Customise PowerPoint Chart Colours - PowerPoint 2000

[Ali Bongo]

PowerPoint 2000
I would like to change the default colours on my charts.
Everywhere else in PowerPoint 2000 I can pick my own colours but on Charts I
can only use the default options. Can anyone help me?
Thanks

 

[CalTex]

Generally, charts pick up their main colors from the PowerPoint color scheme.
Changing the scheme changes the charts.

So what you are saying is that chart colors cannot be changed without
changing the color scheme for the whole slide or file?

 

[CalTex]

Not at all. You asked about *default* colors for charts.

Charts pick up their *default* colors for e.g. bars/pie slices and stuff from the
last four colors on the PowerPoint color scheme.

You can edit any of the colors you like on a per chart basis once you've created
the charts without having to change the PPT color scheme or without affecting it.

This might also help:

MS Graph Custom Chart Types
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00278.htm

Unless I'm missing something, the link you provided deals with creating
custom formats for charts. What I would like to do, and this is how I
interpreted the original posters intent, is to click on a pie piece or bar in
a bar chart and have some other color to choose from other than the 40
default graph colors, the 8 default color scheme colors below that, and the
eight colors below that. In other words, I would like to dial in a color as
I can do on any other graphic element in PowerPoint. For instance, I
currently have 5 pie charts on one slide, each with 4-5 pie pieces. Each pie
as a whole needs to reflect color coding assigned to each of the
corresponding 5 companies. But I need to have different shades of that basic
color on each of the pieces within each pie to set them off from the other
pie pieces. My understanding from the link is that I would have to create a
custom graph with it's own associated color scheme in order to get different
colors made available. However, I couldn't touch any of the colors used
elsewhere in the slide or those colors would change when the new color scheme
is applied. I have been working as a presentation specialist for many years,
and this is probably the number one issue I come up against over and over.
In most cases I just ungroup the graph, rendering it uneditable (with the
client's okay), but allowing me to modify the colors. This client is
spefically requesting that these graphs remain editable. Is there something
I've been missing all these years? Tell me what it is and you'll be my hero
for ever. Thanks.

 

[Kathy Jacobs]

One thought: Instead of filling the pie pieces with a color, use fill
effects. Create small graphics with the color choices you want for the
segments. In PowerPoint, right click each segment of the pie and choose Fill
Effects. You can then fill the segment with a picture fill. For that picture
fill, use one of the graphics you just created. (Thank Echo and Sonia for
this one, that's where the idea came from.)

--
Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft MVP PowerPoint and OneNote
Author of Kathy Jacobs on PowerPoint - Available now from Holy Macro! Books
Get PowerPoint answers at http://www.powerpointanswers.com

I believe life is meant to be lived. But:
if we live without making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived

 

[CalTex]

I found the definitive answer to my question thanks to EchosVoice.com art
http://www.echosvoice.com/colorschemes3.htm. You double click the graph,
select "Tools -> Options..." from the main menu and then click the "Color"
tab in the resulting window. Click on any color in the color picker within
that window and then the "Modify..." button. I've been doing this PPt thang
for so long that I forgot that I knew this. Getting old sucks.

 

[Echo S]

I found the definitive answer to my question thanks to EchosVoice.com art
http://www.echosvoice.com/colorschemes3.htm. You double click the graph,
select "Tools -> Options..." from the main menu and then click the "Color"
tab in the resulting window. Click on any color in the color picker within
that window and then the "Modify..." button. I've been doing this PPt thang
for so long that I forgot that I knew this. Getting old sucks.

Glad you found this already, CalTex. I missed this thread yesterday and was
just going to post a link to that page.

If you have a number of charts to do, it may be faster for you to create one
with the modified colors and then copy it or the slide itself as necessary,
then replace the data on the copies with the data from the other graphs.
(That is, of course, assuming that the other graphs already exist.
Otherwise, entering the new data into a copy of the graph is a no-brainer.)
Copy/paste data is usually faster than modifying a bunch of colors.

 

[Brian Reilly, MS MVP]

That's still going to be problematic if using MS Graph since only 8 of
the color swatches can maintain their new color values. Graph reverts
back to the standard colors every time.

The real control can come in two ways, one already mentioned:
1. Use 1 pixel high color fills created in something like Photoshop.
Insert as Picture. You can get stunning results this way.

2. Use Excel since you can set the Excel palette to any of the 16
million colors for a workbook, but you can only use 56 colors of those
16million in a workbook. There's VBA code on the PPTFAQ page that will
let you assign the RGB values to the XL palette.

Brian Reilly, MVP

 

[Brian Reilly, MS MVP]

Steve,

You Cin, Cin lad.
If you are asking about MS Grump, you have to ask your nearest western
neighbor, just shout "Ricola" or "Echo" and she will fill you in on
this.

Me, not do Grump anymore, been there, not going there again ever,
ever, ever.

Me, stay in Excel. Me happy. And as for KJ's mention that the fill
picture thing came from SJC or "ricola", it actually came from Captain
the Cat in collaboration with his favorite Mac-ifried girlfriend in
collaboration with Captain's preferred feeder , but Captain is not
catplaining. (vbg).

Brian Reilly, MVP

 

[Echo S]

Steve,

You Cin, Cin lad.
If you are asking about MS Grump, you have to ask your nearest western
neighbor, just shout "Ricola" or "Echo" and she will fill you in on
this.

Me, not do Grump anymore, been there, not going there again ever,
ever, ever.

LOL! But I don't do VBA, so I've no clue about what to tell Steve!

Me, stay in Excel. Me happy. And as for KJ's mention that the fill
picture thing came from SJC or "ricola", it actually came from Captain
the Cat in collaboration with his favorite Mac-ifried girlfriend in
collaboration with Captain's preferred feeder , but Captain is not
catplaining. (vbg).

LOL! It might be possible that Sonia or I came up with it on our own, too.
But you're right -- I probably heard it from you or Sonia, tucked it away
back in my brain, and totally forgot where I learned this trick. <G> And if
Kathy heard it from me, I'm sure I didn't give credit where it was due.

Mucho apologies, Cap'n!

 

[Kathy Jacobs]

I heard it from Sonia and Echo - different conversations, around the same
time. Never knew it was yours first Cap'n!

--
Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft MVP PowerPoint and OneNote
Author of Kathy Jacobs on PowerPoint - Available now from Holy Macro! Books
Get PowerPoint answers at http://www.powerpointanswers.com

I believe life is meant to be lived. But:
if we live without making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived