Add Gradient Fills to Shapes
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: Microsoft PowerPoint 2007
OS: Microsoft Windows XP / Vista
Date Created: January 24th 2009
Last Updated: February 26th 2009
Excerpt/Capsule:
PowerPoint 2007 essentially provides four fill options: solid, picture, gradient, and texture. We have already explored the first two options; in this tutorial, we'll learn about gradient fills.
To see a sample presentation containing gradient fills in PowerPoint, scroll down to the bottom of this page.
Follow these steps to change or apply a gradient fill to a shape:
- Select the shape that you want to change the fill for. Alternatively, if you just want to follow this tutorial step-by-step, launch PowerPoint. Most of the time, PowerPoint will open with a new slide in a presentation -- PowerPoint 2007 users can change the slide layout to Blank by selecting Home tab | Layout | Blank.
- Under the Home or Insert tab of the Ribbon, choose the Shapes button to view the Shape gallery that you can see in Figure 1. Select the rectangle (or any other shape), and then either drag and draw, or click once on the blank slide to place an instance of the shape.
Figure 1: Shape gallery
- Select the shape so that the Ribbon area now shows the Drawing Tools Format, as shown in Figure 2. Activate this Ribbon tab.
Figure 2: Drawing Tools Format tab of the Ribbon
Note: The Drawing Tools Format tab is a contextual tab, These tabs are special tabs in the Ribbon that are not visible all the time -- they only make an appearance when you are working with a particular slide object which can be edited using special options.
- From the Drawing Tools Format tab, locate the Shape Styles group, then select the Shape Fill option to view the Shape Fill dropdown gallery that you can see in Figure 3. From the Shape Fill dropdown gallery choose Gradient.
Figure 3: Shape Fill gallery
- This opens the Gradient sub-gallery (refer to Figure 3 above). Based on the Theme applied to the open presentation or slides, the gallery provides various options:
- No Gradient: Just a solid color.This is the option you can use if you already have a shape with a gradient fill that you want to remove.
- Light Variation: In this option gradients are formed in various directions with the default color merged with white or a light color. These colors are based on the active Theme.
- Dark Variation: Here gradients are formed in various directions with the default color merged with black or a dark color. These colors are based on the active Theme.
- More Gradients: This option is explained in a detailed article on the More Gradients page.
- No Gradient: Just a solid color.This is the option you can use if you already have a shape with a gradient fill that you want to remove.
- Click on any of the options explained in Step 5. Remember to save your presentation often.
Tip: If your slide has many shapes that you want to fill with the same type of gradient, or even any other fill type, select them all before you click on any of the fill options. This lets you add or change the fill of all selected shapes at one time.
Related Link: My book Cutting Edge PowerPoint 2007 For Dummies covers many aspects of PowerPoint 2007. A free chapter excerpt PowerPointing with the Best of Them is available on this site.
Sample Presentation
Click above to view on AuthorStream
Carmine Gallo is a communications coach for the world’s most admired brands. His client list includes Intel, Chase, Barclays, IBM, Nokia, and many others. 
