Add Pattern Fills to Shapes in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac

Pattern fills for shapes are two-color designs comprising lines, dots, dashes and checks. PowerPoint includes 48 such patterns with names like Plaid, Weaves, Shingle and Zig Zag. Pattern fills for shapes are not included within the Shape fill drop-down gallery in PowerPoint. But you can find this option within the Format Shape Task Pane. In this tutorial, we'll show you how you can access Pattern fill options in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac.

If you want to see a sample presentation showing pattern fills in PowerPoint, scroll down to the bottom of this page.

Follow these steps to change or apply a pattern fill to a shape:

1. Open your presentation and select the shape that you want to format.
2. Alternatively, if you want to start from scratch, launch PowerPoint 2016 for Mac. You will see the Presentation Gallery. Here, select the Blank Presentation to open a blank presentation with a new slide. You can change the Slide Layout to Blank by selecting the Home tab | Layout | Blank option. Then, insert a shape and select it.
2. Right-click (or Ctrl + click) the selected shape. From the context menu that appears, choose the Format Shape option as shown in Figure 1.
3. 
   Figure 1: Format Shape option selected
3. This opens the Format Shape Task Pane that you can see in Figure 2. Make sure that the Fill & Line tab is selected (highlighted in red within Figure 2), then select the Pattern fill radio button (highlighted in blue within Figure 2). This action applies the default Pattern fill to the shape, and also accesses the Pattern gallery.
4. 
   Figure 2: Pattern gallery within Format Shape Task Pane
5. You can see the Pattern gallery on the lower half of the Format Shape Task Pane, as shown highlighted in green within Figure 2, above.
4. Click on any of the pattern styles to choose. You can select any pattern. Pattern names range from 5% to Solid diamonds.
5. Whichever pattern you choose, you can then change the foreground and background colors for the pattern using the Foreground and Background color buttons that you can see in Figure 2 above. When you click any of these buttons you can see the Colors gallery as shown in Figure 3.
6. 
   Figure 3: Colors gallery
7. This Colors gallery will work in the same way as it does for Solid fills. You can change the foreground and background colors, or just accept the default color values that PowerPoint uses.
5. In Figure 4 you can see that we have selected the Large grid pattern type, and also changed the foreground and background colors.
6. 
   Figure 4: Shape with pattern fill
6. Remember to save your presentation often.

Sample Presentation of Pattern Fill in Shape:

Click below to view this presentation on SlideShare

Click below to view this presentation on YouTube