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Change Colors of SmartArt in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Author: Geetesh Bajaj

Product/Version: PowerPoint 2011
OS: Mac OS X

Date Created: September 29th 2011
Last Updated: September 29th 2011

Excerpt/Capsule: Learn how to change colors of a SmartArt graphic in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

Once you insert a SmartArt graphic within PowerPoint 2011, you might realize that the colors of the individual shapes comprising the SmartArt graphic are not exactly what you wanted -- and while it is possible to change colors of individual shapes within the SmartArt graphic, PowerPoint lets you change the colors of everything within the SmartArt graphic at one go -- not only does this save your time, but also ensures that the different colors chosen are coordinated to look good together. Follow these steps to learn how you can change colors of your SmartArt graphic in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac:

Select your existing SmartArt graphic, as shown in Figure 1. The SmartArt graphic variant that I am using (and have selected) is the Horizontal Picture List. This variant is perfect for this tutorial since it comprises shapes with gradient fills, solid fills, shapes with picture fills, and also text.

Figure 1: Horizontal Picture List SmartArt graphic
With the SmartArt selected, click the SmartArt tab of the Ribbon. Within this tab, locate the SmartArt Graphic Styles group, and click the Colors button, highlighted in red in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Colors button within SmartArt Graphic Styles group of the SmartArt tab
This brings up the Colors drop-down gallery that you can see in Figure 3. All the color variations within this gallery are Theme based. In Figure 3 you can see that the first color preview thumbnail within the Accent 1 group is highlighted, which means this color set has been applied to the selected SmartArt.

Figure 3: Colors drop-down gallery
Click on any other preview thumbnail in the gallery (as shown in Figure 4) to apply it to the selected SmartArt graphic as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: New color set chosen within Colors drop-down gallery
Figure 5 shows previously selected SmartArt graphic with changed colors (compare with Figure 1).

Figure 5: Color of selected SmartArt graphic got changed
But, as you can see in Figure 5, shapes with solid and gradient fill of the selected SmartArt graphic are applied with the new colors, not the picture fills. To change the color of the picture fills as well, just select the Match Picture to SmartArt Graphic Color option within the Colors drop-down gallery (see Figure 6).

Figure 6: Match Picture to SmartArt Graphic Color option
This will recolor all picture fills within the SmartArt graphic, as shown in Figure 7. The Match Picture to SmartArt Graphic Color option only works with SmartArt graphic layouts that contain pictures.

Figure 7: Color of the pictures changed to coordinate with the rest of the SmartArt graphic