Adjusting Slide Color Schemes in PowerPoint XP

After applying a design template, you have two choices. One, accept the color schemes of that template, or, two, modify those color schemes to suit your tastes. More often than not, the former is the preferred way. After all the template provided by PowerPoint includes color combinations that are balanced with one another. So it is not recommended that you make wholesale changes to the color scheme on every slide. However, you may have occasion to change the color scheme on selected slides for emphasis. For example, if you have divided your presentation into two or more sections, and you have a “Section Title Slide” introducing each section, you may wish to have those title slides use a slightly varied color scheme.

Slide Design Options

To adjust color schemes on a slide, you must access one or more of the Slide Design options in the Task Pane.

bullet What if you want to have your Title Slide and the “Section Title Slide(s)” to have one scheme, and all of the remaining slides to have the default color scheme of your design template? If this is the case, then
  • switch to Slide Sorterview
  • click on the Title slide, then Ctrl-Click on each of the “Section Title Slides”
  • now proceed with the following
Adjusting the Color Scheme Using the Preset Schemes
bullet This allows you to modify the color scheme of a design template by selecting one of the preset color scheme variations based upon that design.
  • The Task Pane should be displayed along the right of the screen; if it is not, choose ViewTask Pane
  • Click on thebutton in the title bar of the task pane and select Slide Design - Color Schemes from the drop-down list.
    • Or, if you prefer, you may choose FormatSlide Design …

     
  • click on Color Schemes at the top
  • the various color schemes for you Slide Design Template are now displayed in a scrolling list below Apply a color scheme: (only a portion of the scrolling lists is shown)
  • click on the desired color scheme
  • the new color scheme is applied to the selected slide(s)
  • if you point to color scheme but do not click on it a drop-down button will appear on the right
    • click on the button
    • note that you can
      • change the color scheme of all slides whether selected or not to this color scheme by choosing Apply to All Slides
      • change the color scheme of only those slides selected to this color scheme by choosing Apply to Selected Slides (this is the default choice)
      • or you can switch from large to small previews by choosing Show Large Previews (large previews are shown in t his picture and the one above)
Adjusting the Color Scheme by Editing the Color Scheme
bullet Sometime you may wish to just change one aspect of a color scheme, such as the color of titles or the color of hyperlinks, while leaving the rest of the colors unchanged. Changes are made to the selected slide(s).
  • at the bottom of the Color Scheme scrolling list, click on Edit Color Schemes …
  • the Edit Color Scheme dialog box will now be displayed
The Edit Color Scheme dialog box with the Standard tab selected. Applying a new color scheme here is essentially the same as previously described.
The Edit Color Scheme dialog box with the Custom tab selected. Here you can select one of the components of the design (Background is selected in the picture) and then change its color by clicking on thebutton
Clicking on the button opens the Background Color dialog box as shown. The current color is preselected. Click on another color and then click. You can also use the Custom tab if you really want to select just the right color.

 

The Background Dialog Box

Now that you have adjusted the colors scheme with the choices above, you may also want to make more changes the Background.
To do this, choose FormatBackground … to open the Background dialog box.

  • the current color scheme is shown just below the words Background fill 
  • open the drop-down box just below it to select another color (as shown in picture on the right)
    • the current colors in the scheme are shown as colored boxes below Automatic 
    • click on More Colors to select a different color
  • click <Preview> to preview the scheme
  • click <Apply> to apply the scheme to the selected slide(s)
  • click <Apply to All> to apply the scheme to all slides whether selected or not
  • click <Cancel> to exit the dialog box without making any changes
  • use the check box Omit background graphics from master to modify the slide master for the selected slide(s)

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last updated August 12, 2003