O2010 – Color themes vs. old color palettes

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Hi,

Just converted from O2003 to O2010.

In Excel I have a lot of different color palettes swapping color, using all 56 color options. (40+8+8). In 2010 the idea behind the themes seems to be a good one, but the number of color variations are a lot less with only 6 accent colors available. Anyone having experience how to go about this? (six is far too little for what I need) :confused:

Looking at the xml file doesn’t give me an answer either…

Can the 6 be expanded??


….>

[/COLOR]How is “color” with many colors suppossed to be controlled these days?? :rolleyes:

[/COLOR]

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The number of colours is to all intents and purposes unlimited, so I’m not sure what your question really is. The accents are merely gradations of the standard theme colours.

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“…so I’m not sure what your question really is”.
Probably because I took it slightly out of context to simplify 😮 (Maybe I should have posted in VBA forum)

Actually I’m trying to setup themes 1, 2 and 3 that all has varied colors with a lot of gradients.

In my old VBA code I did this with a toolbar, where the user selected a “color pack” that was then applied to the entire color palette. All done by means of a “For… loop”, that ran through the .Colors property of the ActiveWorkbook (below).

dim iColors as Integer
For iColors = 1 To 56
With ActiveWorkbook
Select Case iColors
Case 1
‘BLACK
.Colors(iColors) = RGB(0, 0, 0)
Case 17, 25, 53
.Colors(iColors) = RGB(0, 65, 120)
Case 22, 30, 52
.Colors(iColors) = RGB(155, 140, 100)
…..

In O2010 it seems to me that the .Colors property is no longer working in a meaningful way as the color palette has been changed significantly. So my question is:

How do I implement code that does what my old “For loop” did – and what should it look like??

I’ve tried to record a macro, by creating a theme. But it does not reveal:

1. how the colors are set
2. how I get more than 6 accents

Hope this is more clear :confused:

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You don’t really. In 2010 (and 2007), the purpose of themes is to make documents look coherent by minimising the use of too many colours. If you want to apply huge numbers of colours, you have to do so manually, rather than as part of a theme; you can also use Cell Styles.

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So the .Colors thought is gone and you just apply specific colors at specific instances??

So it’s not really possible to supply a user with a detailed set of “approved” colors without:

1. changing the theme?
2. having only 6 colors available? (urghs!)

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10 colours, strictly speaking, and 6 grades of each. Any more than that isn’t really a theme, IMO, it’s a kaleidoscope. (but then, the first thing I do to spreadsheets I receive is remove all the colours so that I keep my retinas intact)

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So if I understand your comment and the documentation correctly, I can set up a theme with a set of basic colors and vary those with ao. the .tintandshade property of the .interior object?

Additionally I can also vary any color directly regardless of the theme with the same .tintandshade property of the .interior object?

Hope this makes sense… :huh:

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If you want to colour a cell with a specific colour, you can just set the RGB value of the Interior.Color for example.

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Thanks for sharing the insights Rory.

Trying to understand my options in O2010 from both the programmatic and the GUI side.

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