http://www.microsoft.com/TechNet/desk/office/reskit/orkf/ch04f.htm (PC Press Internet CD, 03/1996)PowerPoint architecture consists of three layers: the application, a template, and the presentation. The application provides the default user interface for creating presentations: menus, commands, toolbars, and tools. Templates provide a model for creating new presentations, and contain master slides. Master slides govern the default look of every slide in a particular presentation. The presentation file contains the master information, as well as the presentation content, including text, graphics, formatting, multimedia content, and settings such as slide setup and view settings for that particular presentation.
The application layer in PowerPoint provides the default settings for users to create presentations. Unlike other Office applications, such as Word and Microsoft Excel, users cannot modify the PowerPoint application with macros or Visual Basic modules.
As in Microsoft Excel, users can customize their toolbar settings. And, as in all Office applications, users can set preferences in the Options dialog box. These settings are stored in the Windows Registry. For information on PowerPoint entries in the Windows Registry, see Appendix B, "Registry Keys and Values."
Document ContentsThe key to understanding PowerPoint architecture is understanding PowerPoint templates. PowerPoint has two kinds of templates:
Presentation templates are presentations that serve as a pattern for creating new presentations. By basing many presentations on a single presentation template, users can quickly create standard presentations with consistent formatting, graphic elements, and standard text.
For example, a standard company presentation template can save users time by including the company logo, providing a standard slide structure, providing layout for speakers notes and handouts, and providing the basic slide design using standard company colors, fonts, and boilerplate text. With part of the work already done for them, users simply fill in the specific information.
Presentation templates can provide the following:
These templates are available to users when they specify Start A New Document on the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar, or when they click New on the PowerPoint File menu. By default, these templates are .pot files stored in \Msoffice\Templates \Presentations. When users run the AutoContent Wizard, they are accessing these templates.
Design templates contain no textual content and no actual slides. Rather, they supply the look of the presentation. They are what is known as Templates in PowerPoint 4.0. Typically, design templates control the color scheme, font selection, bullet style, and overall look of the slides in a presentation.
Design templates consist of master elements only, as defined on the Slide Master and the Title Master. Users can edit design templates, by opening them directly and using Slide Master view. Slide and Title masters are discussed later in this chapter.
These templates are available to users when they click Apply Design Template on the Format menu. When applied to existing presentations, the master elements in the new design template replace the master elements in the presentation. Design templates are .pot files stored in \Msoffice\Templates\Presentation Designs.
In PowerPoint, all presentations are based on a template. When a user creates a new presentation, it initially has the characteristics of the selected presentation or design template. Users can create a new presentation in several ways.
If the user |
Available templates are |
|---|---|
Clicks New on the File menu in PowerPoint |
All presentation and design templates in \Msoffice\Templates folder and subfolders. |
Clicks Start A New Document on the Office Shortcut Bar |
All Office templates as defined in the User and Workgroup templates locations for the Office Shortcut Bar. PowerPoint presentation templates are on the Presentations tab. Design templates are on the Presentation Designs tab. |
Clicks the New button on the Standard toolbar in PowerPoint |
Blank design template. The New dialog box does not appear. |
The default blank design template is Blank Presentation.pot, which contains default settings for layout, font, and color scheme. Because it is a design template and not a presentation template, it contains no text, only placeholders for text and graphics.
Users can modify a presentation at any time by applying a different design template to an open presentation. The Apply Design Template dialog box allows users to apply a presentation template or a design template to an open presentation. When users apply a presentation template, it is only the master elements that are copied to the presentation. Any text or graphics in the presentation template are not copied.
The master elements defined for slides in a presentation are known collectively as the Slide Master. Users can also define a second type of master, the Title Master, whose default settings are a copy of the Slide Master. Design templates are specialized templates in that they contain only master elements.
A Slide Master is the main master for a presentation. Users can edit Slide Masters in master view to control the default placement and style of elements on every slide of the presentation. When users create their presentation, however, they can choose which master elements a slide adheres to or deviates from, and these slides will be exceptions to the master. Slides that are exceptions to the master are not updated if the user defines a new master or applies a new design template.
A Title Master is another kind of master that users can define for their presentations. This allows for two consistent yet independent looks in a presentation: one for title slides (opening slide, section dividers, and ending slide, for example), and one for slides that make up the body of the presentation. By default, the characteristics of the Title Master are based on the characteristics of the Slide Master. Users can edit these characteristics by modifying a title slide in Title Master view.
The Blank Presentation.pot design template has only a Slide Master defined. Users can create a customized, unique Title Master based on the Slide Master by clicking New Title Master. All other design templates contain both Slide and Title masters.
When users create a new presentation that is based only on a design template, PowerPoint displays the New Slide dialog box, where users choose an AutoLayout for the first slide in their presentation. AutoLayouts are predefined slide layouts that users can apply to any slide in their presentation. The default AutoLayout for the first slide is the Title Slide layout, as shown in the following example.
Throughout a presentation, slides that have the Title Slide AutoLayout applied to them are identified as title slides, and their default characteristics are those of the Title Master, which users can modify separately from the Slide Master.
Users can also define masters for handouts and for speaker's notes. Design templates do not affect the look of Handout and Notes masters. These masters are stored with the presentation file.
The Outline Master, which was available in PowerPoint 4, has been removed for PowerPoint 7.0. Printed outlines follow the format of the Handout Master.
The presentation layer is comparable to the document layer of Word. When users create a presentation, all the content and settings associated with the presentation template and design template are copied to the presentation file. For example, changes to a Slide Master in a presentation based on a design template affect the active presentation only, not the design template file. Presentation files store Slide and Title masters, as well as all content that is an exception to the master slides. The presentation file also stores Handout Masters and Notes Masters.
PowerPoint stores presentation files with the file extension .ppt.
Document ContentsA slide in a presentation may seem to have many influences converging upon it: presentation templates, design templates, Slide Masters, Title Masters, and layout that a user has specified for a particular slide. In the case of conflicting settings, the setting closest to the slide takes precedence. For example, if a slide's Slide Master is formatted with text in the Arial font on a blue background, but the user specified Times Roman text on a red background for this slide, the user's specifications take precedence over the Slide Master. PowerPoint resolves conflicts in the following order:
There are two ways PowerPoint creates a new presentation:
In this case, PowerPoint copies all information from the Design Template including Slide and Title master information to the presentation file. From that point on, everything that is added to or modified in the presentation is stored in the presentation file. Changes to the master elements do not affect the Design Template.
In this case, PowerPoint copies all information from the presentation template, including text, graphics, and custom layout, as well as masters for slides, handouts, and notes, to the new presentation file. All modifications are stored in the presentation file. Changes to boilerplate text, master elements, or any other properties of the file do not affect the presentation template.
PowerPoint stores settings such as slide sizing and the page orientation of slides, notes, handouts, and outlines with the presentation file. A new presentation based on this presentation inherits these settings. These settings are the default settings for the layout of a presentation. Users specify them by clicking Slide Setup on the File menu.
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