When you want to change the default look of your slide background, you can explore the various
slide background styles available in
PowerPoint. Other than these styles, you can certainly explore specific options that we have already covered:
solid,
gradient, or
picture fills for slide backgrounds.
In addition, you can also choose a Texture Fill for your slide background. Texture and picture fills for slide backgrounds have so much in common;
the same picture can be used for both a texture or a picture fill, the main difference is that while a picture background results in your slide using
a single picture as a backdrop, using a texture background can result in the same picture being tiled across the slide background, imagine a
wallpaper on your room's wall with repeating motifs. Also some pictures lend themselves better to being used as textures, especially if they are
seamless.
Look at Figure 1 below, note that while both samples show Texture Fills tiled up, the sample on the left uses a seamless texture
that tricks the human eye into seeing a single expanse. The texture on the right however does not tile up well and you can see seams every time the
picture tiles up.
Figure 1: Seamless and non-seamless samples
We have already explored picture fills
for slide backgrounds in a previous tutorial, on this page you will learn how you can add a Texture Fill for your slide background.
- We assume you have a new presentation created, or you have opened any of your existing presentations and summoned the
Format Background dialog box, as explained in our
Format Slide Background tutorial.
Alternatively, you can just right-click on an empty area of your slide and choose the Format Background option in the resultant
contextual menu to bring up the same Format Background dialog box (see in Figure 2 below).
- Within the Format Background dialog box, make sure that the Fill option is active in the sidebar. Then, select
the Picture or Texture tab, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2.
Figure 2: Picture or Texture tab selected within the Format Background dialog box
- Within the Picture or Texture tab, click on the Choose texture selection box (highlighted in
blue within Figure 2, above), This opens the Textures gallery, as shown in
Figure 3 which includes various textures that can be used as slide background fill.
Figure 3: Textures gallery
- Click on the texture that you want to use as a fill for the slide background. If you want to use a texture other than those contained within
PowerPoint, explore our Using Custom
Textures as Slide Backgrounds in PowerPoint 2011 tutorial.
As soon as you select a texture, the background of the active slide in the open presentation changes to the selected Texture Fill, your slide
background will auto-update with any changes you make in the Format Background dialog box.
Once you have set texture as the slide background fill, you can adjust the transparency value of the texture by using the
Transparency slider, highlighted in green within Figure 2, above. If you do not want
to use the slider, enter the values in the box next to the slider, or use the up and down arrows next to the box to increase or decrease the
transparency percentage value as required.
- Set the Texture Fill as the slide background using the options available, thereafter apply the fill to your slides by clicking either:
i. The Apply button to fill selected slides in the presentation with the Texture Fill. If you don't have multiple
slides selected, the Texture Fill will be applied to the active slide only.
ii. The Apply to All button to fill all slides in the presentation with the Texture Fill.
More details about the Apply and Apply to All buttons can be found in our
Format Slide Background tutorial.
- In Figure 4 below, you can see a presentation with the Texture Filled background.
Figure 4: Presentation with a Texture Filled background
- Remember to save your presentation often.
See Also:
Texture Fills for Slide Backgrounds in
PowerPoint 2016 for Windows
Texture Fills for Slide Backgrounds in PowerPoint
2013 for Windows
Texture Fills for Slide Backgrounds in
PowerPoint 2010 for Windows
