(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

Slide templates come in handy to let you keep and reuse everything that you’ve added to your project. Sounds interesting? Let’s explore how to create and use slide templates in ActivePresenter 9. 

In the previous articles, you’ve learned how to create and use themes. ActivePresenter 9 also supports slide templates (also templates). Basically, a slide template consists of all the slide contents in a project such as annotation and interaction objects, animations, events – actions, you name it. This feature comes in handy to let you make use of ready-made slide layouts and contents. Moreover, you can even share slides with your friends in a matter of clicks. 

Here is the procedure to work with slide templates in ActivePresenter 9:

First of all, give ActivePresenter a try and practice with us.

Download ActivePresenter

Create Slide Templates 

Save Projects as Slide Templates

Creating slide templates is just a breeze in ActivePresenter 9. First of all, create your own project as normal. In case you have any created project, you can also convert it into a slide template. Follow the steps below to save a project as a slide template:

Step 1: Open a project.

Step 2: Perform one of the following:

  • Press CTRL+S.
  • Click ActivePresenter > Save or Save As….  

Then, select ActivePresenter Slide Template (*.apslide) in the Save as type list. 

save project as slide template

Step 3: Navigate to the location where you want to save the file and click Save

Normally, your file is saved in (C:\Users\<user_name>\Documents\ActivePresenter Templates (for Windows) or /Users/<user_name>/Documents/ActivePresenter Templates (for macOS)).

By this way, your slide template will appear in the Custom section in Start Page and Import from Slide Template dialog. For example, if you saved a slide template called “Education”, it’s shown in the Custom section like this:

Custom section in Start Page

Note: If you saved the project in other folders on your computer, just copy the file and paste it into the ActivePresenter Templates folder. Thanks to that, the app shows the file in these two locations.

Edit Slide Templates

After saving projects as slide templates, it is possible to edit them. Do any of the following:

  • Click the ActivePresenter button > Open Project > Select a .apslide file from your file system. 
  • Click Open in the Start Page > Select a .apslide file from your file system.
  • Right-click the slide template in the Custom section > Edit This Template.
  • Click the template > Select Edit This Template in the Preview dialog.

Then, you can edit the slide template as you do with a normal project.

Use Slide Templates 

In general, there are two ways to reuse slides in a slide template. Firstly, create a new project based on that slide template. Secondly, insert slides from it into the working project. We will learn how to use both of these ways right now.

Create Projects from Slide Templates

Let’s say you want to create a new project based on the “Education” slide template. Perform these steps below:

Step 1: In the Start Page > Templates > Custom > click the Education template thumbnail. Then, the Preview dialog appears like this.

preview slide template

As can be seen, you can:

  • Create a templated-based project. ActivePresenter 9 offers you four options: Blank Project, Record Screen as Video, Record Interactive Simulation, and Responsive Project.
  • Edit Edit icon or Delete Delete icon the template.
  • See slides in the selected slide template. To do that, click Previous Previous button or Next Next button .
  • See other slide templates. To do that, click Previous Item Previous Item or Next Item Next Item.

Step 2: Click one of the four options above to create a new project. For example, if you click Blank Project, the app then brings you to the editor, and this is what you get.

create project from slide template

From here, you can edit your project the same way you normally do.

Insert Slides from Slide Templates

Instead of creating projects from slide templates, now, you can insert slides from a slide template into the current project. Here’s how:

Step 1: Select the location you want to add a new slide.

Step 2: Do either of the following:

  • In the Home tab > New Slide New Slide icon > Slides from Template….
  • In the Insert tab > New Slide Creating and Using Slide Templates > Slides from Template….
Insert Slides from Slide Templates

Then, the Import Slides from Template dialog pops up:

Import slides from template dialog

This dialog offers some options as described below:

  • Click the Template drop-down button (1) to see all available slide templates. Select any of them, then all slides in a slide template are shown in the Slides section (2).
  • Click the Zoom button to zoom in/out slides in the Slides section.
  • Click Select All or Deselect All to select/deselect all of the slides.

Step 3: Double-click a slide or select one slide > Insert Slide. Then, the selected slide is displayed at your desired position.

Share Slide Templates 

With ActivePresenter 9, after creating slide templates, you can share them with others in minutes. To do that, just send the .apslide files to your co-workers. Make sure that they save received slide templates in the ActivePresenter Templates folder. 

Now, you’ve known how to create and use slide templates in ActivePresenter 9. Try to do these tasks with the techniques above. Don’t forget to follow our Twitter, Tutorials page, and YouTube channel for getting new information. 

Related articles:

Save and Use Custom Themes
Work with Theme Colors
Work with Theme Fonts
Use Preset Background Styles
Work with Slide Masters