Color Scheme

[Erik]

I was wondering if there was a way to have more colors
included in the color scheme? I am using PowerPoint 2000.

My problem is that I want charts to fill in the following
order: red, blue, green and yellow... However, I need
the title text and object fills (single shapes) to be blue
and I would like hyperlinks and followed hyperlinks to
remain black... Is there a workaround somewhere or am I
stuck with the 8 choices? I am currently using Excel for
charts with that color palette set correctly and pasting
them in, but it dramatically increases my ppt file sizes.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Echo S]

If you paste and ungroup the Excel charts, you won't end up with the
whole Excel workbook in your presentation. That's what increases the
file size so much...

As for the colors in PPT, best I can tell you is to create a chart with
the colors you want, then copy that slide and replace the existing data
with new. And if, when you create the chart, you don't select from the 8
colors at the bottom, the colors won't change willy-nilly when you put
that slide into another presentation.

Now, if you *want* the colors to change when you insert the slide into
another presentation, hit the colorschemes pages on my site to see
what's up with that. URL's in signature.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

[Martin Conradi]

Echo,

Your descrition of how the colours work in PPT is very helpful. Can you
explain how the PPT graphing colours work, and what happens when you hit the
're-set' button?

After years of practice I still can't keep them under control!

Martin

Martin Conradi
www.ShowcaseSolutions.net

"Echo S" <ec...@indy.net> wrote in message
news:3F5E7BF2...@indy.net...

[Erik]

Thanks for the advice. I personally have no problem when
using charts, etc... The challenge is to create a design
template for whole department in my company to use. Our
VP wants everyone's colors, slides, charts, hyperlinks to
be consistent, but before I told her it was impossible to
go about doing this unless manually revising certain
items, I would ask in here.

Thanks again!

>.
>

[Echo S]

I have a hard time with MS Graph's colors, too, Martin. So you're
definitely not alone there!

As I'm sure you are aware, Graph picks up the first 4 of its colors from
the *last* four colors specified in the slide color scheme. That
actually makes sense, as those color scheme colors are originally
specified for fills and various "accents." So the first four series
actually make some sense, and they actually work as the rest of the
things using color scheme colors do. That is, they'll change colors as I
described when you pull those slides into another presentation with a
different color scheme.

But it's a bit odd when you open MS Graph and see a different set of 8
swatches than what are shown in the color scheme. Here's the kicker,
though. (Make a graph with 8 or more data series, and you can see this
pretty easily.) The 5th data series in the graph will have the slide
color scheme's third swatch -- that designated for shadows. The 6th
series will have the 4th swatch -- that designated for titles. And the
7th and 8th series I *think* are by default that steel blue and
lavender-ish color, respectively.

I think also that the bottom 8 swatches (chart lines) on the MS Graph
swatches are default colors (red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, magenta,
sage, cobalt). If you apply one of those to a data series and then apply
a new template, those colors seem to stick regardless.

Also note that this rule of thumb only applies if you're using the
default chart style. If you've defined your own default chart, it's hard
telling what's happening! <VBG> (I've managed to screw that up a couple
of times -- you should see the bizarre data point labels I get
sometimes, LOL!)

What I tend to do is choose my graph colors from the 40 color swatches
*above* the options on the bottom in MS Graph. That way the colors don't
change, and since I'm usually dealing with specific products represented
in the graphs, I usually want those colors to be the same no matter what
kind of background or color scheme I'm using on the slide.

Where it gets weird, though, is if you go to Tools/Options in MS Graph
and modify a color swatch. (Which is the only way to get more colors if
the one you want isn't in that upper 40.) That new color swatch setting
doesn't "stick" when you create a new graph, so you about have to
recreate it on every graph, which is a royal PITA. That's when I just
opt for copying one Graph slide over and over and changing the data and
chart type as appropriate. At least I don't have to muck with the color
each time, heh.

The "reset" button resets the MS Graph colors to what I assume are their
*real* defaults. Those aren't the default Graph colors I see here on my
own blank templates, but you know what? They are the same as the default
Graph colors I have in Excel. (The deep maroon and the coral are dead
giveaways. <g>) I always thought that was incredibly bizarre; I suppose
it's got to do with the MS Graph engine, although I don't know exactly
what. (Maybe Brian does -- he's done a lot of work with graph colors in
both PPT and Excel.) If you apply a design template after resetting the
color palette, though, you go back to the 8 colors based on the color
scheme (well, the 6 based on the color scheme and the 2 defaults of
steel and lavender) and the 8 color fills (red, yellow, green, etc.).
And that leaves you open to having the graph's data colors change on you
in what seems a willy-nilly fashion.

I guess the upshot is that if you need to control the colors, choose
from the top 40 and they won't change no matter where you pull that
slide in. If you need the chart colors to follow the design template,
use the first 6 color options in MS Graph where it's labeled "chart
fills." And be aware of those last 2 options in that row, as they'll
keep coming up blues.

Echo

[Echo S]

Well, it's kinda possible, Erik, but yeah, you're limited with the color
schemes. Anything your users set with the 8 colors will change when a
different template (using different colors for those 8 designated spots)
is applied.

The graphs will pick up 6 of the 8 colors in the color scheme (see my
reply to Martin Conradi above), but for what you need, that's not gonna
help.

And since your users probably have the basic default chart definitions,
their charts are going to pick up those 6 colors regardless. You can't
even set them to the red/yellow/green/cyan/etc. defined in the "chart
lines" (bottom 8 swatches in MS Graph), because the default chart
setting is machine-specific. Those default graph settings are not
carried with the template, so you're pretty much out of luck there.

Wish I had a better answer for you.

Echo

[Martin Conradi]

And I thought it was just me!

Thanks.

Martin

"Echo S" <ec...@indy.net> wrote in message

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