As an administrator, you can edit PowerPoint templates available in UpSlide within the Templates dropdown. This article outlines how to access and save edited templates within UpSlide.
Accessing the template manager
On the UpSlide toolbar, in the Templates dropdown menu, you will find Manage Templates button at the bottom of the templates list.
Click Manage Templates to open a window which allows you to:
- Manage the template name and order of appearance in the template list.
- Set or change which template opens by default when a user opens PowerPoint.
- Edit a template, create a new one or publish modifications.
- Change who can access a given templates through user groups.
Templates with a lightning bolt before their names are Proposal Wizard templates. The rest are regular UpSlide templates with a table of contents automation.
Managing the template list
Renaming a template
To rename a template, select the three dots next to its name and click Rename. You can also add a short description that will be visible in the Templates dropdown menu when hovering your mouse over the template.
Reordering templates
When hovering over a template, the row will turn grey, and arrows will appear, allowing you to move the template up or down in the dropdown order.
Setting a default template
Setting an UpSlide default template defines which set of slides will open when a user launches PowerPoint or presses Ctrl + N to open a new presentation. To set a template as default, click the three dots next to your template's name and click Set as default.
The default template is identified by the (default) mention in the Manage Templates window and in the Templates dropdown menu in the UpSlide ribbon. We recommend ordering it at the top of the templates list for clarity using the method described above.
If PowerPoint's start menu shows when launching the application instead of your default UpSlide template, you can deactivate it by going to File > Options. Navigate to the bottom of the General tab to untick Show the Start screen when this application starts.
Editing and creating templates
To edit a template, click the three dots next to its name and click Edit. A file will open for you to make changes. This is a .potx file that you can save to apply your changes to your machine only.
Make sure you close the .potx file when you want to publish your changes to your team. Otherwise, you will get an error message.
You can make two sets of changes to your template: editing the default slides and editing the Slide Master.
Default slides
When opening a template from UpSlide, a number of slides open by default. For example, you can choose to have your UpSlide presentation open with a title slide, a table of content slide, a content layout and a closing slide with a disclaimer.
If you want to edit the default slides that appear when opening a new presentation, make the modifications to the UpSlideTemplate.potx as you would for a regular presentation, save and change.
Slide Master
The Slide Master contains a presentation's fonts, colour palette, and list of layouts available. If your company's branding changes and you wish to update it or have more layout variations available, go to the View tab and click Slide Master once in the UpSlideTemplate.potx.
Creating a new template
You can add a template to your templates list based on an existing presentation. If you click Create from presentation in the Manage template window, UpSlide will create a new UpSlideTemplate.potx from the currently active presentation.
You can then update your template and create a table of contents with every UpSlide automation available. To learn more about setting this up, we recommend reading the series of articles titled Table of Contents automation starting from this article.
If you want to make significant changes and are having trouble, don't hesitate to reach out to your UpSlide contact, to help you achieve your goal. If you're not sure who your UpSlide contact is please email support@upslide.net.
Exporting your changes to your users
Any modifications made will only be available on your machine until you publish the changes. We encourage you to test your templates before publishing to avoid any issues.
Follow the instructions on this page to export the .UpSlide file so everyone has the updated templates.
Reverting changes
If you made a mistake when editing your templates, you can revert back to the latest version published instead of trying to put everything back in place manually.
Go to Manage Templates, click the three dots next to your template and select Restore last version.
Restricting access to templates
If your teams use different templates, you can manage content in order only to show relevant content to the relevant team. To learn more about this feature, read the dedicated article here.