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
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!
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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 shape on top of the Slide Master, any attempt to use Format Background on a single slide is meaningless. Oh, I can change the fill of a slide background but I’ll never see it because the shape added to the Slide Master will always cover it up.
It also sabotages any attempt to apply “Slide background fill” to any of my shapes’ fill. Again, I could apply the “Slide background fill” to a shape but I won’t see the gradient fill from the shape I added to the Slide Master, acting as the background. Instead I’ll see the default color of the actual background on the Slide Master (probably white).
Please consider revising your instructions for this tip. Instead of opening the Slide Master and adding a gradient to a shape I’ve added to the slide, I would open the Slide Master, right-click and select Format Background, then apply the gradient fill. Once completed, the gradient fill IS the Background.
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.