PowerPoint Tips Blog

Helping you with presenting, PowerPoint, and speaking

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Tips
  • E-Store
  • Training
  • About
  • Affiliates
  • Advertise
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Downloads / Create a changeable radial gradient background theme

Create a changeable radial gradient background theme

May 24, 2010 by Ellen Finkelstein 2 Comments

READ LATER - DOWNLOAD THIS POST AS PDF >> CLICK HERE <<

I’ve mentioned before (here) that you can create a theme in PowerPoint 2007 that changes as you change the theme colors. This gives you lots of flexibility to create a great background in many circumstances. For example, you can change the background to the branding colors of a potential client is you give sales presentations. If you create presentations for others, you can use this technique to quickly create a background that matches the branding of your clients.

So, create one background and use it many times. I usually use a plain white background, but I do like a radial gradient with its corner at the upper-left of the slide.

Changeable radial gradient background theme

Why do I like this background?

  • It’s subtle so it doesn’t compete with your content but has just enough interest so that it isn’t boring. (I would probably still use white backgrounds on many slides where I want to add photos.)
  • The lighter upper-left corner has an uplifting effect for me. The darker lower-right corner is grounding. Well, maybe that’s just my feeling about it.

Follow these steps:

Open the Slide Master (Shift+Normal view button or View> Slide Master.

Click the top, large thumbnail in the left panel of layouts. This thumbnail controls all the rest.

On the slide, insert a rectangle covering the entire slide. (Insert> Shapes)

With the rectangle selected, right-click and choose Format Shape. You’ll see the Format Shape dialog box.

Click the Gradient Fill option.

From the Type drop-down list, choose Radial.

From the Direction drop-down list, choose the rightmost option. The tooltip says From Corner.

Format Shape dialog box in PowerPoint 2007

Format Shape dialog box in PowerPoint 2007

I added an additional color stop. To do so, click Add in the Gradient Stops section, for a total of four.

Choose Stop 1 and use the Color drop-down list to specify a color. To get predictable results when you change your theme colors, you should choose from the existing theme colors, as you see below.

Gradient settings in PowerPoint 2007

Use the Stop Position slider to set the location of the stop. Repeat for each stop. Here are my position settings:

Position
Stop 1 0%
Stop 2 18%
Stop 3 43%
Stop 4 98%

If you move the dialog box off the slide, you can see changes as you make them. When you’re done, click Close.

Click the Normal view icon or choose View> Normal.

Click the Design tab, then click the little More arrow in the Themes group to open the Themes gallery.

At the bottom of the gallery, choose Save Current Theme. Give the theme a name and click Save.

You’re done. You can now use the theme in any new presentation you create. When you open a new presentation, click the Design tab and look for your new theme in the Custom section of the Themes Gallery. (If you don’t see it, click Browse for Themes at the bottom. You’ll have to figure out where the themes are and that depends on your operating system. In Windows Vista, for example, they’re in C:\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\Document Themes. Whew!)

To change the colors, on the Design tab, click the Colors drop-down list and pass your cursor over the various options to see the results. You can also create custom theme colors.

Go create a changeable theme!

Share
Tweet
Share
+12
Shares 2
READ LATER - DOWNLOAD THIS POST AS PDF >> CLICK HERE <<

Related posts:

  1. Create a radial gradient background with a highlight effect
  2. 3D Effects with Radial Gradients
  3. Create multi-color gradients in PowerPoint
  4. Create a theme in PowerPoint that changes colors

Filed Under: Downloads Tagged With: background, Design, gradient

2
Leave a Reply

avatar
This comment form is under antispam protection
1 Comment threads
1 Thread replies
0 Followers
 
Most reacted comment
Hottest comment thread
2 Comment authors
EllenMary W.Bailey Recent comment authors
avatar
This comment form is under antispam protection
  Subscribe  
newest oldest most voted
Notify of
Mary W.Bailey
Guest
Mary W.Bailey

I tried this tip because I liked the idea of the light, upper left-hand corner grounded by the darker, bottom right. It came out great. I even saved the theme as you suggested and the changeability works really well. Thanks so much for sharing all your ideas. I was disappointed, though, with your instruction to draw a shape over the Slide Master. Slide Masters with shapes or photos over them really hamper other operations where the user might want to change the background for individual slides or use the slide background fill for filling other shapes on slides. With a… Read more »

Vote Up0Vote Down 
10 years ago
Ellen
Guest
Ellen

Mary, using the slide background as a fill for a shape is a very exotic technique–it’s great that you use it, but very few people even know it exists. Also, most people don’t make changes on individual slides. If you have a few slides that you want to be different, you can use a 2nd slide master. But it certainly is OK to use the gradient as the background instead of on the background. In your situation, that seems to be the best technique.

Vote Up0Vote Down 
10 years ago
wpdiscuz   wpDiscuz

Free Video Training!

13 Techniques that Will Make Designing Your Slides EASY!

And get the PowerPoint Tips Newsletter with tips and resources for presenters. Plus 5 bonus tips!

BirdSend Email Marketing Tool

4-up-ads

PresenterMedia 1-on-1 Presentation Coaching/Consulting
for Peak Presentations

High-Persuasion Secrets Power Pointers Quarter Hour

Recent Posts

  • How do you format your slide titles?
  • Using PowerPoint’s cartoon people
  • Which version of PowerPoint should you buy?
  • Add a customizable, live web feed with Cameo
  • Get a designer look with abstract images to create backgrounds for slides and shapes

Connect with me!

Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Ellen Finkelstein, Inc. · Fairfield, IA · Tel: 515-989-1832

Privacy, Refund, and Other Legal Stuff

wpDiscuz