Master Slide Not Working?

[timmy t]

Hi,
I am reviewing PowerPoint documents that my students submitted for a grade.
One of the things that they have to do on the PowerPoint assignment is to
change the font of the title slide ON the master slide. (I know that there
are other ways to make the change, but this is to see if they can use the
master slide.)

I have PowerPoint 2003 as part of the Student/Teacher edition of Microsoft
Office. Unfortunately, when I am viewing my student's work (regardless of
whether they used 2003 or 2007 versions of the product), the font on the
Master Slide is different than the font on the actual slides. So, for
example, if the font on the Master Slide is 40, it will appear in a smaller
font on the actual slides.

I tried manipulating their work and tested many font changes to the Master
Slide view. However, although this function works fine on the documents I
create from scratch, there is always a difference like I described above on
the documents that I did not create.

Does anyone know what might be causing this problem? I would appreciate any
help you can offer.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I have PowerPoint 2003 as part of the Student/Teacher edition of Microsoft
Office. Unfortunately, when I am viewing my student's work (regardless of
whether they used 2003 or 2007 versions of the product), the font on the
Master Slide is different than the font on the actual slides. So, for
example, if the font on the Master Slide is 40, it will appear in a smaller
font on the actual slides.

If they've selected the text on the actual slides and changed the font
formatting, that'll override whatever's set on the master, even if the master
changes.

You could try re-applying the slide layout (might have to do it several times).

 

[timmy t]

Thanks, Steve. Excuse my ignorance, but how do you "reapply" the slide
layout? I thought that simply making the changes in the master slide and
saving the master slide would result in the changes being incorporated in the
regular slides. Am I missign something?

 

[CyberTaz]

In addition to Steve's thought, PPt 2007 uses a default Text Box setting of
"Shrink text on overflow", so if you type more content than the
placeholder/text box is sized to hold the font size is automatically scaled
down to fit. I can't remember whether 2003 did the same by default or not.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

In addition to Steve's thought, PPt 2007 uses a default Text Box setting of
"Shrink text on overflow", so if you type more content than the
placeholder/text box is sized to hold the font size is automatically scaled
down to fit. I can't remember whether 2003 did the same by default or not.

Ah, GOOD one. IIRC, this does happen by default.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Thanks, Steve. Excuse my ignorance, but how do you "reapply" the slide
layout? I thought that simply making the changes in the master slide and
saving the master slide would result in the changes being incorporated in the
regular slides.

Normally, yes. But as I mentioned, if the user's formatted placeholder text on
individual slides, PPT takes that to mean "I don't care what's on the master; I
want it like THIS". So that formatting takes precendence over master formatting.

To reapply, you'd choose Format, Slide Layout.
The Layout task pane appears to the right with the current layout outlined in blue.
Hover the mouse over the current layout, click the downarrow that appears and
choose Reapply Layout.

As I say, you might have to do it a time or two.

 

[CyberTaz]

Ah, GOOD one. IIRC, this does happen by default.

Yeah... I grab a brass ring every now & then

 

[timmy t]

Thanks for your help with this!

In addition to Steve's thought, PPt 2007 uses a default Text Box setting of
"Shrink text on overflow", so if you type more content than the
placeholder/text box is sized to hold the font size is automatically scaled
down to fit. I can't remember whether 2003 did the same by default or not.

 

[timmy t]

Wonderful! I appreciate your help!

Have a good day!

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Wonderful! I appreciate your help!

Have a good day!

You're very welcome and you too. In that order. ;-)

 

[timmy t]

Hello again,

I am putting this note here and am going to ask Steve to look at it also.

I have noticed when working with my students, that when they change the font
style in the master slide the change appears in their work. However, when
they change the font size, the size of the font in their regular slides is
different than on the master slide.

I understand your point about the font size changing automatically as a
result of the number of words in the box. So I removed words from my
student's work so that the text did not exceed the space and we still had a
problem.

Any thoughts?

 

[timmy t]

Hi Steve,

Can you take a look at the note I just put in the thread below?

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I have noticed when working with my students, that when they change the font
style in the master slide the change appears in their work. However, when
they change the font size, the size of the font in their regular slides is
different than on the master slide.

This can also happen if they've selected the text on the slide and changed the
size directly. Re-applying the layout should force it to follow the master
again.

I understand your point about the font size changing automatically as a
result of the number of words in the box. So I removed words from my
student's work so that the text did not exceed the space and we still had a
problem.

Keep in mind that Autofit is an application-wide setting, not a per presentation
one. This leads to something that you might be seeing:

If AutoFit was turned on in the student's copy of PPT, the fonts would shrink to
fit.

If it's turned off on your copy of PPT, removing text wouldn't un-shrink the
text (but if you turn Autofit on, the text should increase in size as you remove
excess text ... IF Autofit caused it to shrink in the first place).