How can I add and save customized colours to 'Standard Colors', in Word?

I ask about 'Standard', not 'Theme', Colors.

Solution 1:

For .docx documents, you can add via themes additional colors to the Office color-picker as a new section called "Custom Colors" :

This is how to do that :

• In Word, go to the Design pane
• Click the down-arrow below Themes
• Choose "Save Current Theme..."
• Give a name and save the .thmx file, say as mytheme.thmx
• Close Word
• Open the save folder, normally
  C:\Users\{USER}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\Document Themes
• Copy your theme file elsewhere
• Rename the file to mytheme.thmx.zip
• Open the file and drill-down to theme, theme (again)
• Copy the file theme1.xml and open it in a text editor

• At the end of the file, just before the tag </a:theme>, add a a:custClrLst tag. Below is the text that produced the "Custom Colors" section in my above image :

  <a:custClrLst>
      <a:custClr name="Dark Blue">
      <a:srgbClr val="1F497D" />
      </a:custClr>
      <a:custClr name="Mint Green">
      <a:srgbClr val="99DB73" />
      </a:custClr>
      <a:custClr name="Girly Pink">
      <a:srgbClr val="FF99FF" />
      </a:custClr>
  </a:custClrLst>
  

• Save the theme1.xml and replace it in mytheme.thmx.zip

• Rename the mytheme.thmx.zip back to mytheme.thmx and replace it in its original folder
• Open Word. If the Custom Colors have not appeared, re-apply the template in the Design pane by clicking the down-arrow below Themes and re-assigning your template.

This new theme can be assigned to any Office document, not only Word.

References :

• PPT 2007 custom colors
  This contains a link to a modified THMX file that you can examine.
• XML Hacking: Custom Colors
• XML Hacking: An Introduction

Solution 2:

You cannot change the standard colors.

You can however add colors to the quick access colors (the grid below the color picker) when choosing a custom color (available through the "More Colors..." option). When you use these custom colors, they should appear in the main color dropdown below the standard colors under the caption "Recent Colors".