Shape Styles in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows

PowerPoint's fill, line, and effect attributes enable you to customize the look of shapes and other slide objects in your presentation. However, it may take ages to get that perfect color coordination and even after spending time the final look may not match the Theme of the presentation. So, as an awesome alternative to end up with a coordinated color combination for the slide objects in your presentation, you can use Shape Styles. Shape Styles are a collection of prebuilt styles housed within a gallery of the same name. These styles are all Theme-specific, so if the presentation Theme is changed, you'll end up with new Shape Styles. Figure 1, below shows a selection of Shape Styles presets applied to some shapes.

Figure 1: Shape Styles make it easy to create coordinated content

Follow these steps to apply readymade Shape Styles to selected shape(s) in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows:

1. Select the shape so that the Ribbon area shows the Drawing Tools Format tab, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, below. Activate this Ribbon tab by clicking on it.
2. 
   Figure 2: Drawing Tools Format tab of the Ribbon
Note: The Drawing Tools Format tab is a contextual tab. These tabs are special tabs in the Ribbon that are not visible all the time. They only make an appearance when you are working with a particular slide object which can be edited using special options.
2. Within the Drawing Tools Format tab, click the downward pointing arrow located within the Shape Styles group (highlighted in blue within Figure 2, above) to bring up the Shape Styles drop-down gallery that you can see in Figure 3.
3. 
   Figure 3: Shape Styles drop-down gallery
3. Now hover the cursor over any of the style previews in the gallery. As you move over different previews, the selected shape shows you a Live Preview of the style applied. Click on the preview thumbnail in the gallery to apply the style to the selected shape.
Tip: Place your shape in an area that is not covered by the Shape Styles drop-down gallery, so you can see the Live Preview.
4. Figure 4, below shows the Live Preview of the selected style on the shape. Just click on the Shape Style of your choice to apply it to the shape.
5. 
   Figure 4: Shape Style Live Preview on the shape
5. Remember to save your presentation often.