures etc, using the content icons where available. Content will be positioned within the placeholder. Remember, any content can be repositioned and customized even if a slide layout has been used. 

Applying a Slide Design using Design Ideas

The Design Ideas pane will open automatically whenever you insert a picture into a slide. It can also be invoked on demand. Design Ideas contains a number of pre-designed layouts that can be applied to the slide with one-click. The Design Ideas you see in the pane will change depending on the Slide Layout in use for that particular slide. 

We can set the Design Ideas pane to pop open automatically when we add certain types of content to the slide, or we can invoke it ourselves when we need it. 

  1. Click the Home tab. 
  2. In the Designer group, select Design Ideas. 
  3. Choose a design to apply to the slide.

Hints & tips

  • The slide layouts you see will have a different design depending on the theme you have applied to the presentation. 
  • You can suppress the Design Ideas pane from opening automatically when you add content by turning off the setting in File, Options, General, PowerPoint Designer section. 
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  • 00:04 It's really important when you first start working in PowerPoint that you understand
  • 00:08 the concept of slide layouts.
  • 00:10 Each slide that you add into PowerPoint has a specific slide layout.
  • 00:16 And you can change the slide layout depending on what it is that you want to
  • 00:20 do, and how you want your information laid out on your slide.
  • 00:24 And really, slide layouts are there to help you position text, shapes,
  • 00:28 and other objects on your slide.
  • 00:31 So let's dive in and understand a little bit better how slide layouts work, and
  • 00:35 how they affect the overall look and feel of your PowerPoint presentation.
  • 00:40 So what I have open on the screen is my first presentation, and if you remember,
  • 00:45 we added a heading and also a subheading.
  • 00:47 Now most of the work that we're going to do in this lesson is going to be contained
  • 00:52 to the Home tab, and this little group here called slides.
  • 00:55 And this button at the top that says layout, if we click it,
  • 00:58 it's going to show me all of the different slide layouts that I have access to, and
  • 01:03 there are nine of them in this case.
  • 01:06 Now the one that you currently have applied to your selected side is
  • 01:10 highlighted in grey.
  • 01:11 So I can see that this is currently a title slide, it has a title slide layout.
  • 01:17 And a title slide you'll normally find as the first slide in your presentation.
  • 01:21 When you choose this layout,
  • 01:23 it gives you two placeholders which are essentially text boxes.
  • 01:27 The first placeholder allows you to add a heading, and
  • 01:30 the second one allows you to add a subheading.
  • 01:33 So just to illustrate this a little bit better,
  • 01:35 I'm going to add a new slide to my presentation.
  • 01:39 And again, we're working in this slides group,
  • 01:42 you can see that I have a new slide button.
  • 01:44 I can then select what slide layout I want to apply to my new slide.
  • 01:50 So let's stick with title slide.
  • 01:52 I have a new slide with those two placeholders on it related to that title
  • 01:56 slide layout.
  • 01:58 And it says Click to add title, Click to add subtitle.
  • 02:01 Now what I could do is change this layout to something else,
  • 02:05 because I already have a title slide in my presentation.
  • 02:09 So let's select slide number two.
  • 02:12 And I'm going to jump up to layout and I'm going to change this to a title and
  • 02:16 content slide layout, and this gives me something completely different.
  • 02:21 So I have a placeholder at the top where I can add a title for this slide.
  • 02:25 I then have another placeholder underneath which says Click to add text.
  • 02:30 And I can see that here I have some bullet points.
  • 02:33 So maybe I want to add a title that says something like our services.
  • 02:40 And then I want to list out what my company's services are.
  • 02:46 So on and so forth.
  • 02:48 So in this particular respect, the slide layout has really helped me,
  • 02:52 I haven't had to add in my own text boxes or format my text is bullet points.
  • 02:57 Let's add another new slide.
  • 02:59 And this time I'm going to select a two content slide layout.
  • 03:03 Again, I have a placeholder at the top to add a title, I can choose to add text or
  • 03:07 I can choose to add a different piece of content.
  • 03:11 So if I wanted to add a table, I could click on the Insert table icon.
  • 03:17 Or I can say that I want a table that is three columns by two rows and
  • 03:21 click on OK, and it's going to add that into that placeholder.
  • 03:25 So these slide layouts are there to help you position different items on your
  • 03:30 slide.
  • 03:31 Now I'm not going to go through all of these different layouts,
  • 03:34 I'll leave those for you to have a little play around with.
  • 03:37 But also note that you do have just a blank slide layout as well.
  • 03:41 So if I go back to New slide and I just want a blank,
  • 03:45 this contains no placeholders, no text, nothing.
  • 03:48 It just allows me to start building my presentation from, scratch from a blank.
  • 03:53 Now you'll see that my blank slide has kind of been inserted into the middle of
  • 03:58 the slides that I already had that.
  • 04:00 And that is because PowerPoint will insert a new slide wherever it is the currently
  • 04:05 clicked.
  • 04:06 No, I actually wanted this blank to be at the end.
  • 04:09 So what I can do here is just move it by clicking and
  • 04:12 dragging underneath slide four and letting go to reorder my slides.
  • 04:17 So you can reorder your layout from this little thumbnail pane at the side.
  • 04:22 And I'm going to show you more tips when it comes to organizing and
  • 04:26 reordering slides a bit later on in this course.
  • 04:29 Now, I also mentioned in In the previous module that depending on what slide layout
  • 04:33 you have selected,
  • 04:34 you're going to get different design ideas pop up in that right hand pane.
  • 04:38 So, if I click on my title slide and click the design ideas button,
  • 04:43 which is the last button on that Home tab,
  • 04:46 I'm going to get design ideas related to a title slide.
  • 04:50 However, if I click on the slide underneath which has a completely
  • 04:54 different layout, I get different design ideas in here.
  • 04:59 Let's click on the one below, again,
  • 05:01 it's going to generate a whole host of different ideas.
  • 05:05 And then finally for the blank, it doesn't have any ideas, because it's got
  • 05:09 nothing to work from, it doesn't know what I'm going to place on this slide.
  • 05:13 So just be aware of the different slide layouts that you have access to, and
  • 05:18 how they affect other elements such as design ideas.
  • 05:21 You might be somebody who uses slide layouts all the time, or
  • 05:24 you might be similar to me.
  • 05:26 I tend to start from a blank every single time, because I like to have full
  • 05:31 control over all of the elements that I'm placing on my slide.
  • 05:35 And I find it a bit easier, just to start from scratch.
  • 05:38 But I will say again, if you are fairly new to PowerPoint and
  • 05:41 not as confident with your design skills.
  • 05:44 Slide layouts can really help you when it comes to the positioning and
  • 05:47 adding elements into your slide.
  • 05:49 That's it for this lesson, I will see you, in the next one.

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