Color Scheme: Copy from one file to the other?

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi all

I'm just fixing up some Office templates for a client and, not for the
first time, end up thinking that the individual Office PGs should have
talked a bit more to each other!

Color schemes, handled differently in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint!

The problem at hand [Office 11]: Is there a way to copy a color scheme
from one PPT/POT file to another? There's even an offline help topic
("Use the color scheme of another slide or presentation") that tells me
to open up the two windows side-by-side and use the format painter. I am
obviously unable to carry out these instructions (the format painter is
inactive the moment the other window gets active :-().

Any leads? I would easily have recreated the said color scheme from
scratch by now and probably will, but want to make sure it's only _this
time_ (if there is a solution at all ).

Greetinx
Robert

 

[Michael Koerner]

You might want to look here http://skp.mvps.org/ and scroll down to the VBA
section second item.

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Michael Koerner [MS PPT MVP]


Hi all

I'm just fixing up some Office templates for a client and, not for the
first time, end up thinking that the individual Office PGs should have
talked a bit more to each other!

Color schemes, handled differently in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint!

The problem at hand [Office 11]: Is there a way to copy a color scheme
from one PPT/POT file to another? There's even an offline help topic
("Use the color scheme of another slide or presentation") that tells me
to open up the two windows side-by-side and use the format painter. I am
obviously unable to carry out these instructions (the format painter is
inactive the moment the other window gets active :-().

Any leads? I would easily have recreated the said color scheme from
scratch by now and probably will, but want to make sure it's only _this
time_ (if there is a solution at all ).

Greetinx
Robert

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hello Michael

You might want to look here http://skp.mvps.org/ and scroll down to the VBA
section second item.

Thanks! You're referring to "How to copy designs from one presentation
to another", right?

I can only guess that this exact code example would copy more than the
mere color scheme (probably all master pages etc.?). Anyway, I was (as
usual, since even in Word my VBA abilities are terribly limited) looking
for a clean way to do it through the UI.

Will probably have to wait (at least) one versions 'til there's a
cross-Office feature like Excel has today (Tools | Options | Color) or
something familiar to the Word Organizer (which has no access to colors
so far, though).

Thanks again, and greetinx from Switzerland
Robert

 

[Michael Koerner]

Robert

Your feelings about VBA echo mine <g> Hopefully one of the other readers in this
NG may have a solution

--
<>Please post all follow-up questions/replies to the newsgroup<>
<><>Email unless specifically requested will not be opened<><>
<><><>Do Provide The Version Of PowerPoint You Are Using<><><>
<><><>Do Not Post Attachments In This Newsgroup<><><>
Michael Koerner [MS PPT MVP]


Hello Michael

You might want to look here http://skp.mvps.org/ and scroll down to the VBA
section second item.

Thanks! You're referring to "How to copy designs from one presentation
to another", right?

I can only guess that this exact code example would copy more than the
mere color scheme (probably all master pages etc.?). Anyway, I was (as
usual, since even in Word my VBA abilities are terribly limited) looking
for a clean way to do it through the UI.

Will probably have to wait (at least) one versions 'til there's a
cross-Office feature like Excel has today (Tools | Options | Color) or
something familiar to the Word Organizer (which has no access to colors
so far, though).

Thanks again, and greetinx from Switzerland
Robert

 

[Ute Simon]

You might want to look here http://skp.mvps.org/ and scroll down to the
VBA

Thanks! You're referring to "How to copy designs from one presentation
to another", right?

Hi Robert,

you can also use Shyam's free Color Scheme Manager Add-In
http://skp.mvps.org/csm.htm.

Or: Open the two presentations side by side, both in Master view. Then
copy the Master slide which contains the desired color scheme into your
target presentation, press Ctrl+A to highlight all masters. Click on the
grey bar which appears on the right of the color scheme if you mouse over,
then choose "Apply to all masters". This copies the color scheme to the
existing master slides. Delete the inserted master and switch to normal
view.

Kind regards,
Ute

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hallo Ute

you can also use Shyam's free Color Scheme Manager Add-In
http://skp.mvps.org/csm.htm.

Thanks, very neat: I like Shyam's Add-In _and_ his color selection
already!

Or: Open the two presentations side by side, both in Master view. Then
copy the Master slide which contains the desired color scheme into your
target presentation, press Ctrl+A to highlight all masters. Click on the
grey bar which appears on the right of the color scheme if you mouse over,
then choose "Apply to all masters". This copies the color scheme to the
existing master slides. Delete the inserted master and switch to normal
view.

I had to fiddle around a bit since this approach changed the background
color in one of my masters, but I got it to work eventually. Thanks a lot,
and greetinx
Robert

 

[Echo S]

The Format Painter should stay active if you double-click it. Click it again
or hit Esc to turn it off.

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi Echo

The Format Painter should stay active if you double-click it. Click it again
or hit Esc to turn it off.

Sorry, didn't work (or rather: the FP stayed active/pressed, but didn't
copy my color scheme over :-().

Bringing the master over, propagating the scheme, deleting the old ones
and then the master did the trick now, thanks.

<should be new thread>
Now, if only I find out how to set the bullet indents w/o VBA!

[First line indent should be equal to the second line indent from the
level above: I have a presentation where this is correct for the first 1
or 2 levels, but not for the 3rd; every time I try to set that through
the UI (ruler), I fail (can't bring the thingy back to the above-level).
And "of course" (hey, I thought this was PPT, not Word ) the macro
recorder doesn't record a thing when I set indents through the ruler, sigh!]
</should be new thread>

Greetinx
Robert

 

[Echo S]

Hi Echo



Sorry, didn't work (or rather: the FP stayed active/pressed, but didn't
copy my color scheme over :-().

Weird. Are you painting from slide thumbnail pane to slide thumbnail pane in
Slide Master view?

Bringing the master over, propagating the scheme, deleting the old ones
and then the master did the trick now, thanks.

Glad you found a workaround, anyway!

<should be new thread>
Now, if only I find out how to set the bullet indents w/o VBA!

[First line indent should be equal to the second line indent from the
level above: I have a presentation where this is correct for the first 1
or 2 levels, but not for the 3rd; every time I try to set that through
the UI (ruler), I fail (can't bring the thingy back to the above-level).
And "of course" (hey, I thought this was PPT, not Word ) the macro
recorder doesn't record a thing when I set indents through the ruler, sigh!]
</should be new thread>

Are you pressing the Ctrl key while you drag the ruler indent
caret-thingies? (And yeah, the macro recorder sometimes sucks that way.)

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hello Echo

Weird. Are you painting from slide thumbnail pane to slide thumbnail pane in
Slide Master view?

That's what I tried, and just again (in vain). But never mind, I don't
usually like the FP too much (not in Word, and I'm not starting on good
terms with it in PowerPoint, obviously ).

[First line indent should be equal to the second line indent from the
level above: I have a presentation where this is correct for the first 1
or 2 levels, but not for the 3rd; every time I try to set that through
the UI (ruler), I fail (can't bring the thingy back to the above-level).
And "of course" (hey, I thought this was PPT, not Word ) the macro
recorder doesn't record a thing when I set indents through the ruler,

sigh!]

Are you pressing the Ctrl key while you drag the ruler indent
caret-thingies? (And yeah, the macro recorder sometimes sucks that way.)

Heureka!

Did I mention I usually don't like _rulers_, either? [If I did, I'd
possibly started fiddling around with Shift/Alt/Ctrl-keys by myself! ]

I sometimes use them over in Word, but I can always accomplish the same
thing (and easier/more exact) through Format | Paragraph or | Tabs (or,
structured me, through the style). There's no way through the UI
*besides* the ruler to set indents for bullets in PPT, though, as far as
I can tell?

Many thanks and greetinx from good old Europe
Robert

 

[Echo S]

[First line indent should be equal to the second line indent from the
level above: I have a presentation where this is correct for the first 1
or 2 levels, but not for the 3rd; every time I try to set that through
the UI (ruler), I fail (can't bring the thingy back to the above-level).
And "of course" (hey, I thought this was PPT, not Word ) the macro
recorder doesn't record a thing when I set indents through the ruler,

sigh!]

Are you pressing the Ctrl key while you drag the ruler indent
caret-thingies? (And yeah, the macro recorder sometimes sucks that way.)

Heureka!

Very strange about the format painter, but at least we got one thing
resolved. ;-)

Did I mention I usually don't like _rulers_, either? [If I did, I'd
possibly started fiddling around with Shift/Alt/Ctrl-keys by myself! ]

heh. Now that I can't help. I'm actually okay with them. (Use 'em fairly
often in Word, too!)

I sometimes use them over in Word, but I can always accomplish the same
thing (and easier/more exact) through Format | Paragraph or | Tabs (or,
structured me, through the style). There's no way through the UI
*besides* the ruler to set indents for bullets in PPT, though, as far as
I can tell?

Yeah, I think via the rulers is the only way. We don't have nearly the type
of text control in PPT that you guys have over in Word. If you're desperate,
you can do the text in Word, copy it, and use Edit/Paste Special/Word Object
onto the PPT slide to keep the formatting intact.

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hello Echo

OK, one last newbie question aka colors:

The base colors for background etc. are set. In the color scheme, I only
find one color for Autoshapes. Which, well, would make for some pretty
boring presentations IMHO!

I intended to leave the presentation totally empty (only fiddle around
with the masters). But is there a good way to present the color
selection to the user except a dummy slide with, say, 4 or 5 colored
rectangles? I know I can use these colors once and then they'll show up
in what I'd call the 'last colors used list' when someone paints a
shape, but those colors there will not stay in a document for long
unless the user "complies" already ...

Greetinx
Robert
PS: I'm preparing these templates under PPT 2003, but the users are
still on Office 2K. I'm not going (nor wanting) to use more than one
slide/title master anyway. PPT 2000 had a header and more importantly a
footer already, right? Anything else I need to be aware off _not_ to use?

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Yeah, I think via the rulers is the only way. We don't have nearly the type
of text control in PPT that you guys have over in Word. If you're desperate,
you can do the text in Word, copy it, and use Edit/Paste Special/Word Object
onto the PPT slide to keep the formatting intact.

Nah, tx: That would be fine if I wanted to have something in one slide
(like, to kern some text, hehe), but I doubt the users of these
templates will be happy to use Word objects!

I presume you can set the indents via VBA, too, though? [Not planning to
do that here, really!]

Greetinx
Robert

 

[Echo S]

Hello Echo

OK, one last newbie question aka colors:

The base colors for background etc. are set. In the color scheme, I only
find one color for Autoshapes. Which, well, would make for some pretty
boring presentations IMHO!

Oh, man. MS labeling strikes again. In an effort to help users understand
what the color scheme was doing (I assume that's why, anyway), MS labeled
the swatches on the color schemes. Thing is, those color swatches can be
applied to any object on the slide -- the labels are just what each swatch
will apply to by default.

I've got way more info than you probably ever wanted to know listed at
http://www.echosvoice.com/colorschemes.htm

I intended to leave the presentation totally empty (only fiddle around
with the masters). But is there a good way to present the color
selection to the user except a dummy slide with, say, 4 or 5 colored
rectangles? I know I can use these colors once and then they'll show up
in what I'd call the 'last colors used list' when someone paints a
shape, but those colors there will not stay in a document for long
unless the user "complies" already ...

I like having a dummy slide with colored rectangles so I can easily use
Format Painter (your favorite tool, heheh) when creating slides. But my
recommendation is to make sure your color scheme is set correctly as well.
Set those last 4 or 5 swatches in the color scheme with the colors you want
people to use most often. That way they'll not disappear as other colors are
used.

And you know, your text placeholders on the slide masters don't have to use
color scheme colors. I mean, you can use the color scheme swatch labeled
"title text" for something else and set the color of the title text on the
master itself. (Of course, if you *want* the title text color to be one of
the swatches, then there's no reason to do this.)

PS: I'm preparing these templates under PPT 2003, but the users are
still on Office 2K. I'm not going (nor wanting) to use more than one
slide/title master anyway. PPT 2000 had a header and more importantly a
footer already, right? Anything else I need to be aware off _not_ to use?

Mmmm, good question. don't use transparency in the PPT color lines and
fills -- for example, the setting you'd find under Fill Color/More Colors on
the Transparency slider. This is new in 2002/2003, and 2000 doesn't support
it. You'll get funky dot-patterned fills (or worse) in 2000. I can't think
of anything else off the top of my head.

Yes, PPT 2000 has header/footer placeholders, the same as in 2002/2003.

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hello Echo

Oh, man. MS labeling strikes again. In an effort to help users understand
what the color scheme was doing (I assume that's why, anyway), MS labeled
the swatches on the color schemes. Thing is, those color swatches can be
applied to any object on the slide -- the labels are just what each swatch
will apply to by default.

I've got way more info than you probably ever wanted to know listed at
http://www.echosvoice.com/colorschemes.htm

OK, I actually went over colorschemes3.htm before this morning. Very
neat pages you've got there, if I may say so!

I knew that I could use all colors from the scheme for AutoShapes and
stuff, but didn't know whether it was wise to use, say, the last 3 in
the scheme for such colors (but I guess I can live with text-hyperlinks
showing up in colors #7 and #8). Since MS Graph uses those, too, I'll
manage as well (one follow-up questions here: That's the very same "MS
Graph" as the graphs one manages in Excel?).

I'll probably end up with using your "slick trick" and define the "last
used" colors in the same way as the others, cool.

BTW: somehow, it's not so far off with "control" compared to Word (I
know we Wordies sometimes can get pretty totalitarian ): Without
further measures, you end up relying on the user to know his way round
and to avoid (where appropriate) "direct formatting". If he behaves, he
can use a template and forget about formatting alltogether, plus you can
transform stuff from template1 to template2 and <snap> get a different
look. If he doesn't, well, somebody has to "restyle" eventually.

I like having a dummy slide with colored rectangles so I can easily use
Format Painter (your favorite tool, heheh) when creating slides. But my
recommendation is to make sure your color scheme is set correctly as well.
Set those last 4 or 5 swatches in the color scheme with the colors you want
people to use most often. That way they'll not disappear as other colors are
used.

Yep, that's what I'll do.

And you know, your text placeholders on the slide masters don't have to use
color scheme colors. I mean, you can use the color scheme swatch labeled
"title text" for something else and set the color of the title text on the
master itself. (Of course, if you *want* the title text color to be one of
the swatches, then there's no reason to do this.)

OK, and OK. Thanks for pointing this out! I definitely want to use a
scheme color for the placeholders here, but now it dawns that I'll just
slightly change the scheme on the title master compared to the slide master.

Mmmm, good question. don't use transparency in the PPT color lines and
fills -- for example, the setting you'd find under Fill Color/More Colors on
the Transparency slider. This is new in 2002/2003, and 2000 doesn't support
it. You'll get funky dot-patterned fills (or worse) in 2000. I can't think
of anything else off the top of my head.

Yes, PPT 2000 has header/footer placeholders, the same as in 2002/2003.

Great. Now I can safely go to sleep (it beeing 2am here now ). Had to
"finish" these thoughts, so I can enjoy tomorrow PC-free! Thanks for
your patience everyone, and (sleepy) greetinx from Switzerland
Robert

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hello Steve

Unless someone else has a brilliant solution, your only options are:

- Use an addin that allows users to choose pre-approved colors (and even then
you won't be able to prevent their using other colors)

- Training, cajoling, rewards (for good behavior) and threat of punishment for
bad.

If you create templates for in-house use, it's sometimes dubious whether
you get any leverage over user behaviour (more often than not, you'll be
the one having to clean up the stuff afterwards, anyway). But as a
consultant (which I am now in this project), things seem to look a lot
better, i.e.: they will certainly not want to pay me to do that, and
since the user base consists mainly of highly skilled programmers, I
think I can get them to listen to one or two pieces of advice. Somehow,
I get to like that particular userbase – not that those people are any
better in terms of "hey I have written a letter and presented a page
before, don't teach me"!

Greetinx
Robert

 

[Echo S]

manage as well (one follow-up questions here: That's the very same "MS
Graph" as the graphs one manages in Excel?).

Nah, it's a scaled-down version.

BTW: somehow, it's not so far off with "control" compared to Word (I
know we Wordies sometimes can get pretty totalitarian ): Without
further measures, you end up relying on the user to know his way round
and to avoid (where appropriate) "direct formatting". If he behaves, he
can use a template and forget about formatting alltogether, plus you can
transform stuff from template1 to template2 and <snap> get a different
look. If he doesn't, well, somebody has to "restyle" eventually.

Yeah. There are pros and cons to using "styles" in PPT. Sometimes "direct
formatting" is actually a better option. (And for anyone following along,
we're talking about applying a color from "more colors" and not from the
color scheme color swatches.)

For example, I do a lot of slides for pharmaceutical companies. Maybe I've
got slides showing head-to-head studies with competitors. Even if the
presentation has a different template applied, I know I'm always going to
want drug A to be one color (say, green) and drug B to be another (say,
orange). In that case, "direct formatting" makes more sense, as it keeps the
colors intact -- those objects don't pick up color scheme colors when new
templates are applied. They'll always be green and orange until I go in and
manually change them.

But yes, if you don't want to have to manually "restyle," following the
color scheme and using the placeholders is definitely the way to go. And
yes, that *does* rely on the user to know his way round. Most don't get this
close to it (who can blame them?!), so there can often be a lot of manual
work.

Just thought I'd babble along a bit for anyone who might be lurking on this

OK, and OK. Thanks for pointing this out! I definitely want to use a
scheme color for the placeholders here, but now it dawns that I'll just
slightly change the scheme on the title master compared to the slide

master.

Great -- I wasn't sure if I was making much sense there. For some reason, I
find that a difficult concept to explain.

Great. Now I can safely go to sleep (it beeing 2am here now ). Had to
"finish" these thoughts, so I can enjoy tomorrow PC-free! Thanks for
your patience everyone, and (sleepy) greetinx from Switzerland

Have a great day off, Robert!

 

[AlexYoda]

Hi Steve

Like your option 1... do you have a specific addin in mind to allow the
selction on pre-aproved colours? Seen some clever peice of software out there
that makes this easy!?