How to use/create presentation theme and customize your slides

How to use/create presentation theme and customize your slides

Your slides don’t just deliver content — they shape how your audience feels, trusts, and engages with your session.

With AhaSlides themes, you can make your presentations look polished, consistent, and on-brand in just a few clicks — whether you’re running a quick classroom quiz, a training workshop, or a company-wide event.

You can:
  • Instantly apply a professional look using ready-made themes
  • Build reusable brand themes with your logo, colors, and fonts
  • Fine-tune individual slides when you need something special

If you only have 2 minutes:
  1. Click Design → Themes
  2. Pick an Official Theme
  3. You’re ready to present—your whole deck is automatically styled.

When you’re ready to go further, create your own theme to save time across future presentations and keep your visuals consistent.

Choose your level of design customization

AhaSlides offers three levels of design customization, depending on how much control you need:

  • Quick polish → Pre-made themes Best when you want a clean, professional look instantly. Apply professionally designed color schemes and backgrounds in one click.
  • Brand consistency → Custom themes Best for recurring sessions, team alignment, and brand credibility. Create reusable themes with your logo, colors, and fonts.
  • Creative flexibility → Individual slide customization Best when specific slides need unique visuals. Customize backgrounds and styling at the slide level.
Below is an interactive demo, which will help you experience this function (you can click the button on the top right corner to view the demo in full screen):

Overview

AhaSlides offers three levels of design customization:

  • Pre-made Themes: One-click styling with professionally designed color schemes and backgrounds
  • Custom Themes: Build reusable themes with your branding elements (logo, colors, fonts)
  • Individual Slide Customization: Fine-tune specific slides with unique backgrounds and styling

What each setting affects

Setting

Scope

Visible To

Background Colour/Image

Per slide

Presenter + Audience

Text Font

Entire presentation

Presenter + Audience

Visualization Colors

Entire presentation

Presenter + Audience

Logo

Entire presentation

Presenter + Audience

Plan Requirements

Feature

Availability

Pre-made themes

All plans

Background color

All plans

Visualization colors

All plans

Background images

All paid plans

Custom fonts

Pro and Enterprise

Team theme sharing

Team plans


Presentation Theme

1. How to apply a pre-made theme

Pre-made themes provide a quick and easy way to style your presentation. To apply a theme:

  • Click on the Design tab in the toolbar.

  • Navigate to the Themes tab.

  • Select one of the Official Themes or AhaSlides Team Themes



Notes
Selecting a Theme will apply it to all your slides, except those you have already customised.

2. How to create a custom theme

Best for consistent branding across multiple presentations. You can create your own theme by selecting the Create button next to My Themes. From there, you can:

  • Add a Theme Name

  • Upload your Logo

  • Upload a Background Image or choose a Background Colour

  • Change Text Font

  • Customize Text Colour and Visualisation Colours

Once you’ve finished setting it up, click Save to apply your custom theme.


Idea
If you are in a team, you can share/unshare your customised theme for your team to use.

Customizing Your Slide

If you prefer a more personalized design, you can customize each slide using the Customise menu.



This menu can be found by:

  1. Clicking on the Design tab > Customise. 

  2. Alternatively, right-clicking on your slide and choosing Design

Notes
Changing Text Font and Visualisation Colours will apply to all slides

Change Background Colour

  • Click on the Design tab > Customize. Alternatively, right-click on your slide and choose Design

  • Click the color icon next to Background colour, then choose the colour that you would like to use.



Set Background Image

Info
This function is available for all paid plans

  • Click on the Add button (next to the Background image section on the Design menu) to upload/add an image

  • Ensure the image is high-quality and fits your presentation style.



Adjust Background Transparency

Modify the Background Transparency to set the transparency level, with 100% being fully visible.




Change Text Font

Notes
This will change the font across your entire presentation. It will also be visible on your audience's screens.
InfoThis feature is only available on Pro and Enterprise plans.
You can change the font by following this guide: How to Change and Manage Fonts



Change Visualisation Colours

Notes
Changing this setting will apply to all charts in quiz, poll, and scale slides, and to audience response displays in word cloud, open ended, and brainstorm slides.
Click the colour bar under Visualisation Colours w and select the colour palate that you would like to use for your presentation.



Best practices for great-looking slides

  1. Design for readability: Use strong contrast between text and background, especially for projector rooms and large screens.

  2. Keep colors consistent: Using the same visualization colors helps audiences read charts and results faster.

  3. Avoid visual clutter: Clean slides keep attention on interaction, not decoration.

  4. Reuse your theme: Save time and stay consistent across sessions.

  5. Preview once before presenting: Open the audience view on another device to check text size and contrast.

Frequently asked questions

1. Why does my theme not apply to all slides?

When you customize individual slides using the Customize menu, those slides are excluded from automatic theme updates. To reset a slide, go to Design > Customize and click Reset to default.

2. Can I use my own fonts?

Yes, on Pro and Enterprise plans. Go to Design > Customize, click the font dropdown under Text, and select + More fonts to access additional options. See How to Change and Manage Fonts for details.

3. What do visualization colors affect?

Visualization colors control the palette for all charts in quiz, poll, and scale slides, plus audience response displays in word cloud, open-ended, and brainstorm slides. Changing this setting applies to the entire presentation.

4. How do I share my custom theme with my team?

If you're on a team plan, your custom themes appear in the AhaSlides Team Themes section for all team members. Toggle sharing on or off from your theme settings.

5. What image size works best for use as a background?

Use high-resolution images (1920x1080 pixels or higher) that match your presentation aspect ratio. Lower-quality images may appear pixelated when projected. Use the Transparency slider to ensure text remains readable over busy images.

6. Can I apply different themes to different slides?

Themes apply presentation-wide, but you can customize individual slides to override theme settings. Use the Customize menu to set unique backgrounds for each slide while maintaining your overall theme.

7. Will my audience see the same styling I see?

Yes. All design elements (backgrounds, fonts, colors, and logos) display on your audience's devices exactly as you see them in the presenter view.

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