Replacing that awful DEFAULT PowerPoint template…

…with your brand new PowerPoint template

It should be a simple procedure. Replace that awful white default template with your brand new PowerPoint template. Right? It used to be anyhow. All you had to do was save it as a template file and overwrite the “Default.pot” file. Trust me I’ve tried, it does not work in PowerPoint 2010.

For some reason, now you need to call it the “blank.potx” file.  But before you go for it, save a copy of that default somewhere on your system (I forgot to do it!). My own operating system is Windows 7, and this is PowerPoint 2010’s template folder location.

default location based on PPT version and operating system

To locate your own path to the default template folder, open any presentation and under the “save as” option, choose “PowerPoint template”. Right away, your software will send you to the proper folder. I just took a screen shot instead of writing it down. Navigate to that folder and copy Microsoft’s “blank.potx” somewhere for safekeeping.

Replacing it with your own

Open your brand new template, in PowerPoint 2010. Under the file menu, choose “save-as”, choose the file type “PowerPoint template”, you will notice the folder location change. Accept the template folder default location. Now rename the file “blank.potx” and click save.

Replacing the default PowerPoint template

Done!

So now when you open PowerPoint, you get your new template, right away!

Your new template will show up first try!

Thanks to Dénes for the topic query,
Francine