Trick: Create Animated Background Themes in PowerPoint

Motion Background Transcript

A YouTube commenter asked if I had tips on adding motion to a presentation background.

For ALL OF THE SLIDES.

Let’s Power Up with the fast way, in under 60 seconds, and then a second more elegant way to create a motion effect new slide THEME that is beyond the old, tired PowerPoint themes.

Start the 60-second clock.

Begin with a blank presentation in PowerPoint 365 Mac or Windows.

Let’s create a pretend presentation about the OCEAN.

Now, for the PowerPoint magic trick, go to the DESIGN ribbon menu tab. On the far-right side, click the DESIGNER action command icon.

The Office 365 Designer tool offers some cool new looks based on my keyword of OCEAN. Very often, the first recommendation at the top will be related to your keyword and provide not just a matching look but also a MOTION-related video.

Click and apply

Let’s check it out in the slide show.

Wow, a great motion background in under 60 seconds, but look closely at the quality of the video selected.

I like Microsoft’s offerings because they fit perfectly, filling the full slide screen.

The motion appears to be never-ending, meaning you can’t tell that they “Auto Repeat” in a looping fashion that will continue no matter how long you stay on the slide. Perfect for short and long speaking parts.

To see how that was achieved, I will click on the video object, and I get two pop-up context-aware menus of VIDEO FORMAT and PLAYBACK.

Focus on PLAYBACK.

There are TWO ESSENTIAL Options: START AUTOMATICALLY is on, and so is LOOP AND REPEAT. That way, when the slide appears in the slide show, the video starts and will loop and loop until I go to the next slide.

Great. Now, just copy the video object for future use.

Create a new slide.

Paste the copied video.

And make sure that START AUTOMATIC and LOOP are still on.

Yup.

There is one issue: The video is ON THE TOP LAYER of my slide, so I don’t see any of the obscured text entry boxes.

A quick fix: mouse right-click and choose SEND TO BACK.

The titles are now revealed. With the motion video shuffled to the bottom layer, behind the text and any other graphics.

I will add some text; and then duplicate the slide to have a third slide with all the settings preserved.

Then, I play the slide show again.

BINGO, it works.

Hi, this is Les from Power Up Training, and we can do 10 times better; so, let’s dig deeper.

Topic #1: Word Hints for Backgrounds

The keyword on the title is the key to making this work. It will give Microsoft clues for designing a new look for the topic of our presentation.

Let’s start with a fresh presentation. And it is essential to always start fresh with a BLANK PRESENTATION. If not, this will fail.

I will go straight to the DESIGN menu and click DESIGNER to open it up.

Before I start, you must be using the paid OFFICE 365 to get the latest creative version of Designer. And connected to the internet.

Note that this will work on both Windows and the Apple macOS versions of PowerPoint.

With the blank title, put in a keyword.

Here is Water. Click outside the box to tell PowerPoint you are done, and it will then generate a design based on your word hint.

A critical step is that only the top choice will have motion . . . it is subtle but there is a small camera icon in the bottom corner . . . the star icons below are just one-time graphic animation; not repeating video animation.

Click and preview.

It may load a pixelated version as it downloads the high-definition version from the internet.

If the video stops playing while in PowerPoint edit mode, click the movie to see the play button.

Let me undo that, and with a blank canvas, try out the keyword “WIND.”

This one is less distracting than our earlier almost seasick motion of waves, with this video just a single set of wind turbines is spinning.

Undo and I can try for more drama with WIND STORM.

Or undo that and go for a more abstract motion video with the keyword of “numbers.”

All in all, it is a roll of the dice for what you will get. Try different words or sets of words. And if you find something close to your liking, save it!

As sometimes you are unable to regenerate the same suggestion with the same word when you come back. The inspiration is lost. And that is frustrating. Save and then try again to see if you can find something even better.

Topic #2: The Magic of Themes

PowerPoint has had formatting THEMES forever, as seen here. Select a theme, and PowerPoint will change the background, color scheme, fonts, word placement, and graphics. There is a lot going on to transform your slide show. All with just a single click.

But most of the standard themes look almost as old as me—well, not that old. But they have become dated, overused, and boring.

However, here is some new magic pixie dust: these next steps will create a unique theme unlike any you have used before and most likely never seen in any of the presentations you have sat or slept through in the past.

The FIRST important step is to ALWAYS START FRESH! With a blank presentation.

With just one and only one UNTOUCHED title slide. ZERO second or third slides! Just ONE slide.

Put in your keyword to search for a moving background. Don’t worry; you can change the title slide wording after you are done. The keyword will help discover the motion video that may match your presentation topic.

I will revisit this later in the video, but note how the graphic square overlays and positioning of the title, and subtitle plus a typeface change. All with the single click of the NUMBERS Motion Design offering . . . instant full presentation transformation.

A Brand New UNIQUE PRESENTATION THEME!

For now, right-click the moving video and COPY the object for future reuse.

Topic #3: The Slide Master

Now to go behind the curtains: VIEW on the ribbon menu and SLIDE MASTER.

The master slides control the look of your entire presentation, including fonts, colors, and backgrounds.

You can insert a shape or logo on a slide master, which will appear on all your slides.

And in our case, we will insert the motion background to be repeated on all the future slides in our presentation.

While I have a deep dive tutorial on the Slide Master, which is one of my most popular tutorials, let me just oversimply to say that the top parent slide layout impacts all the children slides underneath. These children slides are PowerPoint individual slide layouts.

So when I paste our motion video at the top parent, it will flow down to all the below children layouts.

And like before, after confirming START AUTOMATIC and LOOP are on, I can right-click and send to Back . . . on the bottom layer.

As I mentioned, when you click on the designer choice image, that did more than just the motion image; it changed the font style, title locations, color schemes and so much more.

It is magical pixie dust to prettify our slide decks.

But it’s not always right. So, you may wish to tinker with the settings.

Watch me go to the HOME ribbon menu. This text box uses the unique font style of Universe Condensed.

I think the font size is too small to read, so I will increase the font size and make it bold.

Also, the wording does get lost in our moving background of numbers, so let me select the text box and under SHAPE FORMAT click the Shape Style flyout menu and then change the fill to solid.

Do note that a new collection theme colors were also set with that same simple design click of the moving numbers.

So the newly created range of colors should match or complement the image.

Remember, none of this magic happens if you do NOT start with a BLANK presentation and add a keyword and select an image from DESIGNER and do NOT add more slides, go straight to SLIDE MASTER.

Deviate from this plan, and risk this not working.

Now I will change the transparency, so we see the moving background but also have the text get separated apart with the box-filled color.

When happy with the changes, I need to exit the slide master mode to return to the presentation.

Here you could get lost, so do go back to the SLIDE MASTER ribbon menu and there on the far right is CLOSE MASTER VIEW.

Let’s test our new theme.

I will add a new slide and . . .wow there is our motion background. All automagic.

Thanks, slide master.

And because we added the transparent fade color, our text stands out from the busy-moving background.

I will add a third slide but change the layout to Two Contents and note how all the children layouts follow the parent slide master that I altered earlier with the semi-transparent text box fill.

Now, it is simple to access and CONSISTENT for the whole presentation. CLASSY!

And again.

Once we launch the slide show, we see the continuous motion background but the BONUS of a wholly new and fresh theme.

If you want to learn more about themes and slide master, then click this tutorial.

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Until next time,  Go Power Up.