Just What is a Background, Anyway??When photos are too good for PowerPointThe editor of Animations.com, Chris Dickman, is a long-time friend and colleague, and when he asked us to write an instructional article for PowerPoint users that featured the content at the website, it gave us pause. The website has some terrific photos and illustrations in its library of PowerPoint templates. In fact, the artwork is too good... |
We are big proponents of using photography and imagery instead of the seemingly-endless procession of bullets that curses the presentation landscape. So we were conflicted when we reached the conclusion that sometimes use of a photo can hurt, not help. Indeed, it is possible for background imagery to be so striking that it could actually take attention away from the content designed for the foreground. You should never reject material because it is too good, however, so instead, view it as an opportunity to exercise a new and easily-learned skill in PowerPoint. For instance, Figure 1 shows an Architectural image with a beautiful deep-blue image. The vertical lines and the setting sun both add quite a bit of drama to the illustration…but they also compete with the title and subtitle text. You could mitigate this a bit by dropping a reversed-out shadow behind the text (white if you use black titles; black if you use white), but before long, your audience will become fatigued. Your mission here is to reduce the contrast so the image sinks into the background more. It will still be plenty dramatic, but with less risk of overwhelming the foreground. Start by editing the master title slide, because you want this change to apply to every title slide that you use in your presentation. Draw a rectangle over the entire title slide. Using the tools in the Drawing toolbar at the bottom of the interface, remove the outline and set the fill to a deep, dark blue (we chose 0R 0G 102B). When finished, the rectangle will cover everything, but not for long. Any element you create in PowerPoint can have transparency applied to it, and that is the key to this adventure. Right-click the rectangle, choose Format AutoShape, and note the Transparency slider near the top of the dialog. Move the slider to the right to add transparency, and click the Preview button to see the results right away. Adjust the slider until you are satisfied with the results. We like about 60% transparency, as shown in Figure 2. OK the dialog box and then use the Draw menu at the lower-left to move the rectangle all the way to the back – that way the title and subtitle text will be in front of the rectangle and will appear in bright white. With the background muted a bit, the text will be more readable and that beautiful illustration will be more effective as a background image. Now you have a slide design that you can work with. |