Search for a free PowerPoint template and you will find thousands. Most of them look good in the preview and fall apart once you add your own content: titles typed into loose text boxes instead of placeholders, colours set by hand on every shape, fonts you do not have, pictures you may not use. Picking well takes five minutes and saves hours — and the same applies to backgrounds.
This guide covers where to look, what to check, and how to apply a background, a colour scheme, a map or a flag to the whole deck. If you are after a ready-made look rather than a file to fix, our page on PowerPoint templates and the presentation templates overview show the other route.
Where to find free templates
- Inside PowerPoint. File → New shows Microsoft’s templates; type a theme (“purple”, “minimal”, “report”) into the search field. The same collection is on Microsoft Create in the browser. Built-in themes are under Design → Themes.
- Inside Google Slides. The Template gallery at the top of the Slides home page, and Slide → Change theme inside a presentation.
- Inside Keynote. The Theme Chooser opens with every new presentation; themes can be exported to PowerPoint.
- Canva. Thousands of free presentation templates with a free account; they download as PowerPoint, with the caveats in our conversion guide.
- Template websites. Sites such as Slidesgo and SlidesCarnival publish free templates for PowerPoint and Google Slides under their own licences. Some ask for attribution with free use — read the licence page before you present to a client.
Five checks before you use a template
Test a template in five minutesPowerPoint
Look at the slide master
Choose View → Slide Master. A real template has a master with several layouts (title, title and content, two content, section header, blank). If the master is empty and everything sits on the slides, every new slide will need hand-work.
View → Slide Master with its layouts Add a slide
Back in Normal view, choose Home → New Slide and pick a layout. If the new slide comes up blank or unstyled, the template’s look was drawn on the sample slides only.
Check the theme colours
Open Design → Variants → More → Colors. The template’s own scheme should be listed at the top. Insert a chart: if it comes in the template’s colours, the theme is set up properly.
Design → Variants → Colors Check the fonts
Open Design → Variants → More → Fonts to see the heading and body fonts, then Home → Replace → Replace Fonts to list every font actually used. A font you do not have is substituted on your computer and on everyone else’s.
Check the picture rights
Photos in free templates are often placeholders under a licence for the preview only. Replace them with your own or with pictures from a source whose licence covers your use.
Set a background for every slide
A background belongs on the master or is applied to all slides at once; set slide by slide, it will drift. PowerPoint offers solid colours, gradients, pictures, textures and patterns.
A background for the whole deckWindows and Mac
Open Format Background
Choose Design → Format Background. The pane opens on the right.
Design → Format Background pane Choose the fill
Pick Solid fill, Gradient fill, Picture or texture fill (then Insert… to choose a file) or Pattern fill. For a picture, the Transparency slider softens it behind the text.
Apply it to all slides
Click Apply to All at the foot of the pane. To hide a template’s graphics on one slide, tick Hide background graphics for that slide.
Or set it on the master
For a background that new slides inherit, choose View → Slide Master, select the top master, set the background there and close the master view.
In Google Slides, choose Slide → Change background, pick a colour, a gradient or an image, and click Add to theme so new slides get it too. To change the theme’s layouts, use Slide → Edit theme.
Designs for this kind of deck
Every design brings its own colours, fonts and layouts to the whole deck.
Colour themes: purple, blue, dark — set once, used everywhere
Searches like “purple PowerPoint templates” are really searches for a colour scheme. You can give any template your colours in a minute: Design → Variants → More → Colors → Customize Colors. The dialog has twelve slots — two dark and two light colours for text and backgrounds, six accents, and two hyperlink colours. Charts, SmartArt, tables and shapes use the accents in order, so set Accent 1 to the main colour and the others to calmer companions. Give the scheme a name and click Save; it then appears in the Colors list of every presentation on that computer.
For a dark deck, set Dark 1 and Light 1 the other way round — a dark background and light text — or pick a dark Background Style under Design → Variants → More → Background Styles. The guide on inverting colours covers logos and pictures on dark slides.
Save the result as your own template
Once a free template has your colours, fonts and background, save it as a template file (.potx). Every new deck then starts from your version, and you never repair the original twice. Delete the sample slides first — a template should hold the master and its layouts, plus at most a title slide.
Save and use a templateWindows
Save as PowerPoint Template
Choose File → Save As → Browse, set Save as type to PowerPoint Template (*.potx) and give it a name. PowerPoint switches to the Custom Office Templates folder in your Documents; keep it there.
Save As: PowerPoint Template (*.potx) Start a deck from it
Choose File → New and open the Personal tab (next to Office or Featured). Your template is listed there; a click opens a new, untitled deck in it.
Save and use a templateMac
Save as Template
Choose File → Save as Template…, name it and click Save. PowerPoint stores it in its own templates folder.
PowerPoint for Mac: File → Save as Template… Start a deck from it
Choose File → New from Template… and pick it among your own templates in the gallery.
Maps, flags and mockups
Maps
For a map that shows data — sales by country, offices by region — PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 has Insert → Chart → Map (a filled map). You type the countries or regions and their values into the chart’s sheet, and PowerPoint colours the areas. For a plain outline map of Europe or the world, an SVG file is best: it stays sharp, and after Graphics Format → Convert to Shape each country can be coloured on its own. Wikimedia Commons has many such maps; each file’s page states its licence.
Flags
A flag as a background usually works best as a narrow band or a faded picture rather than the full slide — text on stripes and stars is hard to read. Use the official proportions and colours; most national flags on Wikimedia Commons are in the public domain, but check the file’s page. Behind text, raise the picture’s Transparency in Format Background to 70–85%.
Device mockups
PowerPoint has no device frames built in. Free mockup pictures (a laptop or phone with a transparent screen area) work: put your screenshot behind the mockup and crop it to the screen with Picture Format → Crop.
Mistakes that make a free template look cheap
- Using every layout. Templates show off twenty layouts; a good deck uses four or five consistently.
- Keeping the sample icons and pictures. Recognisable stock from a popular free template tells the audience where the deck came from.
- Mixing templates. Slides pasted from another deck bring their own master. Paste with Use Destination Theme to adopt the current look.
- Busy backgrounds. Patterns and photos behind every slide compete with the content. Reserve them for the title and section slides.
- Ignoring the fonts. A template set in a font you do not have falls back to a default and loses its look on every other computer.
Templates in ExpertSlides: designs instead of files
In ExpertSlides you do not download a template and fix it. You pick a design in Design Templates — each with its own grounds, layouts, colours and fonts — and the AI builds the deck in it from your topic or your documents. A design comes in several styles (a colour and font pairing), and the colour bar recolours the whole deck: every text, shape, table and chart follows the deck’s three colours, the background included. There is no master to repair, because the layouts are the design’s own.
The library behind the designs includes picture frames drawn as phone, laptop and tablet screens, map slides and slides of many kinds, so mockups and maps need no extra files. And if the look should be your company’s, brand kits (part of Pro and Business) read your colours, fonts and logo from a brand guide, a PDF or your website and put them on every new deck — the animation above shows how.
Related reading: bento slides for grid layouts and fonts in PowerPoint for finding and replacing fonts in a template.
Questions, answered
Where can I get free PowerPoint templates?
In PowerPoint under File, New and on Microsoft Create, in Google Slides’ Template gallery, in Keynote’s Theme Chooser, on Canva with a free account, and on template websites that publish free templates under their own licences.
How do I put the same background on all slides?
Choose Design, Format Background, pick the fill and click Apply to All. For new slides to inherit it, set the background on the top master in View, Slide Master.
How do I change a template’s colours?
Use Design, Variants, More, Colors, Customize Colors. Set the dark and light colours and six accents, name the scheme and save it; charts, tables and shapes follow the accents.
How can I tell if a free template is well made?
Open View, Slide Master: a good template has several layouts with real placeholders. Add a new slide, insert a chart and check that both come in the template’s look, and list its fonts with Replace Fonts.
Can I use a map of Europe in PowerPoint?
Yes. Microsoft 365 has Insert, Chart, Map for maps that show data. For an outline map, insert an SVG and convert it to shapes to colour each country.
Does ExpertSlides use templates?
It uses designs: you pick one in Design Templates and the AI builds the deck in it. Colours, fonts and layouts apply to the whole deck, and brand kits put your own brand on it.
