Has anyone noticed that Themes are now missing?

Anonymous
2014-11-18T20:50:13+00:00

Has anyone noticed that themes disappeared from all Word, Excel, and PowerPoint?

I had Wood Type and Banded the other day. However, they have disappeared from the list of themes, along with many other themes. Any idea on why this occured?

Specifications

Operating System: Windows 8.1

Office: Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus (15.0.4667.1002)

EDIT - 1/20/15

I updated the Title and original post to state theme(s) instead of template(s). I apologize for any confusion.

Microsoft 365 and Office | PowerPoint | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2015-06-18T16:36:57+00:00

Can you add the Parrallax theme to your one drive so I can download it.  The dropbox you gave is no longer there.  

thanks. 

Short answer: I thought I was going to have to say no because my 2013 systems don't have all the themes available. But I was able to scare up a bunch of them, so they've been added to my OneDrive folder. http://1drv.ms/1yrdZRq

Long answer: For those of you just coming into this thread, a bunch of themes have been missing from the PowerPoint Start screen. (This is the same screen you can also access by choosing File | New in PowerPoint.) 

Note: 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, you can 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 and 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 them, open PPT. 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's the available files. The ones I added today, some are repeats of ones that were already available. They're named like TM########[[fn=ThemeName]].thmx because I grabbed them from live "managed content" folders, and that's how they were named there. You shouldn't have to rename them. 

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-10-23T17:04:56+00:00

    I'd like to reiterate what Steve said:

    I just read the KB and don't see anything about this issue mentioned there.

    I just did the same and I still don't see anything about the missing themes mentioned in the KB article. How are we supposed to know that this update actually applies to this problem?

    What else does this update fix that's not listed?

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-10-23T17:02:44+00:00

    Glad to hear it's helped!

    It looks like the October Update (link below) should have fixed this also, but I know it sometimes still takes a little while for your cache to be flushed (or something like that) and the new themes to show up.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3085566. It was released on October 13, 2015.

    Unfortunately, I can't tell from that article what exactly you need to install in order to initiate this fix. Pffft, how frustrating.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-10-23T17:01:25+00:00

    Annie, thanks for posting this.

    I'm looking at that KB article today. It leads the user to way too many other places to be super helpful, but my biggest issue with it is this:

    <quote>

    This article describes update 3085566 for Microsoft Office 2013 that was released on October 13, 2015. This update also applies to Office Home and Student 2013 RT. This update has a prerequisite.

    Be aware that the update in Download Center applies to Microsoft Installer (.msi)-based edition of Office 2013. It doesn't apply to the Office 2013 Click-to-Run editions such as Microsoft Office 365 Home. (How to determine?)

    </quote>

    Now, when I look below on the page to the section labeled Download Center, there IS no download in the download center. But there is one in Microsoft Update. 

    I'm so confused. Does this KB article fix the issue or not? Where do I download the fix for the MSI-based installations, and where do I get it for Click-to-Run installations? This is about as clear as mud.

    <quote>

    Microsoft Update Use Microsoft Update to automatically download and install the update.

    Download Center This update is no longer available from the Microsoft Download Center. To download a new version of this update, go to the following Knowledge Base article:

    2986219 October 21, 2015, update for Office 2013 (KB2986219)

    </quote>

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-10-23T15:51:39+00:00

    I was just googling this question and came across your answer. Thank you for saving the day.

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