Applying Slide Masters to Slides in PowerPoint 2003 for Windows

Once you have applied a template within PowerPoint 2003 that has multiple masters, you can thereafter apply different Slide Masters to the slides in your presentation. This tutorial therefore assumes that your presentation already has multiple masters available. Having said so, the reason why you want to apply multiple masters is preferably only to have sets of slides that look a we bit different rather than ending up with something that's inconsistent. Ultimately the role of masters is to ensure that your presentation remains consistent in design, layout and form.

Follow these steps to apply Slide Masters to individual, all, or selected slides in PowerPoint 2003. Choose from the following two sections - the first shows how you can apply a Slide Master to an entire presentation whereas the next section explains how you can do the same to selected slides.

Applying/Changing Masters for a Complete Presentation

Follow these steps to change the master for all slides in a presentation:

1. With your presentation open, choose the Format | Slide Design menu option, as shown in Figure 1, below.
2. 
   Figure 1: Slide Design Option
2. This will bring up the Slide Design task pane, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, below.
3. 
   Figure 2: Slide Design task pane
3. Click on the thumbnail preview that represents the Slide Master you want to apply. You will find the Slide Masters within the Used in this Presentation section, highlighted in red within Figure 3, below.
4. 
   Figure 3: Slide Masters within the Used in this Presentation section
4. This will now change the appearance of your slides, as shown in Figure 4, below (compare with Figure 2).
5. 
   Figure 4: New master applied to the entire presentation
5. Save your presentation often.

Applying/Changing Masters for Specific Slides in a Presentation

If you want to apply a master to a specific set of slides in a presentation, follow these steps:

1. With your presentation open, choose the View | Slide Sorter menu option, as shown in Figure 5 below.
2. 
   Figure 5: Slide Sorter menu
2. Choose only those slides to which you want to apply a new Slide Master. To select contiguous slides, select the first slide. Then Shift+click on the last slide you want to select. To select non-contiguous slides, select your first slide. Then, Ctrl+click on individual slides you want to select.
3. 
   Figure 6: Choose individual slides
Tip: Want more keyboard shortcuts? Get a copy of our PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts Ebook.
3. Choose the Format | Slide Design menu option (highlighted in red, see Figure 4 below).
4. 
   Figure 7: Slide Design option
4. This will bring up the Slide Design task pane. Here, you will find the Slide Masters available within the presentation within the Used in this Presentation section (refer to Figure 3, earlier in this page).
5. To apply any of these Slide Masters to your selected slides, hover your cursor over its preview thumbnail. You will see the down-arrow button and from the resultant drop-down menu, choose the Apply to Selected Slides option, highlighted in red within Figure 8, below.
6. 
   Figure 8: Apply to Selected Slides option
6. This will now change the appearance of your selected slides, as shown in Figure 9, below (compare with Figure 6).
7. 
   Figure 9: New master applied to the selected slides
7. Save your presentation often.