Office for Mac Issues

How to Create Custom Excel Theme Colors in Office for Mac

Maira Mehtab Sep 22, 2026 869 views

Question details

The user needs to create a reusable company color palette in Excel for Mac but cannot find the 'Customize Colors' option typically available under the Page Layout tab in Windows.

Product: Excel for Mac
Device & OS: Mac
Scenario: Setting up a reusable corporate custom color palette for Excel spreadsheets.
Observed behavior: The standard 'Page Layout > Colors > Customize Colors' menu option available in Windows is missing in the Mac version of Excel.

Before you start

Ensure you have Microsoft PowerPoint installed on your Mac, as you will need it to access the color customization menus that are shared across the Office suite.

Solution 1Recommended

Use PowerPoint for Mac to Create the Theme

Since Excel for Mac lacks the feature, you can define your custom theme colors in PowerPoint, which automatically makes them available to Excel.

Open PowerPoint

Launch PowerPoint for Mac and open a new blank presentation.

Access Custom Colors

Navigate to the 'Design' tab on the ribbon. Click the 'Variants' dropdown, then select 'Colors', and click on 'Customize Colors'. Alternatively, you can access this via 'View' > 'Slide Master'.

Define Accent Colors

Input your company palette into the 'Accent' color slots. Note that the main palette colors dictate the generated shades; lighter or darker variants are automatically calculated by the system.

Save the Theme

Give your custom color theme a recognizable name and save it. It is now stored in your Office profile.

Apply in Excel

Open Excel for Mac, go to 'Page Layout' > 'Colors', and select your newly created custom theme from the list to apply it to your spreadsheet.

Shared Themes: Themes saved in one Office for Mac application are automatically populated in the Page Layout menus of the others (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).

Solution 2

Programmatic XML Editing for Exact Shades

Use this method if you need to define specific shade variants that differ from the ones Office generates automatically.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why can't I find 'Customize Colors' in Excel for Mac?

Microsoft did not include the 'Customize Colors' dialog in the Mac version of Excel. The accepted workaround is to create the color theme in PowerPoint for Mac, which shares its theme files with Excel and Word.

How do I add multiple shades of one main color to my Excel theme?

You only need to define your primary colors as 'Accent' colors in the PowerPoint theme editor. Office automatically generates the lighter and darker shade variants based on those main accent colors.

Can I manually define the shade variants instead of using auto-generated ones?

The Office UI does not allow you to define individual shade variants separately. To strictly enforce specific variant hex codes, you must extract and programmatically edit the theme's XML file.

Where are custom Office themes saved on a Mac?

Custom themes are typically saved in the user's hidden Library folder, navigating to Group Containers > UBF8T346G9.Office > User Content > Themes.

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