MS PowerPoint

Changing Colors on Selected Slides

If you decide you need to change one color on a slideperhaps it clashes with a picture or doesn't contrast enough with a chartyou might want to consider changing the entire color scheme for that slide.

The procedure for changing the color scheme for a single slide (or a selection of slides) is nearly identical to the procedure outlined in the preceding section. First, select the slides you want to individually colorize; then, in step 3, click the down arrow to the right of the color scheme preview and choose Apply to Selected Slides instead of Apply to All Slides.

Copying a Color Scheme

It's easy to create, store, and modify color schemes; use the Standard color scheme technique described in the preceding two sections. Unfortunately, it's difficult to copy a color scheme from one presentation to another, or from one design to another. That can pose a problem if you want to use the same color scheme (or a group of color schemes) across many different designsfor example, if you want to replace the colors in a set of designs with your school colors. You can re-create the color schemes manually in each design or presentation, but the process is time-consuming and error-prone.

Fortunately, there is an undocumented method for transferring a color scheme from one presentation (or design) to another:

1.
Open or create a presentation in which at least one slide contains the color scheme you want to copy. Call this slide the "color source slide." Click the Slide Sorter button to switch to Slide Sorter view.

2.
Open the presentation to which you want to transfer the color scheme. Call this the "destination presentation." Switch to Slide Sorter view in this presentation, too.

3.
Click the color source slide, and then click the Format Painter button on the Standard toolbar.

4.
Switch to the destination presentation and click once on any slide. Your preferred colors are transferred to this slide in the destination presentation.

5.
Click the Design button on the Formatting toolbar to open the Slide Design task pane, click Color Schemes, and then click Edit Color Schemes. In the Edit Color Scheme dialog box (Figure 15), the custom settings you see will match the color scheme you copied from the original presentation.

6.
Click the Add As Standard Scheme button on the Custom tab. Click the Standard tab and verify that the color scheme you copied is now a standard color scheme for this slide.

7.
Click the Apply to All button so that this new Standard color scheme will be applied to the Slide Master. The destination presentation now includes the color scheme you copied.

8.
Save the presentation (or its design).

If you want to restore the original formatting to the destination presentation, switch into Slide Master view, bring up the Edit Color Scheme dialog box, and click the first standard color scheme.