color

Color Swatch Add-In (for Templates)

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:

Click ‘Create Swatch Slide’ and this slide is added to the presentation:

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):

With the colors set click ‘Apply Swatches to Color Theme’ and give the color scheme a name (which will show up in DESIGN >> COLORS):

When applied the RGB value for each color swatch is updated automatically!

But wait, there’s more!

Here is a standard color pallette. It shows theme colors, MS standard colors, and additional options:

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).

Now when I look at the color pallette I have a new row of colors. And the Custom Color row travels with the presentation:

And the tooltip shows the color names assigned:

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

By |2016-09-16T08:57:26-07:00March 8th, 2010|Tutorial|

Setup of a Template

With the background elements developed in Photoshop and saved out as .jpg images the rest of the work happens in PowerPoint. Most of the work in setting up a template happens on the Master Slides. So the first thing for me is to set the background of each slide layout with the background artwork.

The Blue Lens template has a Content slide and a Title slide.

Next is to position the text boxes to fit the background, set the font size-color-line spacing and custom bullets:

I also set default slide transitions for each slide layout (in this case both use a FADE SMOOTHLY), format the header/footer text boxes, etc.

One of the things I think a lot of people overlook is customizing the color scheme. I always include a sample chart that shows all of the default colors I have setup.

Now everything is ready to build a slide show!

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T12:42:12-07:00September 3rd, 2008|Portfolio, Templates/Assets, Tutorial|

Color for the Medical Template

To help a medical device company stand out I introduced some bold coloring. I also used shadowing, bevels and negative space to create the content area. Here is the template developed for medical device maker, Zylon.

1. Theme Graphic
2. Title Slide
3. Content Slide

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T13:08:08-07:00April 25th, 2008|Portfolio, PowerPoint|

Modify Text Preset Visual Effects

All of the presets are based on the template color scheme. But perhaps you like one effect, but it is not in the needed color – here the subtle gradient and subtle reflection are the effect desired.

But what is really needed is a blue gradient. Instead of going in and manually setting options, I can apply the preset effect (shown above), then open the manual settings dialog and just adjust the colors to achieve the needed graphic.

So you can create this effect in a matter of seconds:

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T14:54:14-07:00November 30th, 2007|Tutorial|

PPT Autoshape BG (1)

My goal was to use a blue from the corporate color scheme and develop a visual with a sense of depth and subtle motion.

The first element is a full screen autoshape. The base color is a blue from the corporate color scheme. The secondary color is a darker version of the same blue.

Using the FILL EFFECTS options the darker blue radiates from the top right corner. Next we begin layering autoshapes.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T16:00:47-07:00May 23rd, 2007|Tutorial|

Oh ,The Colors

It is often beneficial to color code the data. But sometimes to much color makes things difficult to interpret and ends up looking like the circus has arrived. Here is a great diagram that provides a lot of vital information – it just gets lost in all of the colors and shapes.

My goal was to minimize the distracting colors, make the diagram fit within the slide and emphasis the relation and process. Here is the revised diagram:

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T15:46:07-07:00March 7th, 2007|Portfolio, Tutorial|

Pick the Exact Color – Fast and Easy

A perfect compliment to any version of PowerPoint is PPTXtreme’s Color Picker. The great thing about this sample slide is the text and box fills are the exact same color and colors pulled from the logo. No guessing, just point and click to select the exact color!

When one of the Color Picker tools is selected a small information window opens and wherever your cursor is, the color is displayed. Click on anything on your monitor and that color is selected.

Color Picker can select the color for Text:

For Autoshape Fills:

For Lines:

It also works with selecting dropshadows. At $20 this is an invaluable tool to add to PowerPoint.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T14:57:33-07:00November 15th, 2006|Software/Add-Ins|

Use the RECOLOR tool

So you have a slide like this with an imported Excel table:

And you need to adjust the colors of the excel chart to coordinate with the presentation template. You double-click the table and get the image format box, not the Excel data:

But all is not lost! Some information is still there. On the PICTURE tab, click the RECOLOR button to access this “secret” data.

In the RECOLOR PICTURE dialog you can see the original colors formatted in Excel and have the ability to change to any other color in a few easy clicks.

This is an invaluable tool within PowerPoint to know of and use when faced with pasted in Excel tables.

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T14:14:01-07:00August 26th, 2006|Tutorial|
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