Themes are
applied to slide masters to create the background, color, font, and
effect formatting for a presentation. Some themes are built into
PowerPoint, and you can also create and save your own themes as separate
files and apply them to other presentations or even to other Office
documents, such as in Word and Excel. In this section you learn how to
create new themes, manage theme files, and apply themes across multiple
presentations.
1. Creating a New Theme
To create a new theme, first
format a slide master exactly the way you want, including any custom
layouts, backgrounds, colors, and font themes. Then save the slide
master's formatting as a new theme by following these steps:
On the Slide Master or the Design tab, click Themes, and click Save Current Theme. The Save Current Theme dialog box opens.
The default location shown in the Save Current Theme dialog box under Windows Vista or Windows 7 is C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\Document Themes.
For Windows XP, it is C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates\Document Themes.
Type a name for the theme file in the File Name text box.
Click Save. The new theme is saved to your hard disk.
The new theme is now available
from the Themes button's menu in all presentations you create while
logged in as the same user on the same PC. All of its formatting is
available, including any custom color or font themes it includes. You
can use it in other programs too; in Word or Excel, choose Page Layout => Themes in one of those programs.
2. Renaming a Theme
You can rename a theme
file by renaming the .thmx file from Windows Explorer, outside of
PowerPoint. You can also rename a theme file from inside PowerPoint by
using any dialog box that saves or opens files. For example, to use the
Choose Theme or Themed Document dialog box to rename a theme, follow
these steps:
From
the Design or Slide Master tab, click Themes, and choose Browse for
Themes. The Choose Theme or Themed Document dialog box opens.
Navigate to the folder containing the theme file to rename.
By default, theme files are stored under Windows Vista or Windows 7 in: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\Document Themes.
For Windows XP, it is C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates\Document Themes.
Right-click the theme file and choose Rename.
Type the new name for the theme and press Enter.
Click Cancel to close the dialog box.
3. Deleting a Theme
A custom theme file continues
appearing on the Themes gallery indefinitely. If you want to remove it
from there, you must delete it from the Document Themes folder, or move
it to some other location for storage. To delete a theme, follow these
steps:
From
the Design or Slide Master tab, click Themes, and choose Browse for
Themes. The Choose Theme or Themed Document dialog box opens.
Navigate to the folder containing the theme files:
In Windows Vista or Windows 7: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\Document Themes.
In Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates\Document Themes.
Right-click the theme file and choose Delete.
At the Delete File confirmation box, click Yes.
Click Cancel to close the dialog box.
4. Copying a Theme from Another Presentation
A presentation file
"contains" themes, in that the themes are applied to its slide masters.
(That's how a template contains themes too.) You
can preserve a slide master in Slide Master view so that it doesn't get
deleted automatically when there are no slides based on it; by creating
new slide masters, applying themes to them, and then preserving them,
you can create a whole library of themes in a single presentation or
template file. Then to make this library of themes available in another
presentation, you simply base the new presentation on that existing
presentation (or template).
However, if you did not
initially base the new presentation on the template or presentation that
contains the theme you want, you can apply the theme from it after the
fact. One way to do this is to copy and paste (or drag and drop) the
slide master from one file's Slide Master view to the other's.
Follow these steps to copy a slide master (and thereby copy its theme) to another presentation:
In the presentation that contains the theme, enter Slide Master view (View => Slide Master).
Select the slide master (top slide in the left pane) and press Ctrl+C to copy it.
Switch to the other presentation (View => Switch Windows).
Enter Slide Master view (View => Slide Master).
Press Ctrl+V to paste the slide master (and its associated theme and layouts).
