A design template provides color, style, and decorative accents to a presentation. It determines the slide background, bullet and font styles, font color, and font size. To apply a design template, click the Design Template button or choose Format and choose Slide Design. The slide design task pane opens. Scroll through the designs and select the desired design. Don't overlook the option to choose a design template online. Scroll to the end of the list, click Design Templates on Microsoft Office Online. At the Microsoft Office site, select a category. Scroll through the templates. Click on the thumbnail. Download the template. Now you have the template available to use on this presentation as well as future presentations.
If you have selected a design template and you don't like the colors, you can change the color and still use the same template. Click Design and click Color Schemes. Then other color combinations can be used that will give the presentation a totally different look. You will notice, I am just clicking in the Slide Design Color Scheme task pane. Keep the one you are most happy with.
If you wish to change the background on a slide or on all slides, it can be done using the background fills. Click on Format, Background. On the background dialog box, using the drop-down arrow. Y, you can choose a different color. I'll select red. You will notice the background of the slide is red. You can also choose to omit the background graphic from the master, if there is one. This can be applied to one slide by clicking Apply or to all slides. I'll select Apply and apply it to this one slide. You see the difference. So there is an option to change the background to change the appearance of a slide.
When PowerPoint opens, there is only one slide in the show. It is up to you to add the rest. To add a slide, right-click the slide in the Outline/Slides pane. From the shortcut menu, select New Slide. You will notice there is a second slide that has been added. The default slide is the bulleted list. Another way to add a slide is to click on New Slide. Again, you will see there is an additional slide in the window. If you would like to create several slides, you may do so by repeatedly clicking New Slide. Then choose the layout. The title and text bulleted list is the one that displays. You may choose title and two column text by simply clicking the sample. Scroll down the list and you will notice there are a number of choices. This one is title, text, and content. Text can be entered at the left side of the slide and a table, chart, clipart, a picture, etc, can be inserted on the right side of the slide.