You can have more than one set of Slide Masters and Title Masters in PowerPoint 2003, which gives you more flexibility in creating long or complex presentations. You might want to have two Title Master layouts, for example-one for the very first slide in the show and one for the title slides that indicate sections within the show. Or, you might want to have two Slide Master layouts, one for slides with lots of text and one for slides with only a few words of text. It's all up to you.
In this part of the chapter you'll be working extensively with the Slide Master View toolbar. Review the button names shown in Figure 3-19, and refer to it as you read the following sections.
Figure 3-19: Slide Master View toolbar.
To create an additional Slide Maser, click the Insert New Slide Master button on the Slide Master View toolbar. The new master appears in the left pane, below the original slide and title masters. By default it is totally blank, but you can apply one of the other design templates to it.
You can also create a new slide master by displaying the Slide Design task pane and clicking a design there (while still in Slide Master View).
Notice that by default, the new Slide Master does not have an associated Title Master. You can create one for it by selecting it and then clicking the Insert New Title Master button. This button is available only when a Slide Master is selected that does not already have an associated Title Master.
Slide Masters and Title Masters always have a one-to-one relationship, so if you want an additional Title Master, you must first create an additional Slide Master. (You can format it exactly the same as the other Slide Masters, however, if that is helpful.) Figure 3-20 shows an additional Slide Master and Title Master.
Figure 3-20: Another set of masters has been added; they are blank by default with plain Arial font.
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One easy way to create a new set of masters is to select existing ones and copy them (Ctrl+C) then paste them (Ctrl+V).
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If you know that you want to apply a certain design template to the alternative Slide Master, and you know that you will also want an alternative Title Master, here's a shortcut: from Slide Master view, open the Slide Design task pane and open the menu for the desired design (use its arrow button or right-click it). On its menu, choose Add Design (see Figure 3-21). This creates a new Slide Master/Title Master pair with that design.
Figure 3-21: To create a new pair of masters based on a certain design, choose Add Design from that design's menu in the Slide Design pane.
When you create new masters as described previously, they are completely blank and plain. Perhaps you would rather start with a copy of the existing master and modify it. To copy a master, select it and choose Edit⇨Copy and then Edit⇨Paste.
The default name for a new master is "Custom Design," but you will probably want to give yours a more descriptive name. For example, you might call your alternative Slide Master something like Master for Backup Slides. To rename a master, select it, click the Rename Master button on the Slide Master View toolbar, and then type the new name.
To delete a master, select it, and press Delete or click the Delete Master button on the Slide Master View toolbar. If you delete a Title Master, its associated Slide Master remains. However, if you delete the Slide Master, the Title Master is deleted too.
When you delete a master, any slides that used it change over to the first remaining master. If you deleted an alternative, the affected slides change to the main master set. If you delete the main master set, the slides change to the first alternative master set in the Slides pane in Slide Master view.
If a master does not have any slides associated with it, PowerPoint will delete it. Suppose, for example, that you created an alternative master and then applied it to several slides, but then you deleted those slides. The alternative master will go away unless you elect to preserve it.
When a master is preserved, a pushpin symbol appears next to it in the Slides pane at the left. To toggle a master's preservation status, select it and click the Preserve Master button on the Slide Master View toolbar.
After you have created the alternative masters you want, and saved them by closing Slide Master View and returning to the presentation, you will probably want to apply the alternative master(s) to some slides.
By default, all slides use the primary set of masters (Slide and Title). To switch to an alternative set for a slide, do the following:
Open the Slide Design task pane. In the Used in This Presentation section at the top, there should be two designs: your original and your alternative.
To apply the alternative to certain slides, select those slides in the Slides pane on the left. Then click the down arrow next to the alternative design and choose Apply to Selected Slides (see Figure 3-22).
Figure 3-22: Apply an alternative master to selected slides.
The alternative Slide Master will be applied if the slides use any layout except Title Slide; any title slides will receive the alternative Title Master.