Show color picker for user to choose from in VBA powerpoint

Question

I am working on an add-in for powerpoint where I need the use to supply a given color - preferably in RGB terms. Is there a way in VBA to display the colorpicker?

Answer 1

In Excel getting the palette colors is easy. This changes the background of the cells in worksheet 1, as per the selected color from the palette:

Sub TestMe()

    Dim rgbSet As Variant: rgbSet = Application.Dialogs(xlDialogEditColor).Show(1)
    If rgbSet Then Worksheets(1).Cells.Interior.Color = ThisWorkbook.Colors(1)

End Sub

In PowerPoint (and other VBA hosting applications), the task requires an external dll:

Option Explicit

Private Declare Function ChooseColor_Dlg Lib "comdlg32.dll" _
    Alias "ChooseColorA" (pcc As CHOOSECOLOR_TYPE) As Long   

Private Type CHOOSECOLOR_TYPE
    lStructSize As Long
    hwndOwner As Long
    hInstance As Long
    rgbResult As Long
    lpCustColors As Long
    flags As Long
    lCustData As Long
    lpfnHook As Long
    lpTemplateName As String
End Type

Private Const CC_ANYCOLOR = &H100
Private Const CC_ENABLEHOOK = &H10
Private Const CC_ENABLETEMPLATE = &H20
Private Const CC_ENABLETEMPLATEHANDLE = &H40
Private Const CC_FULLOPEN = &H2
Private Const CC_PREVENTFULLOPEN = &H4
Private Const CC_RGBINIT = &H1
Private Const CC_SHOWHELP = &H8
Private Const CC_SOLIDCOLOR = &H80

In the same module, write the code:

Private Sub TestMe()

    Dim CC_T As CHOOSECOLOR_TYPE, Retval As Variant
    Static BDF(16) As Long
    BDF(0) = RGB(0, 255, 0)     'first defined color
    BDF(1) = RGB(255, 0, 0)     'second defined color
    BDF(2) = RGB(0, 0, 255)     'third defined color 

    With CC_T
        .lStructSize = Len(CC_T)
        .flags = CC_RGBINIT Or CC_ANYCOLOR Or CC_FULLOPEN Or _
        CC_PREVENTFULLOPEN
        .rgbResult = RGB(0, 255, 0)
        .lpCustColors = VarPtr(BDF(0))
    End With

    Retval = ChooseColor_Dlg(CC_T)

    If Retval <> 0 Then
        Dim labelObj As Object
        Set labelObj = ActivePresentation.Slides(1).Shapes.AddLine(100, 100, 200, 200).Line
        With labelObj
            .Weight = 25
            .ForeColor.RGB = CC_T.rgbResult
        End With
    End If

End Sub

And this is the final result:

With credits to vbarchiv.net.