People often ask, "When I choose 'Apply Design,' I get the same background on every slide. Is there any way I can use different background designs within the same slide show?"

Well, if you're using PowerPoint XP (also know as 2002), you can, since that version supports multiple background masters. If you are trying to combine two slide shows and you don't want the second set to have the background of the first set, here's what you can do.

Open the first slide show, and go to "Insert, Slides From File." Browse to the second set of slides and choose the ones you want. When you do that, in the lower left hand corner of the dialog box you will see a check box that says "Keep Source Formatting." Check that box. The in-coming slides will keep their backgrounds.

For users of PowerPoint 2000 and lower, it's a bit trickier (but still not difficult).

From the Format menu, select Background. Check the box that says "omit background items" and this will make the slide ignore the Slide Master's design. You are now free to apply whatever design you want to this slide.