When it comes to colour in your office files, we rarely move beyond changing the font or fill colour. But there is so much more to play with when you customise the colour.
Read through the post, or jump to your favourite office suite – Google or Microsoft.
Let’s start with Google, as it’s a popular office suite.
I started looking around the apps and I realised that I had to take a logical approach. So I’ve started with the toolbar and then moving through each of the menus.
Related YouTube Video: Unleash the Power of Colour in Google Files: More than Font Colour
As you’d expect, there are a number of options that are standard across the three main apps of Docs, Sheets and Slides. So let’s start there.
Text – I’m sure that this is the option that you all think of, when it comes to colour. It’s the simple option for the colour of the text itself. While the default is black, you can change it to anything.
Fill – Whether it’s a shape, a cell in a table (or spreadsheet), the fill colour refers to the ‘flood’ of colour within that area.
Border – When you’ve got a shape or a table/spreadsheet, you can have a line around the outside – the border. Most of the time it’s a plain black line, but do you know that it can be any colour you want?
Highlight – Being a bit sneaky and adding highlight into this part of the list, even though it’s only available in Docs and Slides. Yep, it’s not available in Sheets – apparently you don’t need to highlight things on your spreadsheet.
Drawing – insert a ‘drawing canvas’ and for all of the shapes you can change the fill and border, for Docs and Sheets.
Docs
Time to move onto the most popular of the Google Suite apps (maybe?) – the word-processor.
For many of us, our documents are normally fairly plain with black text on a white background. It’s generally easier to see, although I know that it can be easier to have the colours switched for working on the screen.
If you’ve ever wondered why this is the standard, paper is mostly white (or a shade of), and we just need to print the black ink for the content. I have a feeling black paper and white text would be a bit harder, and more expensive…
Insert Menu
This is the menu that has the most options where you can change the colour of different parts.
I’m not going to explain what the options are, I hope that you already know, but if you’re not sure, comment below or email me.
Table – So what can you change the colour of with a table? Well, there’s the borders (outside and internal), plus the background of each cell.
Chart – you can basically change the look of most of the items, but you have to use the linked data in Sheets.
Drop-down – each of the options that you add (or edit) into the drop-down list can have it’s own background colour making it quick and easy to see the options selected.
Format Menu
You would think that this is the menu with all of the options in – right? Strangely, there’s not many options around colour.
In fact, there’s only one option:
Borders and Shading – under the paragraph styles. I’ve already mentioned borders, but I’ve included it here for the shading. Which is only the background colour, now you might think that it’s only for tables, but you can use it to apply a background colour to the selected paragraphs as well. A bit like highlighting…
Sheets
Let’s move along into our next app, the spreadsheet option.
The options on the toolbar have already been covered, so moving straight into the menus.
Insert Menu
Tables – a bit of a cheaty option this, because some of the columns in the table options are drop-downs and that’s where you can change the background colour.
Chart – edit the chart to see the formatting options. Including: chart background and border, title text colour (title, legend, axis labels), series line and fill colour (where relevant) and gridlines.
Format
Theme – customise the theme to set all of the standard colours in one place, from the text to the fill colours used in the charts.
Conditional Formatting – when you set up the rules you can select the font and background colour to show which cells match the conditions, or you can select the colours for the colour scale.
Alternating Colours (rows) – change the colour of the header row and every other row to make it easier to read when you’ve got a lot of information in your sheet..
Slides
I’m sure you won’t be surprised when I say that slides are the one app where colour is used the most.
Of course, unless it really helps make the point, you really want to stick to a colour palette to give you a ‘put together presentation’. 😀
Toolbar
Text Box – you can colour the three parts of a text box, the text, fill and border.
Shape – the main options are of course the border and fill colour, although if you add text, then font colour as well.
Background – quickly change the background colour of this slide. Unless you’ve selected multiple slides first.
Theme – Select the theme, including the default colours from the list.
Note: You can change the options by editing the theme (shown in the slide section below).
Insert Menu
Note: We’ve already covered the text box and shape as it’s on the toolbar.
Table – From the borders (outside and internal), text to the background of each cell.
Chart – the same as in Docs, you can basically change the look of most of the items, but you have to use the linked data in Sheets
Diagram – based on the type of diagram you select, you can change the fill colour of the parts of the diagram.
WordArt – After typing in the text and creating the WordArt you can use the standard options on the toolbar to change the fill and border colours.
Slide
Background – this the background for the entire slide, and can refer to an individual slide or all of them.
Edit Theme – set your standard colours for the entire presentation, from the slide background colour (or image) through the text colours (headings and content) to accent fills.
Microsoft
I’ve decided to focus on the web versions (on the web) instead of the full desktop editions, as more people might be using them (because they are the free versions).
Related YouTube Video: Don’t Just Change Font Colour! All the Ways to Format Colour in Microsoft Office
Font – I’m betting this is the option that you’re more likely to use, changing the font colour is the easiest colour option across Microsoft.
Fill – When you’re got something selected, you can choose what the main colour is. You can also use this to apply a background colour to your paragraphs.
Borders – most used for tables, but like with the fill option it can put a box around the selected text.
Highlight – it’s interesting that the highlighter option is actually in Word and PowerPoint – apparently you don’t need to highlight text in Excel.
Word
Insert Ribbon Tab
Note: For most of these commands you need to add the item into the page, then with it selected use the colour options on the item specific tab (picture, shape).
Picture – insert your chosen picture, then you can add a coloured border.
Drawing – create a drawing canva to add all the shapes you want. As you add items each one has a fill and border colour.
Symbol – As you add a symbol to your page, you can select it and change the colour through the font option.
Layout
Page Colour – you don’t have to have a white page, you can have any background that you choose.
Note: This is best used for digital documents, not printed ones. I saw a page with a colour background printed out – it’s a lot of colour to use up, and the page doesn’t lie too flat due to the amount of printed ink.
Review
Track Changes – did you know that you can change the colour that is used for added and deleted text? Not just for you but for others as well.
Excel
Home Ribbon Tab
Conditional Formatting – set up rules to highlight a specific type of information. Select the cell background and font colours.
Format as Table – when you’ve got a lot of information (e.g. a large block of data) formatting as a table has a number of advantages, including colouring every other row and the header. This can make working across the columns easier.
Cell Styles – use the built-in styles to quickly apply some standard formatting to identify different types of information.
Insert
Table – insert a table, instead of formatting existing information into a table.
Pictures – (place over cells) you can format a border to make the image stand out more.
Shapes – draw a number of different shapes. For each shape, select the colour for the fill, border and text (if you add it).
Charts – once you’ve added a chart, you can pretty much change the colour of everything. From the text, to the borders and of course the fill colour.
Text Box – like the shapes, format the font, fill and border colours.
Draw
If you have a touchscreen or pen/pencil then drawing gives you more control to ‘draw’ things, of course, you can use your finger to draw as well. 😀
Pen – choose from a variety of tips/nibs and the available colour.
Highlighter – make things stand out by using the highlighter in a choice of colours.
PowerPoint
Home Ribbon Tab
Shapes – Once you’ve created the shape from the list, you can edit the border and fill colours. Of course if you’ve added text, you can change the font colour as well.
Shape Styles – Based on the theme colours, select from some pre-set styles that make it quick to apply them to the selected shape(s).
Shape Fill – customise the colour for the selected shapes.
Shape Outline – switch off the outline, or select a colour to match or standout from the fill colour.
Insert
Text Box – similar to the shapes, pick the colour for the text, fill and border.
Table – insert a table on the slide, and then you can change the colour of the font, background and borders (the outside and inside).
Pictures – insert a picture (from a range of sources) and make it stand out with a coloured border.
Shapes – it’s quicker to use the shapes option on the Home tab, and it’s repeated here in case it’s easier to find.
Stock Images – a quick way to go straight to the default stock images, as an alternative command to the pictures option.
Icons – After you’ve selected your icon, use the fill colour to change it to match your presentation.
SmartArt – change the colours of your selected diagram, to one of the built-in theme colours.
Draw
If you have a touchscreen device, use your finger or a stylus to draw shapes and diagrams.
Pen – choose from a variety of tips/nibs and the available colour.
Highlighter – make things stand out by using the highlighter in a choice of colours.
Design
Theme – customise the colour within your presentation by choosing one of the available options.
Note: You can create your own theme in the PowerPoint Desktop app.
Variants – Once you’ve chosen your theme, you can see any alternative colour options in the variant list.
Background – Finally, change the slide background to a different colour, or apply it to all the slides in this presentation.
Office Desktop Apps
One final thing about Microsoft. If you have the full desktop applications for Word, Excel and PowerPoint, then you have a lot more options to choose from. This includes recolouring some pictures, WordArt, icons and creating your own themes, plus more options.
Next Steps
Think about adding some simple colour options to your file to add a bit of interest to your documents, spreadsheet or presentation.
When it comes to colour remember to take the following into account:
- Print colours can be expensive due to the ink required.
- Not all the colours that you see on screen will fully translate to print.
- Colours on screen can be brighter than you think.
- Think about your audience, colours may make reading things harder.
- Consider if people are using a dark view, and how things will look for them.
Check out colour advice on accessibility guides to ensure that you are allowing everyone to see and read your information clearly.
Start with the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative – https://www.w3.org/WAI/perspective-videos/contrast/
Other Colour Blogs
Complete List Of Options Where You Can Customise the Colour (current post)
Do you know these easy colour tools for your office suite?
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1 thought on “Complete List Of Options Where You Can Customise the Colour”
>>> Think about your audience, colours may make reading things harder.
That is really important in my view. Always review your colour scheme before using your file and get a colleague to look at what you have created. Certain coloured fonts don’t work on certain backgrounds and even a different make of monitor can slightly change how things look, as can the projector and even the lighting if you are making a presentation.
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