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Use custom color without adding it in your custom palette

This post was originally published on The Data School blog between 2018 and July 2025, before our program was renamed to MIP’s Analytics Career Accelerator. References throughout this article to “The Data School” or “DS” all refer to what is now MIP’s Analytics Career Accelerator. The program, its people, and its commitment to launching outstanding analytics careers remain the same – just under a new name.

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Have you ever come across a situation where that one color just clicked your mind and you wanted to include it in your dashboard, but you didn’t want to include it in your custom palette. There is another way to do that. In fact, you can use multiple colors without having them added to your color palette.

It’s the pick color from your screen option. Let me demonstrate how to do that. Let’s suppose you have a chart that you want to color in the exact same purple shade as your display background.

-You just need to go to your Marks card

Figure 1: Go to Marks Card

-Go to Colors

Figure 2: Go to Colors 

-Chose more Color Option

Figure 3: Chose More Colors Options

-Click on Pick Screen Color. Hover over to the color that you want and click

Figure 4: Pick Screen Color

-It will appear on your tableau with the Hex Code

Figure 5: The color is added 

-You have your charts colored in the color that you wanted without it added to your custom palette

Figure 6: Charts matching the Background

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