PowerPoint templates and themes are a great way to quickly create professional, branded presentations. With just a few clicks, you can apply a template that includes color schemes, fonts, effects, and slide layouts tailored to your needs. This saves a tremendous amount of time compared to designing a presentation from scratch.
In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know to find and use PowerPoint templates and themes, including:
Getting Started with Templates and Themes
Before searching for templates, it’s important to understand the difference between templates and themes:
- Templates – A template is a pre-designed presentation you can customize. It includes slide layouts, color schemes, fonts, effects, and may even contain sample content. Templates make it easy to create a polished, professional presentation quickly.
- Themes – A theme is a set of design elements you can apply to any presentation. It includes color schemes, fonts, and effects. Themes let you update the look of your slides without changing the content.
Many templates include a coordinated theme so all the design elements work well together.
Searching for Templates and Themes Online
PowerPoint offers thousands of free templates and themes to choose from online. Here’s how to access them:
- Open PowerPoint and create a new blank presentation.
- Select the Design tab.
- Click the Browse for Themes option (in the Themes group). Browse for Themes
- The theme search window will open. Search for themes using keywords or scroll through categories like Business, Education, Holidays, and more.
- Hover over a theme or template thumbnail to preview how it will look.
- Click a template or theme to view details. Click Create to add it to your presentation.
You can also search specifically for templates using the Search for online templates and themes field. This works the same way – just enter keywords related to your topic or industry.
Downloading Templates
If you find a template you want to save and use later:
- Click the template and then click the Download button.
- The template will download as a .POTX PowerPoint file.
- Save the template file somewhere easy to access later, like a Templates folder.
To reuse a downloaded template:
- In PowerPoint, select File > New.
- Click My templates.
- Double click your template file to create a new presentation with that design.
Creating a Custom Template
You may want to create a custom template with your company colors, fonts, and logo. Here’s how:
- Open a new presentation. Customize the Slide Master with your brand colors, fonts, logo, etc.
- Select the Design tab and customize the theme. Change colors, fonts, effects, and background style.
- Select File > Save As. Choose a location like your Templates folder.
- For file type, select PowerPoint Template and give it a name. Click save.
Your custom template will now be available whenever you create new presentations.
Applying a Template to an Existing Presentation
To update the look of an existing presentation:
- Open the presentation and select the Design tab.
- Click on Browse for Themes and locate the template you want to use.
- Click the template thumbnail and click Apply.
- PowerPoint will prompt you to replace the existing theme. Click Apply to All Slides to change them all to match the new template.
Tips for Using Templates
Here are some best practices for working with PowerPoint templates:
- Stay on-brand – Use your company template containing logo, fonts and colors
- Customize templates – Don’t just use a template as-is. Adapt it to your needs.
- Use high-quality graphics – Upgrade any low-quality template photos and logos.
- Keep text short – Let images tell the story instead of blocks of text.
- Maintain consistency – Use the same template across your organization for a professional look.
Over to You!
With this guide, you should now feel empowered to search for and use PowerPoint templates and themes to create polished, professional presentations with ease!
The key is finding a design that fits your brand and content. Browse the online collections for inspiration or create your own custom look.
So open up PowerPoint and take your presentations to the next level with templates!
