Create your own templates

PPTools
Shape Styles brings the power of styles to PowerPoint. Apply complex formatting with a single click
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FixLinks prevents broken links when you distribute PowerPoint presentations
Optimizer saves disk space and bandwidth, shrinks your PowerPoint presentations to the right size for email, screenshow or printing
PPT2HTML gives you full control of PowerPoint HTML output, helps meet Section 508 accessibility requirements
Prep4PDF preserves interactivity in PowerPoint presentations when you convert to PDF
Image Export converts PowerPoint slides to JPG, PNG, GIF, WMF and more

See these tutorials at Indezine:

Creating PowerPoint Templates

PowerPoint Template Links

And if you use PowerPoint 2003, Microsoft has a Template Creation Wizard that might be the kindest, gentlest way to get started making your own.

Where should I store templates?

Whether you create your own templates or receive them from elsewhere, you need to store them where PowerPoint can find them.

If you use Windows Vista and PPT 2007, put them here:

C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates
(substitute your user name for [Your User Name] above, of course)

On WinXP and PPT 2003, use:

C:\Documents and Settings\]Your User Name]\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates

And generally, if you open the template file in PowerPoint then choose File, Save As and choose Template from the "Save as Type:" list, PowerPoint will automatically choose the correct template folder for you.

This will make the templates appear in "My Templates" or "New From Existing" when you choose File | New in PPT 2007.

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