Create Twitter Backgrounds Using PowerPoint 2003 and 2002 for Windows

Have you seen the customized Twitter backgrounds that people create to show an identity for their business? The easiest tool to create Twitter backgrounds is actually PowerPoint! Follow these steps to create your own Twitter backgrounds using PowerPoint 2003. We have a similar tutorial using PowerPoint 2007 and PowerPoint 2010.

1. Download our customized PowerPoint template for a Twitter background here
   
2. Extract the downloaded ZIP file, and you'll find a POT file that you need to open in PowerPoint 2003, as shown in Figure 1.
Hint: You can double click the POT file to launch PowerPoint with a new file based on the template.
3. 
   Figure 1: The POT file you downloaded works as a template to create a Twitter background
3. As shown in Figure 1 above, the Twitter template slide contains four boxes that correspond to Twitter interface areas, as you can see more clearly in Figure 2.
4. 
   Figure 2: Twitter interface areas
5. The black boxes you see denote the area where Twitter places it's own interface elements. Therefore, don't add any elements that you want to be visible in these areas. The rest of the white area in the slide can be used as you deem fit.
6. Also remember that the Logo box denotes the Twitter logo, not your logo!
4. Now choose the Format | Slide Design option to bring up the Slide Design task pane, as shown in Figure 3.
5. 
   Figure 3: Slide Design
5. To apply any of PowerPoint's existing templates, just click on any of the thumbnail previews in the Slide Design task pane. If none of the choices appeal to you, or if you want to use some other template, you can click the Browse... option, placed at the bottom of the Slide Design task pane (see Figure 4). This brings up a file browser dialog box that lets you navigate and choose a template saved on your computer.
6. 
   Figure 4: Browse
Tip: Want more template choices to apply a quick background? Explore around 5000 PowerPoint templates here.
6. Your Twitter background may look entirely different than the slide shown in Figure 5. That's because you may have used a different template than what we used. Never mind, the process works the same irrespective of what your Twitter background may look like.
7. 
   Figure 5: Template applied to Twitter template
7. Now you add any extra elements you require in your Twitter background. These include:
8. Any photograph — choose Insert | Picture | From File.
9. Any web URL — choose Insert | Text Box.
10. Any email address — choose Insert | Text Box.
11. Any visuals or text you want — choose Insert | Text Box (for text) and Insert | Picture | From File (for visuals / pictures).
12. Any extra elements such as embellishments — you can download tons of free embellishments from Scrapbookpresentations.com. Choose Insert | Picture | From File.
8. Your Twitter background may now look like what you see in Figure 6. Save your presentation (press Ctrl + S).
9. 
   Figure 6: Twitter background
9. Select each of the 4 black boxes in the slide and delete them so that your slide now looks like what you see in Figure 7 (compare with Figure 6 above).
10. 
    Figure 7: Twitter background without 4 black boxes
10. Now export your slide as a picture format background. First of all, you can use JPG, GIF, or PNG. To do so, choose File | Save As to bring up the dialog box that you see in Figure 8. Change the Save As type to any of these formats. Choose a name and location for your exported graphic file, and click Save.
11. 
    Figure 8: Save as type
11. PowerPoint may ask you if you want to export every slide in the presentation or just the current slide. Choose the Current Slide Only option as shown in Figure 9.
12. 
    Figure 9: Current slide only
12. Your Twitter background is now created. Take a look at its file size to ensure that it is smaller than 800 kb which is Twitter's limit for backgrounds. Ideally, it should be under 150 kb. If your background size is larger, you can use a photo editing program like Paint (or even Adobe Photoshop) to reduce the file size by saving to another file format.
Hint: JPG file sizes are the lowest but sometimes GIFs can be even smaller—try saving to all the 3 formats (JPG, GIF, and PNG), and see which works best for you.
13. In the next part of this tutorial, you will learn how you can add this graphic to your Twitter page as a background.