How do I use master slides in Google Presentations?

Master slides are a key feature of any presentation slide deck, whether you're using Keynote, PowerPoint or, for this example Google Slides.

 
Why? Well it's unlikely that whatever template you choose will have the exact layout that you want, maybe the font is wrong, the size, the background, the position of the text box, et cetera. What usually happens is people create a new slide and change it, over and over again, or change, then duplicate, and duplicate that and so on. 
 
Instead of editing the slide you've chosen, you should edit the master version of that slide, like this:
First don't just click the big + to add a slide, click the little drop down menu next to it, and choose the master slide you like: 
 
Screen_Shot_2016-12-10_at_11_09_45_AM.png
 
Now to tweak that, don't change the actual slide, instead change the master slide, go to Slide > Edit master. Now make the design tweaks, and it will update. Now whenever you choose that slide from the slide picker it will look exactly the way you want it to look, here's an example:
 
 

Change 1 Slide, change all... 

But what's even better, it's very likely that you will want to reconsider your slide layout, but as you've been working with the master slides, you can change every slide you based on that master, all in one go. Just choose any of the slides that used the same slide layout, go to Slide > Master, and now watch in amazement, as every tweak you make, cascades down all of the slides it was used for—amazing! 
 
Here's an example, I realised that I wanted the text boxes to be positioned higher up in the slide, but instead of changing each one, one by one, I just change the master slide, and see how all the others reflect those changes in real time.
 
 

Top Tip

In the example above you can see an hour of code logo on all slides, all I did was add it to the top master slide, and it adds it to all, easy. 
 
Hour_of_Code__Iras__-_Google_Slides.png
 
Changes to the top one changes all, changes to the others only affect the slides that were built using that layout. 
 
The gorgeous template I used above is just one of the many free beautifully designed templates for Google Slides that you can choose from at www.slidescarnival.com, this one is called Iras. 

Answer

  • Last Updated Mar 12, 2018
  • Views 114
  • Answered By Seán McHugh

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