Theme Fonts in PowerPoint 2010 and 2007 for Windows

Each Theme contains several unique facets that set it apart from other Themes. These include Theme Fonts, Theme Colors, and Theme Effects. When you apply a different Theme to your PowerPoint presentation, the fonts, colors, and effects applied to your slides change. Unless you override this on a per slide basis, these changes show up in all slides in the presentation. The resulting slides all look consistent. Figure 1 below shows examples of the same slide with different Themes applied. Note that all the slides differ in terms of colors, fonts, and effects applied. Yet the text content is still the same.

Figure 1: Variations of the same slide with different Themes applied

In this tutorial, our focus is primarily on Theme Fonts. We'll explore the how Theme Fonts work in your presentation. Let's begin with discussing what Theme Fonts are? Theme Fonts are pre-decided pairs of fonts: one of these fonts is used for titles (known as the Headings font), and other font is used for everything else (known as the Body font). When you select any text in your PowerPoint presentation, and then access the Fonts list in the Home tab of the Ribbon, you'll notice the Headings and Body font that's allocated for the active Theme right at the top of the Fonts drop-down gallery, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, below.

Figure 2: Heading and Body fonts being displayed within the Fonts drop-down list

Note that you are not limited to use the default Theme Fonts for your presentation. You can always scroll down the Fonts drop-down list and select another font for any individual text object, but doing so will override the active Theme of your presentation. For that matter, you are not even limited to the default Theme Fonts associated with the active Theme applied to the presentation. There are many ready-to-use Theme Fonts sets available within PowerPoint that you can switch to. Follow these steps learn more:

1. Create a new presentation and apply a Theme to it, or open an existing presentation which has a Theme applied. For this tutorial we have created a new presentation and applied the Adjacency Theme, as shown in Figure 3 below. The Adjacency Theme is one of the new Themes that's included with PowerPoint 2010. If you are using PowerPoint 2007, you can apply any other Theme.
2. 
   Figure 3: Presentation with a Theme applied
2. Navigate to Design tab of the Ribbon, and locate Themes group. Within the Themes group, click the Fonts button to bring up the Fonts drop-down gallery, as shown in Figure 4.
3. 
   Figure 4: Fonts drop-down gallery
4. Note that the highlighted Theme Fonts set is always the same name as the active Theme of the presentation. In this case, the Theme Fonts set active is Adjacency, as shown in Figure 4, above.
3. Hover your cursor over any of the Theme Fonts within the Fonts drop-down gallery to see a Live Preview of fonts changing on the active slide. Figure 5 below shows a different Theme Font named Apex being selected, and also a live preview can be seen within the slide area. Compare the slides shown in Figures 4 and 5. When you have decided which Theme Fonts set you prefer, click on that Theme Fonts set (as opposed to hovering over it) to apply it to your presentation.
4. 
   Figure 5: Apex Theme Fonts set being selected
4. This will change the Theme Font for your presentation slides, as shown in Figure 6 (compare with Figure 3). Note that the overall Theme is not changed. The slide still sports the same layout, colors, effects, etc. It's just the fonts that have changed.
5. 
   Figure 6: Theme Font changed
5. Place your cursor over the Fonts button to bring up a tool-tip, as shown in Figure 7. This displays the name of the current Theme Fonts set, and also the Heading and Body fonts used.
6. 
   Figure 7: Current Theme Fonts
6. Also select some text and access the Fonts drop-down gallery in the Home tab of the Ribbon. You'll notice the Headings and Body fonts that are allocated for the active Theme right at the top of the Fonts drop-down gallery are now changed, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 8, below. Compare it with Figure 2, above.
7. 
   Figure 8: Changed Heading and Body fonts being displayed within the Fonts drop-down gallery
7. Save your presentation often.