Templates and Themes

PowerPoint offers pre-built templates and themes. These presets consist of slide layouts, backgrounds, and styles such as font and colours. PowerPoint also includes a Designer tool that takes existing content and offers possible style and layout tweaks. Keep in mind, these presets and suggestions may not be accessible.

Who benefits from accessible templates and themes

A low-quality foundation results in inferior construction. Using an inaccessible template will create inaccessible slides. Save yourself time and energy by starting with an accessible base. Your viewers and readers will benefit as well.

How to ensure accessible templates and themes

When creating a new PowerPoint there are suggested templates and a search function.

Do not assume these presets are accessible. Even searching “accessible” will produce some themes that are poorly constructed with inaccessible layouts and colours.

When constructing a PowerPoint, the Design tab offers Themes and Variations. As with the top-level themes, do not assume these options are accessible. Many are not.

Designer

Once you have content on a slide, PowerPoint will offer the Designer tool. Designer will attempt to create layouts and styles based on the content you add.

As with Themes and Variations, do not assume what Designer creates is accessible. Use Designer with caution as the tool generally creates wildly variable and inconsistent styles and patterns between slides. While some variety is nice, consistent common elements are useful for clarity, building connections between concepts, and structuring the flow of information.

Instead of using pre-built templates, consider creating your own template or starting with blank slides. These methods will be discussed in later sections of this guide.

Double Check

If you want to use a template or theme, create one slide with all of the elements you intend to include and then use the Check Accessibility tool to check for errors.