How to Remove Background in PowerPoint?

Windows desktop, step by step

1. Click the image on the slide.
2. Picture Format tab → Remove Background.
3. Magenta = what will be deleted. Drag the box if it selected the wrong region.
4. Mark Areas to Keep (pencil plus) on bits of the subject that turned magenta by mistake.
5. Mark Areas to Remove on leftover background that stayed visible.
6. Keep Changes.

Mac: same idea under Picture Format → Remove Background. The buttons are Keep / Remove areas.

What works: a person or object on a plain wall. What fails: hair against a busy room, glass, similar colors. That's when people search a separate background remover and import a PNG with transparency.

After it's cut out: you can still crop, or right-click Save as Picture as a PNG to reuse. Recolor/set transparent color (old tool) is different — it knocks out one color, not a full subject cutout.

PowerPoint for the web has fewer picture tools; desktop Microsoft 365 is the reliable place for Remove Background.

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