The PowerPoint® Blog

Adding slides from one presentation into another and hoping for a button that will automatically format the slides the way needed is just not a feature in PowerPoint. But, the almost magical “Destination vs. Source Formatting” button does exist. For this tutorial, we are going to add slides from the “Blue” presentation (Presentation #1) to the “Purple” presentation (Presentation #2) and make all of the slides the same, so they are all purple.

Here is our “blue” presentation (#1):

And here is our “purple” presentation (#2):

Select the slides from Presentation #1 and copy. The paste them into Presentation #2. To paste in the new slides, right-click and in the pop-up menu in the “Paste Options” sections select “Use Destination Theme:”

With the USE DESTINATION THEME option, the template for the new slides is assigned to the template used on the slide in front of the insert point. So now all of the blue slides are changed to the purple template.

*Note: There is no “magic” button and with this example the text boxes, background, colors used, etc. were all setup correctly using the template formatting (which also means it is a real template). When updating to the new (purple) template all of the master slide formatting carries over just fine. But there are lots of times when things are not based on template formatting and need to be manually updated (ie. no magic format button).

– Troy @ TLC

I have used this technique on some recent projects that we designed dynamic background art for. The idea uses a simple feature that is used little and creates really dynamic graphic elements that are amazingly easy to use. Here is my sample slide with a dynamic background (thanks to Amber for creating this sample slide and tutorial images).

1. Add a PPT shape of your choice, I am using a standard rectangle. Set it as the background (FORMAT >> BACKGROUND >> PICTURE).

2. Set the PPT shape to “No outline,” solid color fill and no styling.

3. With the shape selected, go to FORMAT >> open the shape options by clicking the small icon in lower right >> under FILL >> SLIDE BACKGROUND FILL (last option).

4. NOTE: The shape has now disappeared with only the shape selection lines visible.

5. What you do here determines the look you create. I am using 3D perspective and some styling options. Select the shape.
– Add 3D Rotation (we are starting the “Perspective Relaxed” preset).

– Add a 3D Format for a bevel effect (Circle bevel with the width at 7pt and height at 8pt).

6. Now we see the interesting effect when the background fill is combined with some shape styling.

7. To really create a dynamic visual the next step is to select the shape and modify the 3-D Rotation perspective to 120 degrees.

8. With the new 3D formatting we can really see the effect of the background fill in the shape.

9. To create a full Title Slide layout, the shape was enlarged for more depth and stretched across the slide. Then duplicated, reduced in size and moved under the subtitle text box. The background fill automatically adjusts to the new placement on the background to create new looks for the same shape

Click here to download the sample slide.

– Troy @ TLC