You can make an element (such as a company logo or other graphic, text, or color) appear on every slide that’s based on a particular master slide.

Using this technique is one way to create groups of related slides within a presentation. You could, for example, incorporate a subtle difference in the background of each group of slides. To do so, you create a set of master slides with each of the different backgrounds.

To modify a master slide background:
  1. Select a master slide to work with.

  2. Select unwanted elements and then press the Delete key.

  3. If you want an object (shape, image, sound or movie file, table, or chart) to be a background element, add it to the master slide and then size and position it on the slide.

    After you place an object, you can choose Arrange > Lock to prevent it from being accidentally moved as you work.

  4. To allow master objects to interleave with objects added to slides based on that master, open the Master Slide inspector, click Appearance, and select “Allow objects on slide to layer with master.”

    For more information about layering objects, see Moving an Object Forward or Backward (Layering Objects).

  5. To fill the slide background with color or an image, use the Background controls in the Appearance pane of the Master Slide inspector.

A common use of background layers is for alpha-channel graphics (graphics with transparency); you can add objects to a slide and layer them so that they show through part of the background image.

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