If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed trying to create a cohesive look for your PowerPoint presentation, I’ve got great news for you. Microsoft has built-in design that can transform your slides in seconds, and I’m going to walk you through exactly how to use PowerPoint Themes.
What Are PowerPoint Themes?
PowerPoint themes are pre-built design templates that give your entire presentation a consistent look and feel. The beauty of using themes is that they automatically apply to every slide in your deck, saving you hours of formatting time.
When to Apply a Theme
That’s completely up to you!
It’s one of the advantages of working with themes, rather than manually applying design elements.
You can start with a blank presentation file and select your theme at the beginning.
Or you can create your slides and content first.
One tip if you create your slides first – save the presentation then switch off autosave. Sure you can change your mind, switching between themes plus there’s undo. However, it can make it easy to return to the standard colours. Simply close the file without saving and open the last saved version.
Finding Your Perfect Theme
If you want to see the effect your theme has on your slides, then I recommend working in slide sorter view.
You’ll find themes under the Design tab in the desktop version of PowerPoint.
They are split into two main galleries: themes and variants. Themes are the overall design templates, whilst variants offer different colour schemes and backgrounds for each theme. There’s a dropdown arrow that reveals even more options beyond what’s displayed in the gallery.
One tip I love sharing: Microsoft offers additional theme files you can download directly from their website if the built-in options don’t quite fit your needs.
You can head over to Microsoft’s official page to find more downloadable themes: https://create.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-templates.
Just click “browse for themes” in the theme drop-down list, to upload any you’ve saved.
Customising to Match Your Brand
Here’s where it gets really powerful. Let’s say you find a theme that’s almost perfect, but the colours or fonts aren’t quite right. Rather than starting from scratch, you can customise individual elements through the variants option.
You can adjust background styles, switching from white to grey with a single click. The font customisation feature is particularly useful – I can create custom font pairings for headings and body text, then save them for future use. I’ve named mine “MK1” so I can easily access it again.
The colour customisation works the same way. You can choose from preset colour schemes or create your own custom palette.
My advice? Have a sample slide visible with the elements you typically use (text, shapes, images) before you start experimenting with colours. Some options work better with light backgrounds, whilst others suit darker designs.
The Real Time-Saver
The most significant advantage of using themes is efficiency. When I update a theme setting, it automatically applies across every slide in my presentation. No need to manually adjust each slide individually – especially valuable when you’re working with larger slide decks.
And don’t worry about making mistakes. The undo command is your friend, and you can always return to the original default theme if you change your mind.
PowerPoint themes genuinely make creating professional, branded presentations so much simpler. Give them a try on your next project!
Written with the help of Claude AI from an original transcription.
YouTube Videos
PowerPoint Transitions Made Easy: Complete Beginner’s Guide
How to Create PowerPoint Handouts in Word – Quick & Easy Tutorial
Improve Your Presentation Skills with PowerPoint’s Built-in Presenter Coach
Stop Struggling with PowerPoint Charts – Use SmartArt Instead!
PowerPoint Themes Explained: Customise Your Presentations Easily
Other PowerPoint Posts
PowerPoint Transition Secrets Every Presenter Should Know
PowerPoint Handouts Made Simple
PowerPoint’s Presenter Coach: Your Secret Weapon for Better Presentations
PowerPoint SmartArt: Your Quick Solution for Professional Charts
PowerPoint Themes: Your Secret Weapon for Professional Presentations (current post)
Recent Posts
- Ready to Create Your First Microsoft Loop Workspace?
If you read last week’s blog, you’ll already know what Microsoft Loop is and who can access it. Now it’s time to get hands-on and create your first Microsoft Loop workspace. Don’t worry if you’re not sure where to start — by the end of this post, you’ll have your own workspace set up and… Read more: Ready to Create Your First Microsoft Loop Workspace? - Microsoft Loop – Time to Actually Use What’s Already in Your M365 Toolkit
If you’ve been asking yourself what is Microsoft Loop, you’re not alone. It’s one of those tools that quietly appeared in your Microsoft 365 apps and left you wondering, “what on earth is that?” In this post, I’m going to break it down in plain English so you can decide whether it’s worth exploring. So,… Read more: Microsoft Loop – Time to Actually Use What’s Already in Your M365 Toolkit - Busy But Not Out of Office? Teams Has You Covered
If you’ve ever wished there was a way to let people know you’re heads-down on something without setting up a full out of office, the Microsoft Teams status message is exactly what you need. It’s a small but mighty feature that sits quietly in Teams, waiting to be discovered. In this post, I’m walking you… Read more: Busy But Not Out of Office? Teams Has You Covered - The Quickest Way to Navigate Microsoft Teams
If you spend a lot of time in Microsoft Teams, you’ll know the struggle — endless scrolling through chats and channels trying to find the one you need. The Microsoft Teams GoTo command is here to fix that. It’s a simple keyboard shortcut that takes you straight where you need to go, no scrolling required.… Read more: The Quickest Way to Navigate Microsoft Teams - Can’t Find Your Unread Teams Messages? Try This First
Have you ever noticed a notification in Microsoft Teams telling you there’s an unread message, but no matter where you look, you just can’t track it down? You’re not alone — it’s one of those small but genuinely frustrating things that can eat up your time. The good news is there’s a really simple way… Read more: Can’t Find Your Unread Teams Messages? Try This First
powerpoint themes, custom presentation themes, professional presentation themes