Confused about format>background and applying design templates.

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I am totally confused about format>background (black) and applying design
templates. Can someone help me understand what takes precedence - format >
background or design template?

(A) I applied default design template, then I did format background (black)
and applied a design template (X) which has a dark background with a vase of
yellow flowers on the bottom left corner. All I got was a plain neon yellow
slide, no vase nor flowers. Black + black = yellow? The flowers were yellow
but the vase wasn't.

(B) I applied default design template, then I applied a design template (Y)
which has a white background and three green apples on the bottom left
corner, then I did format > background (black), then I applied design
template (X) which has a dark background with a vase of yellow flowers. This
time I got a plain slide with a lighter black (compared to the black color I
used for format > background). Does the white background of the apple
template (Y) neutralize the black I used for format > background?

I am not concerned about mixing colors. I wonder why I lost all patterns in
(A) and (B). I really like to know the relationship between format >
background (black) and applying templates. How do they affect each other?
When I apply a new template, it overwrites the old one, right? When I did
format > background (black) in between applying the two templates, it acted
differently. Format > background (black) seems to have different effects on
different design templates - sometimes it hides the patterns while sometimes
it just changes the background to black.

Can someone help please?

Thanks.
 
Whether the design disappears depends on whether the design is a picture
background on the master or inserted as a normal picture. If its a normal
picture a new background will not erase it. Why adding a dark template to an
already black background gives yellow I dont know (I have seen it happen)
 
I don't blame you for being confused, Epinn, because it is indeed confusing.
I'm not sure I can explain it well, but I'll give it a shot.

Design templates are the "holder" for a collection of slide masters, and
slide masters are what your slides depend on for their formatting. Each
individual slide master (or combined slide master and title slide master)
can have a background (a picture or a color or a texture or a gradient or a
pattern) and a variety of color schemes to choose from. The slide master
will also have placeholders, the formatting of which determine the way text
on the slide is formatted if it's typed into a placeholder.

When you apply a design template to a slide, it inherits these
characteristics. But you can go in and tweak anything you wish. This is what
you're doing when you go in and use Format-->Background and change it to a
plain color. In fact, go to Format|Background. Notice that option in the
lower left corner? It says "omit background graphics from master." If you
don't check it, you'll get a new background color on the slide, but the
graphics (the logos, autoshapes, etc.) will still show on your slide. If you
do check it, then you'll get a blank background with the new color (or
picture or texture or gradient or pattern) you specified.

Based on your descriptions below, I suspect that you have that option
checked. For example, template X (dark background with vase of yellow
flowers) might have been created by going to View|Slide Master and placing a
picture on top of the master slide (which has a neon yellow background).
When you change your slide to that template, but you have "omit graphics
from master," then the image doesn't show up and you're left with the neon
yellow background color.

Either that, or the template wasn't created properly in the first place.
People often don't understand that they have to place graphical elements on
the slide master when creating a template, so they place the picture (or
whatever) on a regular slide and don't understand why it's not showing up
when they apply the template to different slides. Geetesh has good info here
on creating templates:
http://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/ppcreatemp.html And Sonia has
good info here:
http://www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/PowerPoint/create_template/index.html

Also, you don't have to do that middle step of formatting the slide
background to black before applying a different template to a slide.
 
Hi Echo,

Thank you for your post. Interesting you mentioned www.indezine.com. As a
matter of fact, my "vase of yellow flowers" template was downloaded from this
site. If you go to http://powerbacks.com/sampler_thumbs/inspire/thumbs.htm,
you will see #26. If you download the inspiration templates from the bottom
of http://powerbacks.com/pages/creative-inspirational.html, it will be #130
in the zip folder. I opened it, went to master view, copied it and pasted it
to my existing presentation.

I just realized from the master view that this template has two slide
masters (one with pattern and one blank) but no title master. More questions
than answers.

My green apple template was downloaded from

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC011408291033.aspx?CategoryID=CT011154451033

Here I have a title master and a slide master. The apples are bigger and in
the middle for the title master while they are smaller and at the lower left
bottom for the slide master. I didn't have to copy and paste; just applied
from the template folder after download.

By the way, I never checked the "omit graphics from master" checkbox. Still
confused.

Someone told me there is a connection between black and yellow based on the
color theory.

Is it fair to say that what can or cannot be done to a template depends on
how it was originally created?

Will read the links you have included.

Thanks.

Epinn

Echo S said:
I don't blame you for being confused, Epinn, because it is indeed confusing.
I'm not sure I can explain it well, but I'll give it a shot.

Design templates are the "holder" for a collection of slide masters, and
slide masters are what your slides depend on for their formatting. Each
individual slide master (or combined slide master and title slide master)
can have a background (a picture or a color or a texture or a gradient or a
pattern) and a variety of color schemes to choose from. The slide master
will also have placeholders, the formatting of which determine the way text
on the slide is formatted if it's typed into a placeholder.

When you apply a design template to a slide, it inherits these
characteristics. But you can go in and tweak anything you wish. This is what
you're doing when you go in and use Format-->Background and change it to a
plain color. In fact, go to Format|Background. Notice that option in the
lower left corner? It says "omit background graphics from master." If you
don't check it, you'll get a new background color on the slide, but the
graphics (the logos, autoshapes, etc.) will still show on your slide. If you
do check it, then you'll get a blank background with the new color (or
picture or texture or gradient or pattern) you specified.

Based on your descriptions below, I suspect that you have that option
checked. For example, template X (dark background with vase of yellow
flowers) might have been created by going to View|Slide Master and placing a
picture on top of the master slide (which has a neon yellow background).
When you change your slide to that template, but you have "omit graphics
from master," then the image doesn't show up and you're left with the neon
yellow background color.

Either that, or the template wasn't created properly in the first place.
People often don't understand that they have to place graphical elements on
the slide master when creating a template, so they place the picture (or
whatever) on a regular slide and don't understand why it's not showing up
when they apply the template to different slides. Geetesh has good info here
on creating templates:
http://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/ppcreatemp.html And Sonia has
good info here:
http://www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/PowerPoint/create_template/index.html

Also, you don't have to do that middle step of formatting the slide
background to black before applying a different template to a slide.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/
PPTLive! Sept 17-20, 2006 http://www.pptlive.com


Epinn said:
I am totally confused about format>background (black) and applying design
templates. Can someone help me understand what takes precedence - format
background or design template?

(A) I applied default design template, then I did format background
(black)
and applied a design template (X) which has a dark background with a vase
of
yellow flowers on the bottom left corner. All I got was a plain neon
yellow
slide, no vase nor flowers. Black + black = yellow? The flowers were
yellow
but the vase wasn't.

(B) I applied default design template, then I applied a design template
(Y)
which has a white background and three green apples on the bottom left
corner, then I did format > background (black), then I applied design
template (X) which has a dark background with a vase of yellow flowers.
This
time I got a plain slide with a lighter black (compared to the black color
I
used for format > background). Does the white background of the apple
template (Y) neutralize the black I used for format > background?

I am not concerned about mixing colors. I wonder why I lost all patterns
in
(A) and (B). I really like to know the relationship between format >
background (black) and applying templates. How do they affect each other?
When I apply a new template, it overwrites the old one, right? When I did
format > background (black) in between applying the two templates, it
acted
differently. Format > background (black) seems to have different effects
on
different design templates - sometimes it hides the patterns while
sometimes
it just changes the background to black.

Can someone help please?

Thanks.
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