I don’t need to tell you PowerPoint isn’t perfect.
PowerPoint offers up 31 different slide layouts for you to choose from – but does not allow you set your preferred default slide layout.
Instead, it always creates a new presentation with a slide with the ‘Title’ layout, and a ‘Text’ slide every time you insert a new slide.
This setup may be useful for most people, but there are times I have to assemble a slide deck which would contain a lot of very specific slides – for example, completely blank slides for a picture heavy presentation.
Fortunately, when I posed this question on Google Groups a friendly Microsoft MVP stepped in to provide this lovely free add-in you can download which sets default slide layouts.
Enjoy!
Good god! I just spent a long time trying to figure out how to solve this annoying problem, until google brought this page up. Thanks for the fix.
You’d think that a blank layout would be a default… the hours I’ve spent cursing microsoft, trying to turn off all the ‘helpful settings’ they always turn on… I’ve come to the conclusion that PowerPoint is a window into the mind of a bureaucrat. Everything is set up, so you can fit your life into their tidy, pre-formatted boxes.
Thanks so much for this! Like Brad and Anon I have been wanting this for a very long time, and finally had the sense to google for it.
The mvps website states “There no way to set a default layout to be used whenever a new slide is inserted into the presentation. The Set Default Layout add-in is specifically designed to tackle this annoyance.”… annoyance?! Unbelievable that Powerpoint has no obvious way to change the default. Yet more reason to use google docs!
AGGGGGGHHH!!!! Thanks for posting this. you saved me some time.
thanks heaps… that saves me so much time.
Thank you so much for posting this! I’ve always wanted the default slide to be set to Blank and now it’s finally happened! I’m using PowerPoint 2007 and was a little worried it wasn’t going to work but it does. :-)
It doesn’t work for me on 2003 Pro :-(
I just get an error “PowerPoint couldn’t load the add-in layout”
Any ideas?
@Damian: Really? Strange, because I activated the add-in with PPT 2003 during my testing… not sure what’s wrong in your instance. Thanks for the feedback anyhow
how yo download the layouts?
Hi cris – you can download the program to save whatever layouts you choose. Layouts are defined by you to suit your convenience.
Where do I find the Powerpoint Add-In for the default silde? There is a nice description but no download link.
Hi Don,
The link is in the post, but in case you still can’t find it:
Check out:
http://skp.mvps.org/setlayout.htm
Cheers
James
Wonderful!
Thank you.
Thank you for the solution to this problem.
I had to change the security level of the macros prior to installing the addin. tools->options->Security tab->Macro Security button->Set to Medium or Low
God bless you!
Thanks but how do I download this?
Hi, I can’t seem to get this recognized as a valid add-in by PowerPoint 2007. I changed the security trust center settings but didn’t help – when I browse to the add-in it won’t see it as an executable file. Any insights?
Thank you so much for posting this, it works a treat!
You are a savior!!! I’ve been bashing my head trying to find where the setting was. You just saved me from A LOT of headaches.
Thanks a million.
Thank you very much for your post.