How to Change the Fill Color of a Custom Shape in PowerPoint 2003

Customize a shape in PowerPoint.

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 allows you to create dynamic presentations using the same concepts as other Office programs. You access tabs and panels in order to create the slides within the presentation. One feature of PowerPoint is the ability to insert shapes onto presentation slides. Often, you need to customize these shapes to fit into the themes and colors used in the presentation. You can change the color of custom shapes to suit your needs.

Instructions

1. Open the PowerPoint presentation in which you'd like to fill a custom shape. Right-click in the custom shape, and go to "Format AutoShape."

2. Decide the type of fill to include in the shape. "Fill Effects" allows you to fill the shape with a gradient fill that varies the hues of the color within the shape. Picture and texture fill fills the custom shape with a picture or a texture. The pattern option fills the shape with patterns of lines, dots or dashes.

3. Select the desired color. Adjusting the "Transparency" only changes the brightness of the color that has filled the custom shape. To color the line bordering the custom shape, go to "Color" under the "Line" panel and select the desired color. This will not change the color of the shape.

Tips & Warnings

• If the color you want is not available, click on the "More Colors" option in the "Color" drop-down box. In the "Colors" dialog box, you can mix the desired color. You may also change the pattern of the line surrounding the autoshape.

References

• Microsoft Office: Add, Change or Remove a Fill
• Microsoft Office: About Shapes
• Microsoft Office: Add a Shape

Resources

• Microsoft Office: PowerPoint: Help & How-to