InfoPath Dev

Hello, I'm relatively new to InfoPath, and maybe I'm just working with wrong assumptions.

InfoPath 2010

I have a table. I use the color picker to give it a background shading. I pick one of the theme colors, say the "Accent 1". In the current theme, Accent 1 is, say, red.

Now I go and change the theme via "Page Design > Themes". I select a theme where Accent 1 is blue. I now expect my table shading to turn blue. But it doesn't. It's still red.

What do I need to do so the color changes when I select a different theme? What's the point of applying themes if elements colored with theme colors don't change color when the theme is changed?

Ideas welcome

cheers, teylyn

Hi teylyn,

Did you by any chance set the background color by right-clicking on the table and selecting Borders and Shading?

Jo-Anne

Hello Jo-Anne,

I used the "Shading" command in the Table tools ribbon.

Are you suggesting there may be different behaviors depending on which method was used to color the cell fill?

It wouldn't surprise me. There are many inconsistencies between the different MS Office products and the behaviors of seemingly identical commands.

Cheers, teylyn

Yeah, it looks like it does seem to have different behaviors. I'm on IP2010, if I choose a table and change to a different theme, the color changes for my table. But if I manually change the color/shading of a specific cell using Borders and Shading properties, the cell color won't change if I select a different color theme.

Hi Jo-Anne,

Thanks for your reply.

Are you aware of any way to modify the IP styles? In Word or Excel, I can create my own styles. They will also adjust to the current theme. In InfoPath I have not found an option to do the same. All I seem to be able is to apply the out-of-the-box styles.

Also, when I use the blank Forms Library form template, for example, some elements have background colors. I can change the style and the background color changes for some table cells. But once I edit the color of the cell, it seems to be hard-coded to the chosen color, instead of picking up the theme accent I chose.

We have a corporate color scheme that is not one of the OOB InfoPath color schemes. Styling InfoPath forms with our corporate colors is quite cumbersome. Does InfoPath respond at all to the *.thmx files that can be created with PowerPoint and imported as theme colors into SharePoint?

I am aware that you are not in a position to change the InfoPath behaviour, but maybe you or other people at Qdabra may have a little bit of clout when it comes to pushing MSFT to integrating a feature like this in the next version. I've developed a PowerPoint template that can be used to preview theme colors for SharePoint without even opening a SharePoint site (http://www.teylyn.com/quick-preview-of-sharepoint-2010-theme-colors-powerpoint/). It would be great if the *.thmx palette from PowerPoint could be integrated into InfoPath, as well as SharePoint.

For the time being, I'll give this a rest. Color is just decoration, after all, and there are other mountains to climb.

Thanks for your time and help.

cheers, Ingeborg