Slide background

The default background is white. Changing this is quite easy using Format | Background but be careful – if you have black text then it will disappear on a black background and you’ll have to change all the entries! Beware too if you have used hyperlinks (either to other slides in your show or to web sites or documents). Hyperlinks’ default text colours are blue or may appear purple if you’ve visited them on that computer. So using a background that makes these disappear or just look plain odd will not work.

If plain colours are not your bag (and you don’t use any of the design templates available) then there are some other techniques on offer.

In the Format | Background panel click the arrow next to the (confusingly!) blank section to access some alternatives.

There are four tabs now providing a range of Fill Effects.

getting started | slide layout | text | images | designs | Slide Sorter | backgrounds | more backgrounds | background images | first and last slides | printing | Master slides | transitions | animation