By changing the appearance of the slides in a PowerPoint presentation, you can add patterns, images, and colors that reflect your taste. Microsoft PowerPoint comes with tools that allow you to change the slide background with bright colors, patterns, photos, and gradient colors. If you're on the go or don't have PowerPoint, you can easily upload your presentation to Google Slides and choose a color or photo for the background.
Step
Method 1 of 2: Using PowerPoint
Step 1. View the slide you want to change
To select the slide you want to modify, click the slide thumbnail (thumbnail) located on the left side of the screen. If you want to change the entire slide background in your presentation, you can do so by following the steps listed in this article.
Step 2. Check out the available fill options for the slide background
A fill is a color, pattern, texture, picture, or gradient color that can be added to the shape or background of a slide. Right-click the slide background (Ctrl+click for Mac) and select “Format Background.” Select “Fill” in the pane on the left of the window to see the available options.
Step 3. Create a background that has a solid color
To create a slide background that has only one color, select Solid fills.
After that, click the “Color” button to choose a color from the palette.
Step 4. Fill the background with a gradient color
Gradient colors are colors that fade from one color to another. choose Gradient fill to make one or more colors fade from one color to another. Choose one of the gradient color presets available in the menu or design your own desired gradient color. Use the Direction menu to view different gradient pattern options and the “Gradient stops” slider to set where colors start and end on the slide.
Step 5. Create a background with an image or texture
choose Picture or texture fill to use a personal photo as a slide background.
- Click “File” to select the directory (folder) where the image is saved. You can also use one of the texture presets available on the list.
- You can move the Transparency slider to adjust the opacity or transparency of the image or texture. If you choose a pattern or image that contains a lot of colors or patterns, it's a good idea to increase the transparency so that the text on the slide can be easily read.
Step 6. Fill the slide background with a pattern preset
If using PowerPoint 2013 or a later version, you can click Options Pattern fill to select a simple pattern preset on the list. Change the colors contained in this pattern by selecting the desired color on the " Foreground " and " Background " menus. These two menus are below the pattern list.
Step 7. Apply changes to the slide
If you don't like the selected background option, click “Reset Background” to use the previous background. If you like it, do the following steps:
- If you want the new background to be applied only to the selected slide, click “Close” to save changes.
- If you want all of your presentation slides to have the same new background, click “Apply to All.”
Method 2 of 2: Using Google Slides
Step 1. Open Google Drive
You must have a Gmail or Google account to use this option. Go to the drive.google.com website in a browser and click the "Visit Google Drive" button (Go to Google Drive). Enter the username and password when prompted. Once your account is verified, a Google Drive account will appear.
Step 2. Upload the PowerPoint presentation
Click the "New" button at the top left of the screen and select "Upload file". Locate the PowerPoint presentation file and click “Open.”
- When the file has been uploaded, a confirmation window will appear at the bottom of the screen. Double-click the PowerPoint file name in the window to preview the file on the screen.
- When a preview of the presentation file appears on the screen, click "Open with" and select "Google Slides." You may have to wait a while for all the slide data to appear on the screen.
Step 3. Select the slide you want to modify
Click the slide on the left of the screen to change its background. If you want to change the background for the entire slide, read the steps below.
Step 4. Check out the slide background options
Open the “Slide” menu at the top of the screen and select "Change background" (Change background). When selecting an available background on the list, you can see a preview for the selected option.
Step 5. Choose a color for the slide background
If you want the slide background to have only one solid color, click the box next to “Color” and select the desired color in the palette. If you want to change the slide background to be transparent, click “Transparent” at the top of the color palette.
Step 6. Use an image as a slide background
To use an image as a slide background, click "Image" (Image).
- If the desired image is saved on the computer, click the “Upload” tab and click the “Choose an image to upload” button. Go to the directory where the image is saved, click “Open”, and click “Select” (Select).
- To use an image stored in your Google account, click “Google Drive” and find the image you want to set as the slide background. If you don't know where the image is stored, you can search for it by entering its name in the search bar. Once you find it, double-click the image to select it.
Step 7. Click "Reset to theme" (Reset Theme) to undo the changes and restore the previous background
If you don't like the created background, click "Reset to theme".
Step 8. Save the background
To add a new background to your selected slide, click "Done". If you want to apply the background to all presentation slides, click "Add to theme" and select "Done".
Tips
- Editing a Microsoft PowerPoint document in Google Slides may change the format of the slides in your presentation. Check the entire slide to make sure the design and format is to your liking.
- If all of your slides have the same format apart from their backgrounds (such as headers, footers and watermarks), consider creating a template or “slide master”. By creating a slide master, the changes you make to the slide master (the slide at the top of the slide column) are applied to the rest of the slides as well. That way, you don't have to manually edit each slide.
