I read your interesting article on producing effective Powerpoint presentations and one thing you said caught my eye: “slides that contain one word or quote, against a dramatic, colorful background” So, Dave, how do I get a different color background on each slide of a Powerpoint presentation?
I knew someone would ask that! The sad fact is that Powerpoint isn’t really designed for this sort of presentation so it’s a bit laborious to change each slide to have a different background. Not impossible, just a bit of tedium. Let me show you.
First off, I start out with a plain slide with no master template. It’s easy to push all the text on all the slides to a single typeface (how? go into Normal View, then click and drag to select all the text on all the slides, then chose a new font!) and the default layout is usually fine for my text slides – most of which end up being Title Slides, by the way, not Bulleted List Slides – so here’s what I’d typically be looking at:
Now, simply right-click (or, if you’re on a Mac like I am, Control-click) and you’ll see the following menu:
The option you want is highlighted: Slide Background…. Select that and here’s what you’ll see:
Almost done. Click on the pop-up menu and it’ll show you the set of colors in the current color “scheme”, but below it you can specify a new color from a color picker:
Choose “More Colors…” and you’ll finally have the color picker:
Choose the color you want, then click the necessary “OK”, “Apply” and “Save” buttons to get back to your master slide, make a few tweaks on the font color and size, and suddenly your slide is looking at lot more memorable:
Hope that helps you see how to create more visually interesting slides in Powerpoint.
Your awesome! I got it.
Thanks.
I did all of that. But the slide color remains the same. Can you email me?
I’m using Powerpoint 2007. WHY CAN’T I CHANGE ONE SLIDE COLOR BACKGROUND WITHOUT IT CHANGING ALL THE REST??? Sorry, I’m just a little frustrated. I’ve looked online at everyone’s comments, done the tutorials online and no one is commenting on 2007.
If you rightclick to change background colors the ONLY option is Apply to All. Am I missing something. Please help!!!