In Microsoft Office Powerpoint 2007 the functionality to apply pattern fill to forms is no longer available. It's only possible to do so by dealing with time consuming workarounds. This means a lot of extra efforts and can be quite annoying once you need to use this feature more often.
Pattern4Powerpoint is a small add-on for Microsoft Powerpoint 2007, which restores this functionality directly in Powerpoint. This site will describe how to use it and from where to get.
Details and Screenshots
After starting the installed add-on a screen showing all available 52 pattern fills which are supported in Powerpoint appears. Additional the color of the currently selected form is taken over to the add-on. While moving your mouse pointer over a certain pattern style the name of this pattern is shown.
You can select a certain pattern style by clicking on it. Immediatly a preview with the color applied is display at the bottom of the application window.
Now you can change the color for the background of the selected form as well as for the applied pattern.
To choose a certain color just click on the small arrow next to the color button either for the background or the pattern and the Windows XP color dialog appears.
For the case that your desired color does not appear in the standard list you can also enter the RGB code of it directly by choosing the option "More Colors".
After selecting the pattern style and its color you can apply the format to your selected form by clicking the "Draw Pattern" button. The Pattern4Powerpoint windows remains open for formating additional forms on your slides.
Additionally to the functionality to format areas of shapes also lines can be formated. By simply choosing between "Line" or "Fill" in the box "Format options" the tool applies the styles accordingly.
After finishing all your pattern formating work the tool can be closed by clicking on the "Cancel" or the "X" button of the window.
Download and Usage
Pattern4Powerpoint can be downloaded for free from this website by following this link:
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After the download is finished you need to extract the zip archive and install the application by opening the file "setup.exe". After the installation is completed you can find the new button "Pattern4Powerpoint" in your Powerpoint ribbon under the section "add-ins":
Please make sure to uninstall previous versions of the tool before you install the latest one. This can be done very easily in your control panel -> "Add and Remove Programs".
To use Pattern4Powerpoint besides Office 2007 (of course) - a current version of the Microsoft .net Framework (at least version 2.0.50x) needs to be installed on your system. The .net framework can be downloaded for free directly from Microsoft by following the link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/default.aspx.
Should you find any errors while using the tool please leave me a comment either in the guestbook of the site or directly by mail. Of course also any other feedback from you is highly welcomed and appreciated.
Pattern4Powerpoint is provided for free. Nevertheless a small label placed in the bottom right hand corner of the window shows you the note "Evaluation" and the times how often you've already used the tool.
Up from 100 usages a message box appears to remind you to register the tool online. This can be done by following the link right after this paragraph.
After starting the installed add-on a screen showing all available 52 pattern fills which are supported in Powerpoint appears. Additional the color of the currently selected form is taken over to the add-on. While moving your mouse pointer over a certain pattern style the name of this pattern is shown.
Now you can change the color for the background of the selected form as well as for the applied pattern. 
Additionally to the functionality to format areas of shapes also lines can be formated. By simply choosing between "Line" or "Fill" in the box "Format options" the tool applies the styles accordingly. 
