The Apply Design Template Command Is Used to

In this article, you'll learn nine different ways to fix the new Designer feature in PowerPoint, if your Design Ideas command is not working (or greyed out).

While the Design Ideas feature can be extremely useful, it can also be frustrating when it suddenly doesn't work.

That's why understanding how to troubleshoot the Design Ideas command is a big step forward in learning how to best use it.But before you get lost in how to fix this new PowerPoint feature, let's first make sure you fully understand what the new feature is.

What is Design Ideas in PowerPoint?

The PowerPoint Design Ideascommand (orDesigner), is a new PowerPoint feature that generates slide layout ideas for you. The coolest thing about this feature is that it uses the content you already have to create fast PowerPoint backgrounds for you, which you can see in the video below.

As designing slide layouts is one of the biggest challenges people face in PowerPoint, Microsoft created this handy tool to help you out. High-five Microsoft!

As you can see in the picture above, the command gives you a variety of layout ideas based on the content of your slide. If you then click on a layout in the Design Ideas dialog box, that layout is applied to your slide as a slide background.

Terminology-wise, PowerPoint Designer is the same as the Design Ideas command. It can also be called the Designer Pane. I will be referring to these interchangeably throughout this article.

When it works, it can be great. When it doesn't work, it can be frustrating.  So let's look at how to quickly fix it.

[Watch] PowerPoint Designer NOT working

In addition to the 6 fixes discussed in the video above, I've included 3 additional fixes in the article below. I will also continue adding to this article, so I recommend bookmarking this page.

1. Microsoft Office 365 subscription only

If you do not have an annual Microsoft Office 365 subscription, you do not have access to the PowerPoint Design Ideas command.

That means that unless you purchase (or have access to) the latest version of Microsoft Office, you will not be given the automatic layout ideas for your slides. This is one reason why I highly recommend getting an Office 365 subscription (now called Microsoft 365).

To purchase your own Microsoft 365 license, see Microsoft's website here

2. Design Ideas requires internet access

TheDesign Ideas command is powered by what is called Office Intelligence Services.

That means that to generate new layout ideas for you, PowerPoint needs to have access to the internet.

If you are working offline or have a spotty internet connection, try troubleshooting your internet connection or find a better wifi zone.

To troubleshoot your internet connection in Windows 10, simply:

1. Right-click ​the Internet Access icon in your taskbar
2. Select Troubleshoot Problems
3. Follow the prompts to fix your internet

VPN Warning:Using aVirtual Private Netw ork (VPN)to access the internet will also disable the Design Ideas tab. As of right now, the Office Intelligent Services do not work with VPN connections.

So that is somethign else to check if Designer is not working for you.

3. Remove mixed shapes on your slide

PowerPoint Designer does not work with mixed shapes on your slide.

Consequently, if you add a shape, line, text box, ink or video to your slide, the Design Ideas command will likely not work. That's because it's designed to work with placeholders (editable elements set on the Slide Master) only.

So if yourDesigner is not working, double-check that you don't have any of these objects on your slide.

Alternatively, you can try copying and pasting your content on a blank slide to see if Design Ideas works there.

4. The 10-6-1-1-1 content rule

ThePowerPoint Design Ideas command can only generate slide layout ideas for certain types of PowerPoint objects and only a certain number of each of those objects.

PowerPoint Designer only works for up to 10 pictures, 6 icons, 1 SmartArt graphic, 1 table or 1 chart on a PowerPoint slide. I call this the 10-6-1-1-1 rule for PowerPoint Designer.

Additionally, you cannot mix and match any of these shapes on a slide forDesignerto work.

Notice in the picture below how theDesign Ideascommand works for 10 pictures on the slide, giving you a variety of layout ideas on the right.

But as soon as you add an 11th picture,Designerdoesn't work anymore.

Depending on the size of your picture, sometimes you can only sneak 6 pictures on a slide too before Designerstops working.

So that's another reason why yourDesign Ideas might not be working: You're either not using the right type of content, or you're using too many objects on your slide for it to properly work.

On another picture note, if you are using lots of pictures in your presentation, you might need to compress your images to reduce your PowerPoint file size. To learn how to compress images in PowerPoint, read our guide here.

Note:If you use SmartArt to crop your images, or fill a shape with a picture to make it transparent, theDesign Ideas command will also not work. That is because PowerPoint considers your image as a shape, rather than a picture.

To learn how to make an image transparent in PowerPoint, read our guide here.

5. Change your PowerPoint layout

PowerPointDesigner only generates design ideas for the 6 default slide layouts that come with PowerPoint. These 6 slide layouts include:

1. Title Slide
2. Title and Content
3. Section Header
4. Two Content
5. Title Only
6. Picture with Caption

If you are using a custom PowerPoint layout or tweak one of these default PowerPoint slide layouts on your Slide Master,Design Ideas will not work.

To expand your knowledge and learn how to set up (and design) new slide layouts for your templates without Designer, read our guide here.

To change your PowerPoint layout to one of the 6 layouts that work, simply:

1. Be active on the slide layout you want to change
2. Navigate to the Home tab
3. Open the Layout drop-down
4. Select one of the 6 default PowerPoint layouts

If you select one of the 6 default PowerPoint layouts andDesignerstill doesn't work for you, you'll want to double-check your content. See Fix #3 and Fix #4.

Note: If you add an extra placeholder to one of the default 6 PowerPoint layouts on the Slide Master, that is the same as creating your own custom slide layout.

The PowerPointDesign Ideas command does not work with custom slide layouts. Therefore, make sure you don't add placeholders to your slide layouts if you wantDesignerto work for that type of slide.

If you think you are using the right type of content, you can always copy and paste it into a blank presentation to see if that fixes the issue.

6. Set Design Ideas to automatically pop up

If the Design Ideas command is working for your colleague but not for you, it's probably related to this setting.

That's because you can choose to use theDesign Ideas command in one of two ways:

1. Have it automatically pop up whenever it has layout ideas for you
2. Only open when you select it in your Ribbon

To have Design Ideas automatically pop up for you in PowerPoint, simply:

1. Navigate to the File tab
2. Select Options
3. Navigate to the General tab
4. In the PowerPoint Designer group, select Automatically show me design ideas
5. ClickOK

With this feature active, any time thatDesignercan give you layouts ideas based on the content on your slide, it will pop open.

In addition, checking theAutomatically show me design ideas gives you a second option to show you suggestions for the entire presentation.

With this option selected, when you start a brand new presentation, Design Ideas will give you what appears to be the usual layout ideas for your one slide.

However, when you choose one of those layouts, Designer will then apply an entire theme to your presentation. Furthermore, that same style will be applied to all your slide layout options.

The theme includes slide layouts in the Slide Master, a font combination, and color palette. To learn more about PowerPoint themes, read our guide here.

Note: You don't have to haveDesign Ideasset to automatically show up to useDesignerin PowerPoint.

At any time you can open theDesigner Pane for a specific slide. To do that, simply:

1. Navigate to the Design tab
2. Click theDesign Ideas command

Whether or not your see layout ideas for your slide will again depend on your content, your layout, and other factors as discussed in this article.

7. Check your PowerPoint file type

PowerPointDesign Ideasdoes not work with the following two PowerPoint file types:

1. PowerPoint Macro-Enabled Presentation (.pptm)
2. PowerPoint 2003 to 2007 Presentation (.ppt)

While you can save your presentations this way, theDesign Ideas tab will not work in those types of presentations. It will simply appear grayed out.

To fix this, all you need to do is save your presentation in the PowerPoint .pptx file format.

To save your presentation in the PowerPoint Presentation file format, simply:

1. Hit Ctrl + Shift + S (or F12) on your keyboard
2. Navigate to where you want to save your file
3. Change the Save as Type to PowerPoint Presentation
4. ClickSave

If you were previously using a Macro-Enabled or 2003 to 2007 presentation, you should now find that theDesign Ideas works again.

8. Look out for multiple PowerPoint collaborators

If you are collaborating on the same slide with one or more people,Designerwill not displayDesign Ideas. This is true for you or any of the other collaborators.

As soon as you are the only person working on your slide again, theDesign Ideascommand will open itself back up.

9. Have your company turn Design Ideas on

If you have the latest Microsoft Office 365 subscription at your office and you don't see the Designer group in yourDesigntab, it's likely that your company has turned the feature off.

TheOffice Intelligence Services is something that an IT administrator can turn off within your company. Therefore, if nothing else in this post works and you believe you have an Office 365 subscription, double-check with the IT department in your company.

Final Thoughts on Designer

That's 9 different ways to fix yourPowerPoint Design Ideascommand if it is not working.

Assuming you have a Microsoft Office 365 subscription and your company has not turned this feature off, the main thing to remember is to check your content and your layouts.

IfDesigneris not working, it can almost always be traced back to one of these two things.

However, as you can see above, there are a number of other issues you might face, so it's good to know how to troubleshootDesignerwhen it's not working.

If you enjoyed this article, you can learn more about our PowerPoint training courses and other presentation resources by visiting us here.

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The Apply Design Template Command Is Used to

Source: https://nutsandboltsspeedtraining.com/powerpoint-tutorials/powerpoint-design-ideas-not-working/

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