Hello, does anyone here have any advice on creating PowerPoint Templates that actually work as intended and aren’t messed up via the end user? I have been tasked with creating numerous templates over the last year and no matter how hard I try to keep things simple, and minimal, and bulletproof it just seems like the end user dumps over the entire thing and I can’t seem to figure out how to actually create a Powerpoint template than is anything more than a template in name.
At the end of the day, template or not, you can’t stop users from using clipart, or skewing pictures, or using their own fonts, etc. You can provide them a well crafted template, but at the end of the day making it bulletproof is impossible. It is more time consuming, but the best way to improve the end result it to provide dozens of slide templates for every possible use case that the template might be used for. That way the end user would (hopefully) be more inclined to pick from an existing slide template rather than try to cobble something together.
What? Seriously? Clients making a mess?
It happens. For that matter, it’s the norm for any project in which the end-user can change things—websites, style and branding guidelines, and, of course, PowerPoint.
First, they timidly wade into increasingly chaotic capitalization. Then comes the gratuitous bolding, quickly followed by combining the two.
Next, they discover how to change the size of the type based on which words they want to emphasize. They highlight the most important text by making it bright red or yellow, followed by numerous exclamation points.
Within a short while, weird typefaces appear like the beginning stages of chicken pox. You try to avert your eyes when the squished and stretched logos begin to appear, typically surrounded by closely cropped white boxes. It’s like a train wreck; you can’t help but look on in horror.
What can you do about this client-caused decay?
It helps to remember the old aphorism, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” “You can’t fix stupid!” is also worth remembering. Finally, repeating the words “They’re getting what they deserved” and “I’m laughing all the way to the bank” as meditative mantras help soothe the anxiety. When it comes right down to it, “Take the money and run.”
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I’ve never looked to see what they’ve done with a template after I gave it to them. I just assume they butcher it.
People learns to drive - but not everybody obeys the rules of the road.
Some people don’t even learn to drive, don’t have a license and still get behind the wheel.
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… and a lot of them live here.
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If you’re a professional graphic designer, why in the world would you ever want to work in Power Point?
It is not always by choice. As an inhouse designer I have had to work on PowerPoint templates and <> Word templates. Thankfully at my current job that doesn’t happen very often.
First, getting paid is a big part, of course.
Second, PowerPoint (and Keynote) are simple and functional, and it’s challenging to do something interesting within the tight constraints.
Most people associate PowerPoint presentations with less-than-attractive presentations put together by people with little design ability. However, a good designer can use PowerPoint’s limited tools to produce appealing, attention-getting, and effective results that can take an otherwise dull presentation and make it visually exciting and memorable (which makes for very happy clients).
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I don’t think the original poster was advocating for using PowerPoint as a production tool. I’ve worked on branding projects in the past where a PowerPoint template with the client’s new logo, brand colors, brand fonts, etc. was requested as part of the deliverables.
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If I remember correctly there is a way to at least lock the master pages.
Ppt is a pain. What customers do with it too.
Once in a while a customer asks me to clean up the mess they made out of my template.
If they asked me to do the changes right away it would’ve been less expensive.
I always wish I could make them understand that Ppt for presentation needs different content than Ppt for email.
Maybe I’ll ask them to do Webpages instead of Ppt per email.
Okay. I understand. Things have changed since I last tried to use Power Point it seems.