Change the color of a shape, shape border, or entire SmartArt graphic

You can apply professionally-designed color combinations to all of the shapes in your entire SmartArt graphic simultaneously, or you can change the color of an individual shape or shape border.In this article

Overview of changing colors

Change the color of a shape

Change the color of a shape border

Change the color of an entire SmartArt graphic

Overview of changing colors

You can change the colors of all of the shapes in your SmartArt graphic by applying a different color combination. Color thumbnails show the different ways colors are applied (such as, alternating, or darkest to lightest), rather than how colors are used.

You can apply colors from your document's theme colors to your SmartArt graphic, and the color variations automatically match the colors used in your slide or document. If you change your document's theme colors, your SmartArt graphic will also reflect the new theme colors.

There are a wide range of color choices designed to work well with all layouts for SmartArt graphics. Apply SmartArt Styles and colors to your SmartArt graphic to match the message that you want to communicate. You can even pick a layout, a SmartArt Style, and colors, and then change the layout again. Your SmartArt Style and colors will stay with your SmartArt graphic, so you do not need to re-do them.

If you are creating multiple SmartArt graphics and want them to look identical, you can apply the same colors and SmartArt Styles to them to achieve a consistent, professional look.

You can use colors to emphasize the message in your SmartArt graphic. For example, to emphasize that every step in a process is different, you could apply Colorful - Accent Colors.

Or you could use Gradient Range Accent 1 to underline the direction of your message for a linear process.

Change the color of a shape

1. Click the shape that you want to change.

   If you want to change multiple shapes to the same color, click the first shape, and then press and hold CTRL while you click the other shapes.

2. Under SmartArt Tools, on the Format tab, in the Shape Styles group, click the arrow next to Shape Fill, and then click the color that you want. To choose no color, click No Fill.

   

   To change to a color that isn't in the theme colors, click More Fill Colors, and then either click the color that you want on the Standard tab, or mix your own color on the Custom tab. Custom colors and colors on the Standard tab are not updated if you later change the document theme .

Tips

• If your SmartArt graphic contains many shapes, instead of changing the colors for all the shapes individually, change the colors for the entire SmartArt graphic, and then manually change the color of any shapes.
• If you apply a Quick Style and then change the color of a shape, you can customize the effects applied to the shape.

Change the color of a shape border

1. Click the shape border that you want to change.

   If you want to change multiple shape borders to the same color, click the first shape, and then press and hold CTRL while you click the other shapes.

2. Under SmartArt Tools, on the Format tab, in the Shape Styles group, click the arrow next to Shape Outline, and then click the color that you want. To hide the border, click No Outline.

   

   To change to a color that isn't in the theme colors, click More Outline Colors, and then either click the color that you want on the Standard tab, or mix your own color on the Custom tab. Custom colors and colors on the Standard tab are not updated if you later change the document theme .

Change the color of an entire SmartArt graphic

1. Click the SmartArt graphic.
2. Under SmartArt Tools, on the Design tab, in the SmartArt Styles group, click Change Colors, and then click the thumbnail that you want.

   

Tips

• To see how a color will be applied to your SmartArt graphic before you select a thumbnail, place your pointer over the thumbnail that you want, and then look at your SmartArt graphic.
• To ensure that your document will look good printed in black and white, click a thumbnail under Primary Theme Colors.
• To give your SmartArt graphic the look of the example in the Choose a SmartArt Graphic gallery, apply Colorful - Accent Colors (click Change Colors), and SmartArt Style Cartoon.

See also:

• Apply or change a Quick Style for shapes
• Apply or customize a document theme