PPT 2007 allows you to create a variety of slide master layouts now — chart slide layouts, subtitle slide layouts, table slide layouts, picture slide layouts, whatever you want. And they provide a bunch of ’em for us, too.

In the new PPT-speak, a “slide master” governs a bunch of “slide layouts.” So you have a slide master and then an associated title slide layout, a title and content slide layout, a section header slide layout, a two content slide layout, and so on. The individual layouts will inherit their default settings from their parent slide master, and then you can go in and tweak the individual layouts as necessary.

Here’s how

1.View (ribbon) | Presentation Views (chunk) | Slide Master to open master view.

2. Choose Insert Layout.

3. A new layout appears below the slide layout you have selected.

4. If you selected the slide master (the larger master at the top of the layouts), your new slide layout will appear last on the list of layouts.