Edit yearbook theme

The ability to Edit theme of a new or pre-made template will help create a uniform look throughout the yearbook, a unique Google Slides presentation, or an assignment template like the Style Guide shared earlier on this section.

The Theme slide controls the font type, size, and page number of the Title, subtitle, and body text. We use placeholders for images and text.  Format options include the ability to move the placeholders using x and y coordinates. Do you have objects that you don't want to be moved? Place them in the THEME.

For these directions, I am modifying SlidesCarnival templates. Their website states "All templates by SlidesCarnival are free to use under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International. This means that you can use them for personal or even commercial purposes as long as you keep credit to SlidesCarnival."

Find a Template

  1. Go to SlidesCarnival.com.
  2. Search for a Google Slides presentation template. You can search for templates based on your school's colors and more.

Copy the Template(s)

In some cases, you will want to make two copies of the SlidesCarnival Google Slides presentations. For example, you if use a template such as the Color Light Bulbs, you will want to copy and paste the light bulbs after the slide deck is resized. Otherwise the light bulbs are distorted.

Prepare Theme

  1. Click on a slide on the far left.
  2. Use the shortcut CTRL  + A to select All slides.
  3. Delete all the slides.
  4. Click on the Slide menu.
  5. Select Edit theme.
  6. Go to File.
  7. Select Page setup.
  8. Change Custom to 8.5 x 11 inches.*

* The actual page size depends on your publisher.

Color Palette

You can view or modify the color palette.

  1. In Edit theme, click Colors.
  2. Use the drop down menu to view Text and background options and Accent colors.
  3. Change the hex code for individual colors as desired.

In this example, I changed the blue shade to  better match our school colors.

Guides

Guides will help you and your students properly space images, captions, and objects. The simplest guides will have a .25 top, bottom, left and right margins. Because our goal is to have a professional look, our more complicated guides have EVEN and ODD guides.

  1. On the THEME page of Edit theme, go to View -> Guides -> Show guides.
  2. Now clear the default guides by going to View -> Guides -> Clear guides.
  3. Next add new guides by going to View -> Guides -> Edit guides.
  4. Select Horizontal guides:
    • Horizontal guide 1 = .25
    • Horizontal guide 2 = 10.75
  5. Click Done.
  6. Go to the first layout you want to edit.
  7. Add new vertical guides by going to View -> Guides -> Edit guides.
  8. Under Vertical guides type:
    • Vertical guide 1 = .25
    • Vertical guide 2 = 8
  9. Click Done.
  10. Click Rename and add the word EVEN to the end of the name.

After you finish editing the layout (adding image and subtitle placeholders), I recommend that you Duplicate the layout to make the ODD side of the 2-page layout. You will change the Vertical guides on the ODD page to the following measurements:

  • Vertical guide 1 = .5
  • Vertical guide 2 = 8.25

Updated January 22, 2023. When I finish the Replace image page, I will add the link here.