Presentation Templates

Macabacus for PowerPoint includes several powerful tools that automate and simplify the process of creating professional, high quality presentations that conform to your organization's design standard or branding guidelines. Use this "presentation automation" functionality to dynamically synchronize agendas (e.g., tables of contents) with sections in a presentation, mark multiple slides at once with a customizable stamp (e.g., "CONFIDENTIAL"), create new presentations pre-populated with slides you know you will need, and more. These tools are discussed in detail elsewhere in this documentation.

At the center of Macabacus' presentation automation functionality is your presentation template—a standard .potx file—specially configured to work with these tools. Macabacus installs with a sample template used to demonstrate the functionality of these presentation automation tools and proper configuration of a Macabacus-enabled template. The sample template is good a starting point if you are building a presentation template from scratch. If you already have a presentation template that you want to use with Macabacus, you must enable it to work with Macabacus' presentation automation tools using the instructions below, or we can perform this customization for you for an additional fee.

You probably will not require more than a single presentation template, but Macabacus can work with as many as you like. For example, larger organizations might require a different template for each business unit. Or, you might need one template designed for print and another designed for screen.

A Macabacus-enabled presentation template is comprised of up to eight "special" layouts that work with certain presentation automation tools, and a handful of traditional "content" layouts—by default, any layout not explicitly designated as special. Content layouts suggest general layout possibilities for slides that communicate the key messages of a presentation, while special layouts are used to create purpose-built, generally static, structural slides that are the focus of presentation automation.

MasterShapes are defined on your Macabacus-enabled template's slide master and used to implement other presentation automation functionality (e.g., slide stamps). See this section of the documentation for more on MasterShapes.

Styles are defined on your Macabacus-enabled template's slide master. See this section of the documentation for more on styles.

If you are creating a presentation template from scratch, consider using the sample template that installs with Macabacus as your starting point and make formatting and layout adjustments as required. If you are configuring an existing template to work with Macabacus, spend a little time understanding how the sample template works in order to learn what layouts and shapes should be included in your template. Ensure that your template is complete, including all desired layouts, formatting, etc., before configuring it for Macabacus to minimize the chance that subsequent changes to your template "break" the configuration. Your completed template should include a handful of content layouts and some "special" layouts that serve specific purposes, such as a title page, flysheet, etc.

The following are general recommendations for creating PowerPoint templates, and are neither specific to nor required by Macabacus:

• Keep dynamic content out of your template layouts because, in theory, you should not have to modify your template once configured unless you undertake a corporate rebranding or need to update legal notices, for example. Dynamic content should instead appear on slides based on these layouts. Use Macabacus libraries for managing dynamic content, not templates.
• Include one "title-only" layout that serves as a blank canvas allowing users to create slides with free-form content, unbound by the constraints of PowerPoint placeholders.
• Name layouts in a way that intuitively describes their form or function, since layout names are visible in some native interfaces.

With your completed, pre-configuration presentation template open in PowerPoint, open the Template Wizard (accessed from the Macabacus > Settings menu) to guide you through the subsequent steps. If you created your template using the sample that installs with Macabacus as your starting point, then you may want to proceed directly to the Validate tab in Template Wizard to see if your template is already valid or, if not, what issues should be addressed for your template to validate.

On the Layouts tab in Template Wizard, ensure that each layout's name intuitively describes its form or function, as layout names are visible in some native and Macabacus interfaces. You can edit layout names directly on the Layouts tab, or using native PowerPoint functionality. If you rename a layout using native PowerPoint functionality, click the Refresh button in Template Wizard for the new name to appear.

Use the Layouts tab in the Template Wizard to designate non-content layouts in your template that serve specific purposes (described above), and which must be explicitly identified for some presentation automation tools to work.

• Agenda — The agenda layout actually serves two functions: it is used for the table of contents slide, and for flysheets when a presentation's flysheet style is set to "Agenda."
• Section Divider — The section divider layout is used for flysheets when a presentation's flysheet style is set to "Topic." Although the section divider layout only appears in a presentation if its flysheet style is set to "Topic," the bullet formatting (described below) on this layout determines the section numbering/lettering convention shown on slides based on the agenda layout. Therefore, you must include the section divider layout in your template to work with agendas, even if you do not use slides based on this layout in your presentations.
• Legal Notices — The legal notices layout is commonly used for required disclosures and disclaimers. To prevent end users from manipulating text on legal notices slides, set the body text of the slide directly in its layout in Slide Master view (as demonstrated in the sample template that installs with Macabacus).
• Intentionally Blank Slide — The intentionally blank layout supports duplex (double-sided) printing. For example, inserting intentionally blank slides before flysheets can ensure that flysheets are always printed on the front of pages. Include text such as "This page intentionally left blank" in the middle of the slide's layout in a textbox—not placeholder—to prevent editing. The intentionally blank slide's layout must not include a slide number placeholder shape to ensure consistency in numbering between duplex-printed presentations and onscreen presentations.

Use the Agenda tab in the Template Wizard to designate shapes in your template as "special" shapes. Special shapes must be explicitly identified for some Macabacus features to work, and include:

Agenda Shapes

The agenda layout (in Slide Master view) should contain several hidden shape groups comprised of textboxes or AutoShapes (but not placeholders) containing placeholder text for section/subsection numbers, section/subsection names (i.e., topics), and slide numbers. This is best explained by examining a live example, so open the sample template that installs with Macabacus. With the sample template's agenda layout selected in Slide Master view, open PowerPoint's Selection Pane from the Home tab (or key Alt+F10 ). You should see five hidden shape groups in the Selection Pane, as described below. Unhide them.

Next, note the bracketed placeholder text in each grouped shape, which tells Macabacus what purpose each shape serves:

Once you have positioned and formatted your agenda shapes in Slide Master view in your own template, ensure that you:

• Group shapes as shown in the sample template. Each group should contain a single section letter/number, topic, and slide number textbox (slide numbers are not required, but recommended);
• Use the exact grouped shape naming convention as shown above (e.g., "Agenda Level 1");
• Use the exact bracketed text shown above to denote shape function (e.g., "[#]"); and
• Hide the agenda shape groups before leaving Slide Master view.

Section Topic Placeholder

The section divider layout must contain one text placeholder shape with numbered bullets at indent levels 1 and 2. This placeholder is populated with section/subsection topics when updating the agenda, if the presentation's flysheet style is set to "Topic." The bullet style used in this placeholder shape determines the numbering convention that Macabacus uses when creating the agenda, even if the section divider slide itself is not used within your presentation (i.e., flysheet style is set to "Agenda").

Keep in mind that the first content (non-special) layout in your template is the layout Macabacus uses when you create a new single-slide presentation, also known as a "rider," when clicking the Macabacus > New > New Slide button. Therefore, the first content layout in your template should be a simple layout intended for general use, rather than a purpose-specific layout.

Add MasterShapes and style shapes to your template's slide master, if desired. The MasterShapes & Styles tab in the Template Wizard summarizes all MasterShapes and styles defined on your slide master for easy review.

When you have configured your template as described above, proceed to the Validate tab in the Template Wizard to verify the integrity of your Macabacus-enabled template. Macabacus performs numerous checks to ensure that your template is properly configured, and will provide warnings or errors when any problems are found. Errors must be addressed in order for the template to work properly, and warnings should be given appropriate consideration.

After your work in Slide Master view is complete, switch to Normal view. Insert any slides that you want to appear by default in new presentations created from your template. These can be content slides (although per the recommendation above you'll generally want to avoid dynamic content), as well as special slides (i.e., slides created from special layouts) like a title page, flysheets, legal notices, etc. Note that prior to v9.4.0, slides in your template were ignored, so this step applies only if you are using v9.4.0 or later.

After configuring your template, publish it to a library in the Library Manager dialog, accessed from the Macabacus > Settings menu, by clicking the Publish to Group button in a presentation template content group.

If you want Macabacus to use the default template and pre-populate slides/sections for new presentations created natively in PowerPoint, then check the "Use default template for all new presentations" box in the PowerPoint > Native Overrides section of the Settings dialog. With this feature enabled, a new Macabacus-enabled presentation will be created upon (a) starting PowerPoint, (b) keying the native Ctrl+N  shortcut, and (c) clicking the native New  button in Backstage view, rather than a default presentation with a single blank slide.

_{This documentation refers to the latest Macabacus version. Some features and descriptions of these features may not apply to older versions of Macabacus. Update your Macabacus software to take advantage of the latest features.}