Change Connector Color in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Once you create connectors to link slide objects, you can then format the line thickness, dash attributes, etc. of the connectors to match the look of the other shapes in your slide. Connectors work akin to conventional lines in PowerPoint as far as their formatting options are concerned. So, changing the color attributes of a connector is almost like changing the color of any line, as you will learn in the following steps.

1. Select the connector that you want to change the color for. Notice that the contextual Format tab appears on the Ribbon. Activate this tab by clicking it, and locate the Shape Styles group. Within this group, click the Line button to access the Line drop-down gallery that you can see in Figure 1.
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   Figure 1: Line drop-down gallery
Note: In Figure 1, all options which are not related to changing the color of the connector have been grayed out. If you want to learn about those grayed out options, explore our Formatting Connectors in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac tutorial.
3. Alternatively, you can summon the Format Shape dialog box which includes the options to change the color of the connector. To do that, select the connector that you want to edit, carefully right-click (or Ctrl + click) just the connector (not the slide objects that it connects) to open a contextual menu and select the Format Shape option in this menu as you can see in Figure 2.
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   Figure 2: Format Shape option within the contextual menu
2. This summons the Format Shape dialog box with the Line panel selected in the sidebar. Within this dialog box, make sure that the Solid tab (highlighted in red within Figure 3) is selected. Now click the Color selection box to open the Color drop-down gallery, as shown in Figure 3.
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   Figure 3: Solid tab selected within the Format Shape dialog box
4. As you can see in Figure 3, the Color drop-down gallery includes options for changing line color that are identical to the ones you saw in the Line drop-down gallery (compare with Figure 1, above).
Note: When you are making changes to the selected connector within Format Shape dialog box, you can see the live preview of the changes in the selected connector. So, always offset the Format Shape dialog box away from the selected connector on the slide. Once the color is chosen within Color drop-down gallery of Format Shape dialog box, click the OK button to apply the changes to the selected connector and get back to your slide.
5. The options for changing the color of the selected connector are explained below. You'll need to choose any one of these options for the connector:
1. Theme Colors: Here you can select any of the colors which are from the active Theme of the presentation. You can also select any of the 5 tints or shades for any Theme color. Explore more in our Themes, Templates, Masters, and Layouts page.
2. Standard Colors: You can choose any of the ten standard colors available. These ten standard colors are just choices of colors that PowerPoint believes to be widely used. You don't have to limit yourself to either the Theme colors or Standard colors, as I'll show you in the next options, although it's a good design idea to use Theme colors as far as possible.
3. Recent Colors: Here you can find the colors most recently used. If you have just launched PowerPoint and created a new presentation, the Recent Colors option may be entirely absent since you haven't selected any color recently!
4. More Colors: This option is to summon the Mac OS X Color picker, as shown in Figure 4.
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   Figure 4: Mac OS X Color picker
6. In this Color picker, you can choose any color from the wheel. Thereafter adjust the selected color's luminosity within the long, thin slider on the right. Once you are happy with the color attained, you click the OK button to apply it to the connector (or to get back to the Format Shape dialog box, if you have accessed the More Colors option from the Color drop-down gallery).
7. You can even change the transparency value of the selected color by typing a percentage value for the transparency in the Transparency box (refer to Figure 3 above). In addition, you can also use the Transparency slider, which is hidden in Figure 3 as the Color drop-down gallery overlaps it.
Gradients (this option does not show in Line drop-down gallery you saw in Figure 1): PowerPoint 2011 also allows you to add gradients to lines (and connectors). Learn more in our Gradient Outlines in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac tutorial.
3. Once you change the color of the connector as required, do save your presentation!