Missing templates in PowerPoint 2013

Problem

You look in the template gallery and find that suddenly some templates are missing/there are far fewer than there were when you installed Office 2013. Or the themes you expect to see on the PowerPoint Start screen or the File | New screen aren't there.

The problem is caused by faulty update software; Microsoft is aware of the problem and is trying to find a solution.

Solution: Download the missing themes (courtesy of Echo Swinford)

The themes that usually show on the PowerPoint Start screen are actually superthemes. Superthemes are like "regular" themes, but they give you variants. Variants are the options you see when you click one of the themes in the Start screen and get that dialog with different color options, pattern options, etc. You also see these variants on the Design tab of the Ribbon.

• If you're missing the superthemes, get them here on my OneDrive: http://1drv.ms/1yrdZRq
• Download the THMX files. Do NOT open them and save them; this will strip out the variants. Instead, just download them.
• Put them in this folder: C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\Document Themes. The superthemes must be placed here in order for the variants to be available to presentations based on the superthemes.

To use the newly downloaded themes, start PowerPoint. The themes may or may not show on your start screen.

• If they're there, you can click on the theme and you'll see the dialog box where you can select one of the variants.
• Otherwise, click CUSTOM and then the Document Themes folder. The themes should show up there. Click a theme to open that dialog where you can begin a new presentation based on the theme or one of its variants. Change variants on the Design tab if you wish.

Here are the files. Some are repeats of ones that were already available. They're named like TM########[[fn=ThemeName]].thmx because Echo grabbed them from live "managed content" folders, and that's how they were named there. You shouldn't have to rename them.

Solution: Trick the update software

Here's another trick that's worked for some people:

• Start PowerPoint, create a new presentation (doesn't matter what template).
• Use the DESIGN tab to choose and apply a different template.
• Quit PowerPoint (it shouldn't matter whether you save the new presentation or not). You'll probably want to quit ALL Office applications as well, and definitely Outlook. Don't re-start Outlook until you're done with this process.
• Make sure your computer's NOT set to update time/date via internet time clock. Go to Control Panel | Date & Time | Internet Time tab | click Change Settings and make sure there's no checkmark next to Synchronize with an Internet time server.
• Set your computer's clock ahead by at least one month. Toss in a few extra days just to be safe.
• Start PowerPoint again, give it a little time to settle down; it might be (we hope) trying to download the missing templates. You might need to start it, let it sit, then restart after a few minutes.
• Once the missing templates re-appear, you can set your computer's clock back to the correct time and date and if need be, set it back to synchronizing time with an internet time server.
• Or if the templates don't re-appear after a few hours, maybe days (however long you want to give it), reset the clock.

Once again, don't start Outlook until after you've reset the clock back to normal or your appointments may get adjusted in unexpected/unwanted ways.

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