Changing colored fill patterns using hexadecimal values.

[Jarvis]

I am conditionally formatting some field objects to change color based on a calculation.

 

The color picker available in filemaker is far too intense for my purpose. 

I sometimes change the color by changing the opacity level of the fill pattern but this is still not exactly what I want.

 

Is there a way to call out the color using hexadecimal  values?

[comment]

The color picker available in filemaker is far too intense for my purpose.

 

Not sure what exactly you mean by "too intense". The color picker that becomes available when you click on Other Color... is the Apple Color Picker provided by your OS. It has quite a few ways of selecting/specifying a color - unfortunately entering hexadecimal values is not one of them (unless you are only interested in web safe colors, in which case you can search for the one you want by typing in a search box on the Color Palettes: [Web Safe Colors]  pane),

 

However, the functionality of the native color picker can be extended through plugins, and there are several that would enable you to enter hexadecimal values directly - for example:

 

Skala Color

http://bjango.com/mac/skalacolor/

 

Hex Color Picker

http://wafflesoftware.net/hexpicker/

 

RCWebColorPicker

http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCWebColorPicker/

 

Developer Color Picker

http://download.panic.com/picker/

 

Caveat: some of these may be a bit old by now, and I have no info regarding their compatibility with Mavericks.

[Jarvis]

Thanks Comment.

 

What I meant by "too intense" was that I preferred in many cases for more of a pastel version of a color.

The lighter colors are easier to display text against. When I try to accomplish this by diminishing opacity the colors become translucent and that causes things behind them to show through.

 

I will take a look at the links you suggest.

[comment]

What I meant by "too intense" was that I preferred in many cases for more of a pastel version of a color.

 

To "pastelize" a given color, go to the Color Sliders: [HSB Sliders] pane and:

1. Increase Brightness to somewhere between 95% and 100%;

2. Decrease Saturation to somewhere between 15% and 0%.

The 95% and 15% limits are subjective, YMMV.

 

To do essentially the same thing using the Color Wheel pane:

1. Pull the slider up to its maximum (or very near it);

2. Drag the dot towards the center of the wheel.

 

To select from pastel colors only, you might find it convenient to go to the Image Palettes: [spectrum] pane and make a selection from the left-hand side portion of the spectrum.

 

These methods do not require adding anything to the native color picker.

 

I don't see how entering hexadecimal RGB values directly is supposed to help you with this task. Perhaps you were looking for a way to copy colors from another source? If so, there's bound to be a smarter way than manually entering the values.

[MikeKD]

In the "other colour" bit of the colour picker you can use the magnifying glass to sample colours from websites, documents etc too.

[Jarvis]

Mike & Comment,   Thanks to both of you!

 

I could have stumbled around for 100 years before I accidentally tripped over these methods.

This is good stuff.  Just what I needed!