Colours/themes in Word 2010

[Robie]

I suppose this would also affect PowerPoint, Excel, etc.

I am trying to set up themes/colours etc for our company template. Only problem is that I don't understand the colour theme designer.

I googled for information but nothing forth coming. They all save this is how you define the colours but not what each field means :-(.

Can someone please, please, please point to a website, book or anything that tells me what various fields mean? For example, we have things like text back ground Dark1, light1, Dark2, light2, accent 1 to 6, ... I am just fed up of trial and error to find out what it all bloody means. Microsoft website and help it totally useless.

7.png

Thanks.

Robie

[HansV]

You can set styles to use a theme colour. For example, the Heading styles use Accent 1, and the Reference styles use Accent 2. And the meaning of Hyperlink and Followed Hyperlink is obvious. Apart from that, I don't think the theme colours have an intrinsic meaning.

You can also format text (font colour or background color) with a theme colour.

If you change a theme colour or select a different colour theme, all text formatted with a theme colour will automatically be adjusted. Text formatted with non-theme colours from the standard palette will remain unchanged.

[Robie]

You can set styles to use a theme colour. For example, the Heading styles use Accent 1, and the Reference styles use Accent 2. And the meaning of Hyperlink and Followed Hyperlink is obvious. Apart from that, I don't think the theme colours have an intrinsic meaning.

You can also format text (font colour or background color) with a theme colour.

If you change a theme colour or select a different colour theme, all text formatted with a theme colour will automatically be adjusted. Text formatted with non-theme colours from the standard palette will remain unchanged.

Thanks Hans.

That is interesting. So where/how did you find out for example Heading styles use Accent 1? In my case, I have coloured bullets - so which is the colour for the bullets and so on. You see where I am coming from?

For example, while playing with these themes in my document I had a triangle autoshape and an arrow autoshape (I just picked it by accident) but when I rand thru the built-in colour themes, both of there were different colours. So how can I find out which style/shape would be affected by which colour.

[HansV]

In the screenshot below, I have inserted a triangle and dropped down the Shape Fill palette.

x753.png

The row of theme colours at the top corresponds to those in the selected colour theme:

x754.png

All colours except for the hyperlink colours are listed (with light and dark reversed in order).
The colour swatches below the theme colours are merely lighter or darker variations of the theme colours. If you select one of those, they will change with the theme.

As you can see, the fill colour for the triangle is Accent 1 (and its border colour is Text/Background Dark 2).

If you apply a different theme, the triangle will use the Accent 1 and Text/Background Dark 2 colours from the new theme.

[Robie]

In the screenshot below, I have inserted a triangle and dropped down the Shape Fill palette.

x753.png

The row of theme colours at the top corresponds to those in the selected colour theme:

x754.png

All colours except for the hyperlink colours are listed (with light and dark reversed in order).
The colour swatches below the theme colours are merely lighter or darker variations of the theme colours. If you select one of those, they will change with the theme.

As you can see, the fill colour for the triangle is Accent 1 (and its border colour is Text/Background Dark 2).

If you apply a different theme, the triangle will use the Accent 1 and Text/Background Dark 2 colours from the new theme.

Thank you Hans. It makes such a difference when someone actually explain what is going rather then just do this.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH HANS.