OfficeOne ProTools Color Picker

Introduction
Using Color Picker
Pricing and Support
Conclusion

Introduction

OfficeOne ProTools Color Picker is a PowerPoint add-in (compatible with PowerPoint 2010, 2007, 2003, and 2002) that lets you pick up and apply the colors of lines, fills, effects, etc. to selected shapes and text in your slides. In addition, it also allows you to quickly click on an area of your slide and set that color as the background fill for your slides. Color Picker shows you the color of the pixel directly beneath the cursor on the screen so that you know what exactly you are clicking on.

ProTools Color Picker is from OfficeOne, a Mumbai, India based entity. You can learn more about the product, and download a trial version of ProTools Color Picker from their site.

My contact at OfficeOne for this review was Chirag Dalal - thank you, Chirag.

Using Color Picker

Download the installer from the link given above, run the setup routine. Thereafter follow these steps for a small walkthrough that shows how you can color your shape with colors you pick up from a picture:

1. Launch PowerPoint. You may have to add a new slide and insert a shape. Also insert a picture within the same slide. Figure 1 shows an Oval shape and a picture placed on the same slide.
2. 
   Figure 1: Picture and oval shape placed on the slide
2. Now, access the Tools tab of the Ribbon and locate the Color Picker group. Here you'll find all the Color Picker options as shown in in Figure 2.
3. 
   Figure 2: Color Picker group within Tools tab of the Ribbon
3. Make sure that your shape on the slide is selected. Then click on the Pick Shape Fill Color button (highlighted in red in Figure 2 above).
4. This brings up the Color Picker window (highlighted in red in Figure 3). When Color Picker window is active, the color beneath your cursor's location (highlighted in blue in Figure 3) will be picked up by Color Picker.
5. 
   Figure 3: Color Picker window displays the color beneath the cursors location
6. The Color Picker also shows you the RGB color components (Red, Green and Blue values) in Hex and Decimal formats. Once you have decided which color to pick, just click to set the color as your shape fill color. You can right-click or press the Escape key to cancel using Color Picker.
5. Use the same procedure as explained above to change the fill, outline, or glow for your shape. Figure 4 below shows how we changed the shape's fill and outline colors to match the picture's natural color palette (compare to Figure 1 above).
6. 
   Figure 4: Colors changed for Oval shape
6. Save your presentation.

Pricing and Support

OfficeOne ProTools Color Picker costs US$19.95. Multiple licenses are available.

Support is through e-mail and online FAQ.

Conclusion

ProTools Color Picker is a capable one-trick pony that lets you change colors quickly -- template and Theme designers will love its ability to capture colors quickly from a picture -- thus helping you create a complete color library from just one picture. We do wish though that the add-in provided options to show buttons on the Tools tab of the Ribbon rather than provide only text labels since that does consume so much screen space -- but then that's just complaining about something that's so capable!