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After learning how to add different fills for shapes in PowerPoint 2011, now its time to learn how to remove any fill from a shape so that it contains just an outline without a fill. Whenever you insert a new shape into a PowerPoint slide, it is filled with blueish white gradient fill by default (or the fill may be different depending on the Theme applied to your presentation). Most of the time, you may leave that unaltered, but there are times you want just the outline to be visible -- look at Figure 1, where you can see a rectangle with no fill, and a red outline -- this focuses the part of the picture that has to be highlighted. It is in scenarios like these where it can be useful to learn how to remove any fill.

Figure 1: Penguin's head highlighted using a rectangle with no fill

Follow these steps to learn how to remove the fill from a shape in PowerPoint 2011:

1. Select the shape that you want to remove the fill from. Alternatively, if you just want to follow this tutorial step-by-step, launch PowerPoint 2011. You will see the Presentation Gallery, which allows you to set all attributes of your new presentation, such as a preset Theme or template. Make selections or just click Cancel in this gallery to open a blank presentation with a new slide -- PowerPoint 2011 users can change the slide layout of this slide to Blank by selecting Layout | Blank within the Home tab of the Ribbon.
   
   
2. Within the Home tab of the Ribbon, locate the Insert group and click the Shape button to access the Shape gallery with different types of shape options that you can see in Figure 2. Select any shape option to access the related submenu, select the shape you prefer (we selected the Teardrop shape, as you can see in Figure 2).
   
   
   Figure 2: Shape gallery
   
   
3. Click and drag on the slide to insert the shape, or click once on the blank slide to place an instance of the shape. Select the shape so that the Ribbon area now shows the Format tab, as shown in Figure 3 (highlighted in red). Activate this Ribbon tab by clicking on it.
   
   
   Figure 3: Format tab of the Ribbon
   
   
   Note: 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.
   
   
4. Within the Format tab, locate the Shape Styles group. Then click the downward arrow next to the Fill button to view the Fill drop-down gallery that you can see in Figure 4. In this gallery, select the No Fill option that you can see in Figure 4 (highlighted in red).
   
   
   Figure 4: No Fill option within the Fill galley
   
   
5. This will remove any fill from the selected shape. In Figure 5 you can see the previously selected Teardrop shape (refer to Figure 3 above) with it's gradient fill removed.
   
   
   Figure 5: Shape without any fill
   
   
6. Remember to save your presentation often.
   

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