Presentation templates

PowerPoint and Google Slides are useful supporting tools to help you engage your audience, whether you’re talking about your research at an overseas conference, explaining one of our services to a local audience, or promoting our degree courses to potential students.

Select from the PowerPoint and Google Slides template options listed below. PowerPoint files will be downloaded if selected, whereas clicking on a Google Slide template link will allow you to make copy you can instantly start using. The templates are provided in two formats, depending on the aspect ratio of the screen you intend to present on.

Plain templates

• 4:3 PowerPoint (MS PowerPoint , 415kb)
• 16:9 PowerPoint (MS PowerPoint , 503kb)
• 4:3 Google Slides template
• 16:9 Google Slides template

When you have chosen and opened a template, you can insert and edit the content to suit your needs. The template theme can be imported into other presentations as required:

Google Slides: Once you have a copy of the brand template in your Google Drive area, open a new or older presentation, click 'Import theme', navigate to the template in your Google Drive folder and select it.

PowerPoint: Once you have a copy of the brand template downloaded to your computer, open a new or older presentation. On the Design tab, in the Themes group, click the drop-down arrow. Now click 'Browse for Themes'. A new window will open, where you can select the brand template.

You can install the new layouts as PowerPoint templates. If you are using PowerPoint for Mac, we recommend using the files above as needed, rather than saving the templates. 

• Right click > Save link as... on the links above.
• Navigate to your Templates folder. This is usually in My Documents\Applications\Microsoft\Templates.
• For the template to work, it needs to be saved with the extension .potx - you may find that your browser gives it a .ppt extension. Simply rename the file if this happens.
• Save the file.
• In PowerPoint, select File then New. The New Presentation Task Pane will come up on the right-hand side. From available templates and themes, select My templates. Select the template that you have downloaded to apply it to your presentation.

Stationery

University letterheads, business cards and compliments slips must follow official templates. Contact Design and Print Solutions.

For on-brand colours and headings in Google Docs, you can set your default styles using these instructions.

Certificates

Certificates for internal and external courses (unaccredited) must follow the official certificate template (MS Word , 1,701kb). Contact communications-support@york.ac.uk for guidance.

Poster template

You can create a simple poster or notice using the University branded poster template for A3 or A4 posters. It can be edited in the same way as any Microsoft Word document.

How to download and install

Functions will vary according to the version of Microsoft on your computer and whether you are using a Mac or a PC. These instructions are for Microsoft Word for PCs.

• Right click > Save link as... on the following link:
  • A4 poster template for Microsoft Word ( 2,340kb download)
  • A4 watermark poster template for Microsoft Word (MS Word , 2,466kb)
  • A3 Poster template for Microsoft Word ( 2,386kb download)

• Save it to your Templates folder. This is usually at w2k\Applications\Microsoft\Templates
• In Word, select File then New from Template. Select My templates and choose the poster template.  

Creating a simple poster

The placeholder fields in the template can be edited as follows:

• [Department name] Type in your department, service or office name here with a web address below, or just delete it if you want to keep the top of the notice clear.
• [Coloured rule] Right click on the thick rule to highlight it and then choose one of the theme colours which have been chosen to align with the corporate and accent colours in the brand guidelines.
• [A head] Insert a headline, heading or title here. If you want it to be in colour choose one of theme colours from the tool bar.
• [B head] Add a strapline, date or venue here.
• [Body text] Type a concise description of the event keeping to a maximum of 50 words.
• [Bullets] You might prefer to create the text as a bullet list. If not, delete.
• [Image] The image box is a just placeholder. To insert an image, right click in the box and go to Change image then select an image from your files. Resize your image by pulling the corner with the arrow tool which appears when you click on the box. Alternatively, just delete the box if you don’t want an image.

Save your document in the usual way or convert to a PDF, then print.