Applying Designs and Color Schemes

At this point, we've previewed a completed slideshow and created a new, blank presentation with title and bullets, concentrating on text. Obviously, this text presentation is far from snappy—in fact, it's downright ugly.

In this hour, we dress it up so that we can take it out. To do that, we have to differentiate between three main design choices:

Backgrounds

Color schemes

Design templates

Each of these choices has its uses and attributes. What's nice about PowerPoint 2003 is that you can apply these design options to one, numerous, or all the slides in your presentation
Using Backgrounds
Backgrounds are the easiest way to change the look of a slide and they can be applied without opening a task pane. To change the background of one or more slides in Normal view, select Format, Background. If Background isn't immediately available, click the drop-down arrow on the menu. The Background dialog box pops up as shown in Figure
Changing the Background Color
Now click the drop-down arrow on the dialog box to choose from among eight automatic colors or click More Colors for a greater selection, as shown in Figure 5.2.

Figure 5.2. Clicking the drop-down arrow enables you to choose More Colors or Apply Fill Effects.


Figure 5.3 shows the Standard view under More Colors. Selecting the Custom tab enables you to select colors by their numerical RGB values.

Figure 5.3. The Standard color panel (shown) gives you a color wheel.






When you select a color from the More Colors color wheel and click OK, that color is reflected in the Background dialog box (see Figure 5.4).

Figure 5.4. With your color selections made, they're reflected in the preview area of the Background dialog box.


When you select a new color in More Colors, it's added to the eight automatic colors immediately available from the drop-down arrow.





With the chosen color showing in the Background window, you can

Click Apply to All to apply this color as a background to all slides in the presentation.

Click Apply to apply this color as a background to the slide currently showing in Normal view. Or, if you're in Slide Sorter, you can click Apply to apply this background to the slides that you've selected.

Click Preview to see how the color background will change the slide.

Click Cancel to undo the preview effect and select another color.


5.1.

Changing the Background Color
Now click the drop-down arrow on the dialog box to choose from among eight automatic colors or click More Colors for a greater selection, as shown in Figure 5.2.

Figure 5.2. Clicking the drop-down arrow enables you to choose More Colors or Apply Fill Effects.


Figure 5.3 shows the Standard view under More Colors. Selecting the Custom tab enables you to select colors by their numerical RGB values.

Figure 5.3. The Standard color panel (shown) gives you a color wheel.






When you select a color from the More Colors color wheel and click OK, that color is reflected in the Background dialog box (see Figure 5.4).

Figure 5.4. With your color selections made, they're reflected in the preview area of the Background dialog box.


When you select a new color in More Colors, it's added to the eight automatic colors immediately available from the drop-down arrow.



Creating a Fill Effect
Although a simple background color is nice, a mixture of colors can create an even more interesting effect. PowerPoint enables you to add a blend of two colors over their spectrum, known as a gradient effect, or put images on the slide background.

To select a fill effect, click the Colors drop-down arrow again, and select Fill Effects, as shown in Figure 5.5.

Figure 5.5. Adding a fill effect from the Background dialog box enables you to create a gradient or another more sophisticated background.


The Fill Effects dialog box provides four tabbed choices: Gradient, Texture, Pattern, and Picture.

In the Gradient (default) tab, you can select two main colors, and determine the direction in which the blend is applied (see Figure 5.6).

Figure 5.6. Creating a gradient is simply choosing two harmonious colors and deciding the direction in which they should blend or a shading style.


If you plan to output 35mm slides or are presenting to an audience that might be used to conventional slides of this type, a gradient effect will match their visual expectations and probably make them comfortable with your design choice.





The Texture and Pattern tabs enable you to scroll through libraries of possible backgrounds, including some nice marble and stone options, as shown in Figure 5.7.

Figure 5.7. Marble textures are among the many textures that you can apply to a background—or you can select a pattern. Click Other Texture for more options.


If you've scanned or acquired an image you want to apply to create your own background, you use the last tab: Picture. When you click Select Picture, shown in Figure 5.9, you must locate an image file in a folder on your hard drive and click Insert, as shown in Figure 5.8.

Figure 5.9. You can see a preview of the image in the Fill Effects Picture tab to decide whether it will work as a background.


Figure 5.8. Clicking Select Picture in the Picture tab of Fill Effects enables you to insert any image that you can locate on your hard drive into the background of your slide.


Now the picture enters the Insert Picture area. Clicking to lock the aspect ratio makes sure that the image won't be distorted when viewed at full-screen size (see Figure 5.9).

When you click OK, the picture is set in the background area, where it can be applied to the current or all slides, as shown in Figure 5.10.

Figure 5.10. After you apply the picture to become your background, it might not work with the color of your text. You can preview this in the Background dialog box.


After you apply a color or fill effect to the background of your slides, notice that any text in the title or bullets is unaffected by your choice. It's now up to you to change its font color to work with the new background.





For best results, choose or create an image with the same resolution in which you expect to display your PowerPoint show: 800x600 or 1024x768. Shrinking your images to a smaller size should be no problem—just lock your aspect ratio—but stretching could be disappointing.