Microsoft PowerPoint: Hide a Master Slide Logo

by AJ George 

A PowerPoint user approached me recently with an issue. She was given a PowerPoint template with a company logo on it. She was asked to remove the logo but could not. My first thought was to tell her to remove it from the master slides. However, she had already tried this and the logo appeared to be part of the actual background, even on the master slide. My assumption is that someone created the background (with the logo included) in another program, or took a screen shot of the background in PowerPoint and inserted it as a background image. Whatever the case, that logo was not coming off. Her best option was to cover it up.

If the background had been solid, this would have been an easy fix. She would have simply needed to insert a shape with the same fill color as the background (and no line) to cover it up. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The background was instead a repeating pattern. In the end, I came up with a solution that works (and may help you out too!) for repeating patterns, but not for randomized patterns.

For clarity, this is what I mean by a randomized pattern:

 

And this is what I mean by a repeating pattern:

 

While I have no solution for the first scenario above, here is how to cover up the logo in the second:

1. Working within the Master Slide view (View > Master Views > Slide Master), select the master slide containing the logo.
2. Draw a rectangle (or any shape, really) large enough to cover the logo (Insert > Illustrations > Shapes).
      
3. Right-click the shape and choose Format Shape.
4. From the Fill category of the Format Shape dialog box, choose Slide background fill.
      
5. From the Line color category of the Format Shape dialog box, choose No line.
6. Click the Close button.
7. Using the arrow keys, move the shape to a section of the slide with the same part of the repeating pattern.
8. Using your mouse, pull the resizing handles of the shape to make it taller and wider. (This will give you some wiggle room in capturing the background pattern.)
9. Right-click the shape and choose Save as Picture.
10. Save the image wherever your presentation is saved.
11. Delete the shape from the slide.
12. Insert the saved image onto the slide (Insert > Images > Picture).
13. Using the arrow keys, move the image over the logo and adjust the position until it matches the background pattern.
    
    
    The logo will now be invisible on all slides following that master slide.

***

Having a problem getting PowerPoint to behave? Email your issue. I may be able to help and then write about the solution here.

Comments

[old aggie]

I had this same problem with a PPT from a client a while back.

Their (very professional-looking) PowerPoint template had been purchased from a graphic design company, so no one in-house understood it or knew how to change it.

The logo was omnipresent, and was not on a Master Slide, nor in the masters as a "background."

Luckily, the template was such that I could cover it with a white borderless rectangle to hide it, so I got away with a simpler solution than you had to devise.

Wish I knew how to get at these images, and how this happens in the first place.