Those predefined gradients for your slides background are UGLY.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Create a new slide (yes, I’m ranting about Impress), then go to Format::Page and choose “Gradient” as the background fill type. All of them suck hard (except maybe one or two that are sufficently “safe”).

There is a way to make them look (quite) pretty and MODERN: try de-selecting the “Automatic” checkbox in the Increments section. Now, for the parameters, choose a very low number. Try 3, or 4 or 5.

Not so bad, eh? (“radial green black” and “linear yellow brown” being my personal favs).