Hex color values in color picker

(Originally published on March 19, 2020 by Constance Gervais)

Hi, I’m Constance, a Program Manager on the Graphics team, and I’m here to talk about an update we’ve made to the color picker in Office.

Based on your feedback, we’ve added a new input field in the Colors dialog for Hex color values! Never again will you spend time converting Hex color values into RGB values. This update is available in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Visio, Project, Access, and OneNote on Windows Desktop. Setting colors based on Hex codes is already available on Mac.

Color picker in Office apps with field to enter Hex color value

Getting Started

1. Open a file in one of the supported applications.
2. For any property where you can define a color, click the appropriate button in the ribbon (such as the Font Color button) and click More Colors.
3. In the Colors dialog box, click the Custom tab.
4. Enter the Hex color value in the Hex box, for example, #0F4C81 or 444

Availability

Hex color values are available in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Visio, Project, Access, and OneNote to users running Insider Fast version 2003 (Build 12607.20000) or later on Windows.

We typically release features over some time to ensure that things are working smoothly. This is true for Insiders as well. We highlight features that you may not have because they're slowly releasing to larger numbers of Insiders. Sometimes we remove elements to further improve them based on your feedback. Though this is rare, we also reserve the option to pull a feature entirely out of the product, even if you, as Insiders, have had the opportunity to try them.

We'd love to hear from you!

Please go to Help > Feedback in your Office apps to submit your thoughts about this feature.

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