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New theme does not apply correctly in PowerPoint 2010, i.e. logo from old theme remains

Anonymous
2015-10-21T10:41:10+00:00

I create new templates all the time. All version (2007-2016). Sometimes I create themes from temeplates, sometimes not. Usually themes changing work just fine fonts, backgrounds, pictures and colors change as they should. But recently difficulties have appeared. When I have i.e. logos in master, they stay put when I change theme. Also layouts duplicate when I change theme, although their name is the same. So I have Title Slide and 1_Title Slide with old layout.

I noticed that MS default themes work just fine. So what am I doing wrong when creating a template (and theme later on)? Does it make difference if I have picture (.png / .jpg) in master slide or drawing? I works better if my changes are on layout master but it is annoying and file size consuming to insert logo to every layout master.

Thanks for your help.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-10-21T11:55:09+00:00

    When you add an image / shape to a master or layout then under the hood in the XML PPT marks that shape as 'userDrawn= "1" '

    In many circumstances when you apply a new template this is interpreted as "They drew it so they must want to keepit!" This is why you can get duplicates. Also because there may now be layouts with the same name that differ it can create "layout_1" files.

    There's no way to turn this off in the GUI you would have to edit the XML in a good XML editor to remove userDrawn=1 or set it to 0.

    If you are a bit daring we have a prototype app to kill the userDrawn attribute in potx files but it was only meant for in house use and isn't bug free and doesn't have a proper GUI! If you want to give it a shot email me john ATSIGNpptalchemy.co.uk. If you just need evidence it works send me a potx that duplicates logos and I will run the app on it for you to check out

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-10-22T14:43:43+00:00

    If ppt thinks there are duplicate layout names that differ then you can get copies generated.

    To the best of my knowledge it isn't possible to not generate the userDrawn attribute (which is why we wrote the program to auto kill all instances)

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-10-22T07:47:25+00:00

    Ok. I found those and made some success with themes changing correctly. Big thanks to you. Still layouts duplicate and keep on hanging. Could it happen because of the language of the contents in layout master vary? There is also attribute (are they attributes) named preserve=1 although I don't have preserve on in master slide.

    Now the next issue is that how do I create templates and themes without that userDrawn=1.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-10-21T12:56:09+00:00

    Depending on where the shape is inserted:

    Either

    PPT\slideMasters\slideMastery.xml

    OR

    PPT\slideLayouts\slideLayouty.xml

    Where y is the index

    I guess you already know this but XML is very unforgiving of errors. Make sure you work on a COPY.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-10-21T12:48:01+00:00

    Thanks, but no thanks. It's not possible to use unknown apps in our environment.

    But I could try to edit the XML behind. Would  you happen to know which xml-file it writes the userDrawn. There's quite a few of them. I have worked with xml earlier when thumbnail picture wasn't correct so I have some experience. Do you know if there is any books or articles about xml behind?

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