How to Use Preset Background Styles
As you can see, whenever you apply a theme in ActivePresenter 8, you see all slides have the same default background style. To be more precise, this is one of twelve Preset Background Styles provided with the applied theme. Basically, all themes have their own Preset Background Styles.
Now, let’s explore how to use and customize these background styles in this tutorial.
Use Preset Background Styles
In general, ActivePresenter offers twelve Preset Background Styles. As mentioned before, these background styles come with the Theme Colors you’ve applied to the current project. To access them, follow these steps:
Step 1: Select a slide.
Step 2: Click Design tab > Background Styles 
. Then, you see the preset background gallery.
In the gallery, one of these 12 styles is highlighted with a gray outline. In fact, this indicates the background style applied to the selected slide. You can hover over any style to see how it will affect the look of your slide.
In addition, there are two options in this gallery. We’ll talk about them in the note below.
Step 3: To apply a preset background style, click any style you want. This changes the background style of all slides that use the same Slide Master as the selected slide.
To have more options, right-click a style, and do either of the following:
- Apply to Matching Slides: This option works the same way as when you click a preset background style.
- Apply to Selected Slides: This applied the background style to currently selected slides only. The option is useful when you want to apply different styles to different slides.
- Apply to All Slides: This applied the background style to all slides in your working project.
Note:
- When you switch to a new theme, Preset Background Styles are updated. In fact, each theme has a different set of Preset Background Styles.
- The colors of Preset Background Styles are based on the Theme Colors.
- If the new background style doesn’t satisfy you, click Reset Slide Background to restore the original slide background.
- The Hide Background Objects option is available for slide layouts and slides only. When checked, this option hides objects in the Slide Master that is used by the slide.
Customize Preset Background Styles
ActivePresenter lets you customize Preset Background Styles. This means you’re able to create your own set of them. Note that you need to have a basic knowledge of Slide Masters to do this task.
Then, perform these steps:
Step 1: Select the slide you want to change.
Step 2: In the View tab > Slide Master 
. Then, the Master View appears. Looking at the left pane, you see a selected layout used by the current slide.
Step 3: Navigate to the Properties pane > Slide Properties tab > Background Fill section.
Here you have three options to customize the background style. So, select any of them:
- Solid Fill: Add a solid color background to your slide. To select the color, click the Color Picker (1).
- Gradient Fill: Specify a gradient as a slide background. A gradient is a mix of two or more colors which merge into each other.
- Image Fill: Import an image from your file system as a slide background. Alternatively, another way to do that is use the Background Image section in the Properties pane.
For further details about how to use those options, refer to Modifying Slide Background.
Step 4: Click Apply to Preset and select any preset background you wish to change. In this way, you can see the new color is applied to it immediately.
In case the changes don’t please you, click Reset Background to revert to the original background.
Step 5: Go to the Slide Master tab > Close Master View. Next, click Design > Background Styles to see the new Preset Background Styles.
Conclusion
That’s enough to know how to use Preset Background Styles in ActivePresenter 8. So, download the app today and try this feature. And don’t forget to contact us if you need any support.
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