Duplicate Slide Masters in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

Duplicating a Slide Master is a little different than adding a new Slide Master from scratch. And it is a smarter option because you do not have to make the same changes all over again. Let's explain this with a scenario. Imagine you have formatted your existing Slide Master by applying a Background Style, adding a logo, or even adding your own Picture placeholder layout. And now you want a new Slide Master that's almost the same as your existing one, but you want a different Theme Colors set to be used. For such a small change, it is advisable that you duplicate your existing Slide Master and make the small changes instead of starting all over again with a new Slide Master.

Follow these steps to learn how you can duplicate your existing Slide Master in PowerPoint 2016:

1. Launch PowerPoint and open your presentation. Next, access the View tab of the Ribbon, and click the Slide Master button. This opens the Slide Master View, as shown in Figure 1. Here, within the pane on the left, you'll find the existing Slide Master with associated layouts and some formatting done (highlighted in red within Figure 1).
2. 
   Figure 1: Existing Slide Master
2. To duplicate the Slide Master, just right-click the Slide Master to bring up a contextual menu, and select Duplicate Slide Master option, as shown in Figure 2. You can also select your existing Slide Master, and press the Ctrl+D keyboard shortcut.
3. 
   Figure 2: Duplicate Slide Master option


PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts

Do you want more keyboard shortcuts?

Explore our PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts and Sequences Ebook that is updated for all PowerPoint versions.

3. This will create a duplicate of your existing Slide Master, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 3. Notice that this new Slide Master is numbered 2, since this is the second Slide Master of your presentation. For all other reasons, this is just like your previous Slide Master.
4. 
   Figure 3: Duplicate copy of Slide Master created
Tip: It's a good idea to provide a sensible name to your new Slide Master. Alternatively, PowerPoint will just prefix a number before the name of the Slide Master, as can be seen in Figure 3, above (highlighted in red). We explain how you can rename the Slide Master in our Add and Rename Slide Masters in PowerPoint 2016 tutorial.
4. Now you can make changes to the duplicated Slide Master so that it looks different than your existing Slide Master.
5. When done, click the Close Master View button on the Slide Master tab of the Ribbon (to locate the Close Master View button, refer to Figure 3 above). This will get you back to Normal View.
6. Save your presentation often.