Brand & Template Compliance — getting a deck on-brand and on-template

The mechanical plumbing that keeps every slide on a corporate PowerPoint template and a defined brand. This is the complement to references/visual-system.md (the taste layer): here the work is structural — slide masters, placeholders, theme color slots, theme fonts, logo lockups, and the audit. Assumes the org has a master template (.potx/.thmx), a theme color set, theme fonts, and a logo + clear-space rule. Run in stage order: structure first, then color & type, then brand assets, then audit & remediation — every later fix is easier once each slide sits on the right master layout. If a brand reference (palette, fonts, logo kit, rules) is missing, ask for it or state the single convention you're applying.

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Stage 1 — Template structure

Master & layout mapper (master-and-layout-mapper) — run first. Work from the template's slide master and its child layouts, not the individual slides. Read the master's layouts and what each is for (Title, Section Header/Divider, Title & Content, Two Content, Comparison, content-with-caption, full-bleed image, agenda, Closing) and the placeholders each carries. Classify each existing slide by its real job (ignore how it was built) and map it to the closest template layout, then apply that layout (Home → Layout) to bring in the right placeholders and background — don't move content yet. Flag slides that fit no layout cleanly (a custom dashboard → nearest layout + manual adjustment). Use the template's own layout names in the output. Symptom it fixes: content dropped onto Blank slides as free-floating boxes.

Placeholder discipline (placeholder-discipline) — run right after mapping. Migrate content from rogue text boxes into the layout's real placeholders so it inherits template styling. Use the Selection Pane to tell placeholders ("Title 1", "Content Placeholder 2") from plain boxes ("TextBox", "Rectangle"). Paste text into the placeholder (not the whole box on top of it), then Clear All Formatting so the placeholder's real style shows; set bullet levels with Tab/Shift-Tab (real outline levels, not manual indents). Delete the emptied boxes; keep genuine non-placeholder graphics. Home → Reset restores a deleted placeholder. Result: titles are Title placeholders, body is Body/Content placeholders, and the slide restyles automatically if the theme changes.

Grid, margin & safe-zone alignment (grid-margin-safe-zone-alignment) — run after placeholders are in order. Recover the template's canonical values from the master's placeholder positions (left margin, right margin, title top, content top, safe-zone inset, column count + gutter). Set guides (Alt+F9) to them. Snap nudged placeholders back (Home → Reset or align to guides) so titles and content share one left edge across the deck. Build multi-element slides on a consistent column grid with even gutters; use Arrange → Align/Distribute. Enforce the safe zone (nothing structural in the trim, unless deliberate full-bleed). Even the spacing. Check across slides (flip-through / slide sorter) — title and content blocks should not jump.

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Stage 2 — Color & type

Theme color binder (theme-color-binder) — run after structure. Rebind hard-coded RGB to the theme's 12 named slots (Text 1/2, Background 1/2, Accent 1–6, Hyperlink, Followed) so the deck moves with the theme. Read the theme color set (which slot is the primary brand color, which are chart colors). Inventory the distinct fills/lines/fonts, grouping near-duplicates (three slightly different blues that all mean "primary"). Map each to a slot (main brand color → Accent 1, dark text → Text 1, light panels → Background 2), converging duplicates. Rebind from the Theme Colors row of the picker (not Standard Colors, not custom hex), using tint/shade columns where allowed (they also move with the theme). Fix chart series colors to theme accents in order. Verify by test-swapping to a different theme color set — anything that doesn't recolor was missed; rebind it.

Brand palette guard (brand-palette-guard) — run after binding. Reduce the deck to the approved palette + one-accent rule. State the allowed colors and roles (primary, secondary, neutral light/dark, the one accent reserved for emphasis) and any chart sequence. Find off-palette color (usual sources: pasted images, third-party logos, old slides) and map each stray to the nearest approved slot by role, not hue alone. One accent per slide on the single thing the eye should land on; demote any second accent to neutral. Tame charts — replace rainbow palettes with the brand primary for the focus series and graded greys for the rest. Check contrast (fix with the palette's own light/dark ends, not a new color). Leave real logos their own colors.

Theme font & type-scale enforcer (theme-font-and-type-scale-enforcer) — run alongside color. Bind to the brand's two theme fonts (major/heading + minor/body) and a single type scale (title, subtitle, section header, body L1/L2, caption, footer). Use Replace Fonts (Home → Replace → Replace Fonts) to swap stray fonts deck-wide (headings → major, body → minor); prefer the +Headings / +Body theme slots over literal font names so a theme change carries through. Normalize every size to the nearest scale level by role — don't invent in-between sizes; if a slide is overset, cut content or move detail to backup rather than shrinking below scale. Fix ad-hoc bold/italic/all-caps/letter-spacing (keep only sanctioned emphasis). Set brand line spacing and case rule. Clear direct formatting on placeholder text so it inherits theme font + scale size.

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Stage 3 — Brand assets

Logo & lockup compliance (logo-and-lockup-compliance) — run once color/type are clean. Identify the approved variants (full-color on light, reversed/white on dark or photos, single-color, mark-only) and the minimum size + clear-space multiple. Find every logo instance (title, footer/corner, dividers, closing, partner rows). Swap to the correct variant per background using the approved file (never hand-recolor). Replace bad files (low-res, traced, outdated) with the current high-res vector/PNG. Fix distortion — reset to native aspect ratio (Shift-resize from a corner); never scale one dimension. Enforce clear space (move intruding objects out of the zone — the footer page number is the usual culprit) and minimum size + consistent placement. Handle partner logos fairly (each in its own approved form, sized to optical balance, evenly spaced).

Iconography style keeper (iconography-style-keeper) — convert all icons to one system: define the target style from the brand (line vs solid, stroke weight, corner radius, color rule, optical size). Inventory the icons; replace off-system icons with the closest brand-library equivalent (don't hand-edit clip-art into the line style). Normalize weight and corners. Apply the color rule, bound to a theme slot, keeping the one-accent rule. Size optically, not by bounding box. Vertically center icons with their labels and align icon rows to one baseline.

Imagery & photo treatment (imagery-and-photo-treatment — mechanical view) — bring all photos onto one treatment. State the image rules (treatment = full-color / brand duotone / defined filter+overlay; allowed aspect ratios; crop convention; placement pattern; minimum resolution). Apply the color treatment (in PowerPoint: Picture Format → Color → duotone recolor, or a brand-color overlay at fixed opacity). Crop each to an allowed ratio with Crop to Fill in a picture placeholder so a row shares a ratio (focal point on a third, faces/product whole). Standardize placement (don't mix full-bleed and framed). Replace sub-minimum-resolution images (never upscale). Use the brand scrim/overlay where text sits on a photo. Don't warp (crop instead) or mirror images containing text/recognizable places.

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Stage 4 — Audit & remediation

Title, footer & page-number consistency (title-footer-page-number-consistency) — run first in stage 4 (these repeated elements a reviewer notices immediately). Persistent furniture belongs on the master/layouts, not hand-placed per slide. Confirm titles share one top edge, left edge, size, and case rule. Standardize the footer (set once via Insert → Header & Footer or on the master; remove per-slide manual footers). Enforce page numbers (slide-number placeholder on every content slide, brand position/style, decide "n" vs "n of N" and whether title/dividers carry a number). Unify dividers (same layout, background, numbering "Part n"). Set the title-slide/closing exceptions deliberately. Confine footers/page numbers to the safe zone, respecting logo clear space.

Brand compliance auditor (brand-compliance-auditor) — the pre-flight sweep before shipping. Walk the whole deck against a fixed checklist — structure (real layout not Blank; content in placeholders; inside margins/safe zone), color (bound to theme slots; within palette; one accent; charts on the brand sequence), type (only the two theme fonts; all sizes on scale; consistent case), logo (correct current variant per background; undistorted; minimum size; clear space), icon/image (one icon system; one image treatment; no low-res), furniture (uniform titles/footers/page numbers/dividers). Grade each finding Blocker (cannot ship: wrong logo, off-template layout, off-palette brand color, unreadable text), Major (off-brand but shippable in a pinch), or Minor (polish). Order the punch list by severity then frequency, point each finding at the skill that fixes it, surface the 2–3 recurring systemic patterns to fix once, and close with ship or hold.

Reskin-to-template converter (reskin-to-template-converter) — rebuild a foreign/off-brand deck on the approved template, preserving content, changing the skin. Orchestrates the other eleven in fixed order: 1. attach the brand template (repaints theme-bound elements; hard-coded ones stay wrong until step 5) → 2. remap layouts → 3. move content into placeholders (where most of the reskin happens — placeholder content adopts the brand instantly) → 4. realign to the grid → 5. recolor & retype (bind colors, palette guard, Replace Fonts; use find-and-replace recolor for repeated hard-coded fills) → 6. fix assets (logo, icons, imagery) → 7. standardize furniture → 8. audit and clear Blockers. Preserve content throughout — don't drop slides, rewrite copy, or lose chart data. It's a faithful reskin, not a rewrite.

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Note on scope

These methods are written for PowerPoint with .potx/.thmx templates and assume the brand assets exist. The design-judgment counterparts (when an accent is meaningful, whether an icon earns its place, what makes color carry meaning) live in references/visual-system.md; this file is about wiring the deck to the template so a single re-theme updates everything and the audit passes.