Slide Master View in PowerPoint 365 for Windows

Slide Master view is an important view within PowerPoint 365 for Windows. Why? Because, if you make any changes or edits within this view, these modifications will influence all slides within your presentation. For example, if you want to make your company logo appear on all the slides, you will have to add the logo within the Slide Master. If you want the font size of your slide titles to be a little larger or smaller, then those edits also need to be made within the Slide Master.

Do note though that this tutorial will not explore how you can make changes in the Slide Master. Rather, this is a brief overview of how you can access Slide Master view. You can see the Slide Master interface in Figure 1, below. We explain how you can bring up Slide Master view, later on this page.

Figure 1: Slide Master view in PowerPoint 365 for Windows

Figure 1, above, shows how a typical Slide Master looks like. Here are some guidelines for working in this view:

• First, look at the Slides pane on the left, and you will find one large slide thumbnail and several smaller slide thumbnails below.
• The larger slide thumbnail on the top represents the Slide Master, and changes made to the Slide Master influence all Slide Layouts contained within the selected Slide Master.
• The smaller slide thumbnails placed below the Slide Master represent individual Slide Layouts. These are the same layouts that you see in the Layout gallery, as explained in our Changing Slide Layouts in PowerPoint tutorial. Any change you make to these individual Slide layouts influences only the slides based on that particular layout.
• The active slide in Figure 1 is the Slide Master itself. The two most important placeholders here are the Title and the Text placeholders; these represent the title and body text in your slides respectively.

Access Slide Master View

To access Slide Master view, you can choose from either of these two options:

1. Shift + click the Normal view button on the Status Bar, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 1, previously on this page.
2. Access the View tab of the Ribbon and click on the Slide Master button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, below.
3. 
   Figure 2: Slide Master button

Once you are in Slide Master view, you can edit the actual Slide Master(s) and its Slide Layouts. In subsequent tutorials, we explore options available within the Slide Master:

1. Change Background Styles in the Slide Master
2. Slide Layouts within Slide Master View
3. Change Background Styles for Slide Layouts
4. Custom Backgrounds for Slide Master and Layouts
5. Duplicate, Rename, and Edit Slide Layouts
6. Add New Slide Layouts
7. Inserting New Placeholders in Slide Layouts
8. Formatting Picture Placeholders
9. Create Custom Shaped Picture Placeholders
10. Add Your Logo or Graphic to the Slide Master
11. Add and Rename Slide Masters
12. Duplicate Slide Masters

To go back to Normal view from Slide Master view, choose any of these options:

• Access the Slide Master tab of the Ribbon. Within the Close group, click the Close Master View button, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 1, previously on this page.
• Access the View tab of the Ribbon, locate the Presentation Views group, and click the Normal button, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 2, previously on this page.
• You can also click the Normal button located on the Status Bar, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 1, previously on this page.