Applying Theme Colors and Theme Fonts
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: Microsoft PowerPoint 2007
OS: Microsoft Windows XP / Vista
Date Created: May 28th 2008
Last Updated: February 27th 2009
Excerpt/Capsule:
Why Just Colors and Fonts?
Applying Theme Colors
Applying Theme Fonts
Why Just Colors and Fonts?
When you normally apply a theme in PowerPoint, you end up applying theme colors, theme fonts, theme effects, theme backdrops, and much more. However there are scenarios in which you really don't require such a complete makeover or metamorphosis. In that case, you can still apply Theme Colors and Theme Fonts and leave all other Theme attributes unchanged.
I showed you how you can apply a Theme to a PowerPoint, Word, or Excel file -- in this tutorial, we'll look at how you can apply Theme Colors and Theme Fonts in PowerPoint.
Remember -- the galleries for applying Theme Colors and Theme Fonts can be found in the Design tab of the Ribbon -- just click the Colors or Fonts options as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Colors and Fonts options, when clicked show a detailed dropdown gallery.
Applying Theme Colors
Each PowerPoint presentation includes at least one built-in Theme Color set -- in addition, PowerPoint installs many Theme Color sets by default -- a Theme Color set comprises 12 individual coordinated colors that are carefully chosen using color science principles.
Remember -- Although the Theme Color gallery only displays 8 colors, be assured that each Theme Color set in fact has 12 colors -- the first two background/text colors are normally black and white -- so they are not displayed. In addition, the last two colors representing the colors of hyperlinked text are also not displayed in the Theme Colors gallery that you can see in Figure 2 later on this page.
Follow the step to apply a net set of Themes Colors:
- Open or create a new presentation -- select the Design tab of the Ribbon -- and click the Colors button (refer to Figure 1 above).
- This open the Theme Colors gallery that you can see in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Theme Colors gallery
The highlighted Theme Color set is the one that is already applied to the open presentation.
- To preview how any other Theme Color set will look, hover your cursor over any of the other Theme Color sets in the Theme Color gallery -- you'll see a live preview of the changed colors as shown in Figure 3 .
Figure 3: Choosing Theme Colors
- Once you are happy with a particular Theme Color set, click on it to apply it to the entire presentation.
Tip: Changing Theme Colors on a set of text slides won't show too much of a difference -- this works best when you have slides with plenty of shapes, charts, SmartArt, etc.
You can also apply a Theme Color set to selected slides. To do that, select individual slides in Slide Sorter view (see PowerPoint 2007 Views), then right-click on the Theme Color set you want to apply -- then choose the Apply to Selected Slides as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Apply to Selected Slides
Applying Theme Fonts
A Theme Font set comprises two fonts. The first font is used for the slide titles/heading and the second one is for everything else. Some built-in Theme Font sets use the same font family for both purposes -- and that's perfectly fine!
Follow the step to apply a new set of Themes Fonts:
- Open or create a new presentation -- select the Design tab of the Ribbon -- and click the Fonts button (refer to Figure 1 above).
- This open the Theme Fonts gallery that you can see in Figure 5.
Figure 5: Theme Fonts gallery
The Theme Font set which is highlighted is the one applied to the open presentation.
- Hover your cursor over any of the available Theme Fonts sets to see a live preview of the fonts as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6: Choosing Theme Font sets
- Click on the Theme ont set that you want to apply.
Previous Topic: Applying Themes
Next Topic: Saving the Theme
Carmine Gallo is a communications coach for the world’s most admired brands. His client list includes Intel, Chase, Barclays, IBM, Nokia, and many others. 
