How to Create a Custom Color Palette Theme in Microsoft PowerPoint

Why Create a Custom Colour Palette in PowerPoint?

When creating presentations for a business or brand, consistency is critical. By default, Microsoft PowerPoint offers standard themes, but these rarely match your company’s exact branding guidelines. Instead of manually changing the colour of every shape, text box, and chart, you can create a custom colour palette theme.

A custom colour palette ensures that every new slide you add automatically inherits the correct primary, secondary, and accent colours. This not only saves hours of manual formatting but also prevents accidental inconsistencies when collaborating with other team members.

Step 1: Open the Slide Master

The Slide Master is the underlying blueprint of your PowerPoint presentation. Any changes made here, including colour palettes, will apply to all slides in the deck.

1. Open your Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.
2. Navigate to the View tab on the top ribbon.
3. Click on Slide Master in the Master Views group. Your screen will change to the Slide Master view.

Step 2: Access the Theme Colours Menu

Now that you are in the Slide Master, you can modify the overarching theme settings.

1. In the Slide Master ribbon, locate the Background group.
2. Click on the Colors drop-down menu.
3. Scroll to the very bottom of this list and click Customize Colors….

Step 3: Define Your Custom Colours

The Create New Theme Colors dialogue box will appear. This is where you map your brand’s specific colours to PowerPoint’s theme structure.

You will see 12 different colour slots. Here is how they function:

• Text/Background (Dark/Light): These four slots control the default colours for text and text backgrounds. Always ensure high contrast between these elements.
• Accent 1 to 6: These are the primary colours used for charts, shapes, tables, and SmartArt graphics. Accent 1 is the most heavily used.
• Hyperlink / Followed Hyperlink: These dictate the colours of clickable links before and after they are clicked.

To change a colour, click the coloured box next to the slot and select More Colors…. You can then input the exact Hex, RGB, or HSL values from your brand guidelines.

Step 4: Name and Save Your Custom Palette

Once you have inputted all your brand colours, you must save the palette so you can use it again in future presentations.

1. At the bottom of the dialogue box, type a descriptive name in the Name field (e.g., “Company Brand 2026”).
2. Click Save.
3. Click Close Master View in the ribbon to return to your normal presentation editor.

How to Apply Your Custom Palette to Other Presentations

Once saved, your custom colour palette is stored locally on your computer. If you open a new PowerPoint file and want to apply it:

1. Navigate to the Design tab on the ribbon.
2. In the Variants group, click the small More arrow pointing downwards.
3. Hover over Colors.
4. Your newly created custom palette will appear at the very top under the Custom heading. Click it to apply it instantly to your new deck.