Use a template or change the theme, background or layout in Google Slides

You can customise how your presentation looks in Google Slides. Start your presentation from a template or change the theme, background or layout.

• Theme: A preset group of colours, fonts, backgrounds and layouts.
• Background: The picture or colour behind your slide's content.
• Layout: The way that your text and images are arranged on a slide.
• Template: A pre-designed collection of slides with a combination of:
  • Themes
  • Layouts
  • Backgrounds
  • Fonts
  • Colour schemes
  • Sample or placeholder content

Change theme

1. On your computer, open a presentation in Google Slides.
2. At the top, click Slide Change theme.
3. On the right, click the theme that you want.

Change the background colour or image

Change background colour

A background is the picture or colour behind your slide's content. You can change the background colour of one slide or all the slides in the presentation.

1. On your computer, open a presentation in Google Slides.
2. Choose a slide.
3. At the top, click Slide Change background.
4. To the right of 'Colour', click the box.
5. Select a colour.
   1. To add your own colour, under 'Custom', click Add .
   2. You can select a hex code or manually adjust the colour, hue and transparency.
   3. Click OK.
6. To add the colour to:
   • One slide, click Done.
   • The entire presentation, click Add to theme.

Change background image

You can add an image from Google Drive or your computer to one slide or the whole presentation.

Important: Images must be a .gif, .jpg or .png, and less than 50 MB.

1. On your computer, open a presentation in Google Slides.
2. Choose a slide.
3. At the top, click Slide Change background.
4. To the right of 'Image', click Choose.
5. Choose an image, then click Select.
   • To add the image to one slide, click Done.
   • To add the image to the whole presentation, click Add to theme.

Tip: You can also drag and drop an image in Google Slides. Hover near the edge of your presentation canvas to replace a background image in your presentation.

Import new theme

Important: Import a new theme for your background from:

• A Google Slide or PowerPoint presentation
• Your own image

1. On your computer, open a presentation in Google Slides.
2. At the top, click Slide Change theme.
3. At the bottom right, click Import theme.
4. Double-click the presentation that you want to use.
5. Click the theme that you want.
6. Click Import theme.

Edit your theme colours

You can change the individual colours that make up your presentation's theme.

1. On your computer, open a presentation in Google Slides.
2. At the top, click Slide Edit theme Colours .
3. At the right, under 'Theme colours', select the colour that you want to edit from the drop-down.
   • To use a pre-set colour: Under 'Default', click the colour that you want to use.
   • To customise a colour: In the multi-coloured square, click the colour that you want to use or enter a hex value. You can also change the transparency of each colour.

Change layout

A layout is the way that your text and images are arranged on a slide.

1. On your computer, open a presentation in Google Slides.
2. Select a slide.
3. At the top, click Layout.
4. Select the layout that you want to use.

Create slides from a template

A layout is the way that your text and images are arranged on a slide.

1. On your computer, open a presentation in Google Slides.
2. On the toolbar, select File New From template gallery.
3. On the right, click the theme that you want.