Do you need a PowerPoint Template or a Background?

What's the difference between a PowerPoint Template and a PowerPoint Background? Not much, actually - since they both will help make your PowerPoint presentation look more compelling. The main difference is how integrated each type becomes with your presentation. Templates are more integrated, while backgrounds are less so. Below is a more detailed explanation of the two:

When you apply a template to an existing presentation, all of the presentation's fonts, colors, sizes and styles are converted to the new styles associated with the template.

When creating a new presentation, the template works with PowerPoint's "Add a Slide" feature - it knows what type of slide you are adding, and chooses the right design style.

Templates are still very flexible. Any font, color or style can be changed manually on the slide. Or an entire template can be altered at the "Master" level, which will make changes throughout the entire presentation.

Background images are not integrated with the entire presentation. They can be applied to any single slide or across all slides within a presentation.

You can apply multiple backgrounds to a single presentation (which you can't do with templates). You can even add a background to a slide with an existing template embedded.

You can make your own "template" out of a background by creating a unified set of colors, fonts and styles in the "Master" template.