Using Custom Textures as Slide Backgrounds in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

In this series of tutorials on Slide Background fills, you have already explored various slide background styles available in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac. You have learned about solid, gradient, picture, and texture fills for Slide Backgrounds. When you use texture fills for your Slide Backgrounds, you need not limit yourself to only the default textures that PowerPoint offers. You can always explore some custom textures such as our own Ppted Background Texture Collection. Also some pictures lend themselves better to being used as textures, especially if they are seamless. In this tutorial you will learn how to use custom textures for your Slide Background fills. Follow these steps to learn more:

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 1, 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 1.
3. 
   Figure 1: Picture or Texture tab selected within the Format Background dialog box
3. Within the Picture or Texture tab, click the Choose Picture button (highlighted in blue within Figure 1). We know that this tutorial is about adding a texture, and we are asking you to click the Choose Picture button. Just bear with us for a while, and continue. Clicking this button opens the Choose a Picture dialog box, as shown in Figure 2.
4. 
   Figure 2: Choose a Picture dialog box
4. Within the Choose a Picture dialog box, navigate to the folder where you have placed your custom textures, select the texture that you want to use as the Slide Background fill, and click the Insert button. You will see that the background of the active slide changes to the selected texture (see Figure 3).
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   Figure 3: Slide Background showing pixelation
6. But, as you can see in Figure 3 above, the Slide Background applied with the custom texture is pixelated. This is because the custom texture has been applied as a picture fill, and it has been enlarged by default to fill the entire Slide Background, just like what happens with any other picture fill. To solve this problem, select the Tile check-box within the Format Background dialog box (highlighted in red within Figure 3). This option lets you use any picture you insert as a texture.
5. In Figure 4, you can see that the Tile check-box has been selected (highlighted in red within Figure 4), and the Slide Background applied with the custom texture is no more pixelated since it has been tiled. Compare Figures 3 and 4.
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   Figure 4: Selecting the Tile check-box removes the pixelation by tiling the custom texture
6. Set the custom texture fill as the Slide Background using the options available. Thereafter, apply the fill to your slides by clicking either:
7. The Apply button to fill selected slides in the presentation with the custom texture fill. If you don't have multiple slides selected, the custom texture fill will be applied to the active slide only.
8. The Apply to All button to fill all slides in the presentation with the custom texture fill.
9. More details about the Apply and Apply to All buttons can be found in our Format Slide Background tutorial.
7. In Figure 5, you can see that the Slide Background is filled with the selected custom texture fill.
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   Figure 5: Presentation with a custom texture filled background
8. Remember to save your presentation often.