Slide Design

You can make your presentation more visually appealing by applying a document theme or a background image. You can also add elements such as headers and footers, the date and time, or numbers to your slide.

Adding a Theme

A theme is a set of elements that allows you to give your presentation a more unified, professional look. To add a theme to your presentation, follow these steps:

1. Click the Design tab on the Ribbon. PowerPoint will display the available themes as thumbnails in the Themes group. You can expand the list of themes by clicking the arrow to the right of the thumbnails.
   
2. Click the thumbnail of the theme you want to apply to your presentation. PowerPoint will apply the theme to all of the slides in your presentation by default.

To apply a theme to selected slides in your presentation, follow these steps:

1. Hold down the Ctrl key if you are a PC user or the Apple key if you are a Mac user.
2. Click the slides you want to select in the Slides and Outline pane.
3. Click the theme you want to apply.

PowerPoint also allows you to see a preview of what a specific theme will look like if applied to your presentation. To see the preview, follow these steps:

1. Click the Design tab on the Ribbon.
2. Hold the mouse over a thumbnail theme, but do not click it. Your slide will appear to have that theme applied. The slide will revert back to its previous appearance once you move the mouse away.

Color Schemes

You may find a theme you like but wish it was in a different color. To change the color scheme of your theme, follow these steps:

1. Click the Design tab on the Ribbon.
2. Click the Colors button in the Themes group, located to the right of the thumbnail options. PowerPoint will display the available color schemes for the theme that is currently applied to your presentation.
3. Click the color scheme you want to apply.

If you want to remove a color scheme, follow these steps:

1. Click the Colors button on the Design tab on the Ribbon.
2. Click Reset Slide Theme Colors.

You can create custom color schemes by clicking Create New Theme Colors.

Adding a Background Image

You may be happy with a plain color background for your slide, but you can also add an image to the background. To add one of Powerpoint's preset images, follow these steps:

1. Click the Design tab on the Ribbon.
2. Click the Background Styles button in the Background group. PowerPoint will display the preset background images as thumbnails.
3. To see a preview of what an image will look like in your presentation, hold the mouse over the thumbnail option.
4. When you find the image you want, click the thumbnail option to apply it to your presentation.

If you want to add your own image to the background of a slide, follow these steps:

1. Click the Design tab on the Ribbon.
2. Click the Background Styles button in the Background group.
3. Click Format Background. A dialog box will open.
4. Click the Fill tab.
5. Select Picture or Texture Fill.
6. Click the File button.
7. Select the file you want to upload as your background image. This option will only allow you to change the background for one slide at a time. To apply the image to all of your slides, click the Apply to All button.

Hint: When choosing a background image, remember to make sure that it does not interfere with the readability of the text. Images that have little contrast or pattern are ideal for slide backgrounds, as can be seen from the examples below. It is also a good idea to use light-colored text on a dark-colored background.

Headers and Footers

To insert a footer, follow these steps:

1. Click the Insert tab on the Ribbon.
2. Click the Header and Footer button in the Text group. A dialog box will appear.
3. Click the Slide tab.
4. Select the Footer checkbox.
5. Type the text you want in your footer.
6. Click Apply. The footer will be applied to the selected slide only. If you want to apply the footer to all of your slides, click Apply to All.

If you want to add the date and time or slide numbers to your presentation, you can do so by checking the appropriate boxes in the Header and Footer dialog box.

The Slide Master

If you want to make changes to all of the slides in your presentation at once, you can use the Slide Master. When using the Slide Master, it is important to remember that this slide is a template, not an actual slide in your presentation. Any changes made to the slide master will affect the regular slides.

To access the slide master, follow these steps:

1. Click the View tab on the Ribbon.
2. Click the Slide Master button in the Presentation Views group. The screen will change to display the Slide Master in the main area of the window. The Slides and Outline pane on the left of the screen will display the available Slide Layouts for your presentation.
3. You can now edit the slide master the same way you would edit a regular slide.

To exit Slide Master view, click the Close Master View button on the right of the Ribbon.