Remembering a Custom Color

Kelly has a custom color that she uses for headers and header rows in tables, but every time she closes Word and reopens it, she has to reestablish the color in the Color dialog box. Kelly wonders if there is a way to save the custom color so it is easier to access.

Yes, there is. The easiest way is to work with styles. The type of style you create, however, will depend on whether you want the text to use the custom color or whether you want the background of your table cells to use the color.

If you are concerned with the text, create a paragraph style for your headers. You can then apply that style to any text you want treated as a header. Not only will the color be affected, but so will any other character or paragraph attributes defined in the style. In other words, your headers will look just the way you want them to look. A good place to start if you want to create a paragraph style is this tip:

https://wordribbon.tips.net/T9627

If you are concerned with the background of your table cells, then you should consider creating a table style that defines how you want your first row (your header row) to look. A table style can also define other attributes, such as borders and fonts. To define a table style, refer to this tip:

https://wordribbon.tips.net/T6699

If your entire desire is to have your custom colors appear in the Recent Colors area of the Font Color drop-down list, then you'll need to go through a quick series of steps whenever you start Word. This is because Word clears the Recent Colors area every time you start the program; the colors previously there are wiped out, and this behavior is not modifiable.

In preparation for the quick series of steps, you'll need to define the paragraph styles I mentioned earlier, one for each of your header colors. Make sure that you store those paragraph styles in your Normal template so that they are available anytime you are using Word. With that done—and it only needs to be done a single time—here is the quick series of steps I mentioned. You'll need to perform these steps every time you start Word:

1. Open a new, blank document.
2. Create a paragraph for every custom color you want in the Recent Colors area. These paragraphs can be as short as a single word; the important thing is to make sure they are actually paragraphs, with a hard return at the end.
3. Apply your pre-defined styles to each of the paragraphs you created in step 2. Each paragraph should, by this action, use the colors defined in those styles.
4. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
5. Select the text in the first paragraph.
6. Click the down-arrow at the right side of the Font Color tool. Word displays a drop-down list that shows various color options.
7. From the drop-down list, choose More Colors. Word displays the Colors dialog box; the Custom tab should be displayed.
8. Immediately click the OK button. (No change is necessary in the dialog box.)
9. If you again click the down-arrow at the right side of the Font Color tool, you should now see the custom color in the Recent Colors area.
10. Repeat steps 5 through 9 for each of the other custom-color paragraphs you created in steps 2 and 3.

While 10 steps may not seem that "quick," they are much quicker than setting the RGB values of the desired colors every time you start Word.

Speaking of RGB colors, you could also apply the colors to text by using a very simple macro:

Sub FontColorHeading()
    Selection.Font.Color = RGB(168, 20, 50)
End Sub

The macro uses the RGB function to set the color of the selected text. The macro will not, however, modify what is shown in the Recent Colors area of the Font Color drop-down list. If you prefer, instead, to use a macro to apply a background color to the first row in a table, you can us the following macro:

Sub ApplyColorToHeadingRow()
    Dim MyColor As Long

    ' Set the color using RGB values
    MyColor = RGB(21, 195, 154)

    If Selection.Information(wdWithInTable) Then
        Selection.Tables(1).Rows(1).Range.Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = MyColor
    Else
        MsgBox "Insertion point is not within a table"
    End If
End Sub

The key to successfully using the macro is to make sure the insertion point is within the table you want affect.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11310) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365.