Workarea
New place since September 2026
The workarea is now called the work area and is entered on the Work area settings page — which also offers templates including a default template, and the team level. The grid lines are placed by the grid manager. This page still explains what the work area is; the stored values are the same.
The workarea defines the actual content area of a slide — the area within which content should be aligned and distributed. Typically, the workarea corresponds to the area between the header and footer.
Accessing
PPPTools → Work area → “Set the work area” section
(Until September 2026: PPPTools → Open Task Pane → Master Settings → Workarea.)
What is the Workarea?
Slides in PowerPoint have fixed dimensions (e.g. 33.87 × 19.05 cm for 16:9). Headers and footers, however, take up part of that space. The workarea defines the usable content area using four margin values:
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| Left | Distance from the left slide edge to the left workarea boundary |
| Top | Distance from the top slide edge (e.g. below the header) |
| Right | Distance from the right slide edge |
| Bottom | Distance from the bottom slide edge (e.g. above the footer) |
Configuring the Workarea
- Enter the four margin values in cm in the Set the work area section
- Click Save — the values are stored as custom XML in this PPTX
- To make them apply in every presentation: store them in the Work area templates section and mark that template as the default template
The saved values are immediately available as the reference object Workarea.
Using the Workarea as a Reference
Once a workarea is defined, the reference mode Workarea (
) appears in the Ribbon. All align and distribute operations then reference the workarea boundaries instead of the slide edge.
Per Presentation
The workarea definition is saved in the respective presentation (custom XML) and is retained when the PPTX file is shared. Each presentation can have its own workarea defined.