Video: Picture backgrounds: Two methods

How to add a logo to your slides. Also, using pictures in the background of a slide (and how to make it more subtle). Plus, a different take on using pictures for dramatic effect.

Picture backgrounds: Two methods

• Click INSERT > Pictures to add images, such as logos.

• To use pictures as a backgrounds, reduce transparency, so that text can be seen. Right-click a blank part of the slide. Click Format Background > Picture or Texture fill, use the menu to change Transparency.

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So, here we are going to show you a couple of different ways to use a picture background.

A lot of people want to use a watermark or even a logo.

To do that, as we talked about in the previous video, you need to open up your slide master. So, let's do that.

Let's go over here to VIEW and click Slide Master.

And now again, the left-hand side is no longer presentation, these are all Slide Masters.

You could pick the top one and put something there. Anything that you put here would be in all of your slides.

I don't think you need logo on all of your slides, just maybe on a few of them, unless you are doing something for security.

So, I am going to pick this slide here. I am going to put something here.

Now if you are doing something small, you can insert a regular picture.

It is not a background– it is a little watermark– so, let's say a logo.

So, INSERT, Pictures. You can grab them from online. I am going to grab them from my desktop here.

Now, I'll grab the logo, and I can drag this around to where I want to. I just click the outside, and I can pull it down.

There are some guides that pop up to guide you in and tell you when to level with things. I am going to put it right there.

And, this will appear anytime I choose this slide in my presentation.

I'll show you that in just a moment, but since I am here, let's just add a picture.

We are going to add a background picture–the whole width.

So, to do that, right-click the blank part of the slide, Format Background.

We'll come back over here to Picture or Texture fill.

Except this time, we are going to choose the picture under File, and I am going to choose this picture.

It might be something for, let's say, the first slide for jumping off event.

Or maybe this is a slide we use a lot in our advertising. We want to use.

Now, it is a pretty strong picture with a lot of colors.

So, again, this is a background, we want to drop it down. It is foreground that is important.

So we are going to take this Transparency bar and move that down, quite aways actually. Just so, it is subtlety there.

Okay, and when I am done, I am going to Close Master View in the ribbon. And now, I am back at my presentation.

And here, I am going to add a New Slide. And here is the new slide (Title Only) I just made.

So, I can choose that one anytime I want the background with a logo.

Now, there is another way to use pictures that I think is a lot of more fun.

But, I think it is a vibrant way of doing it. Let me show you that.

I am going to just insert a regular picture. Let me get a New Slide here. A new Blank slide.

Okay, and then I am going to INSERT a picture from Pictures. I am going to choose the same picture.

I am going to change a few things here. First, I am going to close the Format Picture here, by clicking the box.

And then down here, on the bottom right-hand corner, that is the Zoom. It is not controlling the slide. It is controlling the work space.

And what I want to do, I want to make this smaller. Now, this large white box is the slide itself with the picture.

You can see what it is going to look like here in the thumbnail on the left-hand side. So, watch both spaces.

But what I want to do here is to take this picture and use an element of the picture.

One of the things is I want to take one of these big beautiful pictures now, and if you have something that has a lot of quality to it, you can blow it up, and it still looks really nice.

So, you see what I am doing. I just want to grab an element of this picture, the steps, the action of the picture.

And it has a nice big negative space here, this cement. That is a great place to put text.

So, let's do that. Let's click INSERT, Text Box.

I'll just put a big text box in here. Let me type in something really quick. Let me pick a big font here, something that you can read from the back row.

So, there I can put text, and I can see where it is going to be if I look at the left side, if I look at the thumbnail at the same time.

And now, let's show what it looks like when it is completely done. There!

That is a great way, I think, to use a big vibrant picture with some action. It is a background, but still, it is really vibrant and can really help tell your story.

In fact, we can do a little extra.

Watch this. That new tool in PowerPoint 2013, the Eyedropper. Watch what I can do here.

I am going to select the text, and then, this little mini menu pops up, and I can change the Font Color.

So, let me click on that. And here, I can use the Eyedropper. I can use any picture, any color here.

I can use, the green of the grass, or the blue jeans. I am going to use a little bit of orange shirt, and click that.

And now, my text blends a color from the picture right into the font. That is pretty good looking slide.

We'll show you about removing backgrounds in PowerPoint in our next video.