Change a slide's background

Every new slide starts plain white. You can give a slide a solid colour, a gradient, or an image behind your text and pictures, and choose whether the change lands on one slide, the slides that follow, or the whole presentation.

You need editor access to change a background. If you can only view the presentation, the controls below are not available.

Open the background options

1. Open your presentation in Slides and select the slide you want in the left panel.
2. Click an empty part of the canvas so nothing is selected, or press Escape to clear the selection.
3. The properties panel on the right now shows the Background section for that slide, with a row of buttons for the background type: no fill, solid colour, gradient, and image.

Whatever you set here changes the current slide straight away. To spread it to other slides, use Apply to at the bottom, described below.

Set a solid colour

1. Click the solid colour button (the palette icon) in the Background row.
2. Click the swatch next to Color and pick a colour from the picker. The slide updates as you choose.

Set a gradient

1. Click the gradient button in the Background row.
2. Set the two ends of the gradient with the From and To swatches. Either one can be set to Transparent.
3. Pick a direction from the grid under Direction. Each button points the gradient a different way, from Top-left through to Bottom-right.

Set an image

1. Click the image button (the picture icon) in the Background row. The Background image picker opens.
2. Choose your image one of two ways:
   • Click Upload from device to pick a file from your computer.
   • Browse your Drive, click an image, then click Select.
3. The image fills the slide. Use the Fit dropdown to choose how it sits: Cover fills the slide and crops if needed, and Contain shows the whole image.
4. To swap it for a different one, click Replace.

Apply to more than one slide

By default a background change affects only the current slide. To reuse it across the presentation:

1. Set the background you want on the current slide.
2. Open the Apply to dropdown and choose This slide, This and following, or All slides.
3. Click Apply. The background copies to every slide in the range you picked.

Applying to all slides is a deliberate step, so dragging a colour never changes the whole presentation by accident.

Remove a background

To return a slide to plain white, click the no fill button (the crossed-out circle) at the start of the Background row. To remove an image but keep a background type set, click the bin icon next to Replace.

To clear the background from several slides at once, remove it on one slide, then choose the range in Apply to and click Apply.

For the text and images you place on top of a background, see Insert text and images.