Colour swatch
The colour swatch panel shows the colours of every palette as clickable squares — and makes them usable for other objects. Two ways: recolour objects directly with a click, or drop the palette onto the slide as swatches and pick them up with the PowerPoint eyedropper.
Available in every edition
The colour swatch tool is a Free feature and is available in every licence tier.
Opening
In the ribbon PPPTools → group "Tools" click Farbpaletten. The panel opens on the right — with two tabs:
| Tab | Contents |
|---|---|
| Anwenden (Apply) | The colour squares of the selected palette: recolour objects or insert swatches (this page) |
| Verwalten (Manage) | The full palette manager — create, rename, recolour or hide palettes |
The panel adapts its width to the tab: narrow for applying, wide for managing. A palette you create on the Verwalten tab appears immediately in the dropdown of the Anwenden tab — and in every other tool.
Choose a palette
The Palette dropdown lists all available colour sources:
| Source | Contents |
|---|---|
| Template-Farben (aktives Design) | Pinned to the top: the accent colours 1–6 of the currently selected slide design |
| Fixed palettes | All shared palettes (the same as in the Wordcloud and puzzle), including Office Theme |
| Gradients | Show their two stop colours |
| Further design palettes | Template-Akzent einfarbig, Akzentfarbe + Grau (Top hervorheben) and Verlauf: Template-Akzente — these follow the presentation's design as well |
Below the dropdown the colours of the chosen palette appear as squares. Hover over one and a tooltip shows the hex value.
The full list with swatches is on the Colour palettes page.
Path A: recolour objects directly
- Select one or more objects on the slide.
- Under Klick färbt tick what to colour: Füllung (fill), Rahmen (outline) and/or Text. These are check boxes — several ticks set the properties together with a single click, e.g. fill and outline in the same colour.
- Click a colour square — the colour is applied to all selected objects.
Several objects at once
The click affects the whole selection — handy for recolouring several shapes uniformly in one go.
Colouring text
The Text box sets the font colour. Objects without a text frame are skipped — the other ticked properties still apply to them. If nothing is ticked, a hint tells you so.
Path B: drop swatches onto the slide
The Als Muster auf Folie einfügen button places the colours of the chosen palette as grouped squares on the current slide. Enable Mit Hex-Beschriftung and each square shows its hex value (in a contrasting font).
Then use PowerPoint's own eyedropper: on an object, fill colour → eyedropper, and pick up any colour from the swatches — even across slides.
Ideal as a reference
Drop the swatches once onto a hidden reference slide. Then you always have your project's palette at hand without hunting for hex values.
Related
- The full list and the palette manager (tab Verwalten) are on the Colour palettes page.
- Create a puzzle and Create a Wordcloud use the same colour palettes.