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Aim: I want to be able to change the footer of a presentation (e.g. the name of the presentation or the name of the speaker). I do not want to edit each single slide on its own.

Procedure: I would imagine this should be possible using the slide master. And indeed: adding for example a logo to the slide master (tab View --> Slide master) will include it on all existing slides.

Problem: Each time I change the header or footer in the slide master, nothing happens to the existing slides. Of course, all new slides now include the header and footer, but not the old ones. What could be the reason for this? Is there any way to "push" the new format.

Bad workaround: One way of solving that is to create new slides and then copy all text content from the old slides over. That is not very effective, however...copying everything by hand is an unattractive task.

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I've been mucking around with inserting and removing footers on masters, layouts and slides. It is very confusing and nothing updates properly.

Simple workaround:

  • remove footers everywhere (masters, layouts and slides)
  • forget about them
  • insert normal textboxes on the master slide in the footer area
  • you can insert fields in these textboxes via insert, then date/time or slide number
  • format as required

This new footer WILL properly propagate to all slides.

It will be fixed there and cannot be changed on the slides (as desired). Only one spot to update the footer => master slide (as desired).

It will show up on the title slides though. If you want to avoid it there, you should remove the fixed footer from the master and copy it to the desired layouts under the master slide.

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I suggest editting to the Header&Footer won't be applied through the slide master. Instead use Header & Footer under the Insert tab (see picture); This sould edit all slides: new and old. That is if you only want to change the text within it. In any case you want to change formatting, i.e. font, size, color, etc. You should apply it through the slide master. Changes are being applied to all slides, but you should change all Layouts, or those that are in use in your presentation. Apply changes through the Insert tab

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Headers/Footers got badly broken when PPT 2007 came out and haven't been fixed since. Considering what you're trying to accomplish, there's no real reason to use PPT's own headers/footers. Instead, add a normal text box to the slide master and, if necessary, to any of the slide layouts beneath it. Likewise a graphic representing your logo.

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