Jan's Working with Presentations

Step-by-Step: Master Background Image

Start with: ,  nz-Lastname-Firstname.pptx

In this lesson you will add a background image to the Slide Master: Title layout and format the Title placeholder text to show up well over the photo background. The background is deliberately difficult to make work well.

Title Master: Background Image

You will use a photo as the background for the Title Master. Photo backgrounds are hard to work with for normal slides, but for a title slide you should be able to position and format the text to be easy enough to read. Title text is usually much larger so it is easier to see against a complex background.

1. Open Slide Master View, if necessary, for the file you have been working on, nz-Lastname-Firstname.pptx.
2. Right click on the background of the Title layout Slide Master.
    
3. From the context menu select Format Background...
   The Format Background dialog or pane appears.
   
4. On the Fill page, select Picture or texture fill.
   

5. Click the File... button under Insert from:
   The Insert Picture dialog opens.

     

6. Navigate to the resource files on your hard disk and select the image beach.jpg.
   The Open button changes to Insert.

   Problem: No resource files on the hard disk
   Solution 1: Download the resource files and unzip to the default location.
   Solution 2: Download the file beach.jpg and save it to a location you can find in the Insert Picture dialog.
   
   

7. Click on the Insert button.
   You are back in the Format Background dialog.

   Live Preview changes the Slide Pane to show your picture in place as a background.

   

   PowerPoint tries to make the whole picture fit on the slide, so the picture may be cropped off or stretched to fit using the Stretch options, depending on the slide's size and the picture's dimensions.

   When you insert a picture on a slide, you have an option to 'Lock aspect ratio' to keep it from stretching out of shape. No such choice here for the background!
   

8. Return to Slide Master View but do NOT click on Apply to All.
   PowerPoint 2007, 2010: Click the Close button.
   You are returned to the Slide Master view with a new background for your Title layout.
   PowerPoint 2013 2016: Click the X button to close the pane.

9. Save As  nz-background-Lastname-Firstname.pptx to your Class disk.
   

   

Title Master: Format Text

The green text is not showing well over part of the photo background. That is a common problem with backgrounds that have both light and dark areas behind the text. There are a few formatting tricks to help - font color, shadowing, place holder background color with transparency, placeholder size and location. For this one, you need to use most of these tricks!

1. Click in the Title placeholder to select it.
   
2. Font Color: On the Home ribbon tab, change the font color to white using the Font Color palette.
   
3. Shadow: On the Home ribbon tab, click the Shadow button to shadow all of the text.
   Did you watch the text when you clicked. The shadow is a subtle effect but it does help.
   
4. Placeholder Background: On the Home ribbon tab, click the arrow beside the Shape Fill button and choose More Fill colors....
   The Colors dialog appears.
   
5. If necessary, select the Standard tab.
   
6. Click on gray hexagon on the top row, 3rd from left.
   
7. Set the transparency to 50%.
   Using a partial transparency allows the photo to show through but it won't compete as much with the text. A good compromise!
   
8. Click on OK.
   
   

9. Click out of the placeholder to deselect it and see the effect of your changes.

   Better! Now your text shows well over both the ocean and the forest in the photo background.
   

10. Close the Master view and show the title slide in the Slide pane.  

11. Click the Slide Show button on the Views bar to see your title slide at full screen size.

    Detail of image:

    Hmmm. That photo is rather fuzzy. The detail shown above is at full size. The effect will be even more noticeable when projected onto a wall screen. This presentation is intended to be viewed on a monitor, so this background would be acceptable, but not great.
    
    Why so fuzzy?? Two causes:

    • Enlarging: The image is only 485 x 318 pixels. PowerPoint enlarged the photo to fit the slide, which enlarged each pixel in the original.
    • Sharpening: The original photo was sharpened in a graphics program. This causes the outlines around edges, called JPEG artifacts. 
      
12. Save.
    [nz-background-Lastname-Firstname.pptx]