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Whenever you add a new AutoShape to a PowerPoint slide, it is filled with a solid color by default. Most of the time, you may leave that unaltered, but it's easy to remove any fill so that your shape only has an outline without a fill.

In this tutorial, I'll show you how you can remove the fill from an AutoShape - a similar tutorial is also available on No Fill in PowerPoint 2007:

1. Select the AutoShape 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 -- users can change the slide layout to Blank by selecting Format | Slide Layout, and then choose the Blank layout in the resultant task pane.
   
   
2. You will find the rectangle AutoShape option in the Drawing toolbar located below the PowerPoint interface. Select this option, and click once on the blank slide to place a rectangle AutoShape.
   
   Tip: If you can't see the Drawing toolbar, choose View | Toolbars | Drawing.
   
   
3. Select the AutoShape, and choose Format | AutoShape, as shown in Figure 1. Or double click the AutoShape.
   
   
   Figure 1: AutoShape
   
   
4. Either way, this opens the Format AutoShape dialog box that you can see in Figure 2. Note that this is a multi-tabbed dialog box, and all the options we need can be found in the Colors and Lines tab (again, see Figure 2).
   
   
   Figure 2: Format AutoShape
   
   
5. In the Fill area, click the downward arrow next to the Color option, and choose No Fill, as shown in Figure 3.
   
   
   Figure 3: No Fill
   
   
6. Click OK to get back to your slide and AutoShape.
   
   
7. Remember to save your presentation often.
   

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