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Viewing Masters

If you want to change the appearance of each instance of a slide element, like all the title fonts or all the bullet characters, you don’t have to change every slide individually. Instead, you can change them all at once using a slide master. PowerPoint updates the existing slides, and then applies your settings to any slides you add. Each PowerPoint presentation contains three masters: slide, notes, and handout. Which master you open depends on what part of your presentation you want to change. The slide master controls all the presentation slides, while the notes master and handout master controls the appearance of all speaker notes pages, and handout pages, respectively.

View the Slide Master

  • yellow_01.jpg Click the View tab.
  • yellow_02.jpg Click the Slide Master button.

    The slide master appears in the left pane as a larger slide miniature with a number next to it and the slides layouts associated with it appear below it.

    TIMESAVER You can view the slide master quickly. Press and hold the Shift key, and then click the Normal view button.

  • yellow_03.jpg Click the slide master or slide layout to display it in the slide master view.

    Use the scroll bar in the left pane to display additional slide masters and slide layouts.

  • yellow_04.jpg Click the Close Master View button on the Ribbon.

View the Notes Master

  • yellow_01.jpg Click the View tab.
  • yellow_02.jpg Click the Notes Master button.

    The Notes Master controls the look of your notes pages.

  • yellow_03.jpg Click the Close Master View button on the Ribbon.

View the Handout Master

  • yellow_01.jpg Click the View tab.
  • yellow_02.jpg Click the Handout Master button.

    TIMESAVER You can view the handout master quickly. Press and hold the Shift key, and then click the Slide Sorter view button.

    The Handout Master controls the look of your handouts.

  • yellow_03.jpg Click the Slides-per-page button, and then use one of the following:
    • Click the number of slides you want on your handout pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, or 9.
    • Click Show Slide Outline to show the slide outline, click the Slides-per-page button.

    The item you select in steps 2 or 3

  • yellow_04.jpg Click the Close Master View button on the Ribbon.

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