New and very useful feature for artists and designers. Specify accurate colour value using HEX code instead of RGB or HSL. What difference? Well, HEX codes are most commonly used. RGB or HSL require you to put three values. HEX is ONE value. Hex color in Office apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Project, Publisher, and Visio.
By the way, this colour shown here – #0F4C81 is special. It is called Classic Blue and it is the Pantone colour of the year 2020.
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Why is hex color in Office so important?
In today’s world, design happens more on web than on desktop applications. In the design world, hex color has always been popular. Hex color in Office was a long standing request.
Otherwise, we had only RGB and HSL as options. This required you to choose a dropdown and add three numbers – making it cumbersome.
Where do we get the Hex values from?
Within Office, use the Eyedropper tool which is available in every colour related dropdown in PowerPoint. View my PowerPoint Colour Picker video learn how to choose colour from anywhere on the screen (not just the slide).
Well, there are lots of color management and palette creation tools available. All of them provide hex colors. The most popular is Adobe Color.
Here all values are shown in Hex. If needed, you can also download them as XML, JSON, CSS or more.
Web design and programming almost exclusively use Hex colors.
Where does Hex color in Office work
Although most people started using Hex color in Office for PowerPoint, it is not limited to it. It works across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Visio, Project, Access, OneNote on Windows Desktop and Mac as well.
Try it out and see if it works.
If you do not see the hex option, update the version of Office. You may have to request your IT team to update it for you. In most organizations, the update frequency is six-monthly. It may make more sense to make it monthly because nowadays, new features are added almost every week!
Create appealing colour palettes
There are millions of colours to choose from. But that does not mean we use them randomly. Choosing the most appropriate set of colour is an art form. Don’t worry. Create matching colour palettes using tools like Adobe Color, Coolers, or Palleton.
