Manage Course Templates

To help you stay on brand when creating new courses, you can add your own corporate Microsoft PowerPoint templates to the Template manager in the Course Designer or create a new template from scratch. All your teams can use the templates that you add to the Template manager.

Before you begin

  • If you plan to upload a PowerPoint template, have the file ready before you start. Large files may take several minutes to upload and process.
  • After you upload a file, you can edit it within the template manager.
  • If you are planning to create a template from scratch, ensure you have your branding guidelines at the ready.
  • After a template is published, it becomes available for use during course creation.

Design considerations

If you are designing a template from scratch, consider these best practices in design when building your template:

  • Keep the design simple, use clean, uncluttered layouts
  • Limit color palette to 3-5 colors
  • Use white space effectively
  • Avoid overly complex graphics
  • Prioritize readability by using high contrasting colors and standard fonts
  • Use placeholders for flexibility
  • Include your company logo on every slides
  • Use your company brand colors, fonts, and styling

Create a template using MS PowerPoint

To create a new template that uses an existing Microsoft PowerPoint file that already contains your preferred slide designs:

  1. From the Course Designer app, select to Create a new course or edit an existing one.
  2. From the Course Design Settings, select the edit icon next to Template in the Design Brief pane on the right. This opens the Template manager.
  3. Select Create template.
  4. Enter a template name.
  5. Select Create.
  1. Select Upload PPT.
  2. Choose your PowerPoint file. The file uploads.
  3. Make any adjustments to text and graphics. You can update text, images, icons, shapes, colors, alignment, size, and position directly in the editor.
  4. Select Publish template to make the template available for your courses.

Note: Imported PowerPoint templates may not match the original file exactly. Review the imported slides and make manual adjustments as needed before publishing.

Create a template from scratch

If you do not have a corporate template ready to upload, you can create on from scratch so all your courses maintain the same look and feel.

To create a template from scratch:

  1. From the Course Designer app, select to Create a new course or edit an existing one.
  2. From the Course Design Settings, select the edit icon next to Template in the Design Brief pane on the right. This opens the Template manager.
  3. Select Create template.
  4. Enter a template name.
  5. Select Create.

  1. Select Create new. The Template manager opens.

  2. Select Add > Add parent slide. This gives you the main slide of your template, the one that will be used most often to convey data.

  3. Add the elements you want to include on the slide. You can find all the elements under the drop down icons in the top navigation. You can add:

    • Custom text and text placeholders
    • Shapes
    • Images or image placeholders
    • Icons or icon placeholders

  4. After you add each element, you can adjust the placement, size, and formatting until the slide looks the way you want.

  5. If you need additional slide formats, you can add child slides as needed. Add and customize the text, shapes, images, icons, and placeholders as you did for the parent slide on the child slide.

  6. When the template is ready, select Publish template.

Note: Changes are saved automatically while you work. You do not need to select a separate save option before publishing.

Edit a template

If you are using a template that requires some changes, you can do that.

To edit a template:

  1. From the Course Designer app, select to Create a new course or edit an existing one.
  2. From the Course Design Settings, select the edit icon next to Template in the Design Brief pane on the right. This opens the Template manager.
  3. Locate the template you want to edit from the Published or In Progress tab and select to edit it. The editor window opens.
  4. Make any adjustments to the template. Add elements or adjust the placement, size, and formatting of existing ones until the slide looks the way you want.
  5. Select Publish.

Delete a template

If you have a template that is no longer relevant because of corporate brand or other changes, you can remove it so authors of courses cannot select it.

To delete a template:

  1. From the Course Designer app, select to Create a new course or edit an existing one.
  2. From the Course Design Settings, select the edit icon next to Template in the Design Brief pane on the right. This opens the Template manager.
  3. Locate the template you want to edit from the Published or In Progress tab and select to delete it.
  4. Confirm you want to delete the template. Existing courses created with the template continue to use the formatting of the template until you choose to update the course with a new template.