Does this scenario sound familiar? You’re putting together a presentation and the content has come from different sources. Various colleagues within your organisation have used different templates, some are widescreen, some are the old standard 4×3. Some have Calibri as the main font, while others have the corporate font. Not to mention the colours which are also a mix of colours personally chosen by an individual rather than the colour palette as established by your branded template.
At Slidesho this is something we see daily and it’s a challenge faced by many businesses. It’s something that happens so often and to so many, that rather than focusing our Case Study on one specific organisation, we have decided to make this Case Study a non-branded or generic case study.
With that in mind, here is how we approach having to consoliate slides from multiple decks in the most efficient way:
1.Determine which template is the most current template to use. This template is hopefully in widescreen 16×9, it has the correct fonts and correct colours set up as well as a good selection of masters that offer a selection of layouts for the content.
2.Once you have decided on what template to use, it’s time to migrate the slides from the various decks and consolidate them into the chosen template. We like to go to the Slides Sorter view of the presentation and select all the slides that we need to migrate. We then copy them and paste them into the Slide Sorter view of the ‘new’ presentation. Be careful when doing so to select the option ‘Use Destination Theme’ rather than ‘Keep Source Formatting.’
3. After you’ve copied the slides from all the different decks into the ‘new’ presentation, go back into the Normal view. This next step involves going through the entire presentation, slide by slide, to assign the correct master to each slide. In some instances, the information will automatically re-format itself, in others, you will need to make some manual adjustments.
4. At this point, we focus on the headings, footers, and page numbering to ensure that every single item is consistent across every slide. If a slide is already on the correct master, try using the ‘reset’ button. This should automatically update your header for example into the correct font, point size and colour. This is where the importance of using a template comes into play. IF the template was used correctly previously (ie. with the original presentation) the migration process will be easier, and it may be a case of ‘resetting’ all the titles, footers, page numbers, etc. But if the template wasn’t used, this process will need to be done manually.
5. Now we need to shift our focus to the content itself. Again, this may need to be done manually. In some very limited cases the simple act of migrating the sides from the old to the new will be sufficient, but in most cases it won’t. This process is time consuming and will involve attention to detail to ensure that all the fonts, point sizes, lines, shapes, colours, etc are consistent throughout the entire presentation. We find that setting up margin guides is a very easy way to quickly align content so that it is consistent from slide to slide.
6. A great tool to use when formatting multiple items that require the same look is the Format Painter tool. If you have an asset on the slide that has the perfect font, colour, and spacing, etc. click on it. Then double click on the Format Painter tool. Now navigate across your deck and click on other assets you’d like to format in the exact same way. The Format Painter tool will replicate this for you and will save you hours of formatting work.
7. A note about migrating from the old standard size 4×3 to the new widescreen 16×9. Be sure to re-insert all images as the process of migrating slides from 4×3 to 16×9 automatically stretches all your images, including logos.
