Received a client file earlier this month and had to troubleshoot some of the scrambled template setup to effectively work with the presentation. Note: this is the end of 2018 and the Master Slide name let’s me know this template was originally developed in 2011, 7 years ago, and still in use!
A humorous change to the template – at least I am assuming this was not as designed, is the layouts labelled “LEFT IMAGE” and “RIGHT IMAGE” now somehow have the image placeholders on the opposite side. So the SMALL TITLE, LEFT IMAGE has the image placeholder either deleted, or on the right…
A real PowerPoint template is a very powerful tool in helping a corporate team develop slides quickly, and stay within corporate brand standards. This template is an example, and reminder, that a good template – and in looking at the behind the scenes settings I can see this was developed as a mostly full featured template – can become a bad template over time/use. This is also a reminder that PowerPoint’s flexibility of allowing anyone to make template level updates, is also a detriment to file longevity as small changes, many unintentional, compound into a template that was once robust and now problematic to work with.
I highly recommend annual refreshes of corporate templates. This can be for feature, visual updates (ie. color scheme, font, logo, etc.), or even if there is no changes to the template, it assures a full feature, as-designed template is in circulation.
Troy @ TLC
