powerpoint designer does not seem to be working. It is always telling me "sorry no design ideas for this slide" when I try to use it. I have repaired and restarted but still same. What can i do?

Unfortunately, the Designer feature is fussy about which slide layouts it will work with. The feature is not configurable by you, so all you can try is to alter the slide layouts until Designer decides to accept them.

Hi @Neerja Ahuja

Good day! Welcome to Q&A forum!  

Thanks for letting us know about the issue with PowerPoint Designer. To help figure out what’s going on, I’d like to ask a few quick questions: 

• What version of PowerPoint are you using?  Go to File → Account → About PowerPoint and share the full version/build. 
• Are you using Microsoft 365 (subscription) or a one-time purchase like Office 2016/2019/2021? Designer works best with Microsoft 365. 
• Are you signed in with your work or school account? 
• Have you tried editing the file at office.com? 
• Have you tried opening a fresh file? 
• Do other cloud features like Insert → Icons or Stock Images work? 
• Are you using a VPN, proxy, or firewall that might block online features? 
• Is the content in placeholders, or are you using shapes/text boxes? 
• May I have a screenshot of when it shows the error? 

In the meantime, kindly check if Designer is Turned On in PowerPoint by navigating to File → Options → General → PowerPoint Designer and make sure “Automatically show me design ideas” is enabled. Kindly enable Connected Experiences if prompted. 

It's also recommended that you use Supported Layouts and Content for the slides. Use a Title or Title + Content layout, move text into the content placeholder, and remove extra shapes or text boxes to see how it goes.  For image slides, please note that you can only use up to 4 images, each larger than 200×200 px. For reference: Get design ideas for slides with PowerPoint Designer - Microsoft Support 

Moreover, try testing if Designer works in Safe Mode by pressing Win+R, then typing powerpnt /safe. If it works, an add-in might be interfering.  Some custom templates can block Designer. Therefore, please also try using a default Office theme to see if it works. 

Some users say that this approach helps Designer show more ideas on their PowerPoint: 

• Make a copy of the slide 
• Change the slide Layout to Blank

Right-click the slide > Format Background > Choose Solid fill to delete the background. Then you should see more creative Background ideas for your slide in the Designer.

To create ideas in Designer, try creating a copy of the slide and delete non-essential items. Then it should start creating new ideas for you. 

Let me know if any of the mentioned troubleshooting steps work, I am happy to assist you further. 

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