Customised Secondary Colour Palette in MS Word

Janelle McCosker 40

Hoping someone can help me. I would like to build a customised Secondary Colour Palette in a Word Template so that only certain colours appear for selection - not accents from the Primary Colour Palette - but totally different colours. Is this possible at all?

Look forward to hearing.

Many thanks.

[Moderator note: Personally Identifiable Information removed]

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

Darren-Ng 10,455 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Dear @Janelle McCosker,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

Please understand that this forum is a public platform, and I will modify your question to cover your organization domain name in the description. Please notice to hide these personal or organization information next time you post error or some information to protect personal data.

Based on your description, you want to know whether it’s possible to create a separate “secondary” colour palette in a Word template, so users can select colours that are completely independent from the theme (primary) palette.

Unfortunately, this situation is not supported in Microsoft Word. Word only allows one active theme color palette at a time (including text/background and Accent 1–6 colors), and all color selections are derived from this single theme.

Here are some workarounds you can refer to:

You can achieve a similar outcome by customizing the existing theme:

Go to Design > Colors > Customize Colors
Replace all accent colors (Accent 1–6) with your required set of colours
Save the theme and apply it to your template (.dotx)
Distribute the template so users start with your predefined palette

This approach ensures that the available theme colors match your desired palette, although it still relies on a single theme rather than separate palettes.

In the meantime, if this feature is important for your workflow, I recommend submitting feedback through the Microsoft Feedback portal. The product team actively monitors this channel and regularly reviews customer suggestions and experiences.

Feedback with higher votes typically receives more attention from the relevant product teams, so adding your vote or encouraging others to do the same can help increase its visibility. Many features and improvements in Microsoft products are driven directly by customer feedback, so your input can make a meaningful impact on future updates.

How to submit your feedback:

Go to Microsoft Ideas · Community
Select Send Feedback
Share your idea and describe how it would improve your experience

I hope information above meet your expectations, feel free to reach out if you have any other questions.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Janelle McCosker 40 Reputation points

2026-05-14T03:07:41.44+00:00

So to be clear from your answer I can only set up the primary colours and the accents are derived from them. I cannot create separate secondary colours away from the primary accents.

If that is the case, would you be able to suggest how I could incorporate other colours into a template - set up separate themes for selection? I don’t want other colours visible for selection, only specific ones.

I hope that makes sense?
Darren-Ng 10,455 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-05-14T04:39:54.3266667+00:00

Dear @Janelle McCosker,

Your understanding is correct.

Word supports only one theme color palette at a time, which includes text/background colors and a fixed set of accent colors (Accent 1–6). There is no option to create a separate secondary palette that is independent from these theme colors.If your goal is to limit users to only specific colors, here are the most effective approaches available in Word:

Option 1: Incorporate all required colors into one theme

Define your approved colors across Accent 1–6

Use lighter/darker shades (automatically generated by Word) to expand usage

Save this as a custom theme + template (.dotx)

Option 2: Create multiple templates (recommended for your situation)

Since Word cannot show multiple palettes at once:

Create separate templates, for example:

Template A > Primary palette

Template B > Secondary palette

Each template contains its own custom theme colors

Users select a template depending on the color set they need

I hope information meet your expectation.

Note: Please understand that as forum moderator, my primary goal is to provide helpful guidance and support through general troubleshooting steps. While I don’t have access to internal systems or test devices required to resolve backend issues, I truly appreciate your understanding of these limitations. I genuinely hope the information I share helps guide you in the right direction, and I'm always here to assist as much as I can within my scope.
Janelle McCosker 40 Reputation points

2026-05-14T04:47:13.39+00:00

Thank you so much.

[Moderator note: Personally Identifiable Information removed]
Darren-Ng 10,455 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-05-14T04:51:52.28+00:00

Dear @Janelle McCosker,

I’m glad the information was helpful. I would appreciate it if you could kindly accept the answer and upvote it so that other users with similar issues can easily find useful information here.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions. I’d be happy to assist you.

Thank you for your kindness.

Answer accepted by question author

AI answer

A separate, fully customized “secondary” color palette that is independent of the main theme colors is not supported in Word. Word exposes one theme color set at a time (the theme’s primary palette), plus standard colors and recent colors, but does not provide a second, distinct theme palette that can be locked down to a different set of colors.

What can be done is:

Create a custom theme color set so that the main theme palette contains only the desired colors:
1. In Word, go to the Design tab.
2. Click Colors, then Customize Colors.
3. For each theme color (for example, Accent 1, Accent 2, Hyperlink), choose the desired color under Theme Colors, or select More Colors to define a custom color.
4. Use the Sample pane to preview.
5. Give the color set a name in the Name box and click Save.
6. Save the document as a template (.dotx) and distribute that template so users start from the predefined theme.
Make this custom theme the default for documents created from the template so users always see the same theme color set when they use that template. This still uses a single theme palette, not a separate secondary one.

There is no option in Word to define an additional, separate secondary palette that appears alongside the theme colors and is completely different from them.

References:

AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

Answer recommended by moderator

John Korchok 232.4K Volunteer Moderator

While it's theoretically possible to use VBA and OOXML to build an entirely new color picker, it's not a beginner project and may not work at all on Macs. But that's what you would have to do to eliminate the palette of secondary colors in Word.

An alternative is to create Custom Colors by editing the document's XML. This produces a palette of up to 50 additional colors that appear below the secondary colors, but above the Standard Colors:

CustomColorColumns2

Here's my article on how to do this: OOXML Hacking: Custom Colors

Janelle McCosker 40 Reputation points

2026-05-18T00:06:06.7133333+00:00

Hi again - I've read the article and am not a hacker by any means. I don't even know where to begin to find the file to open. I would love to have some exercises / files to experiment with as this could work ultimately in the colour picker.
Charles Kenyon 167.3K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-05-18T01:28:16.7766667+00:00

Hi John,

For the neophyte it is a large step to get into OOXML PowerPoint hacking to get to an OOXML Word hack to add these. Like Janelle, I would find sample files useful to look at and play with.
John Korchok 232.4K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-05-18T15:56:58.2533333+00:00

To get started with XML Hacking, please read my article OOXML Hacking: An Introduction
Janelle McCosker 40 Reputation points

2026-05-21T02:59:54.6766667+00:00

Thanks for that. I am still lost and cannot work out where to begin in a Word Template that I have created. Any other tips welcome.

1 additional answer

Charles Kenyon 167.3K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-05-14T06:06:27.09+00:00

Hi Janelle,

By its nature, you cannot add unrelated colors to that palette. It must be gradations.

You should see what happens when you simply pick your own theme colors.

Start, though, by simply running the Themes sampler through the available themes.

https://addbalance.com/word/download.htm#ThemesSampler

It contains a document that lets you see what the colors are when you mouse over a Theme. It also contains one that shows the color palettes in many Themes.
Was this answer helpful?

1 person found this answer helpful.

0 comments No comments
Sign in to comment

Use comments to ask for clarification, additional information, or improvements to the question.

Share via

Customised Secondary Colour Palette in MS Word

1 additional answer

Your answer