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Color Schemes
and MS Graph
We
occasionally see questions in the newsgroup about how to set default colors for
MS Graph. There's no easy answer for this, so I recommend that you read through
this information carefully.
By
default, MS Graph bases its colors on the color scheme you've chosen for your
slide. As you've seen in other color scheme tutorials on this site (Color
Schemes I, Color Schemes II, and Leveraging
Color Schemes in Multiple Masters), you can control the color scheme of
individual slides and objects.
You
can do this somewhat in MS Graph as well.
For
this tutorial, I'm using the design template Mountain.POT, however, you can
follow using almost any design template. The more variation you have
in the template colors, the easier it will be for you to see what's happening.
First
let's look at the color schemes.
To get to them in PPT 2000, just go to
Format/Slide Color Scheme.
In
PPT 2002/2003, go to your task pane and choose Slide Design - Color Schemes from
the dropdown at the top of the task pane. (You can also go to Format/Slide
Design and choose the Color Schemes link on the resulting task pane.)
You will see the color scheme options
Microsoft or the template creator has already included for you. Notice the
"Edit Color Schemes..." link at the bottom of that pane as well.
If
you click that "Edit Color Schemes" link, you will see something like
this:
The
graphic of the chart in that dialog box can actually help you figure out what's
happening with your chart colors and how they're based on the slide color
scheme.
In
the image below, I've numbered each color in the slide color scheme, and I've
added the numbers to the chart image on the right so you can see the
correlation.
I
think this will help you see what colors apply where on a graph. Well, at least,
this covers the first part!
Swatch
2 is by default assigned to text and lines. As you can see in the image above,
"lines" also translates to lines around autoshapes (Can you see the
yellow line on the grey arrow?) as well as to chart axes and outlines around
data points in your chart.
Swatch
5 (Fill) will by default be the first dataseries color.
Swatch
6 (Accent), will be the second dataseries color.
Swatch
7 (Accent and hyperlink) will be the third dataseries color.
Swatch
8 (Accent and followed hyperlink) will be the fourth dataseries color.
But
what if you have more than four colors in your charts? Where do those other
colors come from?
Well,
to see what's happening there, we have to look at the colors in MS Graph itself.
So select a slide layout with a graph element and click (or double-click) to add
a graph.
You
will probably get something that looks like this:
Now
right-click the first data series and choose "Format Data Series. You will
see this:
In
the data series "area" color palette on the right side of the dialog
box, I've highlighted the squares that your chart colors come from. These are
the defaults for your data series, and they go in order from left to
right.
Compare
the colors in that highlighted area above to your original slide color scheme.
If
you look closely, you'll see that the colors I highlighted in the Format Data
Series dialog box go in this order
Swatch
5
Swatch 6
Swatch 7
Swatch 8
Swatch 3
Swatch 4
So,
the first 6 colors in your chart come from your slide color scheme.
The
last 2 colors in your chart are actually fixed colors -- kind of a steely
blue and a lavender-ish shade. These are the same no matter what your slide
color scheme is. Likewise, the bright colors on the line below your chart (color
scheme) colors are always those "Microsoft Brights." They never
change.
Notice
also that the border around each chart fill color is "automatic." That
border color comes from swatch 2 on your slide color scheme. You can see the
actual color in both the Style and Weight areas on the "Border" side
of the dialog box.
So,
close that dialog and right-click your second data series in your chart. Choose
Format Data Series and have another look at the colors.
You
should see something along these lines -- note that the second box in the Area
area is now highlighted, and that color corresponds to Swatch 6 from your slide
color scheme.
So
the upshot is, your graphs will take on the various colors from your slide color
scheme, and these colors can and will change when you move slides to a different
presentation or apply a different design template or color scheme.
That's
how the color schemes are designed to work. See
Color Schemes II for an explanation of why colors change when.
If
you don't want your data series to change colors, then choose your colors from
one of the colors in the palette above your chart color scheme colors (or from
one of the 8 "Microsoft Brights" below).
For
instance, maybe you're creating slides about Pepto-Bismol, and you know that you
will always want the data series representing Pepto-Bismol to be pink, no
matter what color scheme or design template you're using.
In
that case, you'd right-click the data series, choose Format Data Series, and
choose a pink from the 40 swatches above your chart color scheme colors. Like
this:
Because
I chose the color for the second data series from the colors above the chart
color scheme swatches, it will always be Pepto-Bismol pink no matter what color
scheme or template I use on this slide. The other two data series (the grey and
the red) will change according to the slide color scheme used.
This
same principle applies to all pieces of the chart -- axis lines, gridlines,
chart floors (3D), borders around data series fills, plot area fills, whatever.
If you choose from your color scheme colors, that part of the chart will change
colors; if you choose from one of the other colors, that part of your chart will
always remain the same.
So
what do you do when the 40 colors above the chart color scheme swatches (or the
8 "Microsoft Brights" colors below) don't have the color you need?
Well, you can actually modify those. Here's how.
Double-click
a chart on a slide to open MS Graph. Then go to Tools/Options/Color.
Click
on the Modify button, and you'll see the familiar color wheel.
Choose
a different color (or create one on the Custom tab in the color wheel dialog
box), and OK your way out.
I
chose to change the Pepto-Bismol pink swatch to light yellow and ended up with
this:
To
recap, the color of my "Pepto-Bismol" data series changed because I
modified the color swatch it was assigned to.
Although
this is a slick trick, modifying one color in the color swatches does not affect
existing charts in a presentation. If you have existing charts, you will need to
do this for each one of them.
If
you do not already have the charts created, you can modify the chart color
swatches and then copy/paste the slide and change the data/chart type to create
another chart.
You
can also set up a chart the way you want it to look, assigning colors to
whatever swatches, specifying the font, etc., and save as a user-defined chart.
Then you can designate that chart as your default chart type.
To
get to user-defined charts, double-click a chart to open MS Graph, and then go
to Chart/Chart Type. Go to the Custom Types tab.
Click
in the "user-defined charts" and then click "Add" so that
you can name your chart style.
After
typing in your description, click OK, and then, back in the Chart Type dialog
box, click "Set as default chart." Click Yes when the box pops up to
ask if you're sure you want to do this.
You
can create a number of user-defined charts to speed the production of chart
styles you use often. Simply select from the user-defined charts on the Custom
Types tab (Chart/Chart Types/Custom Types) instead of selecting from the
built-in charts.
A
couple of caveats:
1.
User-defined charts are machine-specific settings. This
means that custom chart types do NOT travel with a template or presentation.
User-defined charts are on your computer only.
1b.
The colors in the Graph
Options dialog box (which
you reach by opening a graph and going to Tools/Options/Color)
reset to their defaults each time you create a new chart.
You
cannot
modify the colors in this dialog and have those colors apply when you create a
new chart. It doesn't work even if you create a user-defined chart that maps to
your modified colors. Unfortunately, MS Graph just doesn't work that way. Your
only real option is to create a sample chart, include it on a slide in the
template, and teach your users to copy that slide and modify the data for new
charts.
2.
If you have created a user-defined chart and have set it as the default chart,
but your font is defaulting to something different when you add a new chart,
close out of MS Graph and go to Tools/Options/Edit in PowerPoint. Make sure that
"New charts take on PowerPoint font" is NOT
selected.
3.
If you totally mess up your color swatches when modifying them, simply click the
Reset button to go back to the default colors.
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