How to Change the Design of One Slide in PowerPoint?

Do you want to change the design of a single slide in your PowerPoint presentation without affecting the design of your other slides? Whether you want to highlight an important point, differentiate sections of your presentation, or just add some visual variety, PowerPoint makes it easy to modify the design of individual slides. In this article, we’ll walk you through the steps to change the design of one slide in PowerPoint.

Understanding Slide Layouts and Themes

Before we get into the specifics of changing an individual slide’s design, it’s important to understand how slide layouts and themes work in PowerPoint.

What is a Slide Layout?

A slide layout is a pre-formatted slide with placeholders for content like titles, body text, images, charts, etc. PowerPoint includes a variety of built-in slide layouts to choose from. When you add a new slide, you select which layout to use.

Some common slide layouts include:

• Title Slide
• Title and Content
• Two Content
• Comparison
• Picture with Caption

What is a Theme?

A theme is a design template that determines the overall look and feel of your presentation, including the color scheme, fonts, effects, background styles, and more. When you apply a theme, it affects all the slides in your presentation to give it a consistent, professional design.

PowerPoint includes many built-in themes to choose from, or you can create your own custom theme. Themes make it easy to change the overall design with just a few clicks.

How to Change the Design of One Slide

Now that you understand slide layouts and themes, let’s look at how to change the design of an individual slide without affecting the rest of your presentation.

Option 1: Change the Slide Layout

The simplest way to change the design of one slide is to apply a different slide layout. Here’s how:

1. In PowerPoint, navigate to the slide you want to modify.
2. Go to the “Home” tab and locate the “Slides” group.
3. Click on the “Layout” dropdown menu to see the available slide layouts.
4. Select the desired layout for your slide. The slide will update to match the new layout while retaining your existing content.
5. Adjust and reposition the content on your slide as needed to fit the new layout.

Changing the slide layout allows you to quickly apply a different pre-formatted design to your slide. This is useful if you want to change from a text-heavy layout to one that emphasizes images, for example.

Option 2: Customize the Background

Another way to change the design of a slide is to give it a unique background that differs from your theme. You can choose a solid color, gradient, picture, or pattern. Here’s how:

1. Select the slide you want to modify.
2. Go to the “Design” tab and locate the “Customize” group.
3. Click on “Format Background”. This will open the Format Background pane on the right.
4. In the Format Background pane, select the fill type:

• Solid fill: Choose a solid color background
• Gradient fill: Create a smooth transition between two or more colors
• Picture or texture fill: Use an image or texture as the background
• Pattern fill: Apply a two-color pattern

1. Customize the settings for your selected fill type, such as the colors, transparency, etc.
2. If desired, modify other background options like applying effects or hiding background graphics.
3. When you’re done, close the Format Background pane. Your changes will be applied to the selected slide only.

Using a custom background allows you to create a unique look for individual slides while still keeping the overall theme for the rest of the presentation.

Option 3: Apply a Different Color Scheme

Each PowerPoint theme includes several color variations called color schemes or variants. Applying a different color scheme to one slide can change its appearance without altering the fonts or effects. Here’s how:

1. Select the slide to modify.
2. Go to the “Design” tab and locate the “Variants” group.
3. Click on the dropdown arrow to see the color variants for the current theme.
4. Choose the desired color scheme. The colors on your selected slide will update.

If you don’t see a color scheme you like, you can also create your own custom color scheme from the “Colors” dropdown menu.

Changing the color scheme is a quick way to apply a new set of coordinated colors to a slide without changing the layout or background.

Option 4: Copy Design from Another Slide

If you’ve already created a slide with the design you want, you can easily copy that formatting to another slide. Here’s how:

1. Select the slide with the formatting you want to copy.
2. Go to the “Home” tab and locate the “Clipboard” group.
3. Click on the “Format Painter” button. Your cursor will change to a paintbrush icon.
4. Click on the slide you want to apply the formatting to. The design from the original slide will be copied.

You can double-click the Format Painter to apply the same formatting to multiple slides. When you’re done, click the Format Painter button again or press Esc to turn it off.

Best Practices for Changing Slide Design

When modifying the design of individual slides, keep these tips in mind:

• Use design changes purposefully. Altering the layout or style of a slide can be an effective way to highlight key information or signal a transition. But too many design changes can make your presentation look disjointed and unprofessional.
• Keep it consistent. While individual slides can have their own designs, make sure they still visually fit with the rest of the presentation. Use the same fonts, colors, and effects as much as possible.
• Consider accessibility. When choosing background colors and images, make sure there is enough contrast for your text to be easily readable. Avoid using distracting backgrounds that make the content hard to see.
• Don’t overdo it. Changing the design of slides can enhance your presentation, but don’t let it distract from your key messages. Keep the design clean, simple, and professional looking.

Final Thoughts

PowerPoint offers several easy ways to change the design of one slide without affecting your entire presentation. By modifying the slide layout, background, color scheme, or copying formatting from another slide, you can create visual interest and highlight important information.

Use these design options purposefully and consistently to enhance your presentation’s professional appearance and reinforce your message. With these strategies, you can take your PowerPoint slides from basic to impressive!

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Trish Dixon

Trish Dixon is the founder of PPTBliss and a PowerPoint expert with over a decade of experience in presentation design. Passionate about visual storytelling, Trish shares her expertise through easy-to-follow tutorials on slide design, animations, transitions, and best practices, helping professionals create impactful presentations across industries.

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