Using a solid (or transparent) color for the slide background

Using a solid or transparent color for the background gives your slides a straightforward, honest look. Because all the slides are the same color or transparent color, the audience can focus better on the presentation itself rather than the razzle-dazzle. Follow these steps to use a solid or transparent color as the background for slides:

1. On the Design tab, click the Format Background button.

   The Format Background pane opens.

2. Click the Solid Fill option button.

3. Click the Color button and choose a color on the drop-down list.

   The muted theme colors are recommended because they look better in the background, but you can select a standard color or click the More Colors button and select a color in the Colors dialog box.

4. Drag the Transparency slider if you want a “bleached out” color rather than a slide color.

   At 0% transparency, you get a solid color; at 100%, you get no color at all.

5. Click the Apply to All button and then the Close button (the X) to close the Format Background pane.

   I sincerely hope you like your choice of colors, but if you don’t, try, try, try again.

Creating a gradient color blend for slide backgrounds

Gradient refers to how and where two or more colors grade, or blend, into one another on a slide. As well as the standard linear gradient direction, you can opt for a radial, rectangular, or path gradient direction. Figure 2-4 shows examples of gradient fill backgrounds. These backgrounds look terribly elegant. Using a gradient is an excellent way to create an original background that looks different from all the other presenter’s slide backgrounds.

Follow these steps to create a gradient background for slides:

1. On the Design tab, click the Format Background button to open the Format Background pane.

2. Click the Gradient Fill option button.

   Before you experiment with gradients, try opening the Preset Gradients drop-down list to see whether one of the ready-made gradient options does the job for you.

3. On the Type drop-down list, choose what type of gradient you want — Linear, Radial, Rectangular, Path, or Shade from Title (see Figure 2-4).

   If you choose Linear, you can enter a degree measurement in the Angle box to change the angle at which the colors blend. At 90 degrees, for example, colors blend horizontally across the slide; at 180 degrees, they blend vertically.

4. Create a gradient stop for each color transition you want on your slides.

   Gradient stops determine where colors are, how colors transition from one to the next, and which colors are used. You can create as many gradient stops as you want. Here are techniques for handling gradient stops:

   • Adding a gradient stop: Click the Add Gradient Stop button. A new gradient stop appears on the slider. Drag it to where you want the color blend to occur.
   • Removing a gradient stop: Select a gradient stop on the slider and click the Remove Gradient Stop button.
   • Choosing a color for a gradient stop: Select a gradient stop on the slider, click the Color button, and choose a color on the drop-down list.
   • Positioning a gradient stop: Drag a gradient stop on the slider or use the Position box to move it to a different location.
5. Drag the Brightness slider to make the colors dimmer or brighter.

6. Drag the Transparency slider to make the colors on the slides more or less transparent.

   At 0% transparency, you get solid colors; at 100%, you get no color at all.

7. Click the Apply to All button.

   Very likely, you have to experiment with stop colors and stop positions until you blend the colors to your satisfaction. Good luck.

Placing a picture in the slide background

As long as they’re on the pale side or you’ve made them semitransparent, pictures from Office.com or the Internet do fine for slide backgrounds. They look especially good in title slides. Figure 2-5 shows examples of pictures as backgrounds. As Book 8, Chapter 3 explains, Office.com offers numerous photos and pictures. You’re invited to place one in the background of your slides by following these steps:

1. On the Design tab, click the Format Background button to open the Format Background pane.
2. Click the Picture or Texture Fill option button.

3. Click the Online button.

   You see the Insert Pictures dialog box.

4. Search for and select a picture that you can use in the background of your slides.

   Book 8, Chapter 3 explains the ins and outs of trolling for pictures.

5. In the Format Background pane, enter a Transparency measurement.

   Drag the Transparency slider or enter a measurement in the box. The higher the measurement, the more transparent the image is (see Figure 2-5).

6. Enter measurements in the Offsets boxes to make your picture fill the slide.

7. Click the Apply to All button and then click the Close button in the Format Background pane.

   There you have it. The picture you selected lands in the slides’ backgrounds.

Using a photo of your own for a slide background

Figure 2-6 shows examples of photos being used as slide backgrounds. Besides getting a photo from the Internet, you can use one of your own photos.

Select your photo carefully. A photo with too many colors — and that includes the majority of color photographs — obscures the text and makes it difficult to read. You can get around this problem by “recoloring” a photo to give it a uniform color tint, selecting a grayscale photograph, selecting a photo with colors of a similar hue, or making the photo semitransparent, but all in all, the best way to solve the problem of a photo that obscures the text is to start with a quiet, subdued photo. (Book 8, Chapter 3 explains all the ins and outs of using photos in Office 365.)

One more thing: Select a landscape-style photo that is wider than it is tall. PowerPoint expands photos to make them fill the entire slide background. If you select a skinny, portrait-style photo, PowerPoint has to do a lot of expanding to make it fit on the slide, and you end up with a distorted background image.

Yet one more thing: Most photos that can be obtained on the Internet are copyrighted. If you plan to use a photo from the Internet, find out whether someone owns the copyright, and if the photo does have an owner, obtain permission to use the photo.

Follow these steps to use a picture as a slide background:

1. On the Design tab, click the Format Background button to open the Format Background pane.
2. Click the Picture or Texture Fill option button.

3. Click the File button.

   The Insert Picture dialog box appears.

4. Locate the photo you want, select it, and click the Insert button.

   The picture lands on your slide.

5. Enter a Transparency measurement to make the photo fade a bit into the background.

   Drag the slider or enter a measurement in the Transparency box. The higher percentage measurement you enter, the more “bleached out” the picture is.

6. Using the Offsets text boxes, enter measurements to make your picture fit on the slides.

7. Click the Picture icon in the Format Background pane.

   This icon, one of three, is located at the top of the Format Background pane.

8. Experiment with the Picture Corrections and Picture Color options to make your picture more suitable for a background.

9. Click the Apply to All button.

   How do you like your slide background? You may have to open the Format Background pane again and play with the transparency setting. Only the very lucky and the permanently blessed get it right the first time.

Using a texture for a slide background

Yet another option for slide backgrounds is to use a texture. As shown in Figure 2-7, a texture gives the impression that the slide is displayed on a material such as marble or parchment. A texture can make for a very elegant slide background. Follow these steps to use a texture as a slide background:

1. On the Design tab, click the Format Background button to open the Format Background pane.
2. Click the Picture or Texture Fill option button.
3. Click the Texture button and choose a texture on the drop-down list.

4. Enter a Transparency measurement to make the texture less imposing.

   Drag the slider or enter a measurement in the Transparency box.

5. Click the Apply to All button and then click Close.

Switching to Slide Master view

To work with master slides, switch to Slide Master view, as shown in Figure 2-8. From this view, you can start working with master slides:

1. Go to the View tab.
2. Click the Slide Master button.

In Slide Master view, you can select a master slide in the Slides pane, format styles on a master slide, and in this way reformat many different slides. (Click the Close Master View button or a view button such as Normal or Slide Sorter to leave Slide Master view.)

Understanding master slides and master styles

Master slides are special, high-powered slides. Use master slides to deliver the same formatting commands to many different slides. Whether the commands affect all the slides in your presentation or merely a handful of slides depends on whether you format the Slide Master (the topmost slide in Slide Master view) or a layout (one of the other slides):

• The Slide Master: The Slide Master is the first slide in the Slides pane in Slide Master view (refer to Figure 2-8). It’s a little bigger than the master slides, as befits its status as Emperor of All Slides. Formatting changes you make to the Slide Master affect all the slides in your presentation. When you select a theme for your presentation, what you’re really doing is assigning a theme to the Slide Master. Because formatting commands given to the Slide Master apply throughout a presentation, the theme design and colors are applied to all slides. If you want a company logo to appear on all your slides, place the logo on the Slide Master.
• Layouts: As you know, you choose a slide layout — Title and Content, for example — on the New Slide drop-down list to create a new slide. In Slide Master view, PowerPoint provides one layout for each type of slide layout in your presentation. By selecting and reformatting a layout in Slide Master view, you can reformat all slides in your presentation that were created with the same slide layout. For example, to change fonts, alignments, and other formats on all slides that you created with the Title layout, select the Title layout in Slide Master view and change master styles on the Title layout. Each layout controls its own little fiefdom in a PowerPoint presentation — a fiefdom comprised of slides created with the same slide layout.
• Master styles: Each master slide — the Slide Master and each layout — offers you the opportunity to click to edit master styles (refer to Figure 2-8). The master style governs how text is formatted on slides. By changing a master style on a master slide, you can change the look of slides throughout a presentation. For example, by changing the Master Title Style font, you can change fonts in all the slide titles in your presentation.

PowerPoint’s Slide Master–layouts–slides system is designed on the “trickle down” theory. When you format a master style on the Slide Master, formats trickle down to layouts and then to slides. When you format a master style on a layout, the formats trickle down to slides you created using the same slide layout. This chain-of-command relationship is designed to work from the top down, with the master slide and layouts barking orders to the slides below. In the interest of design consistency, slides take orders from layouts, and layouts take orders from the Slide Master.

In Slide Master view, you can move the pointer over a layout thumbnail in the Slides pane to see a pop-up box that tells you the layout’s name and which slides in your presentation “use” the layout. For example, a pop-up box that reads “Title and Content Layout: used by slide(s) 2-3, 8” tells you that slides 2 through 3 and 8 in your presentation are governed by the Title and Content layout.

Editing a master slide

Now that you know the relationship among the Slide Master, layouts, and slides, you’re ready to start editing master slides. To edit a master slide, switch to Slide Master view, select a master slide, and change a master style. To insert a picture on a master slide, visit the Insert tab.

Changing a master slide layout

Changing the layout of a master slide entails changing the position and size of text frames and content frames as well as removing these frames:

• Changing size of frames: Select the frame you want to change, and then move the pointer over a frame handle on the corner, side, top, or bottom of the frame and drag when you see the double-headed arrow.
• Moving frames: Move the pointer over the perimeter of a frame, click when you see the four-headed arrow, and drag.
• Removing a frame from the Slide Master: Click the perimeter of the frame to select it and then press Delete.
• Adding a frame to the Slide Master: Select the slide master, and on the Slide Master tab, click the Master Layout button. You see the Master Layout dialog box. Select the check box beside the name of each frame you want to add and click OK.