How to change bulleting AND numbering in slide master: Powerpoint Office 365

Hi Joshua Major-Mincer,

Thanks for visiting Microsoft Community. 

In PowerPoint Office 365, you may indeed encounter some limitations directly in the interface when customizing bullet and numbering styles using slide masters. Unfortunately, PowerPoint itself does not support complex customization of bullets and numbering within the same placeholder in a slide master. The solutions provided here are intended to provide you with flexibility while recognizing the limitations of the software. For slides that require customization of bullets and numbers, manual adjustments or separate text boxes for each type may be required.

Keep experimenting with different layouts and manual adjustments to find the workflow that best suits your presentation needs.

However, there are workarounds and strategies you can employ to achieve the desired level of customization for bullets and numbers on the same slide template. Here's one approach that focuses on using slide masters effectively and some additional tips:

1. Accessing the Slide Master view.
   • Open PowerPoint and navigate to the View tab on the Ribbon.
   • Click Slide Master to access the Slide Master view.
2. Create custom layouts for bullets and numbering. Since you have problems applying custom bullets and numbering on the same master slide, the key is to create a dedicated layout under the slide master. You can focus one layout on the bullets and another on the numbered list. Here's how:
   • In Slide Master view, right-click on a slide thumbnail in the left pane and choose Insert Layout. This will create a new layout.
   • Repeat the process to create multiple layouts for different purposes (e.g., one for bullets and one for numbering).
3. Customizing Bullets and Numbering
   • Select the layout designed for bullets.
   • Insert a text box or select an existing placeholder.
   • Right-click on the text box or placeholder and select Bullets to customize the bullets (e.g. Bullets - Dashes - Squares).
   • To customize the numbering, select the layout used for the numbers and repeat the process, but this time, right-click and select Numbering and customize the numbering format (e.g., Numbers - Letters - Numbers).
4. Solutions for using both on the same slide
   • Option 1: Manual Adjustment - For slides where you need to customize the bullets and numbering, manually adjust the style of the bullets or numbering in the Normal view. This requires you to select the text box and then click the right mouse button to select the bullet or number style outside of the slide master.
   • Option 2: Customize Text Boxes - Another solution is to use separate text boxes for bulleted and numbered lists on the same slide. You can manually format one as a bulleted list and the other as a number as needed. This is not ideal for consistency, but provides flexibility.
5. Saving and Applying Custom Layouts
   • After customizing the layout, click Close Master View in the Slide Master tab.
   • To apply the layout, go to Normal view, select a slide, and then go to the Home tab. Click Layout to choose from custom layouts.

I hope the information I have provided is helpful.Please feel free to contact me if you need further assistance.

Best regards

Miyeon |Microsoft Community Support Specialist