Octopus Overlords

Problem: I am trying to add a footer to a Powerpoint presentation. I go to Inset->Header/Footer to get the window. The Date and Time box is checked and the date appears on the slides. I am trying to check the Slide Number and Footer fields. When I do (and enter my text) and hit Apply to All - nothing happens to the slides. When I go back in to Insert->Header/Footer, the Slide Number and Footer fields are unchecked.

What I have tried so far:

I am editing someone else's Powerpoint. The presentation has a Slide Master and then 4 styles under that. I can't delete those four. On each of those layouts there was a single box that spanned the width of the slide in the position of the footer. The date was showing up correctly in this box.

After a bunch of searching, I went to the Slide Master -> Master Layout and found that the Slide Number and Footer boxes were not checked. I checked them and Praise be to Brady!, two new boxes appeared in addition to the Date box. Now when I edit the Header/Footer for the Slide Master, my edits persist!

However, the four styles under the Slide Master remain unchanged and I can't figure out how to get those other two elements to appear. It's like whomever set it up deleted those two elements and just extended the Date box to cover the whole slide, but Powerpoint doesn't like that.

All of the slides in the presentation use those 4 Evil layouts. Any suggestions? I'm not a Powerpoint guru, so please give me any instructions like I'm a pre-schooler.

Thanks!

Figured it out.

I copied the new footer fields from the Master and pasted them on all of the children slides. Each slide now had the correct fields and updating the header/footers worked on them all.

Go team!

Glad we were able to help.