You've put together a stunning presentation for the family reunion using the photo album feature in Microsoft PowerPoint®. Perhaps you've added custom animations and sounds, and you've carefully set up transitions for each slide. The photo album is powerful and resplendent — even moving.

Now you realize that you forgot to add the photo of Aunt Martha's precious Shi-Tzu. No matter how great the rest of it is, if you don't get that shot in, you're done for — maybe even cut out of the will. So now you need to go into your photo album and add that photo.

Not so fast; there's a caveat. If you have applied certain options to your photo album, some or all of them may be lost if you try to add a photo using the Format Photo Album dialog box. (This happens when you click Update in that dialog box). These options include:

• Custom animations
• Backgrounds that aren't part of the design template
• Font formatting that isn't part of the design template
• Slide transitions

Don't lose all your work

There is a way around this. You need to create a new photo album that has the same design template and settings as your existing one and then cut and paste the individual slides into the original photo album.

To add photos to a customized PowerPoint photo album

1. Open the presentation you've created as a photo album.
2. On the Insert menu, point to Picture, and then click New Photo Album.
3. Add the photos you want, and under Album Layout, be sure to apply the same Picture layout, Frame shape, and Design template that your original album has.
4. Click Create.
5. In Normal view, copy the slides that have the photos you want to add to your original album. Then, paste them where you want them into that album, and click Save.

Now you can add transitions, animations, or backgrounds as well as make any formatting changes — and secure your place in the family.