Keep your presentation on-brand with Copilot

Overview of the Starter Template

Microsoft has developed a Copilot PowerPoint starter template optimized for use with Copilot. This template follows best practices and includes recommended layouts, ensuring that Copilot can generate high-quality slides that align with your organization's branding and content needs.

Microsoft’s Copilot-ready starter template:

Follows best practices for readability and visual appeal
Includes a variety of layouts for different content types (text-only, image + text, cover slides, etc.)
Uses descriptive layout names so Copilot can identify and select the right format
Features clear placeholder sizes and positions to ensure content fits well

You can download the template here: Announcement blog post at TechCommunity. (scroll all the way to the bottom to find the link)

Adding your organization's branding

Customize your template by editing in Slide Master view to ensure consistent branding across all layouts:

Logo, Colors, Fonts – Add them to the Slide Master so they are inherited by all layouts.
Theme Fonts & Colors – Set theme fonts/colors in Slide Master view so placeholders automatically adopt them.
Decorative Elements – Add shapes, lines, watermarks, or backgrounds that reflect your brand identity.

To learn more about working in Slide Master view, see What is a slide master?

Tip: Make sure design elements don’t overlap with text/image placeholders to preserve legibility.

You can add variety by duplicating layouts and making small adjustments (e.g., mirroring an image placeholder to the opposite side).

Working in Slide Master view to design your template

How to access:

PowerPoint Desktop → View tab → Slide Master (in Master Views section)

Slide Master 2

Hierarchy:

There is a hierarchy of slides. The topmost slide is the Slide Master. Any elements or slide level definitions on the Slide Master will be inherited by the slides below it, known as Slide Layouts.

A screenshot that shows the Slide Master and Slide Layout in Slide Master View of PowerPoint.

Important: You can use a PowerPoint template to create a presentation on any platform, but templates must be created in PowerPoint for Windows or Mac (not Web).

Layout naming in Copilot

We recommend keeping the starter template's layout names, whenever possible - they are optimized for Copilot. If changes are necessary, ensure the new names reflect the slide's purpose and follow these examples:

Slide type	Recommended layout names
Title	Title slide Cover Title
Agenda	Agenda Agenda slide
Section	Section Divider Transition Chapter
Content	Content Text
Conclusion	Conclusion Closing End slide Summary

Recommendations:

Ensure each slide type has at least one corresponding layout.
To help Copilot decide to exclude a layout, rename the layout to avoid using recognized keywords (it will still be available to a user in your organization).

How Copilot Selects Layouts

Currently Copilot supports five slide types: Title, Agenda, Content, Section, Conclusion. Selection is based on:

Layout name
Placeholder type and size

The more variety in your template, the more dynamic the Copilot output.

An image showing the layouts Copilot needs

Using your updated template with Copilot

Save your template as a .potx file
Open it in PowerPoint.
Click the Copilot icon > Replace this presentation
Create your presentation.

Create a presentation with on-brand images from your company

Copilot can now use on-brand images from your company's digital asset manager (DAM) to create presentations. Copilot currently supports accessing images stored on Microsoft organizational asset libraries (OALs).

Important: This feature became available to the general public in June 2025.

To use on-brand images only, you must select Images from my organization's brand library setting. The default is using Images from the Microsoft 365 content library.

You can also select Images from both Microsoft 365 and your organization to ask Copilot to prioritize using on-brand images and having Microsoft 365 images as backup.

Image setting in Narrative Builder that contains three options. User can choose between images from Microsoft M365 content library, images from your organization content library, or both.

Image Source Labels in Speaker Notes

The image source will be indicated in the speaker notes. For Microsoft 365 images, the notation will be Microsoft Content Library. Images sourced from your company will be labeled as (YourCompanyName) Brand Library.

How to set up Copilot to use your on-brand images

Interested in having Copilot automatically select suitable brand images from your SharePoint OAL (as shown above) or from Templafy? Set up steps coming soon.

How to make your template default for Copilot

Upload the template to your Template OAL.
It will appear in PowerPoint’s Backstage View as the default for “Blank Presentation.”
Copilot will use it for all generated presentations.

Additional tips for best Copilot output

Consolidate slide masters – Keep all layouts under one master
Include core layouts – Title, Agenda, Section, Content, Conclusion
Provide placeholder variety – Different size placeholders allow for the content to fit appropriately
Remove subtitle placeholders – Copilot does not fill these
Use correct placeholder types – Title layouts need a Title placeholder and a Text placeholder in the Slide Master
Avoid overlapping elements – Keep placeholders & graphics separate
Mark decorative elements – Use Accessibility Checker → Mark as Decorative so Copilot leaves them in place
Adjust title font size – 40pt for longer titles or 65pt for short, concise ones

A Note on Multiple Masters

Copilot only uses layouts from one slide master.

If your template has multiple masters (e.g., for different color palettes), we recommend consolidating them into a single master to maximize flexibility, Copilot will mix and match them. Alternatively, create a template for each of the masters.

Learn more

Create a new presentation with Copilot in PowerPoint