Change the Font on All Slides Using Themes, Masters, Layouts or Replace Fonts
by Avantix Learning Team | Updated May 16, 2022
Applies to: Microsoft® PowerPoint® 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021 and 365 (Windows)
If you want to change the font on all slides in a PowerPoint presentation, there are 3 common strategies you can use – change the Document Theme or Font Theme, edit the Slide Master or associated layouts in Slide Master View, or use Replace Fonts.
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1. Change the font on all slides in a presentation by changing themes
The best way to change the font on all slides in a PowerPoint presentation is to change the Document Theme or Font Theme. Choosing the Document Theme or Font Theme when you first create a PowerPoint presentation is a good practice so it's easy to change themes later on. However, if users have manually changed the font on each slide, this will override the Document Theme or Font Theme.
The Document Theme includes a Color Theme, Font Theme, Effect Theme, and a Slide Master or masters with associated layouts. The best time to apply a theme is when you first create a presentation.
To change the font on all slides by changing the Document (or overall) Theme in the current PowerPoint presentation:
- In Normal View or Slide Sorter View, click the Design tab in the Ribbon.
- Click a theme in the Themes group. Click the More down arrow in the Themes gallery if you want to display more themes.
Below are Document Themes in the Design tab in PowerPoint:
The Font Theme contains a heading font and a body text font. The Heading font is used in Title placeholders and the Body font is used for all other placeholders, text boxes and shapes with text.
To change the font on all slides by changing the Font Theme in the current PowerPoint presentation:
- In Normal View or Slide Sorter View, click the Design tab in the Ribbon.
- In the Variants group, click the More down arrow.
- Select Fonts. A drop-down menu appears.
- Click a Font Theme.
Font Themes appear in the Variants area in PowerPoint as follows:
You can also create your own Font Theme.
To create a new Font Theme in the current PowerPoint presentation:
- In Normal View or Slide Sorter View, click the Design tab in the Ribbon.
- In the Variants group, click the More down arrow.
- Select Fonts.
- Click Customize Fonts. A dialog box appears.
- Click the arrow below Heading font and select the font you want to use.
- Click the arrow below Body font and select the font you want to use.
- In the Name box, type a name for the new Font Theme.
- Click Save.
You will be able to apply the custom Font Theme in the current presentation and other presentations. This theme will also appear in other programs such as Word or Excel.
If the font does not change when you change a theme, you can click Reset on the Home tab in the Ribbon in the Layouts group to reset the layout on the current slide. This may, however, cause the placeholders on the slide to move to their original positions and you may need to reposition those objects. Reset affects placeholders, not text boxes.
2. Change the font on slides in a presentation by changing the Slide Master or layouts in Slide Master View
Although it's best to change the font on all slides in a PowerPoint presentation by changing themes, you can also change the font on the Slide Master(s) or layouts.
If users have manually changed the font on each slide in Normal View, this will override the Slide Master or associated layout formatting that has been applied in Slide Master View.
To change the font on all slides by changing the Slide Master:
- Click the View tab in the Ribbon.
- In the Master Views group, click Slide Master. In Slide Master View, note the thumbnails that appear in the left pane. Typically, there are thumbnails for one Slide Master and associated layouts. The layouts "follow" the Slide Master (which appears with the number 1 to the left). If you hover over a layout thumbnail, a screen tip will appear with the name of the layout.
- On the left side of the screen, click the Slide Master to change the font on all slides or the desired layout (such as the Title and Content layout) to change the font on slides based on that layout. Here, we're assuming there is only one Slide Master.
- Select a placeholder in the area on the right side of the screen by clicking its edge.
- Click the Home tab in the Ribbon.
- In the Font group, choose a font from the Font drop-down menu.
- Repeat for other placeholders and layouts if necessary.
- To return to Normal View, click the Normal button on the bottom right of the screen.
In the following example, a Slide Master appears with associated layouts in Slide Master View:
If you change the font on individual layouts in Slide Master View, only slides using those layouts wil change. You can also change other elements such as font size, bullets, backgrounds and footers in Slide Master View. If the font does not change when you return to Normal View, you can click Reset on the Home tab in the Ribbon in the Layouts group to reset the layout on the current slide. This may, however, cause the placeholders on the slide to move to their original positions and you may need to reposition those objects. Reset affects placeholders, not text boxes, backgrounds applied to individual slides, and other inserted objects.
3. Change the font in a presentation using Replace Fonts
The last strategy to change the font on all slides in a presentation is to use Replace Fonts. This may be the best method if a presentation was converted from Google Slides.
To change the font on all slides in a PowerPoint presentation using Replace Fonts:
- Open the presentation with the fonts you want to change.
- In Normal View or Slide Sorter View, click the Home tab in the Ribbon.
- In the Editing group, click the down arrow to the right of Replace and then select Replace Fonts from the drop-down menu. A dialog box appears.
- In the Replace Font dialog box, in the Replace box, select the font that you want to replace from the drop-down menu.
- In the With box, select the font that you want to use from the drop-down menu.
- Click Replace.
- Click Close.
The Replace Font dialog box includes options to find and change fonts:
Replacing fonts is usually the best method to change fonts in text boxes (rather than placeholders) where users have manually changed the font.
This method may not work if a presentation was created in a different operating system (such as Mac OS) or is using a font that is not installed or available on your device. Using a "safe font" that is available in multiple operating systems will prevent common font problems.
It's best to try the first two methods to change the font in a presentation (and to use themes to change fonts, colors, and other design elements if you can) before using Replace Font.
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