The Master Slide contains the fonts, images, and background that appears throughout a presentation. Think of the Master Slide as the design theme for your presentation. There are three different Master Slides; the Notes Master, Handout Master, and the most common, the Slide Master.

Design Professional Presentations with Master Slides

The default design template for a PowerPoint presentation is a plain, white slide. This blank slide and the font choices for the text placeholders used on it are contained in the Slide Master. All slides in a presentation are created using the fonts, colors, and graphics in the Slide Master. Each new slide you create takes on these aspects.

Information in this article applies to PowerPoint 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010; PowerPoint for Microsoft 365, and PowerPoint for Mac.

Many colorful, preset design templates are included with PowerPoint to make your presentations more interesting. To make global changes to your slides, notes, and handouts, edit the Master Slide rather than each individual slide.

About the Slide Master View

When you want to quickly edit the slides and slide layouts in your PowerPoint presentation, use Slide Master view. Go to View and choose Slide Master. An edit to the slide master affects every slide in the presentation.

Here are some ways to use Slide Master view to edit the Master Slide:

  • Change the text formatting. Change the color of the text on every slide instead of on one slide at a time.
  • Rearrange placeholder text. Change the position of placeholder text on the slides.
  • Modify the slide background. Change the background graphics, insert a logo, or add a watermark.

When you want to use the design you created in the Slide Master in the other PowerPoint presentations, save the PowerPoint file as a template. When you start each new presentation with this template, you’ll create slideshows that are consistent, uniform, and project a polished image.

Change the text formatting. Change the color of the text on every slide instead of on one slide at a time.

Rearrange placeholder text. Change the position of placeholder text on the slides.

Modify the slide background. Change the background graphics, insert a logo, or add a watermark.

If you only want to customize a theme font or color, there’s no need to use a Master Slide. Go to Design and choose a look from the Variants lists.

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