Set Default Layout

Set Default Layout is a Microsoft PowerPoint add-in that you can use to specify the initial layout when creating a new presentation from scratch or inserting new slides.

It's practical if you frequently work with a favorite template, so you don't have to go through the repetitive task of starting a project with a blank presentation and then opening a bunch of menus just to apply the same layout.

The downloaded package contains a single .ppa file that you can double-click to open in Microsoft PowerPoint right away. If prompted by a security notice window at startup (on newer PowerPoint editions which see this add-in as a potential security concern), make sure to click the Enable Macros button.

Afterward, you can go to the Add-ins tab in the ribbon bar, find the Toolbar Commands area, click the menu next to Default, then select your favorite layout between title, text, two-column text, table, text and chart, chart and text, organization chart, chart, text and clipart, clipart and text, or title only.

Other layouts that you can set as default are blank, text and object, object and text, large object, object, text and media clip, media clip and text, object over text, text over object, text and two objects, two objects and text, two objects over text, title with four objects, vertical text, clip art and vertical text, vertical title and text, vertical title and text over chart, two objects, title, object and two objects, as well as title, two objects and object.

The changes are immediately applied after picking one of the layouts, so you don't have to press any buttons. To pick a new default layout, you can go through the same steps. To check and see if the modifications were successful, open a new empty presentation.

To sum it up, Set Default Layout delivers a straightforward solution for setting the initial layout to start all empty presentations with. We tested it on Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 and it worked smoothly.