If you develop PowerPoint templates, this new add-in from OfficeTips (PowerPoint MVP Shyam Pillai) is a MUST HAVE. Adding a custom color scheme is a tedious process that is now super easy, just fill in the swatches with the colors needed for the template, click apply, done!
Install the free ‘Color Swatch’ add-in (PPT 2007, 2010) and it adds these 2 options to the ribbon:
![](https://thepowerpointblog.com/media/blogs/all/10_Mar/Swatch_Addin_1.jpg)
Click ‘Create Swatch Slide’ and this slide is added to the presentation:
![](https://thepowerpointblog.com/media/blogs/all/10_Mar/Swatch_Addin_2.jpg)
Simply change the fill color to all boxes as needed for the template custom color scheme. Here I have created a blue/green color pallette (leaving the first 4 boxes the same):
![](https://thepowerpointblog.com/media/blogs/all/10_Mar/Swatch_Addin_3.jpg)
With the colors set click ‘Apply Swatches to Color Theme’ and give the color scheme a name (which will show up in DESIGN >> COLORS):
![](https://thepowerpointblog.com/media/blogs/all/10_Mar/Swatch_Addin_4.jpg)
When applied the RGB value for each color swatch is updated automatically!
![](https://thepowerpointblog.com/media/blogs/all/10_Mar/Swatch_Addin_7.jpg)
But wait, there’s more!
Here is a standard color pallette. It shows theme colors, MS standard colors, and additional options:
![](https://thepowerpointblog.com/media/blogs/all/10_Mar/Color_Scheme_1.jpg)
Maybe you have seen a corporate template another section called ‘Custom Colors’. PPT can pin additional colors to a theme, but up until now it involved xml coding with no visual interface to get these often needed colors into the template. Now it is as easy as applying a fill color to some boxes!
Here I have updated the Swatch slide with 3 custom colors. I have also named them (Yellow, Red, Moss).
![](https://thepowerpointblog.com/media/blogs/all/10_Mar/Swatch_Addin_6.jpg)
Now when I look at the color pallette I have a new row of colors. And the Custom Color row travels with the presentation:
![](https://thepowerpointblog.com/media/blogs/all/10_Mar/Color_Scheme_2.jpg)
And the tooltip shows the color names assigned:
![](https://thepowerpointblog.com/media/blogs/all/10_Mar/Color_Scheme_3.jpg)
WOW!! This is a really, really incredible (and if you don’t develop templates, trust me, this is incredible!). Here is the info and download page.
– Troy @ TLC