How to enable and use in-template custom colors

Updated July 16, 2025 09:16

This article explains what in-template custom colors are and how to enable and use them through the Productivity tab in the Admin Center.

Prerequisites

ProductivityPlus module enabled.
Admin/owner access to the Templafy tenant.
Custom Colors included in the PowerPoint template

In-template custom color

When a presentation contains Custom Colors in the Color Palette, these colors are not visible in the Productivity Colors pane. To add these Custom Colors to the Productivity Colors pane, enable the setting for in-template custom colors and add colors that are referencing the custom colors by their name. The custom color in the Color Palette we call in-template custom color.

Important

When a presentation contains Custom Colors in the Color Palette, but their names do not match the names of the referencing colors, then the in-template custom colors are not visible in the Productivity Colors pane.
When a presentation does not contain Custom Colors in the Color Palette, then the in-template custom colors are not visible in the Productivity Colors pane.

The following table shows examples when colors are visible in the Productivity Colors pane:

	Admin Center Custom Colors	Presentation Custom Colors	Productivity Colors pane
Example 1	Red, Yellow, Green	Red, Yellow, Green	Red, Yellow, Green
Example 2	Red	Red, Yellow, Green	Red
Example 3	Red, Yellow, Green	(none)	(none)
Example 4	Blue	Red, Yellow, Green	(none)
Example 5	(none)	Red, Yellow, Green	(none)

Overview of colors in the Productivity Colors pane

The image below illustrates the origins of the various colors in the Colors pane:

Theme colors will be displayed when the option 'Show theme colors in Colors pane' is selected.
Custom Colors within the template will be shown when the presentation includes Custom Colors that correspond to the referenced custom color. This is contingent upon the currently opened presentation.
Custom colors with Hex codes will always be displayed when defined, irrespective of the opened presentation.
Theme color shades will be visible when the option 'Show theme color shades in Colors pane' is enabled.

How to enable referencing to in-template custom colors

Go to the Productivity tab of Admin Center.
Go to More options.
Click on Settings.
Enable the checkbox Enable referencing to in-template custom colors.
Click Save.

By default, this setting is disabled.

How to use referencing to in-template custom colors

Once the setting has been activated.
Click on New color.
The Name must be exactly the same as the name of the color inside the template.
Enable the checkbox Enable referencing to in-template custom colors.
Click Confirm.