Tutorial: Custom PowerPoint Background

Since February I have been working for a small advertising/public relations firm as their marketing intern (read more here).  One of my responsibilities is to develop PowerPoint presentations for meetings with clients.  However, recently I was given the task of making a presentation to my boss and co-workers.  Being an ad major (and in the College of Journalism & Communications) in college meant I was surrounded my Photoshop/Presentation/Design/Graphics Nerds 24/7!  Many of my peers used Prezi for class projects, which is a nice tool, but a little complicated for my taste (both to design and to watch).  For my final advertising presentation before graduation last December, I decide to create a custom PowerPoint background to make my teams presentation a bit more unique and professional.  I immediately headed to Google and Lynda.com for help in developing a custom background.  Lynda.com is a member-only video tutorial site.  However, many colleges and universities (luckily, UF does) subscribe to Lynda.com's services for their students and will allow you to sign in using your student log-in information, but if you are no longer a student I highly recommend signing up if you are interested in becoming an Adobe software pro (they offer a million other programs too)! 

How to Make a Custom PowerPoint Background Using Photoshop CS6

(For Mac Users)

1. Open Photoshop CS6 on your desktop.  Then select File, New...

2.  Select Custom Size: 1024 x 768, 300 Pixels/inches.  Then save this size as a preset (Name: PowerPoint Background) to make it easy to come back to in the future.

3.  Design Your Background.  I made mine pretty simple,  I used my companies logo & a single line at the top (in the same color as the logo).  I added text/titles once I was in PowerPoint.  Once you have designed your background, save it as a .jpg to your desktop (so it's easy to find).

4.  Open PowerPoint.  Select File, New Presentation then Format, Slide Background... Select Picture or Texture and upload your file from your desktop.  Then choose Apply!

It's that simple!  Now you can add text, pictures, etc. to complete your custom PowerPoint Slideshow and wow your friends, peers or boss when they see how amazing your PowerPoint presentations look.

*For this tutorial I combined information I learned from other tutorials with my own experiences to give y'all the best advice for making your own custom backgrounds, I hope this was helpful!*

TCP also offers a helpful tutorial.

If you use a PC, let me know how this process differs on a PC!

xoxo

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Labor Day

Hopefully you have the day off from work or school and are having a fabulous leisure day.  If not, maybe some blog reading will brighten up your day in the office.  I am using my day off of work and school to catch up on reading and blog posting and to have my first group meeting of the semester.  Hopefully it will be a very productive day off.

Oh and what do y'all think of my labor day image? I made it on Photoshop!  I am slowly getting the hang of the whole Photoshop, InDesign, etc. suite of software.  It's a lot of fun to experiment with different colors and layouts!

How are you spending your Labor Day?

xoxo

Fun with Photoshop

I finally got Photoshop (and the entire Adobe creative suite) and I am beyond excited to learn the program better.  I have been messing around with it, trying to design logos and fun things with my name (possibly a self branding makeover in the near future or a blog makeover).  I am still learning all the Adobe software and what all they have to offer, but I have made a few things so far just for fun.

Here is the background I made for my iPhone

Here are a few more designs I did for fun, any feedback y'all have is much appreciated!

Name with Silhouette

Monogram

Spots and full name

Feel free to let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions or tips for me!

xoxo