A simple looking presentation with a clean background is always a great idea since that doesn’t overpower your message. Yet, there are plenty of opportunities to go beyond a plain background and use a less restrained background instead — your choice for a slide background should complement the content of your presentation. PowerPoint 2011 does provide you with 12 default slide Background Styles which can be applied to both the Slide Master and individual Slide Layouts — other than these default background styles, you can also opt to use a custom slide background such as a solid color, a gradient, a pattern or texture, or even a picture.

