While there are a number of ways to bring old slides into a new StarOffice template and ensure correct formatting, we’ll cover just those methods we’ve found to be the easiest, fastest and most reliable. First, we’ll explain how to copy and paste old slides into the new template. Then we’ll look at clean-up tasks you may need to perform on some of the slides.

Copy and paste

The fastest way to bring existing slides into any new template is to simply copy and paste slides from your OLD file into the NEW template file.

• Open the old file and go to the Slide Sorter (from the main menu, select View > Slide Sorter). Or you can simply click on the Slide Sorter tab in the top upper left of the StarOffice workspace.

 
 
 

• Select the slides you want to copy into the new template. To select all slides, type Ctrl + A  (hold down the Ctrl key and press the letter “A”). To select random slides, hold down the Ctrl key as you click on individual slides.
• Type Ctrl + C (from the menu, Edit > Copy) to copy the selected slides to the clipboard.
• Open the new template file and go to the Slide Sorter.
• Click on a slide to establish a paste location. Type Ctrl + V (from the menu, Edit > Paste) to paste the copied slides into the new file. If you see the following message, always select “Yes.”

• The pasted slides will format to the proper size and take on the attributes of the new template.
• Now, still in Slide Sorter view, delete all slides you will not be using.
• Return to Normal view (click on the Normal tab or just double-click on any slide in the Slide Sorter). Save your file.

Clean-up tasks

As you review your new file, you may find that some slides don’t look quite right or exactly match the template. This is not uncommon. Here are some of the steps you can take to fix formatting issues and ensure all of the old slides follow the new template.

Fix colors. If the new template uses a new color palette, you may have to recolor some of the slide objects, charts, and text.

Reapply slide design. Some slides may still retain the style of an old template. In this case, you may have to manually apply the new template. In the task pane window on the right side of your StarOffice workspace, click on the Master Pages tab. Select the slide master — text or title slide — that you wish to apply.

Reapply slide layouts. Sometimes title and text blocks may appear incorrect or out of position, even though the slide otherwise has the new template formatting. In the task pane, click on the Layouts tab and select the slide layout you wish to apply. There are many layout options but the four shown below are the ones used most often.

Correcting title and bullet text blocks. Even after the reapplying slide design and layouts, title or text blocks may occasionally appear incorrect or out of position. To fix, right mouse click on the text block and select “Default” from the drop-down menu. The text block will snap back into place at the correct font size. This technique will work only if the title and bullet text were based on master slide text blocks. NOTE: A text block may contain unique formatting to accommodate a graphic or extra text. In this case, you may not want to reapply default formatting.