All the slides in a PowerPoint presentation are formatted with the slide design of the design template that you selected

In Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003, if you click a design template in the Slide Design task pane to apply a slide design to a slide, all the slides in the presentation are formatted with the slide design of the design template that you selected.

Additionally, you may not given the choice to apply the slide design to the whole presentation or to apply the slide design to only the slide that is currently selected. This behavior occurs when you select the Slides tab in Normal view or when the Slides tab has been closed.

For PowerPoint 2003

To apply a slide design only to the slide that is currently selected, follow these steps:

1. Click the Outline tab.
   
   If the Outline tab is not displayed, click Normal (Restore Panes) on the View menu.
2. Click the slide to which you want to apply the slide design.
3. In the Slide Design task pane, right-click the slide design that you want to use, and then click Apply to Selected Slides.

This behavior is by design.