PowerPoint comes with pre-installed color schemes. These schemes contain eight complementary colors. Specific colors are assigned to headline, body, background, etc. You can assign a color scheme to the following: a "blank" presentation, a presentation based on a presentation design template, and on a presentation based on a presentation (content) template. So, when you choose a template for your presentation, don’t worry too much about the default color choice. You can always change that later.

To choose a color scheme

1. Open an existing PowerPoint presentation or create a new one. Remember, you can attach a color scheme to any presentation, so feel free to use whatever template you desire or start from scratch.



2. On the Format menu, select Slide Color Scheme.



3. On the Standard tab, select the desired color scheme and click Apply to All.

What if you want to change a color later?

If you use only the colors supplied in the color scheme (the default colors that appear whenever you are given the option to select color), AND you later want to change the color scheme: NO PROBLEM. PowerPoint replaces the original colors with ones from the new scheme. However, if you select a color scheme and then make an arbitrary change, PowerPoint does not replace the aberrant color if you choose a new color scheme.

A word about background color

What are the best colors to use as backgrounds? In general, cool colors make better backgrounds. These colors include shades of blue and green. Additionally, purple may work well as a background.

Conversely, the worst backgrounds are usually the "hot" colors. These include red and orange. However, both of these colors make excellent choices for graphics such as charts and diagrams. Yellow also does not work well as a background.

There are, of course, exceptions to the rule. One of the best presentations that we have ever seen used a red and maroon striped background.