If you create presentations as part of your job, your presentations will follow your company’s style guide and use your company’s colors, fonts, and logo. You could change a PowerPoint design template every time you create a new presentation. But what if you still need to be consistent? The answer is to create a new default theme template. With your own template, your custom formatting is front and center every time you open PowerPoint.
The instructions in this article apply to PowerPoint 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010; PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 and PowerPoint for Mac.
Save original default template
Before making any changes, make a copy of the original default template.
For PowerPoint for Windows
Open PowerPoint and create a new presentation using the blank presentation template.
Choose dossier > Save as.
Choose What a computer.
Enter a new name for the original template.
Choose Save as Arrow down and select PowerPoint template (*.potx) or PowerPoint Template 97-2003 (*.pot).
Choose To protect.
For PowerPoint for Mac
Open PowerPoint.
Choose dossier > Save as a template.
In which file format choose PowerPoint Template (.potx) or PowerPoint 97-2003 (.pot).
- The location changes to the folder where PowerPoint saves its templates. Don’t change this location, or PowerPoint won’t know where to look for the file when you want to use it again.
- The original default design template is called a blank presentation. Name the file old blank presentationor something similar. PowerPoint appends the file extension .POTX (.POT) to the file so it knows it is a template file and not a presentation file (.PPTX or .PPT).
- Close the folder.
Create your new default presentation
As you design your new default template, make changes to the slide master and title master so that each new slide in your presentation incorporates the new functionality.
Open a new, blank PowerPoint presentation, or if you’ve already created a presentation with most of the options already formatted the way you want, open that presentation.
Before making any changes, save the file with a different name and as a template. Choose dossier > Save as. Select on a Mac dossier > Save as a template.
Change the file type to PowerPoint Template (*.potx) or PowerPoint Template 97-2003 (*.pot).
In which filename Text box, type blank presentation.
Make any desired changes to this new blank presentation template. For example :
Save the file when finished.
The next time you open PowerPoint and select the blank presentation, you’ll see your formatting in the new blank presentation template. You can now start adding your content.
Back to the original default template
In the future, you may want to go back to using PowerPoint’s default white and light template. When installing PowerPoint, if you did not change the location of the files during installation, the necessary files are in the following locations, depending on your operating system:
- Windows 7 : C:Documents and SettingsUsernameApplication DataMicrosoftTemplates. (Replace “username” in the file path with your own username). Application Data is a hidden folder; Make sure hidden files are visible.
- Windows 10: C:UserUsernameDocumentsTemplates of the customs office.
- Mac OS X 8 or higher: /Users/username/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/User Content/Templates.
- Mac OS X 7: The library is hidden by default. To view the folder library in the file viewfinderchoose Go to and hold the button OPPORTUNITY.
Rename the newly created template.
Rename the original PowerPoint template to empty presentation.potx. (or .pot)