Slide Master is a PowerPoint feature that lets you make a single change that automatically applies to every slide in your deck.

What is Slide Master?

Think of Slide Master as the "parent" slide for your presentation. Any change you make there applies to every slide that uses it. The slides listed below the master in the left panel are individual layouts — editing those applies changes to only slides using that specific layout.

For a deeper dive, check out Microsoft's Slide Master training page.

How to use Slide Master

1. Open your PowerPoint presentation and click the View tab in the ribbon.

2. Click Slide Master.

3. In the left panel, click the top slide (also the largest one) to edit the master. Changes here apply to all slides. Click a layout below to make changes to only that layout type.

4. Make your changes.

5. When you're finished, click Close Slide Master in the ribbon to return to the normal editing view.

Your updates will now appear across every slide in the presentation.

TIP: If a change from Slide Master isn't showing up on a specific slide, that slide may have been formatted individually, which can override the master. Right-click the slide thumbnail and select Reset Slide to reapply the master formatting.