Change Background Styles in the Slide Master in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac

In PowerPoint, the Slide Master influences the layout and look of all slides in your presentation. Make changes to the Slide Master and those changes reflect on your presentation slides. For example, you can apply another Background Style so that all Slide Layouts and slides in your presentation use the updated slide background. In this tutorial, we will explore how you can choose from any of the 12 available Background Styles to apply to the Slide Master in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac.

Follow these steps to learn more:

1. Launch PowerPoint. You will see the Presentation Gallery. Here, Select the Blank Presentation option to open a new presentation with a blank slide. Typically, the new presentation has Office Theme applied. If your presentation is using another Theme, apply the Office Theme since this is a basic and clean Theme that lends itself best to changes and edits that we discuss later in this tutorial. If you do not know how to apply a Theme, explore our Applying Themes in PowerPoint, Word, and Excel 2016 for Mac tutorial.
2. 
   Figure 1: Blank presentation with Office Theme applied
2. Now, access the View tab of the Ribbon and click the Slide Master button, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 2, below.
3. 
   Figure 2: Slide Master button
3. This opens Slide Master View, as shown in Figure 3, below. Here, within the left pane you'll find one large slide thumbnail that represents the Slide Master. We have selected this Slide Master, as shown in Figure 3, (indicated by the red highlight). Below the Slide Master are several smaller slide thumbnails. These represent individual Slide Layouts. For now, do understand that changes made to the Slide Master influence its Slide Layouts, and in turn, this influences all slides within your presentation that are following that Slide Master.
4. 
   Figure 3: Slide Master View
Note:

In hierarchy terms, Slide Layouts are dependent for their appearance on the Slide Master although you can individually override these dependencies.

4. Now, make sure that the Slide Master is in selected status, as shown in Figure 3, above, and click the Background Styles button, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 3, above.
5. Doing so brings up the Background Styles drop-down gallery with 12 default slide background styles, shown highlighted in red within Figure 4, below. Click on the style of your choice to apply it to the Slide Master. In Figure 4, you can see the Style 7 being selected.
6. 
   Figure 4: Background Styles drop-down gallery
   Note:

   These 12 default styles change when you apply a different Theme to your presentation. Also, do you see the Format Background and Reset Slide Background options, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 4, below, the Background Style thumbnails? These options are explained in our Custom Backgrounds in the Slide Master in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac tutorial. The Reset Slide Background option is meant for individual Slide Layouts. It is used to reset the slide background to its original status, on a particular slide layout.

6. This will apply the selected Background Style to the Slide Master and all the Slide Layouts belonging to the selected Slide Master as well, as shown in Figure 5, below. Compare with Figure 3, shown previously on this page.
7. 
   Figure 5: Background Style changed within the Slide Master view
7. Click the Close Master button, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 5, above. This will get you back to Normal view, where you can see the new Background Style applied to all your slides.
8. Save your presentation often.