A slide master is a slide that is used as the starting point for other slides. It is similar to a page style in Writer: it controls the basic formatting of all slides based on it. A slide show can have more than one slide master.

OOo uses three terms for this one concept. Master slide, slide master, and master page all refer to a slide which is used to create other slides. This book uses the term slide master, except when describing the user interface.

A slide master has a defined set of characteristics, including the background color, graphic, or gradient; objects (such as logos, decorative lines, and other graphics) in the background; headers and footers; placement and size of text frames; and the formatting of text.

All of the characteristics of slide masters are controlled by styles. The styles of any new slide you create are inherited from the slide master from which it was created. In other words, the styles of the slide master are available and applied to all slides created from that slide master. Changing a style in a slide master results in changes to all the slides based on that slide master; it is, however, possible to modify each individual slide without affecting the slide master.

Although it is highly recommended to use the slide masters whenever possible, there are occasions where manual changes are needed for a particular slide, for example to enlarge the chart area when the text and chart layout is used.

Slide masters have two types of styles associated with them: presentation styles and graphic styles. The pre-packaged presentation styles can be modified, but new presentation styles cannot be created. However, not only can the pre-packaged graphic styles be modified, but new graphic styles can also be created.