Texture Fills for Slide Backgrounds in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

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 in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

1. We assume you have created a new presentation, or you have opened one 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 (or Ctrl + 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 Figure 2 below).
2. 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.
3. 
   Figure 2: Picture or Texture tab selected within the Format Background dialog box
3. 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.
4. 
   Figure 3: Textures gallery
4. 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 for Mac tutorial.
5. 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.
6. 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.
5. Set the Texture Fill as the slide background using the options available. Thereafter, apply the fill to your slides by clicking either:
6. 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.
7. The Apply to All button to fill all slides in the presentation with the Texture Fill.
8. More details about the Apply and Apply to All buttons can be found in our Format Slide Background tutorial.
6. In Figure 4 below, you can see a presentation with the Texture Filled background.
7. 
   Figure 4: Presentation with a Texture Filled background
7. Remember to save your presentation often.