How to change default text box font and justification in Keynote theme

Previous poster Nicfarrow posted a question on Oct 18, 2023 about “How to change default text font in Keynote,” with the particular issue of how to change the default font in the text box that appears when you click the “Text” button on the Keynote toolbar, and save the change in the theme chooser. The answer given did not seem to solve his problem (nor that of ShawnaPope). Here is what worked for me:

• Create a new presentation using the theme you wish to modify with the new text box font
• Click on the “Text’ button

• While the textbox is still selected, change the default font to the one desired (I changed the font from Helvetica Neue to Calibri, and the justification from left justified to centered)

• Then click on the + button on the “Paragraph Styles’ dropdown

• The new paragraph style will default to the name “Body 1”; I changed it to “Text Box”

• Click on the blue “Update” button that appears next to the name “Text Box*” (the asterisk indicates the name has been changed). The step of assigning a new paragraph style to the text box is necessary to prevent all Body text from being changed to Calibri and justification = centered.

• Click Format > Advanced > Set as Default Text Box Appearance

• Click File > Save Theme… > Add to Theme Chooser

• Then give the theme a new name
• Then click “Create” and select your newly modified theme
• Click the “Text” button on the toolbar
• The textbox appears with font = Calibri and justification = centered

Hope this helps!